I hope this comment period is being done in good faith because the public's voice on this issue is incredibly important.
I've seen too many videos on YouTube with very clear disclaimers taken down due to this thing. It's ridiculous and it has to stop. No one should be denied the right to create because of the materials they use, especially if they have clearly given proper credit.
I am personally interested in a copyright system that gives more protections to small content producers. I am a software developer, electronic musician, and video game developer, and I prefer to work for small companies. This means that all of the projects I work on are vulnerable to innapropriate takedown notices, and the companies I work for often don't have the resources to push back or wait for a lengthy appeals process.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
Please find it in your hearts to help us content creators, so that we can continue to do our jobs online. #WTFU?
As a fledgling content creator, I am in fear constantly of having the legal system weaponized against me.
It allows greed and bully tactics to take center stage. The DMCA fails to account for the Internet of today - instead of protecting it, the DMCA mollycoddles people who make false claims at the cost of people who are clearly under the protection of Fair Use. They are being sent by shell companies to protect the companies who are bilking the system.
many vidoes of people i watch and follow has been taken down without reason or just to harm the channel a few examples are:
the drunken peasent https://www.youtube.com/user/DrunkenPeasants
the bible reloaded https://www.youtube.com/user/TheBibleReloaded
i hate everything https://www.youtube.com/user/IHEOfficial
these people all have thing sunder fair use and have gotten strikes just because people disliek what they have to say and want to shut them up. they also have vidoes on they channel explaining what happen.
free spech needs to be protected and so does those who give good content in youtube
s and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spa
ps: please, what happens in youtube is horrible.
The dmca allows corporations to hurt creators more than it allows them to hurt thieves. Quit this shit.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is clearly protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I believe the current system is flawed and should be updated to protect everyone's intellectual property, not just huge corporations that abuse the DMCA to remove content protected by fair use. IT NEEDS TO BE UPDATED TO ACCOMMODATE THE INTERNET OF TODAY, NOT 1998.
^^^^^
AAAAALLLLLLLLL OF THIS
This is so important, fair use has been put in the shitter and content creators get the shaft when big companies make DMCA claims.
under fair useinnovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
That comment IS automated, but true nonetheless. Companies are abusing this system to promote themselves and hush critics and competitors.
STOP THIS RIGHT NOW. TIMES HAVE CHANGED, AND IT'S TIME THERE BE NEW CUSTOMS AND REGULATIONS THAT ARE ACTUALLY COMPATIBLE WITH HOW TODAY'S INTERNET IS LIKE.
Save our right to give our opinion
#WTFU
I wish to review films someday, but how can I do that when I can't even post a video of me singing without worrying that it'll be taken down. This needs to stop right now, or else people will be too afraid to post anything on YouTube.
it is just plain unfair for these companies to refuse and it is illogical as many videos paint a positive picture
Please. We're begging here.
This system is being abused more than tax payer money.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
If people don't start taking a closer look at this stuff in regards to the evolution of technology and balancing laws fairly, we will end up in the same or worse situations of enforcing laws that don't coincide with the current issues of today that wasn't in existence when these laws were first created.
im tired of company's are using the dcma to destroy people with out even being in the right im tired an sick of it please do something the internet needs to flourish
DMCA is being used in-responsibly against content creators. No matter what the video is about, if someone says something bad about another persons content, that person can not only silence their opinion, but also take all of the earnings that the creator has made based off the content they have worked hours on! Many people already have said what needs to be said and I have no more info to add but please, don't let fools take away other's hard work because they got their feelings slightly hurt.
Also on a personal note as a content creator from both my own experience and from what I have seen in others there has been content I and others have just not posted. Not because it infringed on anything but because even though it would be completely fine under the word of the law companies have shown that doesn't protect me or others. The law needs to be updated to fit the world we live in and not the world a few people who didn't even make the content themselves wants us to live in.
So many of my favourite youtubers create reviews of others' content. They critique and edit the content and as such it is transformative in nature. Yet many people still don't realise that fair use exists and therefore think that because someone has used even a second of their content that they should take it down with no warning. So many people rely on sites like Youtube for their income, so when a random DMCA comes their way it can turn their lives upside-down. There needs to be a due process to DMCA and a punishment for false takedowns in order to prevent people from removing another creator's content for no reason.
The copyright events that have happened to creators across YouTube are appalling. A man named Doug Walker, known on the internet as the Nostalgia Critic, had multiple movie reviews taken down, even though every one of them fell within fair use. For about 3 weeks, his monetization rights were taken from him, so he did not profit from any of his videos. It doesn't stop with him. Another YouTuber, I Hate Everything, had some reviews taken down as well, even though, once again, they were within the fair use guidelines. In one instance, he even had his channel deleted with no warning! Things like what happened to Doug's channel happens to other people like TheMysteriousMrEnter and YourMovieSucks. Let's make sure it doesn't happen again.
The DMCA Allows people to bully content creators. Its not The DMCAs fault. Its the law they made. People like I Hate Everything and The nostaliga critic have gotten copyright strikes for reviews. Most youtube reviewers have been getting striked for bullshit reasons
More work needs to be done before too many people think it's okay to attack content creators using DMCA Takedowns. This has become too commonplace to be ignored, and will only get worse. It's a drastic issue which can be resolved, so the question is WHY has it not been fixed sooner?
Ok.
Almost all the Creators on youtube and twitch I follow are being harast or denied there basic rights for fare use componies abuse what they may do to independent content creators
Please, protect the creators.
This policy is outdated and needs to be changed. A lot of people including myself who watch YouTube on a daily basis feel this way. Please take our pleas for a change into consideration.
In other words, FIX THIS OUTDATED JUNK!
Just watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
I don't believe the DMCA is appropriate for the Internet of today. The problem is companies and copy-right holders are using the law without factoring fair-use and are not held accountable for their intentions in false copy-right infringement claims.
Thank You for your time.
I belive that these actions far over step the bounds of protecting copyrighted material and opposing piracy. These have become excessive attacks on the free use of media that must be stoped.
The internet is a place for everyone to enjoy, not only companies that remove reviews and important information from other people because they get offended or want to make a little extra money. This is a blatant abuse of the law, while stifling the thing that America, Canada, and a lot of countries around the world are proud of: Free Speech. I am not a content creator, and I am not a reviewer, or even someone who posts pictures from shows online. I'm just a human who wants to see change, I am a human, fighting for our HUMAN rights. This is such a simple thing, that should never have gone this far. Please consider what this means for everyone around the world, what it feels like to be essentially controlled by shady companies that steal from others in order to make a little extra cash, before turning around and claiming they were the ones stealing. Most of the time they do it without even HAVING a case to support, claiming copyright on audio, in a video that HAS no audio track for instance. This is something that actually happens, and it's downright wrong. This needs to change.
I don't want to fear about my Content being taken down despite them being protected by Fair Use. This is not the internet I know and love.
Some of my favorite videos have been taken down, as well as famous Youtubers like Markiplier have had to struggle with copyright. Content creators should not fear making anything.
People on large media platforms like YouTube have been affected by companies without a good understanding of how fair use works. Their are instances that have led to people who do this for a living suddenly losing all monitization on the channels and has been abused by companies to often. There needs to be laws in place that make using this law incorrectly resulting in a fine.
My own words: I firmly believe it is beyond a shame that we cannot do anything creative without certain people and companies abusing this flawed system. I've even seen companies silence anyone critical of their product, same thing with movies. Sony has even deleted negative comments about their new Ghostbusters movie. How are we supposed to voice our own opinion and use our right to free speech when nobody will let us? Where's the Fair Use??
Time and time again I see my favorite content creators making informative videos showing their dealings with current copyright claims. Each one is the same as the others. A claimant falsely claims ownership of the video effectively stealing monetization from the creator, despite the video following every single qualification for fair use. Creators are being abused and robbed by the current system while the claimant has no repercussion whatsoever. This broken system needs to be fixed.
I have seen my artist friends get stifled out of money they broke their backs earning because of strikes and take-downs that were unjust because their work is protected under Fair Use. I am an artist myself, yet I have stopped monetizing my videos years ago all because I am so afraid my efforts won't be earned back.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
We need change. Bring it to us.
I've lost a lot of fair-use content and even money on videos I'm well allowed to use due to false claims more than anything. Fair use should be fair use. I understand some countries don't have the same laws, but it's very easy to abuse it.
There must be humans that look over these claims as well as punishment to the false claim holders
The current system is untenable and rife with abuse by monied interests against less powerful competitors. Fix this now.
The notice-and-takedown procesunder the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
YouTube users who are talking with no copyright footage or music on films and shows, are getting attacked after they get a strike, getting hit with a threats, and are losing their revenue.
We need to fix this. People need this on the internet and this needs to change. I want to put videos are online, but I don't want to face this mess and deal with this kind of trouble. Please change this and stop this madness.
As a watcher of YouTube it is very frustrating when I can't watch a video by my favorite youtubers because companies want to make false claims. Please protect fair speech, and please protect our youtubers.
The copyright system is being used heavily toward the disadvantage of the creators. As we've seen through websites like YouTube, with content creators such as I Hate Everything, Channel Awesome, and Your Movie Sucks (only to name a few), the copyright holder, in the current state of the law, has a major upperhand. There are no consequences for misusing the system, so therefore, the system is misused all of the time. As we've seen with those channels mentioned, people following fair use laws are still being screwed over by the system that was made to protect them. Any copyright holder can file a complaint, and in most cases (due to the lack of human involvement), they win, even if the content is well under fair use.
I am a relatively small content creator on youtube. I have had a video with only 2 views be copyright claimed unfairly.
#WTFU #SaveYouTube
The copyright is broken especially on youtube. Ive had one video in particular removed cause the air conditioner turned on and it said that I used a song called BGM-Club Therapy. This isn't the only time either as I have received several claims that were ridiculous. Things need to be adjusted massively.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must bme discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
(Plus, lets be honests, this sistem is 2old4us)
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged (or the systems must be vastly improved) as in their current state, they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The copyright system doesnt work. It takes down videos that aren't copyright infringement. We need a change
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
Seriously, please, it needs fixing. People can make a living from youtube videos nowadays, but only if those videos are allowed to stay online and aren't taken down by anonymous trolls or overcontrolling companies who can't handle bad press.
I made a video using a clip from south park and a Brazilian news site that didn't own it claimed it as there own. I couldn't dispute it since I didn't own it either it's wrong and flawed.
As a future internet content creator, I am hoping for a time when I can mention a company's name without fear of being taken down. I want to be able to come into the creative community with clear air, and I believe once it is safe to start contributing to the community, many other contributors will pop up as well, leading to more creative diversity.
DMCA is out dated, used for harassment and archaic. Take down orders are used to censor and muffle.
False DMCA claims are directly harming everything from the arts overall (through suppressing fair use video/content creation online) to individuals' livelihoods (An innumerable volume of small content creators have undoubtedly been snuffed out before they could get any traction, giving up on the idea indefinitely)
This needs to change.
It needs to be changed its a broken and old system no longer fit to police the Internet of today.
Below are a list of content creators that have suffered directly from content claim abuse, in clear violation of the spirit of fair use. These, among others, were brought to my attention from Doug Walker of thatguywiththeglasses.com, who has been targeted so much he no longer uses any movie clips nor excerpts in his reviews despite being clearly within his rights to use them.
Our original video on Fair Use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFA...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0W...
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (STILL going on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ... and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J0...
Team Four Star's issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkc...
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nU...
Chibi Reviews gets a DMCA for talking about snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWys...
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company - MMA company thinks it makes the law!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXo...
Mr Enter and the saga of DMCA after DMCA takedown on the SAME video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtw...
NFKRZ and how ransom is now on YouTube!
YouTube is abusing the copyright system. Fix it please.
YouTubers are a diverse group that have multiple opinions. However, if somebody doesn't like an opinion of theirs, they can take it down, and no one has a say in it. Fair Use allows us to voice our opinions, and we are free to say them anywhere except YouTube, and it needs to stop.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders is used to censor content that is protected under fair use. It hurts innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. This is not fair, and needs to stop. Innocent until proven guilty is supposed to be the United States mantra. But instead content creators on websites such as YouTube are guilty until proven innocent. That's not right. Change is needed quickly.
Some of the greatest independent artists on the web have been illegally taken down and nearly lost their livelihoods because of this law. The Nostalgia Critic, TotalBiscuit, IHateEveryThing, AngryJoe, YMS, MrEnter, Farfromsubtle, Jim Sterling, and many more content creators have been silenced by DMCA takedowns when they have done nothing illegal in the slightest. Meanwhile, corporations can file for copyright strikes and take ad revenue away from artists, even when there is no copyright violation in question, or even any copyright material in the video. That is an egregious misuse of a broken system, and many of these copyright trolls are allowed to do this without facing any sort of consequences, leaving them free to attack anyone with a dissenting opinion as much as they want. This needs to stop.
The abuse needs to stop. Content creation should be a free aspect of the internet. People's livelihoods are at stake
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Many creators are being taken down for their opinions and it needs to stop, so others can enjoy and be inspired by their art.
If not stated before there needs to be punishment for false copyright claims so they don't steal 30 days worth of ad revenue from the creators.
I watch reviewers and other channels every single day that have been affected by this abuse. It NEEDS to end!
What I feel is basically written above but in a matter that it's professional. Personally, I'd like to say that evolution is scary and wierd, this is part of evolution and stopping it is like killing piracy. You'd only make it stronger.
The DMCA is being used abusively to harm independent creators and hinder the growth of new forms of expression. The law as it exists now is utterly out of touch with the values of a generation that grew up with the internet.
If the US wishes to remain competitive in a globalized digital world, then you must not shackle yourselves to a law designed to serve corporations that rely on outdated business models. The American people are capable of astounding creativity, and it would be tragic if that creativity was constrained by 20th-century thinking.
People can just flag videos that aren't even using copyrighted material. Thare are some out thare who's things fall under fair use. Like Dune reads goosebumps, all the bronys and mr. Enter.
The government needs to hear about this abuse! It's affecting both new and veteran youtubers. I tried with my youtube channel. My first video was just a Destiny(video game) clip of me and my friends just messing around. My video was in poor quality, and yet the youtube "legal" system took it down for no reason at all. So I gave up on videos. Let's not make new people who want to be youtubers suffer for this stupidity. Thank you and have a nice day.
Free speech is being destroyed, and we need to do something about it.
Sites like YouTube have been a place for abuse. Big companies have been bullying channels with false claims. People who use property fairly, get bullied. This needs to stop. People lose their main source of income because of this abuse. At minimum there should be penalties for these claims. An actual person should review these claims and depending on how false these claims are choose the severity of the penalty.
So many people have their lives based around fair use. This NEEDS to be addressed. I'm only a middle schooler, and even I know more about fair use than the people who are inflicting take downs. A good example (though an overused one) is Derek Savage, the creator of Cool Cat. This is by all means a good man who made one bad film, however acted like a spoiled child by taking down videos because of "copyright infringement." It's not okay to censor opinions that aren't your own. Not only that, but the companies have been given far too much power over content creators. Any studio can claim copyright and take the monotization away from a certain video with NO repricusions for a false claim. That's the same as stealing a man's paycheck claiming to be keeping it in case it's poisened. So ask yourself this: Would you be fine if I took your paycheck? Would you be okay if I took away the only way of keeping yourself off the streets? And if the answer is no, then take a good look at today's world and FIX THIS. I'm a child with my whole future ahead of me, and for the sake of the world my generation ends up with as adults I have to ask, Where's The Fair Use?
short version:
Something should be done to stop abusive DMCA claims which are damaging small businesses and individuals making videos under fair-use (e.g. parodies, critics). They can loose all their income because someone who got their video criticized issued a DMCA claim on their critic, it's a huge risk for free speech, as long as the DMCA can be abused to silence people with different opinions.
long version:
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken off-line at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
YouTube employees and companies that produce content seem to think that fair use concepts, such as criticism and parody, are comparable to theft. This needs to stop. Videos are constantly being removed, meaning that those who make videos for a living aren't getting money from ads and they can't satisfy the demands of their fans. Please fix YouTube's broken copyright system! Currently, anyone can take down other's videos even if they don't have the right to.
A lot of my favorite content creators like IHE, The Nostalgia Critic, and Grade A Under A have been getting a lot of fair use abuse on their videos. This has caused them to make videos and protest about what has been happening to them. Just recently, YouTube has done something about it, but there is still abuse going on. This is against the law, and it needs to stop.
This is a grossly out of date law that badly needs to be re-examined and updated for today's Internet. The DMCA is too powerful and lacking in any sort of penalty for those who abuse it. The most striking and shocking example being the way it affects YouTube/Vimeo/etc content creators.
Please take the time to listen to the voices of modern content creators and the distribution channels they choose to use in order to update this law for the modern age.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyrigt holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
There are very well documented cases of people abusing fair use, such as I hate everything with cool cat saces the kids and chibit reviews getting a copyright strike on a vlog. It is ridiculous and nothig is being done about this.
Id like to add this is efekting ewery one and this law is being mis used by greedy corporations and peapole
HEY I am a self proclaimed critic and I need to be able to reference third-party materials in order to get my point across and provide entertainment for my Fanbase on YouTube . Where is the fair use ?!
I don't even make monet off of my YouTube videos. I simply put them up so people can see what I do at my Tavern. I use background music that is heavily obscured by people talking. Yet I have to upload links to other video sites so my channel won't get flagged. This shouldn't have to be a thing. Not when I'm doing the equivalent of a senior highlight video.
Don't let creativity suffers form the actions of the uncreative
I am a creator which works in reviewing anime (Japanese animation). Review counts under fair use yet many of my videos which i put days worth of time into and I transform the source material to make it different and entertaining. But according to the amount of copyright claims and the amount of companies monetizing my work, i dont think this fair use law is being used.... fairly.
Not only is it effecting the viewing of YouTube videos, but it is also effecting the way those content creators make a living. With this copy right issue, people can easily get wrongly flagged and get their video taken down and there for taken down. Its not fair to the creators or the viewers. Its out of date, unfair, and needs to stop as soon as possible.
Pls don't wreck the fair use policy! For me!
;)
As a small creator myself, I feel powerless under the US law. I'm not big enough to fight against the assault. I have to just ignore it and let it happen. Why should I fear creating? Where is the fair use?
I get annoyed when tv and movie reviews get pulled form youtube. I enjoy watching youtube and I don't want creator's videos get pulled out of youtube
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Some of my favorite YouTubers and websites have been taken down due to false DMCA claims. Companies abuse the system, threaten content creators, and wipeout popular content creators. The DMCA is broken, outdated, and abused. It NEEDS to be fixed.
The current system gives one side the ability to take away only means of income from multimedia entertainers. With no consequence to the accuser if the claim is false, and none of the income that is lost is ever compensated for to the victim.
hey there seems to a lot of abuse of this system, look into it.
The current copyright laws are hurting content creators all over the internet.
Fair Use is non existant.
I personally have not had a problem with the DMCA or its rules, but several channels on YouTube that I truly love and admire have had plenty of problems. The fact that companies can just illegally steal revenue from someone who legally had the right to use the company's work is just sickening, especially since the companies don't get punished when they're inevitably revealed to be wrong.
The Internet nowadays allows for the destruction of fair use online. Anybody can attempt to take down content on the Internet regardless of their involvement and without repercussions.
I watch a lot of youtube. Nostalgia Critic is one of many that watch that has been subject to misuse of copyright claims. It is absolute bullshit that it is unquestioned. I see great content go to waste from these claims. Even after the removal of the claims, the only thing left is a broken content creator and the company that claimed it that with probably do it again. Thanks for reading.
The current system of Fair Use on Youtube is completely broken. People have their videos taken down that didn't even use copyrighted material, and people who add substance to already existing material are having their videos taken down, even though that resides under the Fair Use guidelines. Please do anything and everything you can to fix this. This is not just from me. This is from all of us here on the internet. Please fix the Internet system of copyright claims. Thank you for your time.
When false DMCA claims are made, it can ruin livelihoods of content creators. To balance this, the DMCA must be updated to include harsh penalties for false claims.
I have seen many people on YouTube be continuously bullied and unjustly harassed by other people abusing the current copyright system. Advertisement revenue taken away just because of some footage, consistent claims from the same people under different names. This needs to stop. We need an updated system. People who claim unjust copyrights need to have some form of penalty. The people who,make their living off of YouTube deserve justice and security from the unjust and unfair copyright system.
DMCA has been abused too much as of late. Rather than it being as a tool to take down video's that cleary either steals someone video and claims they made it or if somebody is putting a video online that has no business there in the first place, It is simply being used to take down videos that people simply disagree with. This is not what the DMCA is suppose to used for. It is not a tool to violate somebodies' first amendment right to free speech. The law of DMCA must be updated to reflect today's Internet. Thank you for reading this.
The abuse of DMCA takedowns runs rampant throughout the internet.
Even worse, the DMCA takedown process has been used deliberately for abuse. People who don't even own the copyright will censor critics just because they said something that the "owner" doesn't agree with, and in the meantime on sites like YouTube, they get ALL the ad revenue before any checks and balances! Content creators are treated as guilty before being proven innocent and it appears that only large corporations with the money to hire good lawyers get their way.
This is not representative of the will of the people. This is your chance to make a difference and hear our voices, not just those of the billionaires who already have all of the money and power an individual could ever need.
Even though up until this sentence the comment was pre-written, these are my genuine thoughts on this matter, and I implore you to hear out the great many comments you're going to get sympathizing with me.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital world Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
It's for the people.
(Ok, this last part is my own writing)
What's up there says exactly what's happening and what should be done. I am tired of seeing my favourite Youtubers having precious time taken away from them because they have deal with utterly greedy, malicious theives!
Fair Use should be allowed to stay. I dont have a lot of charisma and I don't have a lot of wisdom or brains under my belt but I do know that when a freedom is suddenly threatened, people fight against it. I am part of that fight. I enjoy the right to view and see what people make and post on Youtube and twitter. I enjoy seeing what they create, how much time they put in clearly. Putting the companies and the ones threatened by people outside by us, the users of the internet, aren't taking into account certain factors. By making parodies, by make videos or twitters. Anything related to their products, they are being given FREE ADVERTISEMENT!! Even shows on cable have been given free ads just by people who write, make videos, anything related advertise their products. Taking it down just because the company thinks its a threat is stupid. The reason people make all they make on any site on the internet is because they ENJOY it. They want to share it, show it off and show the world what it is. Even if they think we are "stealing" we aren't. We have taken something either hated, disliked or loved and showing it off!
If companies are still threatened then look at the internet as a free advertising company. One you don't have to pay, one you don't have to worry about because its never going to steal ideas. Its going to show them off. That's all we have ever done, and even then some of the content is original and amazingly done with no budget. Telling us we can't make and then post it won't end well. The internet itself won't let it end and we aren't going down without a fight.
Because taking it away will only make this cruel, unforgiving world even more cruel and may even end some very amazing, helpful communities that the internet has made. If you don't believe us...if you still plan to go through with this then look up all the charities and money donated from youtubers like Marikiplier, Pewdpie, Jack and others. Look up communities and people that have benefited from them and then think about how taking down this fair use will end it all in the worst way possible.
Along with the below, just a reminder that this is something that doesn't just affect the United States, but can, and will have global affects. Please make the right moves regarding fair use for everyone.
I'm a hobby photographer, and it's possible that some day I'll try to turn that into a business. I care about copyright. But the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. It should be corrected to a fair balance as outlined below.
This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. This is grossly unfair and frankly, un-American.
Many great creators suffer from these takedowns.
Examples of this system being abused include creators being threatened and robbed by big companies, the same video being taken down multiple time, reviews of movies being deleted despite the footage being altered and talked over, reviews being taken down that do not even use said footage, and a fake company that literally makes money off of this broken and dated system.
It is time to answer the question, where's the fair use?
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
https://youtu.be/NoIL5qUI1p8
The copyright system is being abused left, right, and centre on youtube. Channels get false copyright strikes from people who may or may not be lawful owners. 1: Anyone can say "I own this video" and it gets taken down, without research put into it. 2: A lawful owner takes down a review of a product because he doesn't like that opinion on his product. If this happens thrice, channel is down. I think it sucks.
Ditto, watch Nostalgia Critic's save fair use now video for more info.
It's only used for abuse of people fully within their rights.
I've seen so many people who make their livings on Youtube get hit with strikes, takedowns and claims for reasons ranging from greed, jealousy, hatred and censorship. Almost all of the time for these honest-working people these notices violate fair use. Several examples come to mind in this regard.
The video game critics Jim Sterling and Total Biscuit both reviewed terrible games and were soon hit with takedown notices which were later revealed to be for nothing more than the developers being angry at an honest review.
Movie critic Nostalgia Critic is hit with these on a weekly basis because of both an automated system and because of proxy companies that are hired to go after certain videos to steal money away from these channels. They can do this because there is no proper system in place to prevent this kind of theft.
There are many, many more that suffer from these actions and for some it can be detrimental. Many popular channels have disappeared from Youtube all together because companies abuse Youtube's copyright system simply to get some extra cash going their way.
Part of fair use entails that footage of products can be used for the purposes of review or satire, and yet companies are allowed to simply dismiss this fact. This needs to change. If the big name Youtube channels go through this daily, what's going to happen to the people who don't have as loud a voice?
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Over the past few months I have seen some of my favorite content creators on the internet getting their videos pulled down unfairly by people who clearly do not comprehend copyright law or straight up ignore it. It is down right insulting that nothing has been done to solve this problem and it seems symptomatic of the incompetence and ignorance relating to internet content creation and how it should be managed and what laws should be put in place to protect creators.
Fix it.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
As a youtube content watcher, nearly every Youtuber I watch that incorporates 100% legal fair use are having their videos unfairly taken down and having their DESERVED monitization being stolen by other parties.
AngryJoeshow, MysteriousMrEnter, ChannelAwesome, and BobSheaux are some examples...... all of the youtubers i listened have been forced to either upload their videos on programs other than youtube or have lost 1000's in fair monitization......... all at the hands of greedy organizations who abuse the system by: taking down viewer content, stealing monitization, and causing general hell for these users.
The system NEEDS to be fixed. Claims and strikes should either be reviewed by PEOPLE rather than machines (as organizations have violated their end of the deal by claiming copyright on blatantly fair use videos) or these companies need to be fined when they make false claims.
As a content user, PLEASE FIX THIS SYSTEM!!!!
Most People on the internet who are not protected by corporations, can not even share copyrighted Material Intended to be shared and given permission to do so without having it taken down and in some cases being taken to court because it is too easy to abuse the systems, you shouldn't have to Pay companies off to be able to share content
Ok now why the hell is fair use not being taken into account dmca is out of date it isnt working there are bs claims against content without fair use being accounted it states that content can be used as is if its used for entertaining porody education or satire so update dmca to include it cuz its out of date it still is for 1998 its 2016 hello get ur head out of ur butts
Although I am not a creator, a majority of creators whose livelihoods are from YouTube are being taken down because of this dated law.
We, as content creators on YouTube, have been greatly affected by the abuse of DMCA-related content takedowns.
I could not think of anything more to add than what you find below. This is a serious problem and it is time to fix it. Review this law and let us all make the changes needed to bring the laws dictating the internet into modern times!
Too many people's livelihood depend on the internet. We have to have our rights protected and safeguarded for all!
While I think the system is fine, the way people have found loopholes is just sad.
I just watched a video telling about this place, so I'm typing as Doug is talking.
Please, take action. These people are amazing creators, and they're being fucked out of their money by your outdated system.
The DMCA is completely broken and unfair.
It's designed speficically so that Youtube Content Creators are always at a disadvantage and big companies can abuse it and always get away with it.
It's only gotten worse and worse. It needs to be changed now.
Give us Fair Use back.
From what I've seen about the unfair uses of the DMCA, this in in much need reform.
It has become the norm how some of my favorite content creators that use any digital medium in their videos(TV, Movies) are making videos addressing their copyright claims/strikes.
It is despicable how anyone could get away with this, and it is sad that it went on too long. Companies have abused smaller creators for their own benefit,as if they couldn't make enough money. One company in particular is guilty of this,and they are known as Viacom,who have abused anyone producing any content under their banner,even when it falls under fair use.They do this out of corporate shillery,and too earn cheap money out of others' expenses,and it needs to stop.
No longer when shady companies pitifully try to claim these videos under other shell companies,so that the parent company doesn't get involved,nor will bots randomly flag videos that fall under fair use.
If you've heard of the #WTFU,now is the time to get on it and fight for the rights of those who wish to express themselves,and punish the ones who wish to abuse it.
Thank you.
Where's the fair use?
THIS IS SO IMPORTANT PLEASE DON'T STOP THE FAIR USE I LOVE THE INTERNET
This is getting out of hand. It feels like you can't do anything as far as Creating Content. I love making Video on Youtube, love seeing the fact that people watch my stuff. I don't make any money off of the stuff as far as Music or clips that I use for my video. But under fair use I should not have to worry about someone taking down my video just cause they don't want it to be online. I'm not making anything from it, I'm doing this on my free time. Again I enjoy making videos but the pointless copyright strikes need to stop.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expressionless, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works
People are being taken down on sites like YouTube, for doing nothing. One of my favorite YouTube content creator was almost taken down because of him making joke and using content, even when it was under fair use. We need to update the DMCA to fit the modern internet.
The rules that are in effect now are ridiculous. They don't help protect anyone's copyrights and are usually abused by bigger companies to keep negative reviews and criticisms out of public space. Where this law was put in place to make sure people's works weren't stolen, companies have gone seemingly out of there way to threaten content creators out of posting negative critiques. Companies are stealing revenue (quite literally) from content creators and for basically no reason.
Videos that don't even contain the alleged copyrighted material have been attacked and taken down. This needs to be updated and sooner rather than later, for the good and well being of content creators and viewers alike.
The DMCA needs an update. It's being used as a club in lieu of lawsuit (because the fear of lawsuit is high). It's purpose was to protect content creation? Great. But it needs an update. The Internet is a multi platform medium. I understand that in the music industry, artists can sample to create. In so doing, they become musicians in their own right. The Internet allows still images, video, music, all of that to be sampled, all of that to be put together into something new. Something serious. Something funny. Something inappropriate. Something provocative. The point is, that something else is made. By all means, protect creators. But we need an updated protection of our freedom of expression. When we just get taken down because of fear, not of government, but of corporations wielding government, that sets a very bad precedent. The Internet is freedom. Please keep it that way.
Don't be Dicks. History will be your judges in the end
On top of this, the DMCA abusers are not allowing favorite creators to create. Unedited copyright works go under the radar while heavily edited and narrated reviews, games, and other forms of media are being choked by the DMCA abusers. They need help. We need help. Save YouTube and save Twitter, before they're gone and people's livelihoods take a turn to the worse.
Takedowns on innocent content creators. Enough said
A youtuber named "Lost Pause" got unfair strikes and was forbidden to post videos on his youtube account for 2 weeks. For him who lives off Youtube, thats two weeks of no work done and 2 weeks without pay.
A commentary channel called "Brainscratchcomms" got a false copyrightstrike and couldn't upload videos to their channel for weeks.
False copyright claims needs to be punished.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted work.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
I want the internet to be a uncaged place where everyone with a creative mind can let their imagination be free without having the right of Fair Use or free speech in jeopardy.
The current DMCA, as well as policies that have developed around its current wording, does not provide adequate protection of First Amendment rights and the promotion of small businesses on the internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
As a user who enjoys free speech and commentary on films, television series, music, and video games, I am disheartened to hear of users (whose primary or secondary form of income is through their reviews) whose videos have been either taken down or account blocked due to a claim by some (at times malicious) users/corporations. I can not bear to see such outcomes to happen, for fear of Fair Use being tossed in an increasingly downward spiral in favor of corporations and/or malicious users. Please reimagine the DMCA rights of 1998, updating them to match with our current culture and living sensibilities of 2016.
Almost three months ago I posted a. tribute to David Bowie on my YouTube channel, and it was claimed by studiocanal because I used a small clip from a film they apparently own called The Man Who Fell to Earth(1976). It wasn't the whole film. It was just a clip that was less than 1 minute. This needs to stop!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. The system has also been used to purposefully silence people trying to get their opinion across, without using any of the source material, and they still get stricken with copyright infringement. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Too many times now I've seen careers and channels cut-short from the abuse of DMCAs. All odds are stacked against the content creators, and that's just not acceptable.
The system needs to be completely overhauled. The creator shouldn't be guilty until proven innocent.
#WTFU
The DMCA doesn't work. Copyright holders can flag videos using fair use and not get penalized. The entire system is balanced in the holder's favor, so much that fake companies exist just to make false claims and leech revenue off of creators who battle copyright claims daily.
Bring an end to the archaic process which morally skewed people to silence and belittle the rights of content creators and the creative minds of this 21st century.
Just check out #WTFU.
(Personal) This fair use problem has gotten to the point where creators who are not using any copyrighted material whatsoever (literally talking about in front of a camera) are having their videos taken down. Sometimes claims are made on a video that has absolutely nothing to do with the video itself or anything shown or said within it.
I have never been personally affected by the shit DMCA laws, but I know so many who have. I've seen SO many creative works get destroyed, trampled upon, their users stripped of income that is rightfully theirs, and so many livelihoods DESTROYED. Content creation for youtube is their JOB, and you guys have laws that let anybody else take away their pay, jobs, rights to keep working... Best part? The people abusing these laws, the ones who are taking the money away, are getting it instead, with no reprecussions. THIS CANNOT STAND. There is literally NO other job on the planet that other people can say 'Hey, I don't like what you did here, I feel like _I_ should be the one getting paid for YOUR hard work, and while I'm at it I noticed another few things you did in the past that I don't like, so I'm going to get you fired out of spite, and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it.' Seriously guys, WHAT THE FUCK.
Fix the DMCA laws, or hell- maybe we should get in on them: If you don't fix this broken, exploitable, unlawful system, then I say we don't like what you've been doing, we're going to take down YOUR laws, and take away YOUR job and pay. After all, that's exactly what's happening all over the internet, so why not apply it everywhere else as well? THAT SYSTEM WOULD CAUSE PURE ANARCHY, AND YOU DAMN WELL KNOW IT. STOP LETTING OTHERS ABUSE IT IN THAT MANNER.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be
Most of the things on youtube and sites like that are broken with thre copyright laws so far that people are starting to stand up against it with #WTFU and #MakeYouTubeGreatAgain because it is so broken the DMCA is being abused to have people saying they know more and even mentioning a copyrighted product will give you a copyright strike. Creators no longer can create without the fear of getting a copyright strike. So in the end the DMCA has been broken as it was for 1998 not 2016.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital hhhnnnnMillennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been
#makeyoutubegreatagain #wtfu
Or if it's too long for you to read- the overwhelming majority of DMCA claims are frivolous and spurious, meant to harm as opposed to protect.
The DMCA system has been repeatedly abused by copyright holders, from nintendo to paramount pictures. The system is old and flawed. It relies on a "shoot first, ask questions later" tactics. Once a youtube channel is falsely reported, their ad revenue, youtube features, and videos are taken down. This has been a big problem lately and needs to be fixed. I have seen countless youtube channels (such as channel awesome) have false reports due to copyright holders not liking the opinionated revues.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victim copyright strikes. the channel flaura the fire girl got copyright strikes by people who didin't even own the music they striked it for
This affects not only me, but so many others. I personally aim to create content that is similar in value to shows like Mister Rogers and Sesame Street. The ability for abusers and bullies to easily interfere with honest, hardworking people who are trying to pave the way for new media must be checked. There needs to be consequences for those who file false claims and interfere with businesses and creators.
It may also create a strong sense of fear in the possible content creators who, in light of hearing about so many illegitimate takedowns, may no longer have any interest or drive to create.
Many YouTube channels who make a living off of the platform are being threatened for doing nothing wrong. They receive constant take down notices for using fair use material. There are many major companies who threaten and attack channels. Some will even take down unfavorable review of a film because they did not like them, despite reviews being fair use. I love these creatures and I don't want to see any of them getting unfairly deleted. Plus, people have no useful resources to help them correct when false claims are made.
The DMCA is being used to harrass, steal from, and destroy content creators on Youtube
Fix this
The abuse of the DMCA system is harming creative thought, criticism, and free speech. People are able to make false claims on media they do not own the rights to and it's wrong. These people who make false claims make money off of another person's hard work and that person makes nothing as a result. It's completely backwards and goes against fair use.
People are being harassed and losing revenue because this law is being abused
I am not a content creator; I am a humble viewer who enjoys videos made by smart and talented people. I watch many parody videos and reviews that include clips from movies, but because of the poor way YouTube handles its Copyright Claim system, many of the videos I watched get wrongfully taken down.
Companies are wrongfully and illegally silencing the creative voices of creators and they are getting away with it. We cannot let this continue. I am begging you to put an end to this.
Threats have been made to content creators; people just don't understand how fair use works-many users have had takedowns by companies just to take that creator's revenue, even though those companies own no part of that video. There NEEDS to be repercussions for false claims, and it needs to be done now! If not, our progression into the new age of the Internet, and the new exciting content that's uploaded everyday, will be lost.
The DMCA system is one that can and has been abused. Claimants can issue take-down notices for audio/visual clips that are protected under Fair Use, claim original user-created content, and keep every cent they make after monetizing said claimed content, with absolutely no reprucussions or penalties should their claims be false.
A system needs to be put in place that is both fair to copyright holders AND content creators; A system that can't be abused by people trying to make a quick buck off of monetization, or those who just want to silence others.
This isn't right. The DMCA is trying to destroy the lives and freedom of so many people who just can't get jobs. We need to bring back the lives of so many people who need youtube. So many people are going to remain without money and without lives. We need to stop this. Or else So many people... will die
Many youtubers I follow have been affected by the Fair Use, so it is truly amazing that we have a chance to change it. I just hope people don't waste it.
The DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) is heavily broken and can be used against videos that are legitimate via Fair Use policy. This needs to be seriously looked upon, given the effects this could have on content creators all around the Internet.
Sometimes, the DMCA claims can't be even from the creator and can be from some guy that wants to make a quick buck via this flawed system. Other times it can be the creator trying to silence criticsm, despite the video fully fullfilling Fair Use policy.
Other times, what happens is that someone downloads illegally a video from Youtube, uploads it to another social media, gives no credit whatsoever, and gets as much money as the guy that made the video.
We need to change the copyright laws. The current system is broken, biased towards big companies that don't like what they have to say about their product, scammy people that just want to make a quick buck, and people that steal other people's content without giving credit.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders.
I am not a content creator, but a consumer. I have seen many channels I follow being harassed using this system, even in cases where there has been a precedent set that the conduct of those creators is covered under fair use, i.e., the 35th in a line of a parody series. Ironically, one of the triggers for a takedown has been complaining of the takedown of someone you know, thereby exacerbated their own problem through the use of intimidation, something that to my mind has been proven to be counterproductive and harmful to a good working social relationship.
This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns; however, these algorithms are imprecise at best, and manipulable at worst. This process is vulnerable to significant error and abuse , and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, and indeed is continually used even after a judgment in favor of the creator has been rendered, resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate and legal speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review, but the tone of the responses to suggestions to this effect have been def and dismissive.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims, and site admins appear to be complicit in this.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk: the types which effect change. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at a moment's notice when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be easily undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individual's rights to free speech!
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review: In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works. I trust that you are aware of the gravity of these events, and will do what is right for the community as a whole. Thank you for your consideration.
The DMCA is an outdated law which has made it difficult for content creators to produce works without harassment by large corporations. It is easily abused by many groups to censor free speech, such as in the cases of journalists who criticize a work getting dmca take-down notices by the creators of the work to suppress criticism, or simply to gain revenue via means such as youtube at the expense of the creators.
My name is Satyendra Banerjee and here to tell you that the DMCA now is bogus it needs to be updated to suit to today's internet I understand that film studios don't want their films to be pirated but that does not give them the right to take down videos that are not even infringing any copyright at all therefore I want to ask this where is the fare use ?
The internet has completely changed since the inception of the DMCA. However, technology and media on the internet has evolved significantly over the past five years. We need to reinforce the precepts of "Fair-Use" to protect the rights to review, parody and education. There will always need to be protection against outright copyright theft (e.g. posting movies and music online) but we need to restore sanity in a law run amok. The DMCA favors only large corporate interests squelching free speech and fair-use.
The DMCA is horrendously outdated and needs to end. It puts all creators at risk. Even something completely fair and without faults could be taken down. This needs to be stopped.
There really isn't much to say that already hasn't been said or proven. So many content creators have been silenced because of all the fake claims of copyright.
While the DMCA has many good intentions, we need legislation which addresses the rights of the end user more so while also protecting the copyright holders as well. It is far too easy for a copyright holder to abuse DMCA even on content that they do not own, and also falsely claim and flag content creators on websites and networks such as YouTube. The penalties for copyright infringement is also far too unfair. We treat those who illegally download a movie or song as hard criminals when in reality, it should be counted as petty theft.
Please fix this giant problem with fair use. I've seen many great people and content creators get abused by this system. Some great examples of this is Jim Sterling, and how when he did a first impressions on a video game called 'The Slaughtering Grounds,' the people who made the game gave him numerous problems with DMCA takedowns all for his opinion on a game. They're even currently taking Sterling to court of defamation and want $10 million from him over his first reaction.
Another Youtuber by the name of I Hate Everything was also abused and threatened by Derek Savage over a review of 'Cool Cat Saves the Kids.' It was in fair use, and nothing in the video would issue a DMCA takedown Savage not only gave him a DMCA takedown, but he also threatened to take him to court, literally blackmailing him into giving a full apology on his next video. He also might have impersonated a law firm to scare I Hate Everything into apologizing, and while it's unconfirmed he actually did, the evidence to support it is strong.
These are only two of many stories about the abuse of this system. It needs to be fixed.
Look, this isn't easy for us. I shouldn't have to fight big company's in order to get a YouTube channel or video back. I shouldn't have to be afraid of losing my channel or video every time I upload something. Company's are able to take down a video of it has a person's own content, their face, or if the video falls under far use.
Pardon my French but please a need someone to fix this shit! Where tired and get up of company's being able to take down our content withou any punishment. We need this to be fixed, and you can help us.
Please help people that loves to entertain people.DMCA is a total fossil.DMCA must be erradicated.
Companies who violate fair use need to know there are consequences if they do.
Companies are using the DMCA to claim copyright on videos that do not use any copyrighted material, youtube reviewers are being harassed by companies for reviewing their work even when it should be considered fair use, going as far as using shell companies to take down the video.
Some companies even threaten the makers of those reviews with e-mails to them personally.
The DMCA has been predominatly used to censor and silence, which is completely contrary to its actual goal. It needs to be updated for modern times, because the abuse dealt under the DMCA is inexcusable.
I mean, we already have to deal with patent trolls, and now we have people sending take downs and stealing money from them and never get punished for abusing the system.
It's a law from 1998 that was made for that time and internet of that time. Now it is just plain outdated and harmful.
As of now, a lot of abuse is happening under the cover of the DMCA that is neither in favor of content creators nor of the copyright holders themselves since there is no sufficient protection from harmful, illegitimate claims which damage the daily livelihood of content creators as well as the reputation of big copyright holders such as Warner Brothers or Nintendo.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
As someone who wants to create content on the internet, I am constantly fearing that my content that I have created and wish to create will be taken down unfairly by companies abusing the DMCA and ignoring Fair-Use Laws. I've seen many content creators on youtube lose revenue, views, and even had their channels taken down due to unfair Copywrite claims of which would not be held up in court. Corporations abuse the DMCA with neither penalties or repercussions for their abuse of the system while those affected by their claims lose and are at an ever present fear that their main source of income may be compromised by and unfair takedown notice.
(While the above copy-and-paste statement is probably inundating you people right now, it is still important. I really don't want to see my favorite youtubers get taken off the internet because of a system that is easy to and is being abused.)
Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.I feel what trhe DMCA is doing is abosultely unfair thing have changed we now have Twitter,Facebook, Even Youtube.I've seen youtube videos come and go and alot of them from the DMCA Law i feel that its unfair and needs to be changed to today's standards.
This is a dated ideal that is no longer viable in 2016 internet world. Protect the modern day and future of entertainment and media!
The Content ID system on Youtube has unfairly given me a copyright strike for the use of a song that I had permission to use. The weird thing is that the people give me the strike had no connection to the person who wrote the actual song. He tried putting his song up and was hit with a strike, too. They also attempted to make money off of it. The system is abused as anyone can claim they are representative of a certain company. Please fix the system. Thank you.
As a creator who relies on fair use laws to make an income the current state of the lore is unacceptable.
~~
That these DMCA takedowns, better said attacks, can be unleashed by those without proof of ownership and without consequence for false claims, is nothing short of a travesty. It is the devastation of creativity and expression.
Please do the right thing!
We live in a world where everyone and anyone can put their 2 cents in about something, but with a broken system like this, the people are being oppressed. It's time the larger companies get taught properly about this and it's also time for a big change. As someone who doesn't create content but rather watches it, this affects both parties. Change Needs to happen.
Hi. I'm leaving that stuff below because of the legal things, but I want to say something too. I am 14 years old and I know that the way you do this is stupid. People have been praising the movies, TV shows and games and are still being taken down. Also, if the reason is because they said something bad. GROW UP! I don't take my teacher's red pens when she gives me a bad grade on my essay. Please realize that this is a flawed system that needs fixing. Now here's what I just said more professionally.
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I'm done with this... and so is everyone else. Please, make this madness stop. So many people have been going to YouTube for a living, for JOBS, but then can be throw to the sides by giant companies. Just end this madness and... make Youtube great again.
My name is Julia, and you need to know what's going on with the YouTube copyright system. It is completely broken. People can release a video of a child dancing with no visual copyrighted material, and still have it taken down for whatever reason. (Music, title, clothing items, etc.) It's even worse for people who use YouTube to make a living. Head Hunter Productions, Channel Awesome, and I Hate Everything, are YouTube channels that have suffered heavily to random copyright claims and getting their videos taken down.
Most of the time when a copyright claim is given, the user's monetization is taken away. Meaning that person can't make money to buy food or pay their rent for random periods of time.
This has angered multiple people and something has to be done about it. The internet is supposed to be a place where people can escape from reality and have fun, but it seems nowadays that no matter what someone posts, it gets taken down for even showing a picture or sharing the title of a copyrighted material.
This is a huge risk to people who do this for a living, and a huge disappointment for people who want to do it for fun. Please, this has to be fixed. This isn't the same a illegally downloading a movie. This is just people wanting to show their tenacity and creativity, and shouldn't have to feel unsafe when doing so.
Thank you.
-Julia
I have seen countless creators on the internet terrified to lose their livelihood simply because ANYONE can file a false copyright claim. Even if they own none of the content. Shell companies are being used by industries now to take down videos and file false claims for them. It's disgusting.
This system is heavily outdated and has no repercussions for those that abuse it. It must be replaced by a law that will protect content creators and punish those that try to falsely claim content that is fair use as violating copyright.
#WTFU #MakeYouTubeGreatAgain
Please. This needs to be fixed.
I might not be an US citizen, but DMCA has been negatively affecting many people all over the world for quite some time now, directly or indirectly. The process is outdated, and does severe harm to content creators and the freedom of speech, especially now that the system is being abused stronger than ever. Please make a change for the better, much is at stake.
I am a very miniscewell youtuber and If I get three strikes for just saying something is bad my channel no my passion is destroyed
Stifling creativity and free speech can never and should never be seen as a good thing. It is the duty of Goverment to allow people to use footage as determined by fair use.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and is too often used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims from all over the world.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone and must be discouraged.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I, for one, do not make videos of any kind. However, many of the content creators I enjoy watching have been affected by false and illegal DMCA claims. This has taken motivation away from them and taken revenue away from them.
This can not stand anymore.
Companies abuse the system to no end. They need to be punished, because it is ILLEGAL.
Adding to this, There is now a growing career in buying a copyright on something popular on the internet and using this copyright to file a false claim in order to steal all revenue from the original content creator. It has been going on for quite some time now and has added an incredible risk of stagnating a huge market for entertainment that would be a shame to lose.
I have decided if I ever decided to make content that I would not start on youtube because I am afraid that the hard work that I would put into one of my videos would be taken down even if it falls clearly under fair use. I should not have to make a decision like that nor should any content creator abiding to the fair use law. Leaving the copyright strikes the way they have been for so long is damaging the site as a whole and has a risk of making thousands upon thousands of jobs, hobbyist, and companies lose their passion and their will to make content that people enjoy on a day to day basis. Thank you for your time.
As a college student I have spent years of my life learning skills to be used in entertaining and bringing people joy, but with the current state things are in why should I bother? Every day I watch as the industry I want to become a part of is beaten down and ruined by abuse of the DMCA to censor fair use and creative speech.
The system of fair use is being abused by greedy corporations and nobody is taking action. It's time to stand up against it.
""
- www.takedownabuse.com/#save-fair-use
The notice-and-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
I have seen many videos taken down by false copyright claims. End this.
I am a person with a small YouTube channel, I use it to make reviews of shows and movies. But thanks to the current copyright system I constantly have to fight off complaints that are unwarranted and yet take A MONTH to get rid of, and by then I probably have another one has shown it's ugly face. Like right now I'm trying to get rid of three and I have a minimum of nine to get through after that because three is the limit of complaints I can argue against. And while the claims are active I can't receive the small amount of money I would be earning because it's going to the guy who made the false claim... and I never get that money back, and the last time I checked stealing was ILLEGAL. Like right now because of this I'm making a total of $0.09... so yeah... THAT'S why I'm signing this...
Many content creators on the Internet are being forced to fight unfair and abusive fights agents people who are false claiming their property. The YouTube channel I Hate Everything, had his video taken down by Derek Savage, for completely unfair reasons. Doug walker went 3 weeks with out making any income on any of his videos because of the unfair use of the system. We all beg of you to change this for the better of the Internet.
I have had a personal experience with the DMCA takedown system; I tried to break into online reviews, namely a positive review show on films that are often considered inferior.
However my efforts were met by an automatic takedown, on a review which is under the terms of fair use, which were also being used to help PROMOTE films and encourage people to see the film themselves.
Hours of work were wasted when my work was taken down automatically, and I had to wait a month to post another video. It destroyed me and left me in a depressed state for over a year.
All I wanted to do was entertain people and encourage people to give films another chance.
The problem wasn't that youtube or the companies that owned the rights (who were credited) were targeting me,
it was because of a flaw in the system that prevented me from sharing my hard work.
And yet so many full films are put up illegally on the same website, and nothing is done about them.
I stuck with it, but I know people who are less dedicated or as confident as I am. The system is stifling creativity and needs to be changed.
Yes, I read it all to ensure the form letter agreed with my own beliefs.
Dear Sir or Madame,
I am not an American. However, I do think that the issue of shady DMCA takedowns is something that affects us all, globally. They are used to stiffle creativity of Internet content makers because of their incompability with the landscape of the modern media creation and consumption.
I ma sure that many of the letter you are going to receive will contain examples of bogus copyright claims affecting the livelihood of many Internet creators. Hopefully, you will take them into consideration while analysing the DMCA issue.
Please find attached the original Fight for the Future essay explaining in details many problems that the creators have with the current copyright situation. It describes the issue far better that i would ever be able to.
Yours faithfully,
Michał Kowalski
Videos are being taken down because companies are making false claims and people that are just talking on camera with no copyright music or images also being taken down. DMCA are being used without factoring fair use as well.
#WTFU
This has specifically taken down my own hard work in the past, including both music videos, remixes, reviews and even some of my own original songs and videos that were "illegally claimed" for DMCA takedowns.
Overall, Bogus DMCA takedowns are actually pretty hypocritical under the guidelines of fair use. People all the time, like Nostalgia Critic, I Hate Everything, Mr. Enter and YourMovieSucks.org have been screwed over by the copyright system which is used to abuse youtubers and get them banned. Even if these people are under fair use, they still get punished by it and, even ignoring that, there is NO punishment for those who actually caused the claim and only punishment for the youtubers, even if they did nothing wrong which include stripping them of their monetization. Considering that these companies take away resources to live for these people, it just feels like a kick in the face, and worst of all, it's a bigger kick in the face seeing that while these people are getting unfair rights to the law, nobody is doing anything to stop it, except for these starving artists. Thank you takedownabuse.org...
Please see this video for even more information on the issues with the outdated and quite frankly moronic systems currently in place:
http://youtu.be/NoIL5qUI1p8
I believe the DMCA system is highly broken, what constitutes as fair use . I believe that a content creator must use the intellectual property entirely without comment, criticism or concern. Having an automated system can lead to more abuse so why not have a job that human should do. It would create more job opportunities.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on creativity and innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and hold companies responsible for their actions.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) content on the Internet.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for their actions.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit fair use of copyrighted works.
Please understand that I don't use these video, music or anything that I use on my channel as my own. I use it in fair use. I made amvs, comparisons, reviews, and more to pay tribute and respect to these things. I do not use them in any negative way, shape and forms. I use them to express my creativity. Let stop the abuse that's going on Youtube and bring back fair use for everybody!
I am not a content creator. At best, I wrote a few fanfictions a few years ago, so I'm not sure how this affects other people except for the videos I have watched.
What I do know is that the DMCA is actively working against some of the people I do respect: the actual content creators. I watch their videos to unwind after a long day, and to see them getting pushed around and having their videos taken down was annoying at first. Then when I found out what was happening to them behind the scenes, it actually enraged me. They work very hard to bring us the content they do and to see all that hard work stepped on is sickening.
A lot of the things I watch are reviews. I watch these to determine whether they are worth checking out, and some I watch to see if the reviewers opinions match my own. The gaming channels of normal boots, hidden block, JonTron and the like are my favorites, but I do watch Channel Awesome, Mr Enter, and other movie base review shows as well. Mr Enter was actually the first to bring to light to this issue for me, as his videos would get taken down one by one for no given reason, other than to steal the money he should have made.
Other than that, I can't really add any more to this other than what other people have already said. Please fix this bill so that content creators can't be bullied anymore!
The part below this is the generated stub comment, but I still agree with it:
no es justo bajo ninguna mirada el abuso de copyrigth en youtube, muchas personas solo quieren compartir opiniones o vivir de algo como la animación o otros tipos de arte, pero diversas empresas no se los permiten y el sistema de youtube esta tan roto que los creadores del contenido no son capaces de pelear por el material que crearon, incluso hay empresas falsas que solo existen para poner demandas de copyrigth y quedarse con el dienro que genero ese video sin que el creador sea capaz de reclamarlo o ponerle un alto a esas empresas falsas, esto tiene que parar de una vez.
Dear Gov. People,
Honestly I'm just tired of feeling like I have to hide and shut up about any kind of criticisms I have about corporate entities because of a law that's so easy to misuse
The DMCA is constantly taken advantage of incorrectly to censor the opinions and views that millions of content creators may have. Examples lie in the form of reviews:
The DMCA may be used in a negative movie or video game review simply to censor the negative opinion the critic holds over the film or game. Examples include YouTube user TotalBiscuit, who has had multiple video reviews taken down by the creators of the video games he has reviewed poorly. This means his review video is taken down and he receives punishment for what is fair use.
Anyone can file a DMCA on a video and content creator, which censors them and hurts their distribution of their videos. And this not only applies to reviews of media, but to ANY video on YouTube, such as political views, music or any other creative work that someone may disagree with. Despite the fact that some may disagree with a review, political view, or creative work, they do not have the right to stop them from making expressing their rights. That's where the problem lies: the DMCA allows anyone to do this, even if it falls perfectly under fair use.
It is wrong, and if the system YouTube has to follow the DMCA must stay, then falsely using the DMCA to censor videos must be punishable, as it is a false accusation. If something truly doesn't fall under fair use, however, it should be dealt with accordingly.
These "false DMCAs" as they're known as, hurt freedom of speech and expression, as well as the right to critique
There has to be consequences for issuing false claims.
People all across the Internet are able to either abuse or Mis use a copyright system to steal money, content, and more from creators. One of the biggest web sites dealing with this is YouTube. With youtube's fair use system, it allows ANYONE the put a strike on a video, even if it falls under fair use. The can stop the creator's add revenue, and for some creators, this is their job! It can also delete their channel or put many limitations on future uploads. And YouTube itself is taking almost no action against this. They'll either not respond to the creator, or send a computer generated responce that does little to nothing to help the issue. This isn't a matter of some random cat video or something, people's jobs and lives are at stake! Please take action, and thanks for reading this.
I'm a big follower of you tubes video who may be endegered by the DMCA abused. I'm french, so my testimonies may not only concern USA creators. But there is my problems : along the years I discovered and learned alot about musics cinema and television thanks to critics like the Nostalgia critics or the Fossoyeur de Film and it saddened to see their video or others creator video take down because the DMCA is not efficient. Those people is a big part of my appreciation of what is going on theaters or tv. They make me used my critic's spirits and I find myself agreing and disagreing along the time. So I do feel concerned about their rights. One case I want to exposed is the Chevalier Du Zodiaque Abrégé (CDZA) it's a fanmade parody of the japanese anime Saint Seiya. For years we waited for video to came out and fear they get shot down. In the end by the help of an petition we obtained they got beck on YouTube wich is great because for the fans it's been one of the greatest things made and I considered it as a part of my culture. So I won't say silent when it's endegered. DMCA should be taken care of by real humans and before taking down a video it should be made sure it's indeed out of fair used. As for monetized video, some of the creators LIVE on it ! So the moiney shouldn't go anywhere until abused is proven right ! We're what makes YouTube works, not the companies, or pseudo companise who doesn't even know what fair used is and use it as censorship or a way to make money out of it. Do something !
I have seen people work been taken down becuasr people claim it their video which it is not some of the time. It would be better if that came to a stop.
_____________________________________________________
I'm Nick, I've seen multiple content creators on YouTube that I happen to follow get their videos blocked or taken down, and even their entire channels taken down over false copyright claims by other content creators and companies attempting to battle criticisms unfairly. Even videos uploaded that only contain two people discussing a movie without clips from the film have been taken down to battle negative criticism. It's unfair to the content creators who are practicing fair use with their videos.
When a false copyright claim is made, the creator being slapped with the claim loses their monetization until the claim either expires, or until it is reviewed, while the person(s) who filed the copyright claim gets no punishment whatsoever for their false claim. There should be consequences for the parties responsible for the false claims.
I'm not a content creator on YouTube, but I understand the issues plaguing the content creators and would like to help them in any way that I can.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgement to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be abolished, as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The abuse of the DMCA has lead to a lot of youtubers and other online celebrities that a lot of people enjoy either stop making or slow down content which isn't good since for a lot of people is their job, the way these people live is at steak, they lose money, and they lose fans, and they are forced to stop or slow down on the thing they enjoy most, whenever they are hit with a copyright claim or strike please fix this law, and please stop letting big companies and shell companies abuse this system a lot of people will lose their lives if this keeps up, everyone is begging for someone to fix this broken system so please, fix it
Save fair Use NOW
The notice-and-takedown process under thet (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyrigh
I am a Heavy youtube consumer, I don't watch TV, I have again and again seen how the DMCA law has affected various review and parody channels that fall under fair use, I would hate to see any of these channels get deleted or anything reasembling that, I am asking for help to give the content creators of youtube some protection, I have seen channels getting copyright strikes from third party companies to shell the original company, I have seen channels get copytight strikes on videos without any copytight content at all, as a youtube user I can tell you I would love to get this law changed.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is archaic nowadays, and instead of permitting free speech and creativity, though the length of copyrights is also an issue for that, but is another problem altogether.
DMCA claims are instead often used to suppress them. What's worse, it is used on by others on content they don't even own just because it mentions something in passing. It is used to suppress criticisms against products or ideas, rather than promote their creation or evolution. The current system is flawed and needs to be corrected.
The DMCA no longer does the job it was made to perform, as the internet and media surrounding it have outgrown its confines. It needs to be updated at the very minimum. Too many times have I seen Youtube channels, taken down for no good reason, social media accounts entirely eliminated, videos, journals, articles, sometimes entire sites, and more just outright removed and erased from public view. Most of these tend to be content and opinions that could be or were valuable, but forsaken due to an outdated system of copyright management and laws.
As many comments will likely state, an easy solution is to put into place a system that punishes the copyright claimant if they misuse the system to take down content that should stand under Fair Use. Please consider this and any other option that would fix this dilemma that is currently plaguing online communities across the nation and more.
takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCAbiased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
It is because of the abuse of the DMCA that while I have wanted to start my own review series I have been afraid to, simply because of what would happen if companies continue to abuse the DMCA. So I implore you to stop the abuse of the DMCA.
Dear, legislators(?),
I think the DMCA is doing a pretty good job at keeping pirated movies and shows off the web, music less so, but it's debatable as to whether that actually hurts musicians (I never buy music I haven't heard from youtube beforehand). Although I am in agreement with many that the system is very easy to abuse, by corporations and independents alike, if possible I'd like to see greater consequences for abuse of the system, and some very clear rules about copyright infringement, a strict limit to unaltered footage e.g. ~30-45 seconds, enough that it doesn't effect most reviews or analysis, but short enough that no one will bother watching a pirated movie in 30 second clips. Also it would be nice if you could find some way to cut down on music claims, its weird that people get away with uploading songs over still images but a game soundtrack behind a commentary gets claimed. Those are my main complaints as a consumer, but creators probably have a lot more serious ones to take into consideration.
My sincere thanks for trying to improve things,
Brett Holmes
My personal edit to this would be to put a delay time on YouTube takedown notices to adequately warn content creators about their fate and give them time to prepare.
Secondly, it can not be fair that money from YouTube videos is given instantly to the claimant as soon as they file the claim; that way, even if the claim turns out to be false, they still get to keep all the money. Some companies regularly abuse this to steal money from content creators and using this method they leech money illegally.
Thirdly, watch this YouTube video, it sums up the problems on YouTube nicely AND without crude language normally present on these rants, as well as suggesting legitimate solutions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
Please, help content creators.
Fair Use has be abused all around the internet. DMCA violations used as weapons against content creators because some individual or company wants to drown out their voices. A recorded conversation that shows no content, but discusses the idea of that content has been attacked. Free speech on the internet has gotten so impossible that livelihoods are ruined and money practically stolen from their pockets just because they said the name of a product or gave their opinion on it.
The above comment came populated in this box, and I agree. The rest will be my personal take on it as a casual viewer.
I've been a dedicated viewer of user-created content for many years. As a young adult (I'm 24, married, and about to graduate university with honors), I grew up with websites like Youtube, and they have helped shape the way that I engage with media as a whole.
When I found out that creators can have their earnings given to someone else without anyone actually verifying plagiarism or copyright infringement, I was very disappointed. When I found out that individuals seeking to harm creators could file claims of plagiarism on content that they do not own, I was shocked. When I found out, one by one, that creators I follow from very different corners of YouTube had all had automated systems erroneously damage their ability to make a living and discourage them from making legal content, I was upset.
It didn't make sense to me that Youtube would make these kinds of protocols, and I did some digging into why these systems are in place. All of my searching led me to the DMCA and the resulting high-dollar lawsuits. It makes sense why Youtube is doing this, even if I think they could do better for me as a viewer and Youtubers as content creators. Even though I hate it, I would rather have this than no Youtube at all.
These creators are important to America and the world. These laws are making it especially difficult for new creators to enter the field. High-profile Youtubers have the legal assistance to fight bogus claims, but everyone else - all of the young Americans with fresh ideas and passions - can't. The DMCA has let them down.
Examples of the issues currently going on YouTube
Our original video on Fair Use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFA...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0W...
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (STILL going on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ... and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J0...
Team Four Star's issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkc...
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nU...
Chibi Reviews gets a DMCA for talking about snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWys...
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company - MMA company thinks it makes the law!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXo...
Mr Enter and the saga of DMCA after DMCA takedown on the SAME video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtw...
NFKRZ and how ransom is now on YouTube!
Relive 1998 here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1UY7...
Space Jam circa 1996 still alive - http://www.warnerbros.com/archive/spa...
I want fair use!
They have told me that if i don't do what they want in a video they will remove my past video and get me removed from youtube this is the type of BS we have to put up with and it just has to stop..
Seriously, it's incredible how close we are getting to a 1984/V for Vendetta-esque future. Do you really want that?
Some of the automatic take-downs due to the DMCA have resulted in wrongly taking down song covers that creators have worked hard on to try show homage to the original works. As well as removing negative reviews because copyright holders don't want that bad publicity. There was an instance where a friend of mine had her original artwork stolen and reposted and the only evidence she could give was screenshots and links, it took months for her to get back her original content while the other artist was profiting off of it until it got taken down.
A way this has personally affected me is that I have had my only source of income taken away from me twice by an automated flagging system that wrong accused my original work as copyright infringement.
I may not have written this text, but its what i believe in and support
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech .
I find it completely unfair that if a video is under the rules of the fair use act and videos are being taken down even though its under guidlines
The DMCA, the copyright law that used to be used to protect sites and content creators by giving them a tool by which to stop people from stealing there work, but as of right now, the DMCA is doing more harm than good. For several years now I have seen channel after channel after channel being struck by the broken system that is the DMCA, either individual videos being forced to be edited, their videos being taken down, or downright stealing the revenue from a video that in every sense of the word is fair use.
This isn't fair to anyone that creates using the internet as a platform, and the DMCA is simply being abused by people and companies to silence anyone they want, whenever they want, even if the video falls under critique or parody.
This practice needs to stop, there needs to be a penalty in place for the people who issue these false claims, because as of right now, everyone that does this gets away with it.
And another thing that needs to change is that whenever a copyright claim is issued on a website, be it youtube, facebook or any other site, before the claim goes through, a person needs to verify that the claim is legit, this process cannot be automated, which is one of the reasons this issue has spread as far as it has, victims of these claims have no means of communication or self defense from these claims. All these issues need addressing, now more then ever.
...
Hello, my name is Lauren Fox and I'm an Australian internet critic.
I run a review webseries called 'The Cartoon Physicist's Noughtie List' in which I review TV shows and movies from the 2000s. I've faced the usual copyright issues that unfortunately comes with being an internet reviewer even though I say in my videos' descriptions and in the end credits of all of my videos that they're protected by fair use as well as fair dealings, the Australian version of fair use. Half of my videos so far have been blocked in 11 to 256 countries or just completely. YouTube's Content ID system is unable to identify the context of a video with copyrighted material, not understanding the material was likely used for criticism. YouTube's automatic system and the outdated DMCA has allowed film studios to abuse the system by sending false claims to get a content creator's monetization or just to silence someone's opinion.
I uploaded the blocked videos to another website, but various websites like Dailymotion have the same copyright problems as Youtube. Therefore the only website that can show my blocked videos without any video player errors is Archive.org, which is known as an internet archive website and not a video sharing website. It is not even as well known as Youtube, thus it has been difficult for me to gain more viewers.
Additionally I'm interested in earning ad revenue someday to improve my webseries, but that has become impossible due to Youtube not allowing that to channels that have blocked videos even though those videos were likely blocked for petty reasons.
Thank you for your time.
To whom it may concern,
I am not a content-creator. I occasionally post videos on YouTube to talk to friends or just goof off. I'm a student and not much else. However, I won't stand for copyright stupidity any longer. I watch and consume content from the internet, mainly Youtube, and I have seen so many of my favorite creators have their voice become silent because of the DMCA Copyright 'protection'. people that have made me laugh, cry or challenge my thinking. They are getting their revenue taken away because they 'violate copyright'.
Let me put it like this for all the politicians in the room. Imagine one day you were walking to your office and you find your office gone. You have no other form of income and no clue what happened. All that's there is a confusing post-it note saying "Sorry, your office has been taken for an inspection by the flying green smurfs. If you would like to file a complaint, please put a babble-fish in your ear and shout at God." It doesn't make much sense, but your angry, confused and scared. That's what its like for these people who make reviews or parody's online. Please fix this, because one day, I want to make content on the internet, and I don't want to worry about my content being shut down.
The copyright protection only favors acusers and gives the accused almost no way to defend themselves. It is constandly abused by companies and individuals to take down criticism, silence oposition, make a quick buck by siphoning the ad revenue andway to easy to exploit.
It needs to change.
Individual Comment: It's ridiculous that anyone can claim ownership or copyright infringement on any YouTube video and shut it down without consequence, to say nothing of how ignoring Fair Use law can allow companies and even individuals to shut down legitimate criticism of their products, ideas, etc.
This system needs to be fixed. Now.
The system is being abused by copyright holders who want to quite critics who criticize their content and make money in the process. There NEEDS to be some sort of punishment for false copyright claims to force those holders to think twice before making a false copyright claim. Like a fine paid directly to the people who are struck with the false copyright claim to compensate the revenue the victim loses. And revoking the ability to make copyright claims for a pre-determined amount of time.
Please, hear our voices and stop people's rights from being abused!
We need the fair use. A lot of videos are taken down even if it has fair use/parody. Hell, videos getting taken down with no sound or clip. What is that? Also, how come a lot of videos still have footage but others don't? Why do some videos by copycat Nostalgia Critics and others by the originals themselves stay? Can you just take into account?
I am a frequent watcher of the site YouTube, and to my dismay have seen many of my favorite content creators get false DMCA'S by people who are offended by other people's opinions of their work. Example No. 1 The channel The Drunken Peasants used clips from another youtuber by the name of Tommy Sotomayor in their podcast, the clips were transformative in nature and didn't cause Mr. Sotomayor to lose revenue, but they still got a DMCA for using his clips, and now potentially have to go to court to settle this. These DMCA'S have severely hurt cont
Also, please create some kind of punishment for people who make false copyright claims.
People and corporations misuse and abuse dmca takedowns to violate fair use. And because websites have to abide by dmca takedown notices, people can just send them without repercussions.
The notice-and-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-take down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
This video offers a simple explanation fo the abuses that have crippled some creators on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
Once I was watching a YouTube video I wanted to show to my now ex girlfriend, then a few days later it was taken down by someone who didn't own any of the stuff that was in the video and worse revenue was taken away from the creator so stuff like this isn't fair! Punishments must be made to those who falsely claim videos. Also silencing people on the Internet isn't fair, it's like telling a child to shut up when he's been picked on. It's not fair. I don't want my favourite YouTube channels taken down.
Several of my favorite Youtube channels have gotten "copyright notices" despite the fact that they didn't use any copyrighted material at all! They can't make funny or sad or happy or otherwise engaging videos for me to watch with the video takedowns going on all the time.
It's 2016 not 1998, we need to keep up with the modern era. References and parodies are a format of communication, if not more so than they were in the past. Creativity can stem from other material, but if we are not allowed to respectfully bring fair use items into conversation, then we limit that potential for the future.
Please, this system is starting to lose control, people are abusing it for greed and destroying the lives of people who make a living out of their content. I want to see my favorite creators flourish and thrive, not get taken down by greedy companies.
This law gives unlawful power to big company's so that they can stomp on the little guy. They take money away from other people and are not giving true fair use. Please fix this for the future sake of entertainment.
I created a video about how the use of language in the novel and movie, A Clockwork Orange, at first created an alienating sensation for the reader, and then went on to essentially ingratiate the audience into the character's circle by familiarizing them with their manner of speaking. It was a video both transformative, and educational, two of the qualities that mean it should be covered by fair use.
It became unmonetized for use of clips of the movie (there to illustrate my points) but I let that slide because I'm never going to get the views it takes to make money anyway. What really sucked though is when it was removed and I got an immediate copyright strike because the weird synth version of Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary from the movie adaptation was playing in the background.
I had a strike on my channel for the best part of a year, couldn't upload anything over a certain length etc. and the only reason for it was because someone played a midi version of a song created in 1695 and called it their own. There was no way to contact youtube, and no way to get that strike removed because I don't have a major channel so no one cares what happens to it, or me.
The law is nonsense, it stifles creativity and only serves to put more money in the pockets of the rich.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to compose my own version of Hotline Bling on the bongos. Totally copyrighting that shit.
This is not how things should operate.
I have been on Youtube for nearly a decade now, and in that time, I have seen many false DMCA claims and takedowns to channels and content creators that did not deserve it. From people who don't understand how the law works, those who abuse the law, to those who simply don't like being criticized, we need to revise the copyright laws regarding DMCA, that way these kinds of people can be punished for breaking the law. If you fix these laws, Youtube, and the internet as a whole, will become a better place for those who make their living through the internet.
The current use of the DMCA is an abuse of what it was intended for, and instead of protecting, it harms some people's very livelihood.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
On a more personal note I have been directly victimized by this easily abused process, which has caused me to stop producing any content at all. It has also negatively affected all of the people I interacted with and provided content for, and several content providers that I regularly visit have also been abused by this process. It's an extremely unfair process which makes it impossible for anyone who is not a major corporation to defend themselves. Basically, the current law is an outdated dinosaur which is in place only so that the large-scale corporations can step all over the little guy who lacks the finances or legal strength to defend themselves.
This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I've noticed multiple cases of unfair copyright strikes to completely innocent channels who produce their own content without using copyrighted material. Examples of this include the recent controversies with "I Hate Everything", "TeamFourStar", and "Channel Awesome".
We need these outdated laws to be adjusted to today's standards in order to save modern entertainment.
Please either update the DMCA law. Many big corporations are abusing this law to censor, attack, and pressure content creators on many video making websites, the biggest one being YouTube. Companies such as Fox are abusing content creators with no consideration for Fair Use. Not only is it companies, but others who have no knowledge of Copyright or Fair Use. For example, the channel I Hate Everything had his video, called Cool Cat Saves The Kids - The Search For The Worst - IHE , by the creator Derek Savage. Not only did IHE's video fall under Fair Use, the creator thought that Fair Use didn't exist. Many other cases like this has occurred, so please update the DMCA law and make it fit the modern day internet.
You could look to YouTube, with I Hate Everything, or the mysterious Mr. Enter, or Channel Awesome. The law is outdated and needs to change.
Hi, my name is Jacob, and I do an internets for a living. I would like to make my thoughts on what has been happening with the topic of fair use. People, are, assholes. Freedom of speech has been consistently taken from youtubers and it is frankly disgusting. The system in place requires almost no human interaction other than that of the people who claim someone has stolen their work, it is wildly easy to straight up remove a channel, with the current system. While saying the specifics would be beating a dead horse, I urge you to not only respect the people on YouTube and their work, but to require a better system for those who DO steal others work. Thank you for your time,and try to ask, where's the fair use
Seriously, this is wrong.
Not only this, but there have been many people affected in financial and emotional ways. If stuff like this happens, a person's career could be destroyed in an instance, and they can't do anything about it.
Where is the Fair Use? Seriously. False DMCA Takedowns need to stop. It's a sad state of affairs when someone - whether or not they truly own the copyright - goes unpunished for filing a false claim. I once heard that is called "purjury" is a felony.
Everything needs to adapt to it's time. What's the point in having a law or a set of regulations that were not meant for you or for your present situation, but for decades ago? If it no longer applies it can become a harmful hindrance. And more so if we are talking about something that practically defines the current era. How hard can it be to re-imagine these ideas and transform them for the benefit of all of us? We have to look around and realize that this, right now, is the time for change, adaptability, knowledge and acceptence. So please, realize what a huge impact this has on our world and act accordingly.
The Internet has changed my life. It has changed other people's lives. It is a place where I have learned, inspired, created, and so much more. Please don't take this away from me or anyone else. #Where'sTheFairUse.
Please fix the DMCA. Please make it more fair for those who make good content on Youtube. Using a few seconds of a clip then getting taken down? It really is not fair. I really hope this gets sorted out. Maybe this comment isn't to descriptive however all that needs to be said is that the system is broken. It needs to be fixed
To start, I have personally seen dedicated content creators who's livelihoods depend upon the internet and YouTube be outright harassed and bullied not only by the copyright holders themselves but by shell companies hired by the holder. Every single one of these claims against content creators has been biased, does not take into account fair use, and even when creators prove they're in the right they will continue to be harassed ad nauseum with great risk to their livelihoods and personal freedoms. One particular instance I saw recently involved a reviewer being repeatedly harassed by shell companies months after the copyright claim had been proven invalid, even to the point where the creator was emailed personally by a representative who talked down to him and completely ignored the fact that actual piracy was going on with the same material on the same site with a different user.
Content creators can have monetization for their videos, they're incomes, outright stolen from them with false claims on YouTube. Companies are abusing DMCA to steal from hard working citizens across the globe indiscriminately with no possible backlash. The DMCA needs to be updated to include how the current internet works or there will be a distressing dearth of new, creative, educational, and informative content online which is a crime in of itself.
All of human culture borrows from older and existing content and it's good to have protections on what one creates, however companies cannot be allowed to abuse this out dated law. None of the claims I've seen have ever been valid on original content creators and with companies focusing so much on stealing money from people going about things legally, actual piracy has gone unchecked and is still rampant.
I have had several of my covers of song be claimed as copyright material when I have used it fairly to show my voice and my range to a wider audience.
My videos of live performances of magicians performing bird tricks got copyrighted and got taken down because a song was in the background as he was performing his routine.
I have had my own personal reaction of a new TMNT season get taken down because a preview aired at Walmart that I was showing on my camera with my own LOUD vocal reactions to it in the background. While many reactors get away with using copyrighted footage for doing the exact same thing. Now it gets away with SO MUCH MORE than just not being able to create over 15 minutes of footage for your platform. It's taking away our right to free speech, expression and appreciation for the arts.
We should be SAFE and FREE To upload original content without having to worry about a copyright holder abusing the system because of criticizing or harsh comments.
FIX THIS BROKEN SYSTEM AND STOP ABUSING THE PEOPLE THAT HELP MAKE YOU PEOPLE MONEY EVERY DAY ON THE INTERNET.
Many of the websites and content creators of today get take downs for content that is clearly fair use, many artists are also under this constant uncertainty of when a company decides something that is clearly fair use isn't and has no consequence for when they are called out on it. This needs to change otherwise creativity and innovation is stifled by companies unwilling to let those wanting to express their artistic abilities in a legal way to do so.
This copyright fiasco has gone on for too long, it's time for us Americans to stand up for free-speech and start taking action. Below this comment are several videos that are used as evidence of how the DMCA takedowns and copyright claims are being abused. I hope the government makes the right decision, or we can kiss free speech good bye.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH-8PqS84qA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzXSQ5f08sA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92K7VcAvAG8
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital 9Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
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Personally, I've been sued multiple times for the use of public domain material (expecially music) and I had my problems to get rid of that flagging. The people who sue for copyright infringiment should be liable of backfire if their sue is false or wrong.
It's shocking how outdated legislation regarding the internet is in the modern day and it's way past the time when it should've been updated.
With everyone under the sun that has a copyright falsely claiming money from honest content creators who use their material under fair use and never reforming or fixing anything it's time to change that.
Well, we all know the system is broken and has really made a lot of people unhappy. This will right the wrongs of years of the Internet and free content creators from one of the biggest struggles on YouTube and the Internet.
I speak for
Your movie sucks
I hate everything
Mr.Enter
Nostalgia critic
Rebel taxi
Animat
And many more.
Thank you for listening. Make the right choice. For not only the people I've mentioned, not only the people on the Internet, but the future.
Thanks
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) makes sense in theory, but it does not fit with today's internet and especially in regards to content creators. I have seen several times in just the past few months that videos are falsely claimed and content creators all over are losing money as a result. However, to most of us this is not about money alone, it is about freedom of speech and expression. Anyone can now make reviews or discussions online, but to have most of it taken down is wrong. We need to change this, we need new laws that will protect content creators. The internet is the future of entertainment, and it is the way for people all over the world to share thoughts and experiences. We need things to change.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
YouTube content creators are constantly bombarded by these false claims, and it has to stop.
The DMCA takedown is by all accounts a failed system, a fossil from a different era, and its ease of abuse is a threat to America's fundamental right to free speech. We need to bring copyright laws to the 21st century! Stop DMCA takedowns!
The curent DMCA actually scares me. I'm just a small youtuber with less than 100 subscribers, and I just turned on monitisation. Less than a week later I got a strike for just what I said. It was a quote for peetes sake. It wasn't even theirs, it was an annonymous quote. Please help us. This is litteral cencorship and robbery. My 2nd amendment right is being TAKEN AWAY FROM ME. Please help us. Were all terrified.
The automated process is hurting content creators greatly. Please reconsider the way the DMCA is structured and approaches these cases.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Not only that, but there are several companies that have been created purely to make false claims based upon titles of content and not the actual content contained within the work, ranging from audio claims upon videos that have no audio contained within them to censorship of criticism by trying to stop potential consumers from being informed about the potential dangers of a product.
The DMCA is not protecting the rights of fair use and is not accommodated to today's standard of the internet and is being used to harass and remove content creators please make it stop
My name is Dominic St.Pierre. I'm a daily YouTuber who has a channel called Dom Pierre. Where I upload videos of me rapping to song instrumentals. I also plan on making a channel where I can make Edits. These kinds of videos use sound clips and music to make something funny out of a TV show, commercial, or a popular video on YouTube. I watch these videos all the time and with every video I watch, they all fall under Fair Use. I'd love to make these videos without having to deal with Claims and Strikes because they 'Don't fall under Fair Use", when in reality, they do and the system is too broken to understand this.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music), companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Many people now use sites such as YouTube to generate revenue, often as their main source of income. People who use these sites and follow Fair Use rules (i.e., reviewers that transform the work by adding commentary and value) are still getting hit by false claims because the reviews are negative. And any money that the content earns during the appeals process is kept by the claimant, not the rightful owner. The claimant is not required to give the creator the money, and that hurts smaller creators and is a major inconvenience for larger creators.
For years, I've been a big fan of youtubers and follow my fair share internet celebrities. Some are even big inspirations, some can even view some of them as heroes. But because of how shity the DMCA has been in recent years, this year in particular, many of their channels, which can even mean their jobs, have been at risk. All because no one is actually monitoring the issues.
It's about damn time we find the fair use. Give it to us already. It's within our rights.
As a film reviewer on YouTube, every time I consider making a review, I get afraid. I am afraid because I fear that somebody will try to take down my videos, even though I know that my videos are protected under law by Fair Use.
And this is my problem. I want this to end. I want all of the people who think they can bully and harass others with false copyright strikes to know that what they are doing... it's not on. I don't want the community that I have recently joined to come under threat any more. I want a safe and secure future, not just for me, but for every single reviewer and user of Fair Use world-wide.
It's not just for me, it's for a community, and as a community, we have had to put up with this for far too long.
I'm asking you to fix the mess that was once the DMCA. We need this. Some people make a living from this, and their money is being taken from them by people who think that they can abuse the system.
I've had enough of this, other reviewers have had enough of it, and we are asking, as a collective...
Bring about change. Save the DMCA and make it something that we can rely on. Maybe not for me, but for people whose livelihoods are being threatened.
Thank you :)
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. I personally know many channels on YouTube that have been constantly flagged for the Fair Use content they upload, resulting in video takedowns, loss of monetization, or complete channel deletion, which destroys the living that these creators make off of monetizing their content. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Recently on the Internet the laws for fair use have been completely ignored and there have been no repercussions for those who have ignored it. Those who have abused the law have been stealing money from content creators without any plausible reason. They have no incentive not to make a claim as there are no punishments for making a false claim. But there are huge punishments for people who didn't do anything but express their creativity. Their money is being stolen, their content is being taken down and worse of all is if they make an appeal it takes months to process and they can only make three at a time.
I hope I have provided some insight into the broken mess that is the Internet.
People are using false DMCA take downs on the internet to ruin people's jobs. The law is outdated, and simply has to change to apply to the modern internet, and not the internet from 1998. People are using the DMCA to destroy the people who make content for the internet. People are using the DMCA to censor freedom of speech, which is something that is appaling to me as an american citizen and as a human being. People are using the DMCA as a threat. The DMCA is a problem and we need to fix the law.
The copyright system has been being abused over the last several months. Let me explain, there are companies that don't want their content being stolen, understandable. But when you do use a portion of their work, it may fall under Fair Use. As in using it for educational purposes - Their content may be educational, and depending on the usage, It can be used. Parodies: If you have edited a piece of work that makes fun or changes its original meaning, it may fall under Fair Use as well. Companies have been falsely claiming these sorts of things, even though they fall under Fair Use and are allowed.
This can be dangerous for people who use Fair Use for their career, such as parodies. If you are earning money off of this and get some of your work taken down, this puts the creator at risk.
So please, we need a updated copy of the DMCA document for today's internet standards. Back then people used the internet way differently than today. There should be harsher punishment for companies that falsely claim a Fair Use video for their personal gain.
WTFU
The internet should be the space with the most freedom speach
Hey buttholes!
So please modernize our laws for the future and allow creators to prosper
The taking down of content is abused by "trolls" and "haters" who dislike the content creator (speaking about you-tube) or dislike the content the creator makes. Company's will try their hardest to take down videos that speak bad about the product, this causing stress and loss of revenue for the creator and they cant protect their jobs from the company who post copy right claims against the same video multiple times if they dont get their way or have "shell" company's post their claims for them. The term "fair use" has been violated and even mention something in a bad way (not even showing of their content) is a apparently against "fair use"
Please FIX this for the content creators and their viewers
Thanks
I genuinely believe that ignoring the abuse given to content creators regarding fair use, seriously infringes on free speech and is bringing us another step toward what seems like an Orwellian dystopia.
Youtube content creators are being harassed daily because of this False fair use claims. This is ridiculous. There have been people pretending to be corporations as well Taking down youtube videos and stealing ad revenue. It's time to stop.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Abuse of DMCA needs to added to the law to give commentators, parody artists, and other content creators an opportunity to defend themselves.
Please take down this law which is being used silence critisism, steal money from others' work, mess with innocent people livelyhood and stops these people from fighting back under the guise of a legal procedure while being a constandly abused one whose ineffectiveness and illegality has been proven time and time again.
the system is in drastic need to be upgraded and there must be a fine line created between fair use and straight up theft this may be the only chance to change so for all content creators this needs to be changed!
The point is, many creators are uneccesarily beeing taken down and not being protected by fair use. Companies need to be penalized for incorrect claims to adapt to the new internet of today.
This biased system also places livelihoods at risk: content creators such as Channel Awesome, Mysterious Mr Enter and I Hate Everything have each lost monetisation on their videos after they were illegally claimed by organisations which ignored the fact that the videos all fell under Fair Use. These people lost significant parts of their income - particularly as third-party groups can claim money off a video until their false claim of copyright infringement has expired.
I personally have been effected by the DMCA, I have had monetization
money taken from my videos due to a digital distribution company, despite the fact that I had permission from the creator to use the music and monetize it on YouTube. I have had videos taken down by companies that had to rights, they claimed they were the digital distribution company for an artist, but the artist informed me that they did not work with the company.
What we need, more than anything, is a more clear set of rules, not guidelines, about Fair Use. When identical cases can be tried by two different judges with completely different results, it is an obvious problem.
I am speaking on the side of a creator for Let's Play Videos, where I play a game in the video, but make it a unique experience with commentary, style, and personality. I have made an argument about why this should be covered by Fair Use under the guidelines that are in place now. I realize that it might not help much and you may not have time to watch it, but I will nevertheless include a link to the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvbSnRoh93I
After the form letter, I want to point out how many content creators on the Internet have had their content taken down. Also, I'm want to be a content creator, but I am afraid of illegitimate legal action and the stress of major corporations going after content.
Get rid of this law, it is outdated and totalitarian.
I'm a content creator and recreate trailers in LEGO and don't make a single cent. Marvel Studios had no problems with my videos but I uploaded my first DC Comics vid and it got claimed soon and now they are making off my vid! Please revise the laws to protect Youtube.
Let our voices be heard and our knowledge be shared, do not stifle change encourage it our interests should be your interests.
YouTube in particular has the worst copyright laws on the planet, if a cooperation issues a takedown notice you are basically fucked, the automated process will not react fast(couple of weeks)just because you used a bit of their copyrighted material you will get taken down, if it is under fair use isn't relevant. The people who issue these claimes don't even have to own it and will take away the moneytasacion just to make a quick dime(it happened to ihe, just look it up). So in short please save the youtubers from that abusive system and I hope you make the #wtfu obsolete.
Take down abuse is a violation of freedom if speech and should not be tolerated.
The DMCA is destroying the internet. Large companies and even random people are taking down videos on Youtube in attempts to censor people. They are taking down videos that fall under Fair Use, they are taking down videos they don't even own, and they are using it to harm people, stifle free speech, and threaten people who criticize their work. Even videos without any copyrighted material in it are being taken down for no good reason. People are taking down innocent people's videos without even thinking about the concept of Fair Use. Videos are even being taken down several times by the same company under different names.
We need to stop this, or Youtube will be destroyed by false copyright claims.
Please take this seriously, as many people have videos removed for abusive reasons, and it should be fixed now. The sheer amount of take downs that happen daily make human review nearly impossible, but that simply means that an entirely new system needs to be created.
Many people I'm subscribed to on YouTube have had the system abused on them; for example, I Hate Everything, Team Four Star, TheMysteriousMrEnter, and many more. It is truly unfair and unwanted and has ruined many platforms on the internet. I'M IN. Let's end this!
= MY COMMENT (ALTHOUGH I AGREE WITH THE ABOVE STATEMENT) =
This shit needs to stop.
An outdated system is being used by nefarious individuals to bend the rules and turn the law against completely honest individuals. DMCA takedowns to my own personal channel has caused me a personal revenue loss.
Just, just, STOP.
I am a casual viewer of videos on YouTube. I find myself often watching reviews and parodys of video games and movies, and am subscribed to many youtubers who do these types of videos on a daily basis. However, Youtube has now become a breeding ground for false copyright strikes and clear abuse of the DMCA laws, as many reviewers are having videos be taken off of the site for showing clips from movies or video games, in a transformative way, that are being reviewed. Most of the time, videos will be copyrighted for the reviewers just expressing their opinions on a work such as a movie or game in question. Such was the case when a youtuber named I Hate Everything reviewed a, "movie", called Cool Cat Saves The Kids, and the creator, Derek Savage, falsely claimed the video and even went as far as threatening I Hate Everything, and impersonating a law firm in order to scare the youtuber into submission. Even videos which include no actual clips from the films that are being reviewed are being falsely taken down, which is what happened to another youtuber named The Cinema Snob. The worst part of all of this is that YouTube is doing virtually NOTHING about it. Many youtubers have tried to get in contact with YouTube directly, but, can't because it's impossible to speak with an actual person who works at YouTube due to the horribly broken way YouTube is being run. And there methods of allowing content creators to fight back are completely one sided, and rigged so that whoever takes down a video can get rid of the youtubers monotization which is how many youtubers get paid, and just generally destroying their lively hood all for the sake of money. If the DMCA isn't updated, then youtubers could become jobless, and since YouTube apparently just doesn't care enough, it will become worse and worse. People's ways of life are at stake. These laws need to be updated, they were created in 1998, where the idea of having an online job sounded insane, but, now many people depend on the Internet to stay alive and get a steady income, so in order to protect this minority the laws need to be updated, and large corporations that copyright strike youtubers need to be punished in some way, shape, or form, if they are going to continue striking down critics and silencing opinions. Where is the fair use?
My addition: I haven't grown up with YouTube when it came out; only when I was 13 years old. What I'm hearing from the content creators who a sharing their point of view of this situation; I don't want to grow up with the YouTube that's silencing free speech. When now when ever I do a vlog, I'm afraid of being block from other countries, cause I saw a new movie. My own friend made a fan video just for fun and he's also been silenced for it. So before April comes at the time I'm typing this, save the Internet before it's too late.
WHERE IS THE FAIR USE?!!?!?!?!
This needs to be fixed. The laws aren't updated for the modern internet of today and it's harming peoples lively Hood and could affect mine. As a content Creator and content lover on YouTube, it needs to be fixed. Channels like Channel Awesome, I Hate Everything, YourMovieSucksDOTOrg, Jim Sterling and many more are getting unfair strikes almost every day and can't fight back. My own channel, Piglet Possey Media, had to change a whole video because we just used trailer footage, not even music, just the video with our voice over it and we had to take it down. People are using this unfairly to bully because they can't handle criticism. This needs to be fixed. For the future and to protect my livelyhood and many others.
I used to run a small youtube gaming channel in 2013. Back then when I completed a hard level or beat a highscore in a game i would use a small clip of "Celebration" (the song) to accentuate the victory. Unfortunately one day I awoke to find that all my videos were copyrighted. I tried to get them removed but as youtube only allows two
So far we need to save the creativity. We don't want it gone so please don't delete the creativity and stop the DMCA Takedown. Please! So far i had my videos blocked myself. And i want more free use so please don't make things worse for the internet and YouTube. I'm begging you.
This is the time to fix this outdated rule to prevent the abuse of this rule by people who have nothing do to with the video.
n on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
This problem with companies claiming copyright on videos is getting out of hand, from videos of people just talking in a car with no music, clips and images, this law needs to be updated for today's Internet, to help young new users see that this old law is changed.
#MakeTheInternetGreatAgain.
What is going on YouTube? It's a site we all use DAILY, AND PEOPLE STILL TROLL IT!!! There are people and companies doing so many BAD things to this site that are seriously making it all worse for us! We have creators that literally STEAL content from other hard working creators just so they can re-upload them to their channel and review it. They are known as reaction channels! They steal people hard worked on content just to re-upload it on their channel and get money for it! This doesn't seem fair at all! They get the money by stealing content and views! That isn't right at all! But again, with proper fair use laws, these lazy, horrible, talentless wankers are gaining money from stealing! WHAT!?!? That's not fair at all for the original video makers! About 80% of all YouTube would appreciate it if you terminate these channels and block them from the public! Youtuber Gradeaundera has made videos that have millions of views talking about how these reaction channels and other cheats that the are unfair and unworthy of attention. He has also talked about how YouTube is letting channels break the rules and not do anything about it such as nudity. There is nudity everywhere on YouTube and you'd expect that YouTube would be very serious in removing it, but THEY AREN'T!!! There are many topics to talk about, but this one sticks out in particular for me. I hope you can see why Reaction channels are talentless wankers what don't deserve money for stealing content. #MakeYoutubeGreatAgain #WTFU # WakeUpYT
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected by fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I work in electronic and print education and the rules regarding fair use are confused at the best of times. The use of automatic takedowns prevents us from being able to effectively use a good deal of electronic media for educational purposes. We become concerned that content will be removed without warning and potentially we ourselves could be exposed simply using public material on our websites. The DMCA does not adequately protect content creators who maintain fair use and are doing their utmost to legally use available material.
I have seen YouTube take down material that clearly has no copyrighted material while small content providers have entire pirated channels set up. The system needs to be reformed.
Above all else, there MUST be consequences for companies false flagging content.
Seriously. YouTube is a big part of my life, for better or for worse, and that's something that can't be taken back. Just please make things better, because there are so many great communities of people that formed from YouTube and other similar sites, and the DMCA takedowns are threatening these groups.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
As the below text explains in better words than I can, the DMCA needs updated to standards befitting today. Internet technology advances at an insane pace, and while I can certainly understand copyright holders needing to protect their property, it's being utterly misused. It NEEDS to be updated. It NEEDS to look at today's internet and try to survive in this world, not in one nearly two decades ago.
Just keeping the form here because it's all true, but real stuff that I've seen as a problem. In the real and here, I see creators on the net getting DMCA strikes against them that make no sense. One person I watch in fact a lot do reviews. Just some examples of this, they only use bits and pieces from the game or the movie, not the entire thing, sometimes nothing at all, like if they have the title of the movie they get a strike because of the bots doing it. This should fall under fair use since their using it for review/saitire under it.
Also anyone can file these claims. Hell I have no right and I could file a claim saying it's my work and stopping them if I wanted to. Companies hire other companies to do this as well. One other reviewer keeps having one particular revew claimed he counter claims and when the time runs out. The company claims them again, they won't take it to court they'll just keep using the system to stop them since they have to be the one to take it to the next stop and theirs no penalty.
That's the big thing, since Youtube is practically a monopoly on uploading edited videos. Their is no where else to go, so because if a company claims it they get the ad revenue rather then just holding it off to the side and their is no penalty for a person to claim. So everything for a person to lose who puts up the video, no backlash what so ever to the person claiming even if they don't have a right.
Thanks for doing this by the way. I'm pleasantly surprised to hear about this. Hope the feedback is useful.
The fair use is being taken away, and creators keep getting their monetization taken away.
The DMCA was put into place in 1998. A lot can change in 20 years. We went from not even considering it to being on the moon in 20 years. Therefore I do not believe the DMCA does not work well on the internet today. A whole company which supports several people could be shut down just because of a little rumor going around about one video ha being copyrighted material. Not only that but there are some people that make a living off of falsely claiming a video and taking away the profits of that video. Therefore I believe the fair use act should be revised.
Good people are being exploited while the large companies and people out there are using their power to strong arm and take out those who say what they want and it HAS to stop!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had frankly alarming negative effects on political and creative expression and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Copyright in recent MONTHS has made the internet like a digital hell. If you had say a few hundred fans on say a website like YouTube. You would have the big risk of being silenced by somebody who doesn't like you or your content. And they silence you by reporting you unfairly for copyright. Then it can continue to happen as illegal harassment, and get your hard work deleted. And in what happened recently with YouTube user NFKRZ, they are using it to get a quick few thousand bucks. The DMCA system will continue to be abused unless you do something about it. Or maybe if (Website) hires actual human beings to work at (Website)for the report system.
While below is the generic e-mail as part of the takedownabuse.org campaign, I also want to add that this has affected me and my wife personally on our own little youtube channel. We don't have a million subscribers, or a ton of revenue, but is still done as a fun hobby me and my wife share. We're had our content taken down, or our revenue taken by others without consent. The DMCA is an outdated law that needs to be reviewed to protect everyone who creates media in our modern age. Thank you in advance for your time in reading this.
the censorshipthe Internet.
WE NEED THE FAIR USE
YouTube's is an amazing site. But recently many content creator's have had trouble with the copyright system. Many big and small YouTuber's videos have been taken down. This is not a joke for small people thus is how they make a living. Some examples of this are a video from a YouTube's video getting a strike it I hate everything. He made a review on a movie cool cat. He gave it a bad review and the creator David Savieg threatened IHE be saying he was gonna take down his channel. A few videos later IHE got a copyright strike from a random company. The video that got flagged involved a popular meme. It made absolutely no sense why it got flagged. I hope you take action. Please step into fix this.
Companies make false DMCA takedown notices to censor, control, and cause fear to critics who are well under Fair Use which is against the First amendment but they always get away with that and it is illegal
The DMCA is outdated and needs to be updated
Where is the Fair Use?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
This is the standard opinion made by the site. Please look down to see what I personally say.
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Please, law-bringers of America and members of Congress, you must change this for the sake of those who make a living online. In the past, there had been farmers that required protection from their lords. Then industrial workers needed unions to establish better wages and working conditions. Now, as companies outside of our borders and thieves within our borders report false claims simply to take money from us and YouTube continues to fail us in taking action, we ask you to do so.
Bards and critics, the artist and the analyst, all will be affected with no means of defense. Are you to allow your own citizens, your own digital workforce, to be stabbed in such a way? Please, do not let this continue.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Im sure you've heard time and again the issues, the legal stuff. I want to send the comment I've wanted to send since this whole damn thing started.
You have failed.
In your misguided attempts to protect copyright holders you have given them a weapon and no laws on how to use it. A nuclear bomb without a treaty. This has been used to bully, cheat, and steal. Fair Use has been utterly ignored in multiple scenarios because your outdated law has not been updated for the world we live in today. I know you've read comments detailing the constant destruction of livelihoods and abuse of critics by the companies who wish to control what people hear about their media. I'm sure you've been linked to videos by I Hate Everything and Doug Walker and Your Movie Sucks. So I'm not going to do that again. Instead I'm going to ask, beg even, for you to fix this. There must be reprocussions for violating Fair Use. There must be a tether put on this. Because while I do believe that copyright holders must protect their works from being stolen, they must also be told that irresponsible and illegal use of this power will not be tolerated. Treat them like the criminals they are.
Thank you.
-Alex.
Below the --- is the prebuilt message, all of which I reciprocate and endorse, but I wanted to add my personal notions on the matter. I surf the internet in my free time. As a college student this offers me a lot of time to enjoy myself. Tumblr, youtube, etc. However, I've noticed a stifling of content recently that only seems to grow worse and worse as time goes on. I think the first time I really noticed it was Gangnam Style, or more specifically a Minecraft parody of it. Now parody falls under fair use, but because of the lax punishment on false claims, and lack of an updated legal interface, that video is more or less lost to it's creative team. A team that worked hard deserves to earn credit for their work, even if that includes monitization. Artists, musicians, even compilers. There needs to be some serious adjustments made to a document such as the DMCA if not a complete rework. In its inception the internet was still a far reaching concept, one that was fairly hard to see. However the internet is now ingrained in our modern society and it is just as prevelant, if not more so, than some older concepts such as mail.
So I, as an individual, implore you. Please reconsider this document. Laws get updated all the time as new technologies come and go, and something this prevelant should have been being updated starting a long time ago and will probably need updating even in the future. As our technology grows, so too does our understanding and our society, and failing to acknowledge these changes only causes hampering of our society as a whole.
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EDIT: As a content creator and purveryor, I am worried for the future of entertainment. The studios that create content are dictating and controlling what can be said about their content and destroying the work of those who review said content, whether it be video games, television, web content or movies.
Movie reviewers have every right to use content sparingly to describe their experience, and studios think they do not. Even some reviewers like the Cinema Snob's Midnight Screening get taken down without a single clip or song being used, and if that does not prove that studios have too much power with not enough repucussions, I don't know what does.
I love making content, and I am terrified that while I am using everything legally, a studio can SO EASILY swoop in, claim it and destroy what I've worked so hard for.
Please update the laws so that new technologies are not affected by 18 year old laws. The law is old enough to vote but is so stuck in the past it must still must drink sippy juice and wear onesies.
Thank you.
#WTFYouTube
TLDR: it creates a broken system that incentives abuse and the destruction of small start-ups that are trying to break into established industry. In cases where people are criticizing work, they've been silenced with the DMCA. The WTFU campaign by Doug Walker of the YouTube Channel "Channel Awesome" alone has pointed out the problems with just a single internet platform. The issue is relevant everywhere and has severe implications on freedom of speech. I beseech anyone who can do something to suspend the bill and revise it in such a manner that abuse by the people enforcing it will no longer be feasible.
As a small note, companies have been abusing the copyright system despite the fact that many people have been using Fair Use properly.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a broken system that has not been updated for today's modern internet. Countless videos have been unfairly taken down for alleged copyright infringement, even though these videos are often not in violation of any copyright laws. And even when those videos are proven to not be infringing on copyright, different companies still have the ability to come after them again or to even take them down without informing their creators. Most of these copyright claims are made by algorithms without any human knowledge and are often incorrect. The content creators themselves are then seen as guilty until proven innocent and are made to go through a long, tedious process that takes up to months to complete. This system is simply inexcusable and must be updated to suit our modern age. Until the DMCA is changed, our freedom will continue to be threatened and out ability to share and create will be hindered by outdated laws and regulations.
Some of the best voices on YouTube like Leafyishere, h3h3 productions,Pyrocynical, Channel awesome, YourMovieSucksDotORG, I Hate Everything, and Chris Stuckmann have had false take downs and copyright strikes in the past. It's wrong, and most of all, illegal to the US law and by a moral standpoint.
Where abuse of the DMCA has been extremely prevalent in recent years is in attacks on content creators on media sites such as YouTube.com. Repeatedly, companies have been issuing false claims of copyright violations against content creators who are legally using Fair Use for their yearly income. For example, when DMCA claims are filed on YouTube, a content creator's video is either immediately taken down or the revenue generated by the video is transferred to the claimant, neither of which has a review process. Because of the lack of safeguards and penalties regarding those who abuse the DMCA and make false claims, numerous individuals who create content on the internet have lost much of their income or even lost their jobs entirely.
As someone who wants to start doing a let's play channel himself, cataloging my past and playing the games I grew up with, I know I can't do that because of how companies are and I won't even get my chance to to even get an audience. I want to do the thing I love, play video games and share my old experiences with how I played them, but I can't with how the DMCA is set up and companies abusing the system.
Look, I don't even make YouTube videos or or any content, but it sucks to see so many people be throttled for their livings! Some people just want to snuff the critics because they are too selfish, arrogant and intolerable of other people's work to see any criticism or feedback and usually they see it as an insult. Also some people just do it to be trolls. Claiming people's OWN content as theirs. This throttles their ad revenue, and basically stops them from earning anything. Don't you see how wrong that is. If you don't. Then you're just like those monsters who prey on the content creators.
This kind of abuse of the DMCA is now helping to fuel illegal downloading in Australia, it causes a great disrespect for the law.
This DMCA law is a fossil. It's so outdated. It no longer protects creators but hurt and harasses them.
claims have been put up against fair use, by people who do not own so called copyrighted works taken money and not been punished. This has happened when there isn't even copyrighted content just a critique from some random person spouting their opinion. There have even been repeated claims or strikes on previously cleared videos. And I'm just scratching the surface.
This has to end revise the law and make it more creator friendly, otherwise you're killing our economy and many people's livelihoods. Please I ask of you to really evaluate how things are and put yourself in our shoes. do the right thing and revise the laws to coincide with how things work today not how they did in '98.
Speaking of 1998 many people born in '98 are legal adults now. If a law was created in a time where people who were infants at the time can now vote sign contracts and join the army, it's too long to not take a second look and make a few changes. So please either repeal and replace or revise the DMCA, it's for the best of all of us both young and old.
Thank You.
This kind of bullshit is getting old. While the DMCA DOES do it's job against protecting copyright, corporate jackasses and random trolls ruin things for EVERYONE just for the heck of it or maybe even for money.
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People are making a living out of making their own content on Youtube and other websites and Fair Use needs to be respected! This Copyright Law needs to be fixed now or many people will lose what they have done for so long! We need to protect our creativity from those who troll us and those who don't understand fair use as a whole!
The current implementation of the DMCA takedown is horribly broken and benefits only the content rights holders instead of the creators of content that if taken to court would be deemed fair use on Youtube I have seen companies abuse the DMCA takedown action to silence criticism or harass content creators of youtube for creating a video the copy write holders deemed "offensive" not only that but many companies will falsely use DMCA to claim content they dont even own and there is no penalty whatsoever for this action to that company many companies appear to use DMCA without actually knowing what it means or even factoring what is and isn't fair use this blanket statement needs to change and companies need to be held accountable for their actions in fact many companies will use "shell"companies or multi channel networks so the blame is not placed on the company that owns the actual rights not to mention many companies use the DMCA as a threat to stop affected channels from speaking up on the wrong doing the DMCA process is also broken after a video has been cleared as fair use the same company can claim it again just to steal any and all revenue from the video which even after the content is cleared as fair use the content creator never is reimbursed for said lost revenue
I have seen time and time again how many people who simply do a review of the many creative arts in this world are constantly pushed down and pressured without any way of defending themselves. I have seen them alter their work in a way to prevent false acussations that if brough on a trial for fair use, they would be found under the protection of fair use. Even with no visual or audio use of the original product they are still harrased. This need to change.
Create rules that can punish trolls from copyright claiming videos. This is an abuse of power from people that should not have it
Please, make the right choice. Please help with this problem that's destroying thousands of careers everyday. So please, help save fair use.
The DMCA needs to be changed to match modern technology.
As described right now, the DMCA results in an undue burden on small-scale reviewers by forcing websites to remove their content before copyright claims can be assessed for their legitimacy. This results in a significant loss of income for reviewers, decreasing the quality of their output.
The DMCA should be altered to allow for flexibility in copyright infringement. Often, copyright notices are issued against videos that are clearly not infringing on the original content. Claims are filed where either the video and audio are completely different from the original content. Machine learning techniques have improved significantly since the creation of the DMCA, and could easily estimate the similarity between any two works. Websites, such as youtube, should be able to ignore copyright notices if the content is not estimated to be a match.
DMCA takedown notices are used as a threat to users of fair use. Commentary of copyrighted material, such as reviews, are being struck by abuse of the system currently in place. In some instances shell companies are used to protect and disguise the claiments putting up false flags.
Claiments put up multiple strikes even after the claim has been rejected under fair use, creating a hostile environment for creators of fair use material. During this time, any and all revenue that would normally be made from this material is passed on to the claimant, without any investigation into whether or not their claim is valid in the first place.
In these instances where the claim has been rejected due to fair use, no punishment of any kind is given to the false claimant, a stark contrast to content creators who stand to lose everything.
There have been instances where copyright claims have been made on content which the claiments do not own. This again creates a scenario where a creator can stand to lose everything with no form of repercussions for what is, in essence, companies lying to gain money which doesn't belong to them.
Companies put up claims to harrass and bully content creators into silence and to stifle free speech.
Plus, many of the famous streamers and youtubers who get paid for this kind of stuff that they make to post will be put into unemployment.
Some of my favorite youtubers like I Hate Everything, The Mysterious Mr. Enter, and the Nostalgia Critic have been under attack by the incredibly broken copyright system! Some had their channel removed for very false reasons! Something has to be done!
In addition to the automated message which is very accurate, I can give a couple examples. Youtube is plagued by false takedowns, even channels that are purely non-profit get flagged, and on occasion videos are taken down even when there's no copyrighted material at all, due to the fact that there's no kind of reviewing done on the claims, it's all automated.
In addition a website called Duelingnetwork allows users to play a simulated card game completely for free, all ads and donations go to keeping the servers online and the creators make no profit off of it, yet a third party company demanded they remove all copywritten artwork, making the site unusable for then millions of people who play, even though as there's no profits being gained it clearly falls under fair use.
The internet is more than an information superhighway, or a series of tubes, it's how many people stay connected, keep up to date with current events, and keep their minds stimulated, not just millions, but billions of people depend on the internet, not just in America, but internationally. The internet belongs to no one nation, and certainly not private corporations, and while preventing the loss of money is important, if these laws were implemented in real life, the government responsible would be labeled fascist, or dictators.
Youtube is based in the USA and therefore it needs to abite to the US law. Problem is Youtube is also an international website and creators all around the world are being abused because of the DMCA and its equivalent laws in other countries.
I live in Italy and I've been abused a lot on Youtube. Everything I upload is protected by so many laws (mainly parody and criticism protection), but corporations don't care.
They have all the power and they don't risk anything. I risk losing my channel every single day. I risk lawsuits.
If the USA change their copyright law I'm sure the rest of the world will soon follow. Please revise the DMCA. It is old and critically out of date.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is becoming more and more of a weapon for the copyright holders to use to censor content that is protected under fair use. Whenever action from the copyright holders takes place, it is mostly toward content that is completely protected under fair use and this action will negatively harm the creator of said content without any repercussions towards the copyright holder. The current system is currently being abused and we demand that something must be done to stop the unfairness in this system.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The DMCA is not helping the Internet. It is a huge cop out and it needs to be dealt with.
I am not a content creator. I am only a avid user of the internet as a source of media. I am on the internet every single day of my life researching and learning about video games and movies. All of the attacks on channels need to stop, as this law is being abused to bully people for trying to create things to entertain or teach. I remember back when before the internet was really taken off as a whole. I had to rely on only adds from the companies themselves to determine if I should spend my money on what they are selling. I can not afford to go every day worrying if the snake-oil a company is trying to sell me will really work or not, rather then being able to listen to people I actually trust.
I may not make any content, however I have seen on many occasions of content that was strikes by copyright on the internet and even then if it was a mistake it is difficult for people to take back claims. Claims can also be made on videos or content that follow fair use and creators can't do anything about it.
Here are some examples of creators whose content was effected
Brain scratch on me
I hate everything
Channel awesome
Your movie sucks
GradeAunderA
The copy right system is broken I am a critic who wants to post on you tube but cant cause of the copy right laws I have seen what has happened to some of my favorite you tubers and it saddens my hart to see once again the government not careing about the people
The DMCA is completely outdated, made for a time when the internet of today was a far off fantasy and is now being abused by companies. On youtube I have seen hundreds of youtubers fight off false copyright claims, many times repeatedly from the same company. There are people using the DMCA to take down videos that they disagree with, people who claim copyright infringement on videos of just the user speaking in a car with no copyrighted material to be seen or heard. I have even seen a company claim copyright on audio just because the title of the video had a title of current trend (the video itself was actually a trap to catch this company, as the video had no audio and was a single picture for 6 minutes). There is a desperate need for punishment for these false claims, especially since the user who is getting the false claim is the only one suffering from them.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be regulated, and automatic claims MUST be reviewed by the copyright holder before they take affect, as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Another thing is that there are people who abuse the YouTube copyright system to gain money from other people's hard work. There needs to be regulations on how copyright claims are issued. They can't be given unlimited power. And there MUST be human contact when it comes to these copyright claims.
As a content creator I deal with fair use on a daily basis. The current system has no punishments for those who make unfair and illegitimate claims against our content. This causes lost revenue and income for many of us who make a living creating original innovative content.
m
Many YouTubers of whom I adore are having their videos striked and or taken down. Some are even losing the money they would have made had it not been for these false claims. One of which I know for sure is some company named "Merlin" or something along those lines, has issued out copyright claims to videos and products they do not own.
An example being I Hate Everything's (IHE) video over the meme "Damn Daniel." While I have not been affected by these claims personally, I do have an interest in eventually making content on YouTube, and I am aware of the dos and don'ts when it comes to copyrighted material. However, many innocent content creators who have performed fair use on their channels are still getting attacked regardless. This is injustice. I am afraid to join in a community where I can create content that is legal and within fair use, and still managed to get a strike or have my channel removed with little to no notice, and no apology when or if I am able to get it back.
Please, for the sake of the good people that I look up to on this platform, and for mine and as well as many other's future as content creators, I implore you to seek out justice, and help defend these YouTubers. They have helped mold and shape YouTube and made it was it is today; and for them to be treated so wrongfully and with such little care and attention or respect, I cannot simply stand by and let it happen without saying a word, as I have up until now. I'm putting myself out there, out of my shell, to help these who I feel are being wronged. Please, fix this. Fix YouTube. Thank you very much for the opportunity to let us have a voice, and I pray that this will change YouTube for the better.
- KC
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I, personally, have been affected by the outdated DMCA. I make gaming videos most often using a "Let's Play" style of production, and post them publicly on YouTube. I opt to not monetize my videos, whatsoever. It is a passion project of mine, and I do it simply out of sheer love of the games I am playing, and the joy of making the videos for others to view. I always encourage my viewers to purchase the games I play from a legal vendor, such as online retailers, that directly support the developers and publishers, all the while taking zero financial benefit for myself.
Yet, time and again, my videos are struck with false claims by "companies" and scammers looking to make a quick buck. They claim to hold the legal copyright, and seize the rights to monetize any and every video they can. And, while it is quite obvious in some cases that these scammers do NOT hold the legal copyright to a particular work, fighting them comes at a price.
If I file a dispute through YouTube's automated system, I do so at great risk to myself and my channel, but at little to no risk for the scammer. If the claim is released, I am once again given the rights to my video. However, if the scammer wishes to escalate the dispute, it can result in the video being taken down, a strike being issued against my channel, or even my entire channel being removed from YouTube. High risk to me, simply to defend what is legally justified.
However, even if these scammers release the claims against my video(s), no action is ever taken against them, legal or otherwise. They do not have their premissions restricted or revoked. They are not investigated by any YouTube or Google representative, let alone any legal authority. They are freely allowed to continue making falsified claims against YouTubers like me and the countless others who suffer from this on a daily basis.
It is the outdated DMCA which allows actions such as this to take place. The law is being abused and manipulated for illegal purposes, against both content creators and legal copyright holders. In a situation like this, nobody wins except those who break the laws that the DMCA was originally put in place to defend.
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The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The DMCA may have started out with good intentions, but over the past decade and a half, it has been repeatedly abused to stifle criticism, threaten the livelihoods of reviewers, and has proven ineffective in curtailing digital piracy. The system is buggy, broken, and in dire need of retirement or overhaul.
Really this law has been abused by so many creators against fellow creators under the terms of fair use and needs to stop.
While I myself have never experienced a takedown, I have had to instead sit idly by and watch the tiny amount of revenue I might have made get gobbled up with no fair consideration towards fair use. As a novice YouTube content creator I am forced to constantly grapple with negative returns due to these false claims, and am now to the point of witnessing my dreams of being a full time content creator smothered and killed because of it. Where's the fair use?
People's jobs are in danger, because of companies not doing what is right and checking for fair use. It needs to stop now.
We cannot be allowing companies to abuse DMCAs takedown to inhibit the lives, and opinions of people. Youtubers who do reviews have been being harassed by people who cannot take criticism, companies who cannot stand the negative opinions people have about what they do. Peoples who's livelihood relies on the content they create on youtube are threatened. The internet is becoming more and more the place where content is released and viewed. As such, the government now more than ever has to protect the people who produce that content form people who abuse DMCA takedowns.
Hey,
The DMCA is being used to stifle criticisms, parodies, and free speech. People are filing claims on content that they do not own. They're filing claims to harass content creators. Even the people who own the content that they're filing for are abusing the system by attacking others who use that content under fair use. I see it happen every day with people I follow on Youtube and rarely are the claims legit.
I've seen people who give vocal reviews on movies who show no copyright content get their videos taken down. It's happening with positive and negative reviews. There are people claiming to represent the copyright holders striking videos in the off chance they might cash in on some of that Youtube revenue. People are abusing the system.
I've wanted to create my own review / parody content for Youtube for a while now. I'm afraid to even try because I know that I'll be affected by DMCA right out of the gate. It's getting to the point where I don't want to create anything and share it on the internet. It's not just a Youtube problem. It could come to the point where I share something on Facebook, give my opinion, and have my account suspended because of it.
I'm not sure how this works exactly but I am an up and coming comic artist and animator and to see so much content be taken down by such famouse internet contributers and them loosing money for it is scaring me. The internet is a new form of income and work place for many people and we cannot have the system be abused any longer. I'm supporting #where's the fair use, and I want change to happen now.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgement to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
All this aside, the current fair use system is used by big companies, and even just internet trolls in the case of youtube because of how it handles its content *which for the record was written aroudn this currently outdated system* to bully content creators despite fair use, it needs to stop, I've heard too many stories about creators on YouTube or wherever having their content removed, or even threatened with legal action even though there work is considered fair use.
It's disgusting and it needs to stop.
The fact that companies can harass YouTubers is disgusting. False copyright claims, threats, and stolen revenue are just a few of the results of these outdated laws, and it's only going to get worse so long as things continue as they have.
As someone who aspires to be a YouTuber one day, it worries me that companies can break the law without any consequence.
This has personally hurt me as I make my living on YouTube. Because YouTube is based out of California, my livelihood is held at the whim of American law despite being a Canadian citizen. What you do in the United States can hurt people across the entire world in this industry.
Came here because i believe in this cause. This needs to stop. We cant have large companies using shell companies to take down a review of a movie that doesnt even utilize any footage or music from said movie.
I have seen many you-tubers that i care about have their videos taken down because of copyright strikes. many of these were made on videos that were clearly fari use. the system that is in place is very bias and does not encourage fair use, it punishes it. Many people have flagged videos that they have no ownership of. even videos that have no copyrighted footage in them at all are taken down. The system is so broken that people can write programs to take down any monetized videos they want regardless of if it is justified or even contains there work at all. the law is so broken that it fails in what it was designed to do: protect the creators of entertainment and art. This needs to be changed and needs to be fixed. As an unjust law is no law at all.
clams are being made regarding content they don't even own.
Stifle free speech by taking down content just because they creator did not like the comments.
Shell companies send take down notices on behalf of the parent company so they parent company does not have to take responsibility.
They use this as a threat!!!
They hit content multiple times for the same content after being already cleared.
This is discouraging content creators and impeding on the right of free speech. There needs to be consequences for false claims and some way to compensate for lost revenue.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
i tink that the dmca needs to be modified to the present day and so everyone can be protected
A fine example would be NateWantsToBattle's channel. He did AMAZING anime covers, in which he had the perfect rights, but they were taken down! What were they taken down for? Changing the language. One fallacy to that however. One of the songs, IS AN INSTRUMENTAL! So please, consider this and end the abuse TODAY!
It is getting ridiculous the way the fair use rule is being abused. Myself and so many creators on YouTube make content under fair use, and somehow companies still make claims on us even though we are with the law.
People who make reviews or parodies of content get silenced by the original content creator, because they are abusing the law to silence the opposing side and they're worried the "bad reviews" will make them look bad.
Without a way of enforcing fair use, people can just abuse,steal profit from, and pick on anyone, regardless of the law.
I witnessed some of this misuse personally in regards to a song parody made entirely from scratch with proof of originality. It's time for a change that helps the world grow. Stay Creative.
I love YouTube its the best thing ever made. The people who put up the videos are cool they don't do it for money or to steal anything. they do it because its fun and its been going on for 10 years and people have opened up more like twitter or facebook. people like sharing there thoughts and reviews are the best thing ever and they are quite entertaining if it weren't for them we wouldn't have the humour we have today. its not like they are abusing copyright they understand the rules and honour the rights and ownership. take away fair use and you will be taking away something wonderful.
_______________________________________________________________________________
This is to stop the stealing of original content from independent creators. No more should honest work be taken away just like that.
With the global nature of the internet this law has a widespread jurisdiction and impact far beyond national borders and has been used to stifle honest critique, commentary and parody that was never in the spirit of the law.
The copyright system is broken. Videos are being taken down for claim of copy when fair use was in order. Lives are being ruined because of the copyright system. Its taken away our creativity. Its stopping use from being creative. Its like were not being listened to. This needs to change.
The more I have seen on this matter, mainly on Youtube, the more outdated the system seems to be. As I have seen many people talking about this problem each has created a way in which it could be fixed. I believe that one of the biggest problems is companies taking advantage of these rules without any negative consequence. A way to fix this can be that each time a company files a false copyright claim they have a fine of some sort. Each time they continue to do this the fine becomes larger and if it continues further, some more drastic measures should be taken. The internet has developed to an escape where anyone can express their opinion in creative and innovative ways, don't let avaricious companies take that away from us.
Jestem polskim i patrzę na youtube prawie cały czas i nadal spełniać film, który został usunięty i personas youtube, którzy nie są w stanie stworzyć, ponieważ są nieustannie atakowane, większość czasu jest poświęcona amerykańskiej you tube, dlatego jest to ogromny problem dla mnie, choć nie jestem ze Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki. To jest problem, naprawdzcie
I am Polish and I watch on youtube almost all the time and still meet a video that has been removed and youtube personas who are not able to create because they are constantly under attack, most of my time is devoted to the American you tube so it is a huge problem for me even though I'm not from the united States of america. This is a problem it fix it
As a person who is attempting to make his living by being a critic, these laws not only violate my right to fair use and free speech, but also threaten my right to make a living and has the potential to allow companies to take down any criticism I have and silences any attempt I have to inform customers of a faulty or potentially harmful product, all the while the company is protected for "protecting their copyright."
The automated system is flawed. Heavily in favor of the company and not the consumer or reviewer. While there are instances of actual copyright infringement, it should not be a computer to make these decisions. I support the call to stop the automated takedowns.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Basically, it's illegal and unconstitutional to allow an automated system to act as judge, jury, and enforcer on people who never stood trial. On one hand, it's impossible to carry out justice without using machines. On the other hand, it's wrong to even try. That must be put first. But even if this system wasn't wrong, it's been abused. Like so much legistlation it takes the easy way out instead of the just way, and focuses on who it CAN punish instead of who it should.
Thank you for caring if pleased.
#WTFU
Thanks for all.
The DMCA sucks.
Now you might say: "Hey, what does a 14-Year old Kid from whereever the frick europe know about the DMCA?
The fact that a 14-year old kid from switzerland knows about an issue should be an alarm sign.
Mainly YouTube is fricked because of the flawed system. But whatever, you probably get more comments from people, who are better informed then me. Just take this as a warning or something. I just want the internet to be okay, alright?
Innocent content creators are having money taken from them as a result of false claims from big companies without any consequences.
I have been watching entertainment on Youtube since it (Youtube) was in its infancy. Youtube has changed media forever in brilliant ways from Video Game Journalists to Move Critics, the list goes on. Many of the most brilliant content creators got their start here on Youtube and they are being threatened. For years now, many companies, be they TV studios or Movie studios in Hollywood, or Game developers/publishers have been harrasing content creators. They have been issuing false DMCA takedowns to creators for years for increasingly bogus reasons.
Many of these companies use DMCA to silence critisism or take monitization from creators. Many game developers have had videos taken down because they don't like what the video said. This is especially rampant with creators who do short reviews of Animated Telelvision Programs. Many companies do not seem to care that reviews and or parodies are protected under Free Use, and have removed channels and destroyed countless careers in their bid for either control, or censorship.
This cannot continue to happen. Many people are constantly dealling with companies unfairly stealing monitization from content creators, or are shutting down channels despite the channels following the law. Only you can stop this madness. Please understand, content creators are not the enemy.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to require an individual to sign off that they have actually viewed the content rather than having the content viewed strictly by a machine. The signing individual would then have to acknowledge that filing a false takedown report is a felony with a five year prison sentence. Obviously, this reform requires criminalizing the filing of a false takedown report. Alternatively, the signing individual and his employer could each be made liable for mandatory statutory damages for abusing the DMCA takedown process, filing a false takedown, or failing to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The way copyright works on the internet is horrendous, innocent creators who just want to create content, whether it's for comedy, satire, or a parody, are getting attacked by companies filing false strikes towards these individuals without penalty
Fair use was design to allow people to modify works for their own unique version, yet if the company doesn't enjoy this content they completely ignore this law and attempt to take down these creators with no means of punishment or discouragement, so they can take down literally anything on the internet whether or not it's even related to their own content, seriously, there was someone who got a copyright strike because of a Vlog of them talking on their own porch
So please listen to us, protect free speech, protect fair use, protect the internet because this isn't about pirated movies or cat videos, this is about people who make a living on the internet being threatened by corporate greed and ignorance
So just tell us, where's the fair use? #wtfu
Thank you
Please consider this! As it hurts future content creators and current content creators in YouTube.
So... here's me. Corporations have been harassing media companies to abide by their rules else they shan't provide them income. So plenty of people have to deal with their videos which they put effort in being taken down for having even the slightest bit of copyright, or if it isn't taken down the company can acquire revenue from the media, even though the project may be highly transformative and the individual perhaps put great effort into, sometimes even more than the original creators. It is very easy to manipulate the system, even, to lie that someone else's product is yours and there is little to defend against this. Sure, these companies may not go to court, though they still take revenue from the product and may return with other sources. There's plenty to get into on this ludicrousness and there's this stuff:
The way that companies abuse the DMCA system is appalling and needs to be rworked in accordance with trends and policies that we find in today's internet; not the 1998 internet. Content creators that SHOULD be protected under fair use are being bullied and stolen from. Not a single day goes by that I don't hear of a reviewer or satirist that has their content taken down because they have a negative opinion on a product, with no repercussions to the abuser unless they actually bring it to court. Meanwhile, the reviewer or satirist is losing out on revenue and ratings. There needs to be a stricter penalty to individuals who abuse the DMCA to hurt someone legitimately protected by fair use.
I think this is bullshit what the what there doing to not only YouTube but the whole internet with people making copyright claimsjust because they don't like the movie or they just don't really like the video at all an example of this is I Hate Everything where daddy Derek filed a copyright claim against his video review on Cool Cat Saves the kids and another example beingThe Nostalgia Critic AKA Doug Walker had a copyright claim on him saying that his review for My Neighbor Totoro what is offensive when it was just a review and why do we let good content creators get all the copyrights when we have content creators like stomedy and also have all these pranks gone "sexual" which are breaking community guidelines the guideline protect content creators now let's angry fucking trolls make copyright claims just because the don't like the video please bring back fair use
The DMCA is highly out of date and archaiac today, 18 years after it was first declared. The internet has changed since then, with websites like YouTube being something that just wasn't possible in 1998. Fair use is something that is necessary in order for creativity, many companies have threatened YouTube users with DMCAs by falsely accusing them of making "slanderous" content, in some cases even threatening to take down entire YouTube channels (some people's only source of income), which is in fact fair use for untrue "defamation" of their property. For example, a YouTube channel called I Hate Everything made a video about a film called Cool Cat Saves the Kids. This was fair use because IHE was not stealing this content, he was criticising it, something that falls within fair use. This has happened to almost every film or game reviewed that uses any footage of the game at one point in their video.
In addition to this, companies will also form the DMCA with a shell company, to remove any possible backlash to happen to it. The fact that somebody that doesn't even own the content that was being used fairly in the first place is utterly wrong. This has been taken advantage of too, with IHE getting a third party claim from a company called Merlin. He checked with all of the owners of anything that he used in that video and none of them said they filed that claim. This means that the Merlin company was fake and literally stole around £800 of YouTube and revenue from IHE. If it isn't wrong that this behaviour is condoned by the DMCA then I don't know what is.
The internet will become the biggest way for people to share, receive, criticise and create content. It has changed a lot in the 18 years since the DMCA was first created, so the DMCA should change too.
Tom
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Many people make videos on YouTube as a full time job. They get many videos falsely flagged with no reason for it to be. A person can be talking in front of a camera with nothing in anyway to be flagged for. Yet they still do. It's not fair for people to have to go through this, since the DMCA heavily listens to bigger companies more, they can't help us will the Copyright Office is in this state. We need change, we need a new system that will safe guard people against false claims.
When companies hear something they don't want to hear, they will take down my reviews, videos, and tweets as much as they can, just because I said something negative. So these companies can gain more money, they show only good reviews amd destroy negative ones. Not only that, but the review I posted was changed from what I had written.
The system is BS. Take it down to stop snarky buisnessmen from making money they don't deserve.
It would seem as time goes on it becomes more and more apparent to me that the current system is absolutely out of date and only favors corporations and Hollywood. On youtube many of the content creators that I watch are taken down and abused by this broken system on practically a daily basis and being a small time content creator myself I fear for my channels well being. Many of my favorite youtube have either been wrongfully taken down and had reviee stolen from them. A change us needed and these people NEED to be more protected and this system is unable to do so. Those who violate this system should be punished for making false claims.
#WTFU
My own experiences with the abuse of DMCA are no where near as vast as other content creators but I still have felt just as frustrated. Videos I have posted that contain no copyright footage and are reviews so even if they did they would be protected by fair use have been taken down along with my youtube channel for no reason. The abuse of the system has to stop and we're in need of more protection for fair use such as penalties for false claims.
I have seen to many YouTubers and their videos taken down by this outdated and broken system. Fix it.
The current copyright system is very easy for corporations to abuse content creators. Content that's clearly in fair use is unjustly takedown. There needs to be a system that penalizes companies who abuse the copyright system and abuse content creators.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) is frequently being abused by companies and corporations to censor the very idea of fair use and freedom of speech. On the internet, most notably the video-sharing site YouTube, content creators have brought people entertainment and enjoyment through expression, such as reviews for movies, TV shows, and video games. These content creators and the work they do fall perfectly under fair use laws. And yet, there are companies that abuse the DMCA to unlawfully shut down this perfectly legal content and hamper the content creators' rights. Companies have not only issued DMCA takedown notices against content creators, but have also used bullying tactics in attempt to get their own way, completely disregarding and failing to even abide by fair use, or even using the DMCA unfairly against content not even owned by them. These companies frequently show ignorance to many valid counter-notifications. If a content creator were to fight such invalid DMCA claims in court, fair use laws would allow for certain victory. Yet this is not an ideal option due to the high costs for court cases. The DMCA is important to ensure the proper removal of copyright infringement, but it is outdated. Outdated to the point where it is highly exploitable to abuse by companies and the unfair penalization of content creators. The DMCA requires a current-day rework to ensure that freedom of speech and fair use can shine more brightly for today's current generation.
Companies are using the DMCA to harass you tubers, take the money they rightfully earned with their hard earned money by claiming the rights to the content they (youtubers) have shown on their channels. Not only that, they've even used it to unfairly take down channels on bogus claims, and while my grammar sucks I at least know that something needs to be done about this sh*t...pardon my language. Oh wait did I just type that? Whoops, my bad.
This is even a problem in other contrys! We can't do what we want without get ting it tanken down.
So many people are using the internet on a daily basis, for entertaining, in their job or as a job. The internet is only getting, so it have to be fixed NOW!
Even as a foureigner I notice fair creators being taken down for doing their job, that's perfectly legal! Companies use unfair DMCA takedowns as a threat, as an illegal gains of money and as a stifling of fair speach. This problem is a global one. the internet is bigger then just your own country. My favourite creators are American, so i'm willing to fight for the stop of the abuse of this law, so that the creators i support daily, can continue to do their job.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has directly impacted original content that I have made and the content of countless others. Copyright holders are currently using takedowns to remove fair-use negative criticism of their work and to make money off of someone else's original content. Filmmaker Derek Savage and game developer Digital Homicide have both become notorious for abusing this system to steal from and/or harm their critics (who are operating within the realm of fair use), and there has been nothing to stop them.
The DMCA system currently in place is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Please, save the Internet and YouTube. So many people depend on it. People are stifled by false copyright claims, which results in loss of revenue and a major problem where the first amendment is broken constantly through the ability to take it down without punishment.
People are using it for personal gain, thievery, and lots of other things. Innocent people are attacked with video takedowns while people who break copyright laws get away Scott-free with gains and profit that is direct theft from content creators. This needs to be stopped now.
DMCA takedowns are abused by companies to stop fair criticism, satire and reviews. Some people use these DMCA takedowns and they are not even owner's of the copyrighted material. Sometimes videos people just talking on camera about a movie (or other media) are taken down.
Almost all of the DMCA claims are invalid due to the laws of fair use,"In its most general sense, a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticise, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner." this means the video reviews on copyrighted works are completely in the realms of fair use, this means parodies of songs/tv shows are in the realms of fair use; and still these things are the main type of content that is taken down.
(Personal notes)
I have had multiple copyright claims on my YouTube channel "TheHauntedReader" for totally Fair Use videos. I am sick and tired of money that should go to me being instead directed 'illegally' to other companies. I am letting my voice be heard today because I am sick of it!
This power that companies have been given is too much, as without any restrictions they can easily abuse their privilidges. They can take any earned money on videos, and keep it, even if their copyright claims are proven false! They can take down videos just because the other person disagreed!
They have gone too far with their abuse of this power shutting down small accounts, and even sometimes large ones, much to the dismay of their viewers.
So I implore you, to help rectify the wrongs that have been done, reduce these enourmous atrocities to a thing of the past. Help protect one of our most sought after right. Free speech
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of
corporate copyright holders and too
commonly used to
censor content that is
protected under fair
use. This system has
had dire effects on
political expression,
creativity, and
commercial
innovation on theInternet. TheDMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The violations of the archaic fair use laws have harmed people who have followed the law as well as punished those who have broken it. Those who have violated the rules deserve to be punished but those who obey are being harassed by those who don't like the opinions which is both a violation of the dmca & the 1st amendment. This needs to cease.
If we allow companies to go on like this, creativity on the Internet will die.
Please Mr Gorbachev tear down this wall.
There is something fundamentally wrong with the system, and it needs to update for our modern times. DMCA's are supposed to be used to protect those who own copyrighted content, a shield of sorts, however nowadays it is being used as a sword to wound, maim, and kill.
Every day Youtubers have to fight for their own income because of misused copyright claims. This is ridiculous. They are all my source of entertainment. They spend countless hours filming and editing but they lose their carefully crafted videos because there is no Fair Use. It's time to bring Fair Use back to the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works
I'm leaving up the pre-written statement as it describes the current situation better then I am capable of.
First and foremost, make sure you guys watched the "everything that's wrong with youtube" videos part one and two from GradeAUnderA. The rest speaks for itself
References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfgoDDh4kE0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-O7WANBW_Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ9U8YLY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9mTOq6mP2I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7-TJ2utqE0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCAtslqO5IQ
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue autotakedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The fair use system for YouTube sucks and you need to fix it.
Consider it done.
Dear U.S. Copyright Office,
The DMCA is very, very broken. For years, many creators on YouTube, including me, have been getting copyright claims and strikes for the wrong reasons. What I mean by "wrong reasons," is that these creators are actually following the fair use system. Big companies, such as Sony, have been abusing these creators for a very long time. The current DMCA does not work for a website like YouTube because it is outdated. Please take this into consideration.
This law desperately needs to be updated as in numerous occasions it had been used against those it was meant to protect in the first place; animosity towards opinion, fraud claims of being a certain company, and various other reasons are but a multitude of examples that show this needs to be fixed. Revive this law to be fit for this day and age as well as the future, before things get to the point of no return.
What's been going on with the DMCA, is a CRIME! Companies are using underhanded tactics and abuse of YouTube and several other video hoisting site's policies to try and STEAL the hard earned money from law abiding content creators or simply using the system to silence negative criticism.
It's not only practically theft for those who have made a living as content creators, it's a breach of Free Speach. Not allowing people to voice their opinions on a subject just becuase they have a few selectively edited clips from whatever is their criticizing.
I once had a dream of being a video creator myself and after receiving strike after strike or having my ability to monotize my content taken away I simply gave up, I lost all faith in YouTube.
In closing in tired of seeing great people like Doug Walker, I Hate Everything and tons of other creators being bullied and having their livelihoods ruined. So Where's The Fair Use?
In the current state of the DMCA, it has been abused by the corporate companies and leaves everyone else in the dust. This is what cause the #WTFU aka Where's the fair use hashtag about a month ago. Sometimes it is abused for money, sometimes it is abused for the fact that the company could not handle criticism from the other side. It has even started becoming automatic meaning that the other side is pretty much left in the dust until further notice. Not only that, some company's, like Youtube, tend to forget that the DMCA even existed. Youtube has shown countless times that it does not simply care for the DMCA or even their own rules for that matter. This includes no fair trial, meaning that if the other side gets a strike, they not only cannot fight back, they also do that receive the revenue they rightfully earned. The company can take anything from the claim they post until thee other side is proven innocent. the other side can't even make an argument if they instead get a strike from the actual and must wait 30 days for the claim to be dissolved which even then the company can give another strike to the video even if the other side was proven innocent before. the company can even post more then one claim if they have to and steal money that is not theirs. It makes me believe that the DMCA only gives benefits to the big corporations, not the single individual, which is completely unfair and should be changed.
Videos that are reviews or parodies can't be taken down it's against copyright law and companies who try to take those videos down should get a penalty or punishment of some kind
Companies should not have the power to take down videos that has no footage of the copyrighted material nor should they have the power to take revenue from the cteater of the video if he is inoccent
I want to start revising things, but I'm too scared of the unfair copyright claims, so I have never been able to start on YouTube. Several companies have been unfairly abusing YouTube's copyright claim system, and I feel like if I start reviewing things, I'm going to end up in a dead end like so many reviewers before me who all use fair use in their videos. Please put an end to this.
The DMCA was established in 1998, a time when the Internet was a far different animal than it is today. YouTube was still 7 years away, and Internet access wasn't nearly as commonplace as it is now. So, while the DMCA might have made some level of sense in regard to what the World Wide Web was, and was thought to become, it needs to be updated or replaced in order for it to properly address modern copyright concerns, and to not abuse those that use copyrighted material under circumstances that apply to fair use.
Please, do not allow this current practice of copyright claim misuse continue. The Internet is a platform for the spread creativity, information, and discussion, and the guidelines that are in place as the apply to use of copyrighted material limit its potential to serve as that platform.
Thank you for your time. I hope that my plea, as well as the pleas of others, will convince you to enact the change we need.
It is a very unbalanced system as some people are frankly acting like children when their thing gets a negative response and abusing the system even though the videos fall under fair use! This needs to stop. Please. This is taking peoples videos and taking away their income from them and its not fair. Please. Fix the fair use.
"" If you need to quote me, quote that.
My humanized two cents:
The country I live in was founded upon freedom.
This system was made to protect various rights to own what you say.
People are abusing this system to make what they say important, and any naysayers silent.
This is dangerous to the further development of the internet, no, society, as a whole.
For if we cannot speak, how can we protect what is precious?
And what is more precious than freedom?
The fair use for all of these different websites are horrendous especially YouTube they have been punishing all fair use using creators such as Doug walker having his monetisation remover with no awnser giver for 3 months and I hate everything having his channel deleted for 3 days until he was proven innocent by other creators. The fair use uses a "guilty until proven innocent" mentality the fair use should actually think about who they are going to punish for copyright and see if they are actually breaking the terms and contitions but everything is automated the DMCA needs real people to monitor this not just an automated system! They also seem to be choosing "favourites" as in creators who know full well they are breaking the rules and they stay unharmed! Please DMCA wake up!
I have been keeping my eye on the tech news for the past few years, ever since the SOPA fiasco threatened the very foundation of the internet. I have watched as day after day the DMCA has become more and more abused and even weaponized. The DMCA has fallen out of line with its intended purpose as automated takedown machines send hundreds, if not thousands, of unpunishable false takedowns every day. I see collection agencies using the DMCA as a means of unjustly censoring criticism and fair use without penalty. I see a system of automated content removal in popular sharing sites, encouraged by legacy media legal teams, abused by bad actors who are outright profiteering off legitimate and honest content creators, the same people the DMCA is supposed to protect, who are left without recourse.
The DMCA in its current form is not only ill equipped to deal with the Internet of today, but is actively harming and encouraging malice on the people it is supposed to protect. The scale is tipped too favorably towards censorship and the legal ramifications for abuse are entirely toothless. The DMCA needs to be updated and brought into line with the Internet of today, where Fair Use is the foundation on which it is built and in which content creators of all social class can protect not only their works from infringement, but themselves from abuse, whether they are a multi-billion dollar industry or a kid in his basement with a webcam and a controller and five dollars to his name.
This is fucking awful your taking down good videos destroy it now
I was inspired to comment here through one of my favorite YouTube users, and a lovely comment was prewritten here when I signed up. I am going to leave it since it is such a thorough breakdown about why the DMCA is outdated and needs to be reformed. On a personal note though, YouTube has become such an important media in my life. Content creators like IHE, YMS, Todd in the Shadows, Brad Jones, Chris Stuckman, GradeAUnderA, Team Four Star and so many others have given me laughter, joy, and insight for countless hours. They all work so hard for their craft, and their videos create millions of not billions of clicks and revenue for YouTube. To see them unjustly harassed, bullied, and cheated so many times is really repugnant. Especially because there is nothing they can do to fight a DMCA take down at the moment. Those creators who properly use Fair Use laws are being taken advantage of and silenced because of DCMA take downs, a clear violation of their 1st amendment rights. Please, modernise the DCMA at the least. It desperately needs reform. Thank you for your time.
YOU LIKE FREE PUBLICITY!? KEEP FAIR USE.
While stealing intellectual properties is and should be punishable, the system in place at the moment is completely broken in favor of large corporations, and has the potential to ruin the livlyhoods of so many talented content creators.
Fair use states that intellectual properties may be used, so long as they are used in a transformative nature. However, this system has been horribly abused, and content that falls well into fair used has been removed, and people's years of hard work erased. For example, the YouTubers nostalgia critic, the anime man, and Misty Chronexia. All of these people put incredible amounts of effort into their videos, with commentaries, reviews, and other original content being wrongfully taken down by companies as a result of the DMCA. What was once an act out into place to protect content creators, is now being used to bully them into submission. We live in an age where people can end up being out of a job as a result of abuse of these copyright laws. It's time for a change. It's time to end the fear that looms over so many talented people's heads. It's time to take action.
-Regards, Sam Speranini
hi the problem on youtube about companies abuseing the copyright system on youtube is running rampant and its a problem that not only big name people have a problem with but even noname people such as my self i have my own youtube channel with some videos that not only have i made sure these videos cannot be monetized but they fall into fair use such as parody yet they still have copyright claims on them and yet youtube has given these companies the power to make money off my videos and countless others who should not be dealing with abuse on such a large scale and furthermore i would just like to say that it is absolutely disgusting how such large companies not only have the power to abuse the copyright system but also how there are no consequences for when they are wrong and personally i believe that those who abuse the copyright system should have criminal charges and finally i believe that the digital millennium copyright act should be updated to further better the future of not only youtube but also the internet
I've been effected by being copyrighted for no reason on videos where I'm just talking while playing a game. The copyright was for audiovisual content, which happened to be the game itself. I've had 3 claims of copyright like this.
Personal comment:I have seen evidence of YouTuber's content being take down because of copyright, but all of them were reviews or parodies of the content. The system is definitely in need of reorganizing.
There are literally companies that are named after what should be a crime (Ad Revenue for a 3rd Party). There are companies that take down reviews of movies because it's a negative review and nothing more. There are companies that give strikes to creations they don't even own. And I'm not even scratching the surface.
Please stop. I want to feel safe on the Internet.
I have been personally affected by the abuse of the takedown process and have lost income and viewership on my YouTube channel as a consequence. False claims leading to this is unacceptable, and I hope our rights will be fought for.
PLEASE GIVE US FAIR USE!!!!!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor or block content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
If this unfair takedown bulls**t continues then most creators can't show the world what they can do so if these takedowns stop we can see creative minds doing their best work and can create a better internet for everyone so listen to US and take down abuse!
This system does not have anything in place to hold the people filing false copyright claims accountable for their actions and that has to change.
While I myself may not have much direct experience with this issue I understand and have seen the first hand implications. Channels and several accounts have been neglected and/or completely removed from the internet due to false companies that shelter larger bodies. These take advantage of lost revenue and monopolize the easily abused system. It's a horrible construction that was made for a different time, and it deserves a revamp for the internet's ever evolving form. Fix this disgusting issue. Thank you.
The problem with Fair Use today is that it has completely gone by with being abused and mistreated. The idea of fair use is one that is supported in the Consititution's fifth amendment with freedom of speech and with people and companies taking down videos of criticism, parody, or just straight mentioning a copyrighted work, not only does it violate constitutional rights, it also allows for robbery of creator's income of videos and punishment for those creators. Youtubers like I Hate Everything, Your Movie Sucks, and Nostalgia Critic have had multiple offenses for nothing illegal and in one case, one of the creator's entire channel, their ENTIRE way of living and income, was completely deleted. All of this drama and suffering comes from abusive companies and individuals who monotize on other people's work with just the click of a button. And they get no punishment for doing this! There needs to be a new system for this new age of entertainment and creators shouldn't have to be punished for doing nothing wrong. Along with that, those who make these false claims shouldn't get away with this injustice either! There needs to be a balance that gives both sides of the spectrum a chance to use the fifth amendment and for justice to prevale.
There are many foreign individuals who both live outside of the US and create content to upload to YouTube who use the advertisement revenue on the videos they upload to make a living, when their videos get taken down and/or their monetisation taken away from the person who made the video.
The automated system in place on YouTube OR the original content creators will take videos down on a whim and on grounds that seem absurd, convoluted or based on no prior evidence or reason as it can effect a person's income for the worse and/or force them to start changing their videos in a way that can please both their audience and mitigate the amount of videos that get affected.
This abuse against creaters is out of hand and it needs to be fixed, the whole populations entertainment indastry could be at risk if we dont fix this problem. #TakedownAbuse
The DMC and copyright laws surrounding internet entertainment is choking the creativity of the thousands of creators who just want to make their work available for the rest of us to enjoy. YouTube is an incredible platform for any person to jump into creating any form of entertainment they choose. It connects these people with their viewers and builds lasting and meaningful communities that could not exist on television or cinema. Yet these creators are being constantly harassed by companies who make false claims on the content of their videos. This is an absurd abuse of dated regulations that needs to be stopped. Please consider updating the regulations around the fair use of copyrighted material and give these content creators the freedom they deserve. Thank you
Jim Sterling and TotalBiscuit (among others) have been attacked personally by developers using the DMCA system, despite their works being clearly Fair Use by dint of being professional criticism. I'm sure you will have read quite a few recounts of other, even harsher issues that have plagued Youtube.
It's immeasurably clear that our current copyright laws - and the DMCA - need to be reviewed and revised, at least so that the thriving market that is Youtube can continue to grow.
a
This whole taking down videos with fair use is ridiculous. We need fair use. What happened to that?
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
Before you read the actual message that I've come here to make, I would like to reiterate that, although my message is a copied template, it is nonetheless a genuine comment that should be taken seriously. I am a living person that this affects greatly, and I would rather my commentary not be brushed aside just because it looks like many others.
A side note to this involves how thousands of YouTube channels and creators all around the world are being destroyed by false claims. While channels like Channel Awesome, I Hate Everything, and etc. are being claimed for no reason, channels like most reaction channels and people who don't follow fair use policies are not being harmed. They are huge and they don't get hurt at all by this! What the heck DMCA?! Do something about this now. Make YouTube great! Make creators be able to create! Do something and update the system!
Also, abusers of the DMCA should kill themselves.
This loss of free speech is the most alarming thing of all. Free speech is a huge part of what our country was founded on, and it is being restricted by companies just trying to avoid criticism of their product. This is not fair use, this is abuse of an outdated law that needs to be changed to protect free speech online.
#WTFU (Where's the fair use)
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The copyright is not used to protect content anymore is used as a Mediatic weapon against the freedom of speech, it must not be removed, but IT MUST BE re-visited and re-worked, and it doesn't only affect people in the U.S, many other Countries are hit by this arbitrary claims, people that see the internet as an opportunity to show their ideas will have a very difficult time, and the ones who make a living out of it will have it worse.
It's time to write history...
Ya this shit is bogus dawg, like cmon nigga they made this shit. Not them lyin motha fuckas trying to steal that cash. smh fam
In addition to that, I'd like to say that if this abuse is not stopped, a lot of people will potentially lose entertainment and entertainers they care about, please do not let this happen.
This law NEEDS to be updated to accomidate for the modern internet. There is alot of content that can be considered fair use, but can also be taken down. Sites such as YouTube.com, have creators who rely on it for a job and source of income. Without it, they don't have any income. And the DMCA is so broken that proof is sometimes not even needed to remove the YouTubes creators source of income or even worse, destroy their job all together. There is huge movements all of the internet, with major one being on sites like Twitter.com with the tags "#WTFU" (Wheres The Fair Use)
The DMCA can also be abused by people issueing false claims to hide content they don't want to see, such as a negative review of them selves. This is abuse of a broken system.
Respect your internet users, respect creators. They are making a living. They are making entertainment. Treat them like professionals.
Make copyright law modern, make it protect the people not the fat cats.
After purchasing a game, with my own money, do I not have the right to use that game to create a video? A video of MY personal gameplay, that belongs to me. And I've had YouTube give me many issues with this. I've had to have music in said video games removed/muted and before I even have a chance to edit my content (which is uploaded as private so I can edit) is claimed by someone else and removes MY ability to edit my own video! That content is mine and I have paid for my right to make a video with it. This BS needs to stop!!
I have been personally harassed and abused by Nintendo of America and others who have filed false DMCAs against my clear Fair Use content.
You serve us. You serve me. Stop favoring corporations. Now.
Companies will take down videos for just talking about their product when you do not hear or see the product itself in the video. Companies also take down videos because reviews are negative and that doesn't cover "fair use", when the company does not understand the real definition of what "fair use" actually is and not just it always has to be positive.
Youtubers who have every piece of fair use are being taken down such as "i hate everything" with a man who decided to take down his video and not give it back. pyrocynical a youtuber with 700k+ subs has every right to videos he has made are being taken down. NFKRZ a youtuber with 200k+ subscribers is being harassed by this even though he has fair use. Many people have been using this broken system as threats rather than using it to take down content that doesnt have fair use. The system is brroken and it needs to change now!
This is not to mention the shell corporations filing copyright claims FOR other companies in an attempt to protect the companies from backlash of false copyright claims. There is no repercussion to false copyright claims currently, and it means that everything is heavily skewed against content creators. People are filing for copyright on things they don't even own, and yet it still takes down a video and causes loss of revenue for content creators for no reason. It damages what might sometimes be the only source of income a person has for nothing they've done wrong.
Personally, the internet has evolved, and the law needs to be revised to fit that advance.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
there are sleazy companies everywhere just blaming people for this, hay imagine this, you spent 3 hours just trying to make money and you mention a name or play a 6 second clip of music, suddenly your ad revenue is gone you get nothing, you try and challenge it, and it gets fixed right? no wrong they come back under a different alias and hit you again, then another video is stricken your whole commodity is just gone. Just imagine being a doctor, you show up at the office, but it's just an empty lot with a sticky note that basically says "fuck you, some guy said you used his content, we aren't going to check its validity or anything, also he gets your paycheck now". if you couldn't tell, i'm young, i'm only in my early teens and even *I* know something's wrong, please fix it, please.
Please protect the content creators and free speech.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. YouTube content creators are frequent targets of copyright claims and strikes simply because they post a negative review of a piece of copyrighted material, like a movie or a video game. This is done despite the fact that reviews fall under the banner of fair use for copyrighted material. This kind of damage can not be undone.
The DMCA have caused people to send false DMCA claims to content creators on youtube which effect the content creators and also the content watchers such as myself. In other words: less content for me to watch. Imagine your favorite TV show had 15 episodes per season and aired every week, but then is cut down to only 5 episode and airs only once every second week.
Not only does this make the content creators on youtube make less content in terms of amount of videos, but also how long the videos are and how good the quality is. This isn't something that just affect Americans, but all throughout the western world today. Even someone like me who's in Norway, on the other side of the world can feel this just as bad as Americans. The DMCA needs to be replaced with a new and more fair system so that content creators would be more incouraged to create content.
This doesn't just affect the current youtubers, but also future youtubers who may consider joining youtube.
The false copyright system is being abused by big companies, sites like YouTube and DailyMotion are being attacked and potential Content creators such as myself have been scared away from the process of doing what i love and hopefully earning a living off and thats is not ok. potential creators should be scared but we are because if big channel can be attacked without warning who will stand up for the little guy?
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works. As a fan of Anime YouTube has been unable to stop anime licencing company's from other country's from taking down peoples videos
It's awfull and I am living in the country with GEMA.
Overall this is stupid. I mean LostPause got struck down for 2 weeks for nothing and YouTube gives no information to him. That's when I noticed a lot of youtubers suffering. And now I DONT really want to be a youtuber because chances are soon enough I'd get struck for "copyright"
i watch so many youtubers who get false copyright claims. like angry joe for reviewing games and if a publishers hates his review they will claim his video same thing with doug walker aka nostalgia critic someone hates his review on a movie the vid gets claimed and alot of other youtubers deal with this.
false copyright claims needs to stop
This is outrageous!!! We have the right to comment and play whatever we like!!! Take this nonsense down, Washington!!!
These DMCA takedowns are completely unfair. They are exploited, they are mostly used to take down reviews that a certain person just doesn't like, because that person cannot handle the truth. That goes against our Freedom Of Speech. Most of time, the takedowns aren't even done by real people, they're done by bots, and people file claims on content that they do not own.
In fact, some content that's harmless, content that shows no footage from a movie or tv show, content that's just people talking & giving their thoughts on anything, get taken down. Yet there are worse videos, even violent ones, that are around, never get removed, and get millions of views.
The DMCA needs to be updated for today's Internet. And those that try to exploit it, to take down content that they just don't like, and don't own, should be severely punished.
Fair use is what makes it possible for the internet to freely share information. Without fair use, corporations with the most money can turn the internet into a failed utopia where marketers hold dominion.
*In my personal experience on YouTube, I have seen videos and channels taken down by the DMCA despite being covered by Fair Use. One video was even taken down by DMCA after it had already been taken down by the DMCA previously, and was cleared. Some companies use DMCA takedowns to silence critics, who are using material that is not protected by copyright. Videos of people simply talking about movies have been taken down despite not showing any footage from the film being discussed. Additionally, some companies have outsourced their DMCA takedowns to smaller companies who are paid to file takedown claims against as many videos as possible. In short, the DMCA takedown system is outdated, and being abused by corporations to silence critics and threaten content creators. YouTube's system is automated and lacks the human component necessary to fairly deal with this issue. There is a happy-medium between the copyright holders and the content creators who are covered under Fair Use; the current system is far too abuse-able by the former group. The lack of punishment for false DMCA claims only encourages as many claims to be made as possible, regardless of their validity. This system needs to be updated and those who abuse this system should be held as responsible as the content creators they are using the DMCA against. For better explanations from people directly affected by this, please watch YouTube videos that have #WTFU on them, such as ones from TotalBiscuit, Channel Awesome, and Jim Sterling. This system needs to be fixed. Thank you for your time.
Recently, individuals, including the Entertainment industry are also sending false claims & forcing content creators on website on YouTube to exchange money or Freedom of Speech in order to use their copyrighted material and to avoid criticism or feedback from already-produced content(s), despite the fact that these allegations are infecting the content creator's rights of Fair Use. False Copyright Infringement Claims is illegal and therefore can affect mostly the claimant him/herself but also the content creator's 1st Amendment rights (Freedom of Speech). YouTube launched an automated system that can "automatically" remove any video that rejected its community guidelines, in order to avoid confrontation from major motion picture companies & assets. However, this system isn't reviewed nor check by any human working at YouTube, Inc., & its parent company Google, Inc. Most content-creator often faced false monetization claims from major corporation and often by other "creators" that created the original content. Despite the fact that the content, itself, is protected by Fair Use (whether it is for parody, research, or educational purposes) & even though the content creator would file a counter-claim, the claimant would still keep the revenue away from the content creator. Most content creators faced termination of their work on sites such as YouTube, due to numerous unnecessary action made by the Content ID system. This system can cause abuse, media attention and can take huge damage to YouTube, content creators & viewers from all 196 nations, worldwide.
Channel Awesome, I Hate Everything, TheMysteriousMrEnter, Lost Pause, Anime America, The Anime Man, Your Movie Sucks, Cinema Snob, and many, many more amazing channels, all found on YouTube, have been terribly effected by DMCA take downs for far too long. Most of the YouTubers do simple things, reviewing movies or shows, most likely pointing out flaws or maybe just praising whatever it is they are reviewing. However because these channels use small clips of the entire footage while they explain whatever it is they said, the content creators from these clips still see it as their right to file a copyright strike.
Alex from I Hate Everything is a perfect example of this. He made a review from Derek Savage's movie Cool Cat Saves the Kids, and not long after his review, Savage does not only claim Alex's video, but then proceeds to harass and threaten him. Even after the Derek Savage fiasco, Alex actually lost his channel, with no warning whatsoever.
As I have said in the very first sentence, many other channels on YouTube have suffered because of this very broken system. They risk losing their jobs, their livelihood. If content creators wanted to, they can easily make everything these channels have done, every single amount of work and videos, disappear forever! Then they will have almost no way to ever get everything back. Most of the time there will be no warning, and before the YouTuber can try to fix it, it will be too late. To whoever ends up reading this, I hope you understand this is very important to not only the YouTuber, but the viewers for each of these channels as well. If this broken system continues, more trouble will just be coming from around the corner, not just for the YouTuber, but for everyone else as well.
To end this, I only see the best thing to say is Where's the Fair Use?
I like YouTube and I like that people can be creative however if they do they get banned also smaller channels get banned even thought there in fair use but reaction channels get nothing done to then even thought there not in fair use. Plus channels get taken down for no reason of someone puts a flag on a channel they get a stake even though there in fair use please make someone watch the video to make sure the video is in fair use so channels not get strakes for being in fair use thank you
Many content creators are being harassed by abusers of the laws currently under the guidance of the now obsolete DMCA. It is abused by companies who don't like it when someone on the internet criticizes their work and immediately removes content even if their is no grounds for copyright claims. This very action happens every day. It spits in the face of free speech, on the internet. The companies who file these claims have resorted to using shell companies and even lying about current laws to get their way.
Youtube has a heavily disgusting abuse of Fair Use constantly being used to harass and censor content creators. False DMCA take downs by people who don't even own the content they're striking down have been abusing it to censor different opinions and even steal the monetization from YouTube channels. These channels sometimes create content for a living, so once there's restrictions with Youtube's copyright claims and strikes, which have no penalties in place for false claimants, they are being treated guilty until proven innocent. Even videos with no content but people talking about movies in front of a camera are being taken down even though they are obviously under Fair Use. And, due to Youtube's heavily automated systems, the creators are usually never in contact with humans and usually have to wait nearly a month for the claims to be removed, while receiving no monetization. This treatment and abuse of creators on Youtube is now devolving into illegal abuse of the DMCA. Some companies even use companies whose purpose is to specifically abuse this system in order to seem disconnected from what they're doing to these channels. This abuse is being used as threats and the videos are being claimed multiple times and even after they're cleared of one claim by the same company. The lack of a response from Youtube needs to be fixed. Free speech and content creators need to be protected as they should be, and not abused by an unregulated amount of false copyright claims and strikes.
Victims' Youtube channels include:
Jim Sterling
I Hate Everything
Channel Awesome
Team Four Star
Chibi Reviews
Charisma on Command
MysteriousMrEnter
Video by Channel Awesome on the problems with Fair Use on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
It's time to bring the regulations on the Internet into the age of the internet. We need to stop corporations and establishments claiming things that they have no right to claim in the name of copyright becauee whether they do so out of greed or paranoia, if they are not stopped the internet entertainment industry will fail, then we'll all lose out.
It's use to silence dissenting opinions and criticism has become a more serious issue as well.
I'm going to make my comment different, even though the previous statement is very educated. I'm going to say that the law needs to be changed. What's happening right now is that videos protected by fair use are being taken down by companies solely because of money. What happens is that companies report a video, get the ad money, and leave it at that. Whenever this happens, the companies get money and the content creators suffer. If it's found out that the companies are wrong, the companies keep the money and the content creators still suffer. If the content creator uploads an entire movie than yes, the company is correct, but if the video falls under fair use, the company is wrong. The problem is that there is nothing to stop the companies from taking people's well-earned money. I feel like companies should be fined if they wrongly accuse a video that is clearly under fair use. There should also be more monitoring of these claims to find out if they are legit or not. There needs to be a real, unbiased person or group who reviews these claims. Companies shouldn't be rewarded for lying about the law.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovatione copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I want to say that 90% of any YouTuber I watch had been abused by the DMCA for the past 3 months this is outrageous and it needs to stop
I could write a whole essay on the injustice DMCA is used for, however it can more succinctly be summed up by saying that: DMCA poses the biggest threat to creativity, freedom of expression, and ease of accessibility; in favor of corporate greed, unfairness, non-accessibility, and conformity. The idea of DMCA being capable of protecting creators, independent of the government is outdated and naive, when this happens its the people with the money who have the control, not the creators. The DMCA, and any company that censors material and handles copyright, should be under the control of the people, those who the institute exists to serve.
I'm currently a media student who has created (and continues to create) video content that is available primarily on the internet, including sites such as Vimeo and Youtube. In the time that I've been uploading content, nearly every piece on Youtube that contains music of some sort has had a copyright claim placed it. In many of these cases, I've had the rights to use the music in question due to a licensing agreement that my school has with the copyright holder (Killertracks.com). This is in spite of me making clear in the video or video description that I have the rights to the music. This is ridiculous and blatant misuse of the DMCA.
The current copyright law MUST be updated in order to keep up with new media. Fair Use has to be protected. As someone who is creating copy-written material, I understand how important copyright is . However, the amount of misuse of copyright law that I've seen in the past few years makes it clear to me that an update is needed, and it's needed as soon as possible.
Thank you.
Matthew W. Anderson
matthewanderson-media.com
i dont like the copyright law my favorite gaming company Nintendo claims that any youtube gaming video featuring one of their games belongs to them Bins Toy Bin uploaded a video to Youtube of them playing Mario Kart 8 Nintendo saw the video and now they make all the money from it. Notice how big gamers like Pewdiepie and Smosh Games have stopped playing Nintendo games on their Channel(s)
(1v1 me u lil faget)
#WTFU
The current DMCA system has been threatening the livelihood of many parody and review artists on the Internet.
Gamers suffer because their content is blocked regardless of their efforts, reaction channels offering free publicity get taken down and voices are muted. This is unfair and against what we all stand for.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
If this system is not reformed we are going to be dealing with a system as bloated and broken as our current electronic patent system.
I know some people that have been a victim of people taking content from them, and not being punished for it. And I would like to vote, that there is a problem with the copyright law. Thousands of people have been breaking this law for many years now. The main issue with this problem. Is YouTube. The admins of YouTube have punished some people who have broken the law. But those were because of public reasons. Many YouTubers have been 'striked' by made up companies every single day. In hopes of getting money from these content creators. And it isn't a hope, as in 'chance', it's almost a 'guarantee'.
Not only have people been stealing from the shadows. They have been stealing from in plain sight of everyone. Day after day, another video is posted on YouTube that has invaded someone else's content, and made money off of it. It's time to make a stop to this.
Thank you for your time, and have a nice day.
I will also say that the DMCA laws were apparently made in 1998, with no updates in recent times. Therefore it in no way accounts for today's internet.
- I have been a internet watcher and I can not tell you how many times YouTube and internet creators have had videos and channels takendown unfairly.
I've had friends who have experienced Fair Use abuse who do reviews that constantly get copyright strikes because of Fair Use Abuse. People make a living off of revenue because sometimes the job market isn't fair in of itself. I understand if a company takes down a pirated movie, but not the revenue off of an original video with some copyrighted content that is reduced to minimal footage as a reference for an audience.
The notice-and-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Fair use is an important and valued part of not only the Youtube community, but the rest of the internet as well. It is unfair that very talented content creators have their works being taken down. It has harmed people from all parts of the online community. My personal area of interest involves Japanese music made with a program called "Vocaloid". Recently many people who have translated these wonderful songs into other languages such as English have been unfairly hit by the DMCA. Even people like myself, who post vocal covers of these songs have been removed. It is understandable that record label associated artists want to protect their music, as everyone has to make money, but at some point it needs to stop.
Personal Note: This is very real. Do something.
The current abuse of the DMCA on Youtube is absolutely atrocious. Almost every channel I watch has multiple false strikes, despite their content being protected by Fair Use. Often times, their content has nothing to do with what was claimed, but because of the way DMCA takedowns are handled on Youtube, these false flags are difficult to contest. While a huge number of genuine copyright-infringing videos are taken down every day, a lot of innocent Youtubers are being slammed with takedown notices, loss of revenue, or channel shutdowns by companies or copyright trolls looking to silence criticism or make a quick buck off someone else's work (a sad irony, considering the intended purpose of the DMCA).
The DMCA is being used like a sort of modern-day highway robbery. Larger content creators are often forced to forfeit monetization on their videos, or have their channels shut down, despite many of them being innocent or falling under Fair Use. Smaller content creators have even less fortune, being shut down without a fight, losing channels that contained family videos or blogs because of a false flag, or barely audible music in the background.
It's an utter shame that the only way we, the viewers and content creators, can enjoy and distribute legally-produced videos online is to throw a fit on social media, in order to grab the attention of those who should be enforcing copyright law. The DMCA needs to be drastically changed, if not fully replaced, to ensure that we are not subject to the greed and extortion of big corporations and copyright trolls. There should be a better sense of Fair Use and Copyright Law on Youtube, and the rest of online media, so that they are not so rampantly abused by the ignorant or those with an agenda.
I appreciate this opportunity to say this, and thank you for reading.
From my personal experience, I have seen many of my favorites youtubers getting copyright or DMCA takedown notice for the content then created even though those content clearly abide by the Fair-Use law (such as criticisms and parodies of the original work). Many youtubers came out and speak about their constant fear of being abused by other corporations and having their livelihood destroyed; many said they don't know when it will happen and, more often than now, they have very little to no way of protecting themselves.
Changes to the DMCA needs to take place to protect both the seasoned, upcoming internet content creators to stop the abuse and take in considerations of the current status of the internet.
I may have not been affected to the extent as most, but typing in fair use into youtube search bar shows that freedom of speech is being ignored. whats sad to me is that the fear of the second amendment being taken away causes the U.S. to go crazy but the first amendment on the internet is facing that problem due to a law made at the beginning of the inter net. the DMCA worked at first but then the intent changed while the DMCA stayed the same. there are people who pretend to represent companies and sue youtube channels, why because the DMCA is so outdated and broken that they can take the money the youtuber makes with no penalty. to rephrase random people are using the DMCA to take money form people on youtube and only the youtuber suffers while the random person makes money by ABUSING THE DMCA.
Supporting 100%
Including videos where say content isn't even complete. Just 10 seconds of run or less of the claimed material appearing on the video are enough to get a claim.
So many youtubers have been taken down because of these take downs. I have subscribed to many a youtubers and they have created a video talking about fair use and they always mention other yourtubers they are subscribed to getting taken down.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. They are filing claims on content that they do not own. They are being used to harm individual creators and stifle free speech. Content Creators just talking on camera, with no copyrighted video or audio are being taken down. Some companies are acting as though they create the law and aren't being held accountable for their illegal action. Fair Use is not being taking into consideration. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
there are Youtubers who are getting copyright strikes and false claims. Some of them are just vlogging yet somehow they got a claim, some without music and just talking to a camera, wheres the fair use in that?!?!? Also the fact that one of them from a old video got it taken down after Youtube had checked it and marked it for age restriction yet they got a strike for it! DMCA are factoring without fair use, I don't understand how they would believe a random person for claiming then the original person.
I believe in freedom of expression, I believe people should be free to decide what they want to do as long as they treat others with peace and respect. Creating and sharing content on the internet should be recognized as expression. Let artists create fan-projects, let critics share their thoughts on entertainment. The internet should be a place for equality and communication. Humanity thrives when we work together.
Injustice is the word that describes our current situation best. And by "our" I mean the content creators and the content viewers.
Many channels such as :"Jim Sterling ; Themysteriousmrenter ; Channel Awesome ; Anime America ; Lost Pause ; The Anime Man ; Your Movie Sucks ; I Hate Everything ; Cinema Snob" were afected by the fair use policy problem. some had their videos removed others had their entire channel removed from youtube for a certain time. But what's important here is that they never violated the rules of youtube. Not only is this not acceptable because it cripples the content creators ( a lot who live off their youtube salary) but also because it is a question of moral, justice is in fact not being applied properly here.
So on behalf of all the community I ask of you to take the time to help people by changing the fair use policy. This wil also brirng to justice those who actually commit crimes and are not convicted. I have summerised this as much as possible to make it clear and short.
Thank you for your time, we arer all counting on you.
We need change, please we have the numbers.
The DMCA is outdated in a way that harms the creation of content in an age when such possibility is open to so many. It does not foster the fair use rights of these individuals and closes the door to those who would be unable to defend an accusation of copyright infringement by a multi-billion dollar company. The DMCA must be replaced with a system which encourages the creation of content that indirectly uses copyrighted works while discouraging the direct theft of those works.
What's written above is probably a lot better written and more technical than what I'm about to type here, but I thought I should include my own personal thoughts. I follow a lot of YouTube channels, most of which make videos for their full-time job or as a large part of their income. The fact that their livelihood is in danger over false copyright claims is extremely worrying, and it's very possible. So many channels that I follow are producing content that is entirely their own, and should fall under fair use without question, and yet they constantly get attacked by these false claims, having their monetization stolen or videos taken down completely. The companies that do this get no punishment for false claims, and so can repeatedly attack a channel over and over, sometimes over the same video. This entire situation has gotten ridiculous, and it's infuriating that channels who have done nothing wrong are in danger of losing their way of life forever. I sincerely hope that something could be done about this. Thank you.
The DMCA gives corporations almost monopoly-like power over smaller content creators, treating victims guilty until proven innocent. The only penalties are those given to the accused, even when wrongly so, and the false accusers are left untouched to capitalise on other peoples' work. I personally do not create videos to share but I do consume much of it through YouTube, and through this medium I have seen many people suffer from strikes undeserved, leaving them without their source of income in some cases.
I, in perticular, make parodies of things. Kids cartoons mostly. Parodies are protected under the Fair Use Act. However, companies like Viacom and Cartoon Network keep giving my YouTube channel copyright strikes or ban my videos worldwide. This cannot continue. My videos are legal and big companies cannot do this to small people who make legal YouTube videos. This needs to be fixed.
I do comparison videos (mainly comparing dubs and discussing topics of certain shows) and mash-ups for various anime. I mainly do them for fun and don't monetize my videos whatsoever. Lately, I've been having a really hard time with copyright claims when it comes to the audio. Since I don't ever showcase whole songs (less that half the original songs' length to be precise) in my comparisons and these videos are made to educate, I tried disputing this claims under fair use but they are almost, always rejected.
Another problem I've been having is that I've been getting claims from either fake companies or companies that don't even own the music I use, who are claiming that I use totally different songs. One of my mash-up videos, at first, had a claim that I was using a Finnish song, when the actual song I used was Japanese and it sounded nothing like the song they were claiming. I sent a counterclaim stating this but it was immediately rejected. What's worse is that, recently, they changed the song they claimed I used. Instead of a Finnish song, they are now saying that I used a Hindi song!
Since I don't make money on my videos and encourage supporting the original anime and music creators, I don't mind if they put ads on my videos to make a profit. What I CAN'T stand are these fake companies making these false claims, taking money away from those creators and blocking my videos when the only issue is the audio!
Youtubes copyright claiming system is extremely messed up and needs to be fixed ASAP. Please listen to us!!
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
People abuse copyright systems to harass and even blackmail creators. Two examples are Derek Savage targeting multiple people who posted negative reviews of his movie "Cool Cat Saves the Kids" even though the reviews were clearly protected by fair use, and a YouTube creator known as NFKRZ being flat out blackmailed with enough copyright strikes to terminate his channel if he did not pay $1000.
Copyright is an important thing to have, and there needs to be a way for companies to take down videos that infringe upon their copyrights. However, when the laws in place are so outdated that they offer no protection to the creators of the new world we live in, something must be done.
Dont let another "Cool Cat Incident" happen again!
A reviewer named "TheMysteriousMrEnter" has been claimed TWICE.
The first by the creators of the show,and then by the distributors.
One of the most widely known laws of the court,double jeopardy,is being used openly on YouTube. I'm in.
As a content creator myself, the business of video reviews has been so problematic thanks to DMCA falsely taking down the content regardless of reasons, but worse, those that are protected by Fair Use. When big corporations can silence those who are critical of them, which is against the law. it affects not only my ability to report, but it's a law that's so out of date, its being used as a hammer.
Get yourself educated on Youtube, and how it's THE BIGGEST ISSUE IN YOUTUBE today.
-----
Please end this injustice now.
I'm here to send you something copy and pasted. But really, takedown abuse is an issue.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted worksc
YouTube is the new enterment of the 21 century new people share and analyze films and media every day. Our lives are changing in terms of entertainment. Web reviewers and entertaimers needs fair use to deliver a message to there audience. YouTube channels like Channel Awesome are fighting for what's right. Hope you take this in consideration and Save the internet. #WTFU
Let creativity be free and justified.
All and all this law is just not fair to the many creative people on the internet who make new creative works, people who would become the next Disney, the next Alfred Hitchcock, the next Siskel and Ebert. These new creators can't even get off the ground cause even when they do something that falls under "Fair use" shady 3rd party companies try to take the work of the creator, down.
There even is a business in doing this, sometimes the person has their own music that they made, taken down cause there are not rules saying they can't do it. Sometimes it's just a person talking into the camera, and their video get's taken down... Heck, most times it's robots that are doing this, not even humans, so you can't talk to them and ask them why they are doing this, and that you can keep the work up cause you have a good Fair use case to make.
There is just no way that creativity and innovation can survive in this landscape. How can my generation hope to make new works for the future if our works get taken down even when we fellow the law?
So that's way I ask that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act remodeled for the internet of today so that the many creative people on the internet who fellow the law and make new creative works, can do so without their works getting unjustly taken down without cause, so the generations of today can make the next great works for the future.
Although this is copied, I whole heartedly agree with it:
Too many times has the DMCA been used to infringe the First Amendment.
I'm writing my own message because this is a subject that I and many other content creators have been involved with for some time now.
As someone who creates YouTube videos for fun and doesn't profit from said videos, improving copyright law or at least enforcing the current ones is still vital for progression when concerning content creators. Not only are creators who make money from their own work being attacked by immoral companies and individuals, but also people such as myself who don't even claim revenue.
Fair use isn't being twisted to suit these people, it's just broken altogether. It's as simple as that. Derrick Savage is a perfect example of someone who lacks any decent understanding of these laws and yet could still threaten a channel with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, simply because he saw his content and could stop people from criticizing his work with a couple of clicks and a few emails. When a force like that is so easy to access, why wouldn't people be abusing the system?
I've seen too many good YouTubers, I.E., I Hate Everything, Nostalgia Critic, and even YouTubers who AREN'T good like MysteriousMr.Enter get hounded by copyright strikes all because they did a review of a movie, while giving a good commentary on it!
Under the current laws I have seen videos get flagged and blocked within seconds of being uploaded even though they are by content creators whose regular content is perfectly within laws as guided by fair use.
I myself have hesitated at publishing my own content because I simply do not have the time or the resources to fight unlawful claims. These current laws have led me to censor myself which interferes with my right to freedom of speech.
Fix your shit please.
So many people online are being punished for things that are 100% legal. Their videos are being removed from the internet, not only on a regular basis, but in such a way that it's virtually impossible for them to defend themselves. For many people, these videos are a source of income. These videos are their livelihoods. Those people should not have to worry on a daily basis about whether or not their content is going to be taken down for ridiculous reasons. These people deserve to feel safe in doing what they do. Copyright infringement is very serious, which is why it needs to be treated as such. It's fair that people should be allowed to file a report if they believe somebody is illegally profiting from their property, however, those reports shouldn't be blindly accepted as truth. Filmmaker and critic Brad Jones created a series called Midnight reviews. This series involves a person or people talking about a film that they have just seen. This series uses no clips, visual or audio, from these or any other movies, shows or product. It is literally just people in a car talking about a film. On multiple occasions Brad Jones has received copyright strikes due to these videos. Allow me to stress once again, these videos are literally just people talking about films, nothing else. This is just a single example among many of how people are being attacked or harassed without cause simply because it's easy to do.
If the system is so easy to abuse, then companies will abuse it. There is no penalty for them for doing so. A change in this system is VITAL for content creators online. They don't deserve to be afraid of doing their jobs. For the sake of content creators across the world, I urge you to please review the DMCA. It needs updating. Urgently.
Please, let this kind of abuse stop once and for all
As it is currently implimented, the DMCA takedown system (and the preemtive systems designed around it on places like Youtube) is entirely weighted against individuals and small groups.
It presumes guilt on the part of the person being claimed against, leaving them to try and prove their innocence after having been penalized. It has also lead to the flagrant abuse of copyright claim systems: for example, the way that anyone, without providing any proof of ownership of the property in question, can launch a claim on a youtube video and divert the entirety of its advertising revenue to themselves until a counter-claim is successfully processed.
Additional note, please research a certain Merlin. Co as they have abused this system for a living
The DMCA hasn't been updated since 1998. The Internet has changed drastically since then. Now copyright holders are abusing the outdated law to silence speech they don't like and to shut down competition. All they have to do is *say* that content belongs to them. Then creators are forced to take their content down, regardless of whether or not they legitimately violated fair use. This is unjust and should not be allowed to happen. The internet has changed. The DMCA should as well.
All this and more
Dear Lawmakers,
I cannot count how many times I've seen the DMCA system abused by big companies. Whether it be a perfectly legal parody or a justified negative review, it seems like the companies have all the power. These wild and unlawful claims and strikes only serve to stifle free speech and make the rich richer.
Another problem with the DMCA is that it is extremely outdated. Thus law was created in 1998, when the Internet was just starting to bloom. Today, the Internet is so much bigger and supplies jobs to thousands of people, something unheard of in 1998. With so many people making a living off of the Internet, having these lax laws could jeopardize their ability to make money off their own content. Something must be done.
Thank you for your time.
Blake Terrill
Aspiring YouTuber
I believe the current copyright system is very flawed and is used in all the wrong ways. Many YouTube users have been hit with false claims or strikes, damaging their channels and profits. For example, one YouTuber I know got a false copyright claim on a video, and he disputed it. Then, 30 minutes later after the claim was resolved, he got hit with another claim on the same video, by the same company except under a different name. This kind of thing needs to be changed.
What I personally see with the fare use is that it is miss used by compinies and they get away with it without getting a warning or anything. Especially on YouTube company's claim videos and say it's there's, as youtuber you can say there wrong and fight it, when you have done that they have 30 days to take action to that and of course it is going to be on day 30 they do it, and the money what is made in that time is there's even if they are wrong. The best thing what can be done in my ease is lete humens look et it who know what fare use is, but at the same time I know that is not possible. Let a machine do it? A machine us doing it right now and look what it is doing. Maybe you an let the machine filter and let the filtered videos or anything be checked by humams. Make a third party that keeps the money in the meantime and at the and gives it to the person to who t belongs. If that can already be chanced I am already happy.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and criticism and to extract money from innocent victims.
People have been taken down for no reason or because the content they produced was negative
Thank you for reading
(PS: Forgive me, but to ensure that this is actually read at some point: What's your favourite flavour of ice cream?)
This is wacko. Enforce your laws Uncle Sam.
Please see the attached videos for examples of the damage and abuse the flaws in this law have wrought. They are merely more vocal examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0W
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtw
In my personal opinion videos on youtube or any content on the internet be it videos, tweets, posts or all the infinite possibilities of the internet itself must for its very future, have people continue to be free to post videos or texts of their thoughts. without constant harassment. Not only do I see this as a fundamental right of every human being in cyberspace as it is in real space, but I sincerely believe it is better for everyone as a whole, even the harassers, in the long run.
It has been getting in the way of many of my favorite content creators making a living.
I am someone who has watched hundred of video games from artist such as Doug walker, AVGN, anime America and so much more. I love , support and encourage all the work they do and hours of entertainment they have provided. It is extremely upsetting to see such artist being abused and so treated unfairly with nothing of value being produced. If we allow this to continue I fear for the future of art for who is going to want to peruse such endeavors when ultimately the money, credit, exposure will be given to these soulless companies .
All of that and like come on man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
This law is an absolute fossil. Which is typical for a government grown in an Industrial Revolution-style vertical integration foundation. However for the Internet, that sort of monolithic system can be slow-moving for changes in a medium that changes by the millisecond. When a law is written at a time when most people were on dialup and searching with AltaVista and is now enacted unchanged at an age when I can order steel in China on my phone within seconds, it's time for the US Government to change with the times.
When the US Government enables a law that was for the 1998 internet and has not changed it in 18 years, newer technologies will find ways to subvert it- or in the case of fair use, abuse it. While it's recognized and fair that a YouTube account can't host an entire copyrighted movie or someone else's work and claim it as their own, there is the grey area of fair use. The DMCA enables thuggish entities to take down videos (and even entire accounts) of content makers who are taking snippets of copyrighted material, and make something new and original out of them. While YouTube's practices are very archaic indeed and can be very slow-moving considering the sheer amount of videos uploaded to the site, part of those practices are based on the 1998 DMCA.
It's time to protect fair use, and along with it, free speech.
#WTFU
-fm
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. It has been used to censor critics to devastating effects. They've had to fight over their right to speech for the sole reason that the creator involved did not enjoy the comments made on their work. There have been other instances where the mass nature of the system has taken down videos that simply mentioned the topic or piece. This would not be such a large problem if the content providers didn't lose revenue or have to face possible loss of the medium for their content creation.
So many off my favourite YouTubers are being mess with by companies and it's killing the them and lives
C'mon, guys.
It can't be that hard.
Too Many vids are being affected by the DMCA in a negative manner
Copyright Holders are abusing their power, and stealing monetization money and fair use rights. This needs to change.
The notice-and-taked own process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Hello, my name is Quinn. I'm someone who regularly uses the internet, I also watch many content creators. Many, if not ALL of the creators that I watch have been harassed, bullied, and flat out threatened by big corporations.
There are many channels on YouTube that have been victim of this. Such as I Hate Everything. He had his livelihood threatened twice. Once by Derek Savage, the director of Cool Cat Saves the Kids. Derek blatantly abused the YouTube copyright system to harass and bully IHE, just because of a simple negative review. The other time, he had his ENTIRE CHANNEL REMOVED and was given no explanation as to why. Fortunately, he later got it back up.
This is just one example of how the DMCA is being abused. Keep in mind that people are making a living off of YouTube now. So these shameless, money-grabbing corporations are threatening to take away someones life.
There are even some corporations that will create shield companies to cover themselves and make those companies file a claim. Companies will take away ad rev. from videos and take the money. When it turns out the claim is false, they get to keep the money. You know what we call that? THEFT.
YouTube has for years tried to defend user rights. Right now, corporations are always taking all the money for themselves. Do you know what the worst part is? For all the abusing of this system that they do, there's NO negative repercussions for ANY of this. When the get criticized, they try and censor it. Then the Streisand effect kicks in.
Please, I love YouTube, I've seen so many amazing creators come into existence over the years. But now, they're all in constant danger that some big company will come along, and take their lives away from them, and there's nothing they can do about it. Pardon my profanity here but, FIX THIS SHIT.
This needs to stop and be updated for today's internet which is more free than it's being made out to be. The internet is about coming together and having freedom to express your opinions as well as creativity, make friends and meet interesting people. If this is passed, that won't stick around for very long, the world needs that to function as a society and that's what the net should be, a society or group of societies. A creative and free society that gives more possibilities, opens doors for something different and new. Doing this will also take away people's jobs that they have worked so hard for, many of them for years as well as the opportunity for those who want to try it. This will pretty much destroy thousands of dreams.
Many big companies are taking down many content creators. The DMCA is so outdated. We need a better DMCA. The Big companies needs penalties. UPDATE THE DMCA
An odd thing is how people's channels for those that has where nothing is commentary, companies say that there is something they "claim" is theirs, and knowing that internet is fighting about protecting fair use, this is important. Fair use is something that is important, the internet is now a form of entertainment and the copyright strikes and threats for NO REASON is not right, especally those that are "easy targets" for money.
Stop letting companies treat the little guy like he doesn't belong.
As an upcoming creative content creator, this system has led me to fear even showing my work for fear for my content from being pulled or worse being sued for false claims. There have been multiple occasions where "companies" claim to have rights over public domain utilities, (such as music- Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata) and demand that a fee should be paid, though it's under an absolute farce. And what's more their "companies" or whom ever they seem to represent, get absolutely no punishment, or even get reprimanded, over their false claims. Leading to them to profit off of the revenue that wasn't theirs to begin with, and leading them to continue with other unsuspecting victims.
And sometimes, a person can claim to be affiliated with so and so "company", or just under an independent name, as use that power to take away content just because they can, and there are no consequences on their end.
Even creations where people simply speak of a "product", are taken down, though there was no evidence of them even using any copyrighted material. Even home movies, where a "song" could be heard in the background is "viable" for copyright infringement, leading people to be paranoid what they can or can not share/ post/ or create.
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There has been to much abuse to youtube creators, even though many of them have been following the law.
My favorite content creators are losing videos for no reason! They never broke any law and the system is rigged! PLEASE DO SOMETHING!!!! Everyday this issue seems to get worse and the dated system must be updated.
The following is the default comment suggested by Fight for the Future, to be posted on the US Copyright docket. While these are not my own words, I believe it is a succinct and accurate summary of the pitfalls of the DMCA as it currently stands:
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
the current DMCA is outdated ,stupid and limits all kinds of creative content changes need to be made
#wtfu
Please let the creators create their own content. Critics, reviews, parodies and other contents making an opinion about another content should be legal. And let viewers enjoy the content of those creators who are harassed with copywright claims.
#WTFU
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The DMCA has been abused so much lately, especially by companies out to strong arm revenue out of smaller online content creators.
Seriously though. This really needs to stop.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The DMCA needs a serious update. There are countless cases on youtube where people are within their rights of fair use but are not being treated like they are. If a movie or TV show is made and someone uses a portion of it to criticize, fair use says they can do that. However, the people who make these movies or TV shows can completely abuse the copyright system and abuse people's right to free speech. Plenty of content creators on youtube have to fight off constant threats and false copyright strikes if they release something that incorporates fair use. The DMCA can change that if it receives an update. This can help protect anywhere from hundreds to thousands of people on youtube who are within their rights of fair use. Please, act now.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The law is not up to date with the internet and a lot of hard working men and women are getting harassed and destroyed for doing NOTHING wrong.
A BIG Change needs to happen!
We need to make the world a better place... so lets make it happen.
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I am a YouTuber that goes by that name Isaplays Games. I watch many other YouTubers on YouTube, but some of their content, especially ones that do revues on games, shows and movies, but their content keeps getting taken down, even though they have the rights to use that content. Please help us YouTubers out with this before it gets out of hand. Thank you for taking time out of your day in order to read this message.
I personally was struck for uploading a private video not used for financial gain that was a dance in Zombie makeup to Thriller. Yes it's a small thing but it shows computerized data scans aren't just damaging to big names financially or critically but also to the everyday citizen wanting to share small projects. The current DMCA not only stifles free speech it also stifles creativity, criticism and human interaction. This is only because businesses and major media companies have noticed Youtube's increasing size and scope and wish to control the feedback in an asinine way. Users who have been flagged are now forced not to receive monetary compensation and instead upload to smaller video sites or die as a content producer. The current model is broken allowing power to be decided by finances rather than artistic or social merit. It is also a rampant abuse of copyright law as smaller producers can use the DMCA to take down critics of their product simply so their feelings aren't hurt by fair use critique. Your country invented fair use laws but because of the DMCA being automated and having no penalties for frivolous strikes by copyright holders these laws might as well be used for kindling seeing as they only apply to people who are already established.
However the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims as well.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns, even with fair use. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The DMCA is in need of a rebuild so it does not interfere with free speech and fair use. Youtube channels are being taken down because of the poor structure of DMCA.
The Angry Joe Show, Doug Walker, and Team Fourstar, these are just a few of the talented individuals that make their living off of the site Youtube. But their way of living is in constant peril everyday due to a outdated and easily abused Copyright system on this site. Many of them follow the guidelines and rules of the system and are still punished by those who choose to take advantage of this outdated system, after filing counter claim after counter claim most if not all of their videos where returned to them but only after days of waiting and hoping that their claim would be noticed and their product returned back to them. Normally this would seem like no big issue but when there is no repercussion for those filing these claims there is no need for the assaulter(s) to ever slow down flagging video after video that they claim is 'theirs' by exploiting this outdated system. After three strikes their entire channel is at risk of being taken down losing hours of work they put into their profession and even more importantly their Monetization! Their very living is at risk when bogus and unfair claims are assaulted by these men and women who only want to provide entertainment within the boundaries of the law. I take a personal interest in this seeing how I too plan to join these well respected people in this form of entertainment myself in the coming month but the thought of all the effort and energy that would be loss from my efforts is a thing that cause many like myself to hesitate. Many do this for a living and most do it as a hobby but one this is shared between us...we are all at the mercy of those that choose to abuse the Copyright Laws in place and suffer no punishment for their actions or claims, this is something that is long over due. As technology changes so too must are laws concerning it opens the door for new types of personalities, entertainment, and news but these things can't flourish if those stuck in the past only wish to snuff it out to protect their own selfish way of living. Thank you for taking the time to read this and finally I must ask #WTFU (Where's The Fair Use?)
Please read this guys, fair use is being blatantly ignored and youtubers are being abused! PLEASE help them!
DMCAs are being used to inflict harm on small channels while massively favoring big names. Sometimes, claims are being filed even on works they don't own. Free speech is being threatened and this needs to be fixed.
The DMCA as it is has become outdated and no longer suits the current status of the internet as a whole. Changes, especially recent changes, applied by websites and a large count of massive enterprises the world over have paved a pathway for innumerable new methods of exploiting the DMCA to be used and abused against a massive number of net users. Many of these exploits are used by the aforementioned sites and companies in the form of bots and go against the general population of the internet as it is today, as well as many fair use acts and even some basic human rights.
With the DMCA as it stands today, a near-insurmountable portion of creativity and freedom of speech around the globe has been grossly impacted in favor of monetary gain.
My favorite youtubers (Anime America, IHE, Channel Awesome etc.) are being abused by this. That affects me as a consumer, I come to the platform of youtube to watch their work for my entertainment. You can tell these are amazing, honest people putting their heart and soul into their channels to earn their livelyhood. It's not fair that the people who actually puts some thought and effort into making their videos gets hit the hardest. If I can't watch those videos, where am I gonna go? I love youtube, but I ain't having this. If the creators who I want to watch are being horrased by a system inforced on the platform they put their lives on, then youtube isn't going to earn a single penny from me.
#WTFU
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Freedom of Speech should not be stifled. Especially for youtube videos.
Thanks so much for the opportunity to comment.
I realize that copyright laws are necessary, and I want them there to protect creators and their work. But the current system has not evolved with the admittedly bamboo like growth and change we've seen in the internet. Whole new genres of entertainment have been created around critiques, rehashings and reimaginings that fall within fair use.
Time was, before a certain mouse eared company made moves to change it on behalf of a fairy tale (Snow White) they'd reimagined in the first place, that we could reimagine and discuss the creations that affect our culture.
There are many content creators I love on YouTube who stick to Fair Use as much as they can. And yet bots, algorithms, and worse yet, fraudulent companies with absolutely no rights to anything, make the net landscape toxic for them and steal their economic security.
That said, I am absolutely against those who post content wholesale on their channels and believe they should face some sort of punishment for stealing intellectual property. But there is a difference between the value Nostalgia Critic brings to a discussion of a work and, say, a reactionist who pastes the entire work into a video only to guffaw every minute or so, contributing mostly nothing. A rewriting of the laws and the willingness to update it as things change is greatly needed. Thanks so much for your time.
This law affects not only America, but the world. While I am not subject to DMCA , many online services are, and my content can be falsely removed.
Don't be a Dick.
The internet is a place for minds to get together and have fun.
I have been personally affected by this, I have had a video copyright claimed by a random 3rd party company because I used ROYALTY FREE music, this has to stop #WTFU
>>Content creators are being abused by the broken Copyright System because some companies cannot take criticism and are using the claims as threats so the content creators would lose monetization, therefore making their efforts and hard work amount to nothing even though they follow the guidelines closely. It is also unlawful that the companies does not suffer from any penalties when they are unjustly filing those claims. By not giving them penalties, they are taking advantage of the innocent content creators who only want to provide education and entertainment. Something needs to be done.
I have personally seen a creator get a video taken down of just him on his porch talking about just snow. This video got copyright claimed without there being music or any copyright content what-so-ever. There needs to be a reciprocation for people/small companies who falsely strike content because not only they take the creator's revenue for no good reason, but they get to keep that revenue and do not have any drawbacks for making the false claims, even after the false strikes are cleared.
Where is the Fair Use?
The DMCA was a product of it's time. Today, it is easily abused and harms content that easily qualifies as fair-use. Copyright needs to be reformed for the time we live in today.
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We need an overhaul of this Ancient law. It is a horrible law. Peoples livelihoods are at stake! FIX IT
I just want a copyright systems where people aren't fearing that their livelihoods are constantly threatened by abusive false copyright control. It's wrong that there are people making fantastic things on sites like YouTube, who are one greedy or vindictive copyright holder away from possible destitution.
This law is not only ruining free speech online for Americans, but for everybody else in the world too. It's ridiculous, outdated, open to extreme abuse and needs to be fixed now.
While the majority of this message is formulaic, it does get to the heart of the problem. We need something that works better for the 21st century.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Thank you for reading to the end.
Let's make YouTube great again.
My name is William Briggs, I have heard about so many of these occurances, something needs to change.
Bottom line: any corporation that abuses this law needs to be punished.
Thank you for opening this avenue. I have seen creators have their own intellectual property claimed by companies and individuals unscrupulously abusing the copyright takedown system and countless others have had money pulled from their videos. I have been interested in starting online media work myself but have been hesitant because the system is so easy to exploit in favor of crushing the little guy. Please make changes to the system that suit the way media has changed. Thank you.
It needs to be fixed. It is now outdated.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I personally get 100% of my entertainment from the internet, as i feel television has become outdated for my needs. Having ones work protected from the abuse of others is important to me. However more often then not i have seen DMCA used as a tool to silence free speech, to steal the monetization of original content, and to hide injustices to individuals and consumers. For all these abuses of DMCA there is not any repercussions available to protect the law abiding individual. This must be addressed.
Too many people have been unfairly punished. The constitution protects Fair Use and yet videos that fall into that category get flagged or struck down by either greedy corporations or phony shell-companies. This needs to stop.
In modern society, many people obtain their livelihood through sites like YouTube, and they are punished unjustly for parodies of work where they make no claims to owning the original article. If anything, they bring more business to the original owners and therefor have no real reason to be punished for their entertainment to the general populace.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provi
We REALLY need to fix this law, and adapt it to the 21st century. Eighteen years have passed since the DMCA act was signed, and the internet has evolved with the times. Unfortunately, this law hasn't. Today, it's being abused and taken advantage of, and I see its effects every day. Online creators are being bullied by corporate copyright holders who see this law as a way to silence criticism, destroy potential competition and steal revenue that content creators have worked day and night to fairly earn. The abuse is reaching into the illegal, and it shocks me that such faceless corporations are allowed to continue their disgraceful acts.
Creators whose content I watch every day are being subject to this torment, unable to do anything but fight a losing battle against a broken system. They don't feel safe posting new content, despite the law supposedly being on their side. Entire YouTube channels have been deleted, such as I Hate Everything and TeamFourStar. Both of these channels, and many others like them, incorporate Fair Use of copyrighted material, yet they're being struck down with no warning. Copyright holders constantly attack and cheat creators, taking their monetization, deleting their content and even attempting to silence the creator. And when each case is resolved, the corporation that filed the illegitimate claim suffers no repercussions.
This is a system that's being abused as we speak, and unless we fix this ridiculously outdated law, it will continue to be abused. It affects everyone who creates and consumes online content; it affects everyone on the internet. Just remember that any one of your favourite creators could lose everything at a moment's notice.
The world wide web is growing and advancing every day. As human beings, we should do the same. Create an updated, safe environment for creators, and take a step into the future.
- I have had a content ID claim for a song that was NOT in this YouTube video. https://youtu.be/SHkmhG3UtCs READ DESCRIPTION AS WELL!
- This guy made a YouTube video in response to a controversial video which claims that the upcoming Captain America: Civil War is "satanic propaganda." Leaves a comment. Other content creator behind "expose" threatens to take down the video for "violating fair use by using the whole video instead of parts." https://youtu.be/DNPGYy_WTOw?t=1m51s
- Companies set up "bots" to issue false copyright claims on YouTube videos for ad revenue.
- I have heard that YouTube user Smike had several of his videos taken down because of his use of copyrighted(?) fan art.
- I feel that other forms of creative work such as mashups (as well as sample-heavy music) and YouTube Poops should also be addressed.
look the system right now is great on paper but it is being abused. you can claim a video is yours without any proof! and youtube assumes your guilty of stealing content without letting you prove it's your original work. plus when youtube deems a video to be stolen they loose anyway to make money off that video which can damage the lives of people whose sole income is youtube. it is a pain to get it back and prove that the content is yours. the system needs to be changed now!
Everything.
As someone who gets most of their entertainment nowadays from the Internet and from YouTube, it's appalling to see so many creative and likable creators, especially on YouTube, get bombarded with all of these false claims that take away from what is a lot of their sole income. There needs to be some intermediate source that not only checks to see if videos actually use infringed copyright material, but also check that these sources filing these claims actually own the material. The system right now plays right into their hands and provides little to no assistance to content creators.
Copyright is a problem. especially on Youtube. but when innocent people like Nostalgia Critic, or I Hate Everything, or any other channels/videos get wrongly taken down and their money stolen. It comes across like they're only trying to steal their money rather then protect there image. But I may have a solution. (this is primarily for Youtube)
1) Copyright holders need to be punished for bull shit claims.
Especially if they get the defendants money if they win. This way, they can't/won't just spam the copyright "card" whenever they want. Such punishments include; a fine to both the creator and youtube, a strike system (like the Youtubers have) for whenever they're wrong, etc.
2) Youtube needs to be more responsible;
From a non-youtube employee point of view. They clearly don't care to protect the non-massive channels. meaning if a channel that is making them money is clearly braking the rules; they won't do anything (ex. many prank videos, many reaction channels, or other videos with sexy or graphic imagery, etc.) and if there is a channel clearly not braking any laws/rules getting taken advantaged of by a copyright holder, again, youtube won't even look into the situation and just assumes the person with more power (which ever it is) is correct.
Also Youtube is impossible to get ahold of to plead your case unless you have power. which is utterly Bull shit.
3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
Watch this video and all of the others. He sums it up 1 billion times better then I ever could.
4) There should be some kind of Youtube police.
Someone who knows the law and's only job is to find copyright infringing videos and report them.
Finally, this is my main suggestion. I believe; no guarantee you that if this step is taken, these current problems will be fixed. Because;
5) Youtube needs a competitor;
Youtube is a monopoly. They can do whatever the fuck they want and it will have no consequence. If you create Z-tube (or something like that) then you won't even need to do anything else. because youtube (and Z-tube) will do it for you. they won't be able to do bullshit because if they do, people will flock to the other sight. and if that already exists. Help it. allow it to become as strong or AT LEAST, strong enough to be a threat to Youtube.
Copyright is a problem; and it needs to be stopped; but not at the cost of the innocent.
Something needs to be done. so do it!
Sincerely,
An American Idiot
P.S. NO ONE knew about this until Nostalgia Critic told everyone a day before the expiration date. Just saying.
We need an update to the DMCA to support creators, and their videos. Please update at once.
-James R.
Ps. From a friend: http://youtu.be/zVqFAMOtwaI
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), needs a serious overhaul. It's a system that is outdated and being abused, without consequence. for the purposes of silencing dissent and stealing. People are having opinions stifled, their livelihoods threatened and as such their rights violated.
The Internet is a vibrant place, full of creative and opinionated individuals, who can put themselves out there to entertain and inform others. Why shouldn't someone tell you that a movie isn't worth paying to watch? Why shouldn't someone give their opinion on a TV show? Or a book? Or a video game? I've read plenty of reviews, in the past, that have been nothing but positive, But they come across as being disingenuous and untruthful when I've went to see what the reviewed item was, which means that I'm paying to read a biased review. So why should someone who is giving an honest opinion, be silenced?
On top of that, why shouldn't people be allowed to share their work? I've worked in television production, as part of a news team, in editing, on a Talk show, and on several small productions with friends, and I can say, it can be grating trying to make a video just right, especially when you're creating something to entertain, or inform so I know the kind of hard work that goes into them.
There are people who have espoused unpopular or biased claims on YouTube and then claimed to be harassed when their opinion has been challenged, because they don't want differing opinions. This is exactly that. Hardworking people who want to inform/entertain, they are being silenced, just because they will tell people, that something is of poor quality and not worth time or money, and they have no way of defending themselves from it. These people ARE being harassed.
The world is full of people who are creative and talented, and just want to share their craft with the world. Sure, it's only natural for someone to wish to protect their intellectual property, I can fully understand that. But that does not give them the right to silence the voices of people who don't like it. It creates an echo chamber and cult mentality, and is quite frankly unfair.
With no penalty, people who are abusing these systems will simply continue to abuse them. This needs to stop, and you have the power to stop it.
The intention is not merely to prevent copyright holders from preventing unlawful use of copyrighted material; it is quite the opposite. The very essence of the notions of free speech and freedom of the press expressed in the US Constitution which, it may be assumed, yielded the Fair Use clause, depend on independent bodies being able to comment openly on material, copyrighted or otherwise. A consistent refusal to punish those who abuse DMCA claims to stifle such commentary unjustly completely refutes those principles and generally reduces the capability of public discourse in the US and around the world. For the sake of free speech, the ability to comment on material, copyrighted or otherwise, must be preserved, and attempts to limit that ability must be punished.
It's clear we live in a new age now. The internet is bigger than we could've possibly dreamed it would be in 1998, and it's a core facet of modern life. Of course, that also changes entertainment as we know it, and I feel it's absolutely vital - as the internet evolves even more - to get a common consensus down with these modern elements in mind. What Is Fair Use?
I won't deny that there are people abusing the fair use system from both sides. There are people who are genuinely using the internet for piracy purposes, as well as stealing other people's content. That needs to be taken care of. However... we need to make sure that, while those who are genuinely abusing fair use - and I feel a lot of that can be determined through common sense - are punished, we also need to make sure that those striving to create their own content are protected.
There are situations when critics, artists, parodies, and other developing forms of entertainment on the internet are being completely bullied by bigger corporations. Their money is being taken straight from their pockets, and I think we can agree that - based off the way things have been going right now - corruption is certainly taking shape by the way the DMCA is currently shaped.
That's why I, not only as an avid appreciator of the internet but as an aspiring artist myself, urge for common consensus in fair use as the internet is shaped today. We need to stop corruption from BOTH SIDES.
Thank You For Your Interest Today
Look, I'm just a guy who likes to be entertained. YouTube is a major source of entertainment for me, I have a bunch of people on YouTube who make content that I enjoy. These people put a lot of time and effort into making these videos, you'd think they would get credit for all that work. But no, YouTube has given power to a bunch of assholes who want to make money with little effort. I've witnessed someone make a video talking about how reaction videos were bad, and someone made a reaction to that. The guy who made the reaction gained money for his reaction and the original creator didn't get a single penny. A guy named Doug Walker made a review for the movie Event Horizon and the studio claimed ownership of his review, they took credit for something he made! The channel I Hate Everything was forced to take a review down because the creator of the movie didn't like his opinion. That's elimination of freedom of speech right there! There are a lot of problems going on with YouTube, maybe even websites I've never heard about. It'd be nice if someone were to do something and fix this problem. Thanks for listening.
As you probibly are aware, there are problems with the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) .
This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
It's been used a number of times to censor product reviews that the product maker didn't like because simply they were negative and not because they were infringing on copyright.
it's unfair that claims are being made against simply taking about some product (such as a movie) with no actual content from that product.
It is unfair that companies can issue take downs multiple times on a video that is previously cliaimed and then the claim is withdrawn after a counter-claim.
if is unfair that there is no penalty for making false claims when there is obviously no consideration for fair use, sometimes on content the person making the claim doesn't even own.
I hope you will do the right thing and address these abuses. Thank you for your time.
The current copyright laws are woefully outdated today. Although they served their purpose well when they were created in 1998, the internet has greatly changed since then. Some of the best examples of why copyright law needs to be updated can be found on YouTube. There are countless examples of abuse by unethical companies around the world abusing the DMCA take-down law to stifle content creators and censor criticism. There are also several instances of companies trying to take ad revenue from videos that they have absolutely no claim to. The complete lack of a penalty for false DMCA take-downs is a huge flaw. This needs to be addressed.
Many comment creators, including me, have been victims or content takedowns and legal action, mainly on YouTube.
Despite the fact that I have used royalty free music, it gets marked as "copyrighted content" and is "infringing" copyright. Same happens when I use footage of video games and movies. Even if I credit the original creators, I get labelled as someone who has stolen content. And that needs to change. This is not right
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
These are just some of the creators that I know of that have been affected adversely by the aforementioned algorithms being exploited:
Jim Sterling
Themysteriousmrenter
Channel Awesome
Anime America
Lost Pause
The Anime Man
Your Movie Sucks
I Hate Everything
Drwolf
Joshscorcher
TeamFourStar
CinemaSnob
Potatobombkyle Lego Productions
CinemaSins
AlternateHistoryHub
Jontron
BadComedian
Sargon of Akkad
Chris Stuckman
Bobsheaux
Sheeleシェーレ
BrainScratch Commentaries
NFKRZ
Pyrocynical
The Gaming Czar
Games Repainted
AdoseofBuckley
Totalbiscuit
Matthias
ToddintheShadows
The Angry Joe Show
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act(DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
It affects many aspects of everybody's life and it's time to protect EVERYBODY'S rights!
I'm not a YouTuber or upload any videos. But there are videos that are not even copyrighted material & yet are taken down without a reason or any explanation.
Makes people like me question the choices made by whomever is obviously abusing fair use.
I'm commenting due to a persisting problem. The current laws concerning copyrights and Fair Use have started to become obsolete and counterintuitive-- particularly on the internet. While these laws were originally created to support content creators, they've morphed into a source of oppression. Certain artists have been unjustly muffled due to false copyright claims. Oftentimes, copyright claims act as a way for copyright holders to stifle criticism and opinions. And, when copyright claims are made, the situation is handled in a very broken and jumbled way. YouTube has a particularly messy system. When a copyright claim is made on a channel, the channel will usually be limited in the videos it can make, and it can sometimes be even banned. This usually limits how much a defendant's voice can be heard when they're being harassed. Copyright claimants will also oftentimes take all of the defendants' creations' income until a copyright claim is settled. But, once the claim is settled and the defendants are proven innocent, the defendants won't receive any of their lost income as compensation-- the claimant gets to keep it. Thus, this encourages further abuse of the law. To make these borderline-tyrannical scenarios stop, and to allow creativity to continue flourishing, this broken system needs to change. Thank you for opening your ears and allowing us to voice our convictions.
Hello,
My name is Michael William Hunter and I care about the internet.
FURTHERMORE, on a personal level, I have a podcast where I interview internet content creators praising them for what they do. Most of these people have become great friends of mine and it pains me to see my friends dwell in fear. Fear that their channel and job will be stripped away because some greedy jerk, who doesn't actually own their content, will make enough false claims. There needs to be consequences for false claims, there needs to be consequences for truly stolen content (whether its owned by a studio or not), and there needs to be consequences for the websites who let it happen.
Thank you.
- Michael William Hunter
My name is Sean Coakley, and i seek to create animated content, sketch comedy, and music for the internet. I want to host my content on Youtube because it is a great way for people to spread it around and for me to gain a following I can profit from and turn into a living. However, due to these recent testimonials from channels admitting to being harassed by major companies and other parties that seem to not exist, I'm hesitant, and at times afraid, to create anything that isn't an original idea by me for fear of being taken down and blocked. This is detrimental to me as a developing artist because it doesn't let me showcase how I'm improving and developing and it severely dampens my ability to profit from my work. And i don't claim any of the concepts as my own, but rather i show them in a way that i choose to interpret them. It's like if a film studio owned the rights to a plot to a movie, then many years later some independent director made a movie that was different than the original but used the same plot, and the film studio completely blocked the film from getting any good press. The director can't sustain themselves and nobody can judge whether or not their film was worth anything. Perhaps it was better than the film studio's version. No one will ever know. And I'm not the only one who's in this predicament. I know people from my personal life that either have a presence on the internet or are just starting out that have to tip toe around these copyright rules to even say who they are and what they're about. Art, media, and freedom of speech cannot stand in this out dated and broken system, and SEVERELY needs to be revised in a more balanced favor of the people.
the problems with fair use, in one way or another, affect everyone. Unfair " fair use " cases can not continue to show up. Please give more power to the people defending, and less to those that unrightfully attack others.
Also the current Youtube system can poetentially take income away from content creators and even if the content is deemed fair use, the creator cannot get that revenue back, it is stolen. And isn't stealing Illegal? Isn't it wrong?
It also does not help that Youtube has made this all automated, there is no human element in making sure the content creators are protected by easily offended developers or those wishing to Censor.
It is very frustrating to see videos that are clearly protected by Copyright Laws taken down. The internet has evolved and the laws to protect content creators have remain the same. They need to change to protect content creators from companies who use takedowns to silence people.
In my own experience, I have watched as people have had their hand-forged content removed as a way of stifling young, intelligent creators for the sake of stealing revenue. It needs to stop.
As a content creator, I have to deal with the constant fear of havingmy channel taken down because of companies that overstep their boundaries. Keep fair use in the right hands and prevent others from attacking or harming the livelihood of others.
I am a role player on YouTube. I make content. Copyright surrounds me on a daily basis. I get that the you guys want to protect us and make sure no body steals another's content, but you have been doing the opposite. Innocent people have been hurt, destroyed by the flaws in your system. I know of a person who got their YouTube channel terminated because he had a video of a 3D animation of a girl, who was completely clothed. Many people escape the system nowadays and those who are, well they are most of them are innocent. Something needs to change. I may not be the most reliable source, but I sure am one of the hundreds of millions of people who want change in the Copyright Office and end these useless DMCA take downs.
Many people all over the world are looking to the internet these days for entertainment and leisure. For many it is also a creative outlet. A place where you can create, innovate, and let your voice be heard to people thousands of miles away. It is a place where we can all connect and share our creativity however, right now it is being stifled.
Laws were put in place almost two decades ago to regulate what was shared on the internet and to protect the creators of content so that it would not be exploited for profit. Now, with the changes in what is shared on the internet and the manner in which it is shared, these laws must change to uphold free speech.
Innocent people who make a living entertaining others, who are in no way breaking the laws already in place, are being silenced without consequence on the grounds of phony copyright claims. People who are just giving opinions are being harassed and having their content taken down. This means a halt in their own profits and a daily struggle in making sure their way of life is not compromised.
Treating creators this way is unfair and unjust. Yes, sometimes people so try to exploit copyright laws however there are many instances where a claim has been issued, it is judged that there is no copyright infringement, a creator is forced to fight it and lose their own profit, and even then there is no consequence to the issuer of the false claim.
This is a new age with a new form of entertainment. When things change and evolve with the new technology that we acquire, so too must the laws and regulations surrounding them. It is not something to silence and be intimated by. It should be looked at as a new way to be innovative and expressive with. And the people who thrive in these new mediums should not be punished for doing exactly that.
""
Fix your Heavily Outdated Act, or hope things don't get worse than a mere petition or comments...
Essentially, the system that is currently in play prevents content creators from using any form of copy written material that falls under the so called "protection" of fair use. Companies are able to abuse this system so they can take down criticism, steal revenue, and remove what ever they feel like. They have shell companies also striking the Youtube videos to put multiple claims on it. It's so bad that there are companies that exist to just putting down false claims to take the videos revenue. Also, companies can just put another strike up right after the original strike gets rebutted.
Almost all of these videos fall under fair use, but aren't getting the protection needed. There's no penalties for false claims, so there is nothing preventing the system currently in place from being abused.
Things need to change!
This is not just a copy-pasted message stating that we want change. We NEED change. All of these messages, I assure you, are absolutely sincere. Something needs to be done about the current state of the DMCA, and this is the only way our voices are going to be heard.
Okay. So I may be one person out of a thousand with a thousand more things to say. But the current state of the DMCA and fair use is not okay. And while I realize that it may not be one person's fault. It is a top priority to get it fixed. Just spending 10 minutes on YouTube can show you that people are taking down videos thag have no licensed music, footage or even pictures getting taken down. Reviewerst have to fight tooth and nail every single day to keep up their lively hoods because they reviewed a so bad it's funny "cool cat" movie (and if you look up cool cat an entire saga of proof of fair use being abused ILLEAGILY" will unveil itself before your very eyes) and I think that this needs to be fixed, youtubers and reporters alike are being taken down and they're way of income being destroyed. And I'm sorry to have to take up so much of your time. But thank you. Have a good day
Companies including Viacom, Universal, and others are using the DMCA to remove fair use videos such as reviews and I want to know that something is being done about this. I hate that companies are screwing us over with their power. I'm sick of this and I want it over. Many of my favorite YouTubers are taking time out of their upload schedules to deal with this crap and we're not going to take it anymore.
While I have not been affected myself by the DMCA takedowns (namely because I make money off videos), I have known over 700 people who have been effected by this abused system.
It has caused some of my friends to commit suicide over a corrupt system; and I'm not even joking.
There have been so many people that I liked to hang out with who have taken their own lives because they were tired the system being abused without any action being taken against the abusers.
It is for that reason that I stand today in their honor to save fair use.
I have already lost so much from this corrupt system that's not finicial; this needs to be fixed.
This might have been sent a lot already, but we are real people with real concerns.
The DMCA law, while well intended, has fallen behind on the times, and is now being used to silence people unjustly, particularly people critiquing entertainment. Updating these copyright laws will be the first step in helping these people feel more secure in their livelihoods and protect them from having their rights violated.
Because enough is enough...It's time to put this to rest for good.
While it only takes one minute to take down content, whether is is justified or not, it takes weeks or months for the creator to even state their case. In an age where people's livelihoods are at stake, there needs to be a better way for their voice to be heard.
A YouTube video of mine had been hit with a copyright claim for music that wasnt in the video at all. And this was during a time which the video got fairly populair 13K. And because of the copyright claim i didnt get any revenue from it.
This is ridiculous, we have our rights stomped on by larger corporations who bully people into following their rules instead of fair use and free speech.
I doubt anyone reading this really cares because they have been paid to think otherwise but DMCA take-downs have gotten out of control. Anyone can issue one at any time for any reason regardless of whether it is legit or not and use that process to censor those they don't want to be heard.
I am not making money of my channel, but I know SO many others who are making a living of Youtube, and when a company abuses the system they are able to STEAL that money from the people who are working for it! These are real people who have a real problem and if they cannot put up their videos due to the abuse of the system then their livelihood is put at risk! I know someone who has to fend off strikes on his videos everyday just to keep his channel going! And the strikes against the people are not even going through real people, they are processed through machines and thus corporations are able to get away with taking money from these people and taking channels down for 5 second clips with no back lash! That is why I am asking, WHERE IS THE FAIR USE?
People are filing for claims they do not own and using the DMCA to harm individual content creators. These people are sometimes unfairly successful in the claims and the creators end up being the victims time and time again. There are some creators who upload content to Youtube that do not contain any copyrighted videos or audio, yet their videos are still taken down. Videos are still being claimed for even after they have been cleared multiple times. This harms the quality and frequency of content the creator is rightfully allowed to share as well as putting unecessary stress on the creators themselves.
I, Juliette De Keyzer, have read and approved this text and wish to aid fixing this broken system.
As a (former) YouTuber who has had videos taken down and lost an entire channel's worth of personally created content, I feel a need to protect the wonderful content creators we already have and safeguard the content creation of the internet for all future vloggers, artists and performers. A woefully out of date law needs updating and the wanton decimation which follows in the wake of malicious copyright claims or the theft of content needs to be covered by law.
I'm doing this (though I don't know if my comment will count) because I know that whatever happens here will have a profound effect on not only US Copyright law but copyright law here in the UK and the world over.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Essentially, If the law continues as it stands, those with the ability to harass new content creators for, in some cases, the mere mention of their copy written material will use a law enacted to protect themselves as a bludgeon against their own audience.
Changes to the DMCA need to be enacted not to allow the easy infringement of copy right, but to ensure that works can be discussed and commented upon without crushing repercussion.
Where's the fair use?
Examples of the issues currently going on YouTube
original video on Fair Use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0Wpn1zmU
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (STILL going on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J03pUizE
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ9U8YLY
Team Four Star's issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkcWbvnN0
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nULnD9OQ
Chibi Reviews gets a DMCA for talking about snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWysPctePw
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company - MMA company thinks it makes the law!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw
Mr Enter and the saga of DMCA after DMCA takedown on the SAME video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtwVOZ0Yc
NFKRZ and how ransom is now on YouTube!
Relive 1998 here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1UY7eDRXrs
Space Jam circa 1996 still alive - http://www.warnerbros.com/archive/spacejam/movie/jam.htm
Stop harrassing my favorite content creators. These people have done nothing wrong, this law his horribly outdated and we need to regulate the 21st century internet with rules for the 21st century internet. Content creators are not going away and the government cannot allow them to be silenced and bullied by these media companies. Take a look at any of the stories of the people affected by this. Search where's the fair use on youtube and you will see the harm these outdated rules have done and will continue to do so. The government saw with Sopa that the internet is a community that will not be silenced, or controlled by these unfair copyright laws. The internet has changed and it is time laws change to reflect that. These laws, and the people who wrote them need to step into the 21st century.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Daniel Adam Smith
The DMCA is a highly out-dated system that has caused way more harm than it has helped. It is heavily abused by large companies and can cause lost revenue to people who have done no harm at all. Many individuals are wrongly targeted and punished because of this, and it makes even the most legal things nearly impossible to do.
I have had enough with watching copyright be taken as a trump card for those who want attention. So many of my favorite content creators on YouTube are demeaned by the idiots who want to protect their name and content to ridiculous levels. Creators like the nostalgia critic and I hate everything are being scrutinized. Criticism is not a reason to have their livelihood taken away. I support a free YouTube and I stand against the corrupt copyright system.
This process is COMPLETELY dated. Fix it. NOW.
I will admit I'm not constantly churning out new content, but I still know many people that have been affected by the faulty DMCA, with varying degrees of impact ranging from silenced videos to revenue stealing. These claims often come from companies that have nothing to do with the content shown in the video, and even if they did, we still keep our use of the content fair.
I myself have had videos claimed from companies that had nothing to do with the content in the videos. For example, sharing a song from the video game Donkey Kong Country got me a claim from, if I remember correctly, Foundation Media LLC, claiming I shared a song by an artist of theirs, which was a remix of the video game song. This remix was not in the video. I eventually got it resolved when they told me the claim was made in error, but an error to THAT degree is simply unforgivable.
Even without my own experiences, I know that this is a BIG problem. It's diminished the livelihood of several of my favorite content creators, and some have even turned out very unimpressive material because of that. For example, a reviewer tried to review a movie musical, but because the songs couldn't be played without a DMCA takedown, no clips from the movie were used, and instead, very long and drawn out parody songs took center stage. He had done this kind of review before, but even then he was able to get to the point more quickly. If the DMCA laws are even limiting the QUALITY of the content produced, that's the last straw for me.
DMCA takedowns are too common, and too strict on what counts as fair use. Even without copyrighted content, videos can still be taken down! Whether that's because of the title or a bot making the copyright decisions, it's unacceptable. Something NEEDS to be done about this system. We exercise fair use of YouTube all the time, and it's about time the companies exercised fair use of the copyright system.
Also, if you don't start permitting fair use...
I'm voting for Trump.
Hi. I'm a YouTuber known as Yoshi Player, and over the past few months, several of my videos have been taken down due to copyright, even though they fall under Fair Use. My reviews of The Wild and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie were taken down within a few hours on YouTube, resulting in me getting two claims on YouTube.
The videos I have done have fell under Fair Use, where using footage from movies for your reviews is okay. However, companies don't work with the Internet, and it's time for us to show that this isn't okay. Please help us out, so we can be safe posting YouTube videos online again,
This is important to me.
I'm bored of seeing 'The DMCA sucks' videos. It seems crazy to me that this
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in
favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
As a spectator and a future creator I feel like the copyright system is something that affects us all. And one thing is preventing someone from uploading TV shows or other people's work (which they do already, and are not punished for that because either it's something that bypasses the automatized bots that companies use, that's right it might not even break the law but bots decide to bring it down. Or because the affected individual isn't someone known) but when original work is claimed for copyright or even fan works you know something is wrong with the system. I believe that it's become something more than an US situation seeing how it affects people world wide, people who depend in this to live, people who put mind, body and soul to do this, and last but not least, people, who like millions, use media like YouTube to find entertainment or a way to find help, that use it as part of their healing process, as therapy, or simply as a way to make the world better. I sincerely hope you hear the pleads of the public, there is more to the copyright laws than just which company is affected, it involves the citizens, HD future artists or politicians.
Videos that just TALK about something that use NO FOOTAGE WHATSOEVER are being taken down. End it!
#WTFU
I personally feel that the YouTube copyright and fair use policy is being breached daily, on a scale in which fair use in its own right has been deemed as a crime on the website. All of these channels (including Channel Awesome aka. The Nostalgia Critic) are having videos deleted, their channel taken down, and even having their rightly-earned money away from them, due to the abuse of a system made for balance and peace.
Not only this, but the moderators do allow channels to react to other people's property in their entirety, without permission, promotion, or giving the viewer any reason to watch the original video (I.e. Only show a portion of the video) which makes me sick to my stomach that they would go against their own policy that they have forced on everyone else.
I would suggest that YouTube should ensure a strike, channel take down, or monetisation claim is true before accepting it, because they are making what used to be a minor issue, into a lingering terror on the website. So I plead of you, please help the system by reminding the corporate leaders of YouTube that they should stop, and that they need to follow their and other's laws. Thank you.
I watch YouTube all the time and I have seen my favorite videos taken down countless times. This has gotten to the point where our free speech is being censored.
Leave my goddamn content alone, assholes!
Many content creators are being targeted solely to take there ad revenue. One you tuber who makes custom animations. Was approached by a band to help make an animated music video, they paid him to make it and his only stipulation was that he post it on his channel and they agreed to it.
The video was claimed by a shell corporation claiming to represent the band when in fact the band had no affiliation with the corporation claiming the video. The matter was settled over the course of a couple of days but the system is so broken. The shell corporation got to keep the money they claimed for those days of wrongful claim, there were no penalties or punishment.
A claim can be filled for practically any video. Be it original work, parody, reviews or anylisis, or whatever have you.
A reviewer who after watching a movie at a theater. Will sit in his car with friends and talk about the movie they saw. Sharing there thoughts on it and nothing else no clips or video from the movie. And it gets claimed what's copyright about sitting in a car with friends talking about a movie?
Last I checked slavery was abolished so no corporation should own him and his friends or there thoughts and opinions. does copy right extend so far?
Example if I mention batman v superman. Am I now infringing on warner-brothers or d.c. Comics copyrights? Does it matter if wether it's good or bad? No but I'm allowed to say wether I think it's good or bad that's my personal opinion my freedom of speech.
This needs to be fixed. To put it shortly this was made for the 1998 internet. If you don't fix this you will change the economy because a lot of people on the internet will riot.
In my personal experience, as consumer of digital media through the internet, the DMCA takedown system has been abused consistently. I have seen friends lose their videos due to claims that, if brought to court, would obviously be ruled as Fair Use. I've seen great works of original content removed from the internet seemingly forever due to this system.
If a new law could be implemented, one that allowed for more review and for culpability on both sides of the issue. I am sure that if lawmakers look at the issue from a more modern perspective, at the internet as it stands today, they will be able to create a better and more fair system where both old content and new content are protected.
The DMCA is broken. I could go on about it, but I want to talk about false YouTube claims and takedown notices. Many YouTube channels that use content for Fair Use reason are having those videos taken down by movie studios even though it's protected by Fair Use. One example was I Hate Everything. In November of last year, his review of Cool Cat Saves The Kids was taken down by request from the film' director, Derrick Savage, even though the video was protected by Fair Use. In a series of E-Mail that he has since made public, Mr. Savage harassed him over a review that has hurt his feelings even though IHE recommend the film in a "So-Bad-It's-Good" way. This goes to show that YouTubes takedown tool is broken. It's so automated that no human will ever look at the video and see that it's Fair Use. What I am asking for is a change in the DMCA that will punish people that abuse DMCA takedowns request. My name is Bill, and please, Where's The Fair Use? #WTFU
Many of my favourite content creators have to suffer through this, it pains me that some companies think it's alright to do this
I'm just a Youtube viewer. I watch videos from some of my favorite Youtubers because I find them so entertaining. But because of false copyright problems so many of them have been crippled because of it. I don't care that I'm not entertained. What I care about is that these people who are being falsely claimed are being stripped of their income. This law is taking away people's jobs for no real reason. So please. Update this law. For the good of the future
False DMCA's are extremely unfair and devastating to content created.
We are being taken DOWN, even for reviews with no footage. We need help to save media, PLEASE #WTFU!!!!!
#WTFU
My latest upload was unfairly labeled as copyright infringement when it was protected under FAIR USE... The work was altered to the point where the meaning was changed significantly and yet, with the snap of a finger, the content was obliterated. It's a perfect example of how the DMCA is an outdated, unfair and easily abused fossil of a system that needs to be updated/replace altogether... To name a few examples: People file claims on content they don't even own. DMCA's are being used to harm individual creators & stifle free speech. People just talking on camera w/ no footage or music are being taken down. Some companies believe they create the law. DMCA's are being used w/ out factoring in fair use. DMCA's are being sent by parent companies to threaten creators & shield branches. I personally have been harassed & revenue has been lost. Please... PLEASE make the necessary changes.
If the one reading this truly cares about this matter, you can do something. Help change this law and you'll assist in bringing an end to the deplorable misuse of this law. Thank you for your time.
My friends have lost their passion for creating original content due to the DMCA. He had a channel that reviewed content that was threatened then taken down by false claims. He lost everything and had no way to recover what he had created. He then tried again and again, but every time, these false companies that have nothing to do with the copyright holder have struck him down. He is now on his 5th channel trying again and there is not a single sign from YouTube about helping him or anyone going through this.
Allow me to be clear, I am not - Though I hope to be - a Content Creator or otherwise, but I am a genuine person with a passion... I am a reviewer on among other sites iMDB.
I have seen abuse happen even there with notices to take down being issued on Viewer reviews if they are NEGATIVE about a movie in anyway...
Clearly, the biggest issue has been with YouTube, Content creators such as I Hate Everything and the Nostalgia Critic being hit by claims that prevent them reviewing movies as the owners are claiming copyright infringement.
Yet FAIR USE dictates that provided it is for the purposes of review or humour, this is in fact A FAIR USE!
Without the right to reply, without Fair use, without fair commentary and critique... These companies will hold us ALL TO RANSOM!
I am a long time viewer of Nostalgia Critic (At least two years) and I can counter the MANY copyright claims made against him and others, including YourMovieSucks.org, I Hate Everything, Cinema Sins...
The Studios will have you believe the content creators are stealing their work and harming their industry - They are WRONG!
In fact, as a direct result of The Nostalgia Critics reviews of the Jurassic Park Trilogy, Instead of just laughing about the - And I think most agree - rather poor sequels.... I instead went out and BOUGHT THE TRILOGY because his reviews reminded me how much I enjoyed the films!!!
These reviewers, content creators and critics - while maybe frowned upon by so called professional reviewers NEED YOUR PROTECTION! They are NOT harming the Movie Industry - In fact if anything they are helping to PROMOTE IT!
The Studios and constant Shell Companies making false claims are harming Freedom of Speech - There has to be penalties for false claims... Claims MUST BE PROVEN or they will be met with fines and legal action...
This is what teh US constitution is based on - Equal rights for all... So why are the Money Grabbing monopolies allowed to silence the people?
America! Its time to stand up for the principles you founded your country upon... This must end NOW!
Where's the fair use? Right now the DMCA is getting abused a lot. Content creators on sites like youtube constantly has to deal with false or and or stupid claims. The DMCA is outdated and really isn't fitting this time period. You know there's something wrong with the system when videos are taken down even though they're perfectly following fair use. Don't let companies claim something that they didn't make. #WTFU
Please make these changes, there are people's livelihoods at stake. I've seen videos where people post an honest negative review of something and then have it taken down under this law. The way this thing currently works lets people and/or companies censor almost any online criticism of their work that they don't like. Something like this is not also unfair to the critic, but the consumers as well. We as people have a right to know if something we're interested in is worth our time, and by censoring honest reviews or opinions of a work we are being cheated out of our ability to get the full picture. If every bad review of everything was shut down via the abuse of this system, we'd be very susceptible to buying a bad product/scam. How can we warn others if we'd just get shut down trying to do so?
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
We are on the verge of a cultural revolution. Because of advances in technology and this generations most creative, innovative minds in entertainment, there is a media shift from TV to the internet. However, with every great change comes resistance. Many content creators on YouTube are have received threats and takedowns for their videos on YouTube on the basis of copyright infringement. Most often or not, it falls under fair use and shouldn't be an issue. However, the system is outdate and broken, creating serious issues for creators who, whether the big industries like or not, are making a serious living. It is too easy for creators to lose monetization on their videos and too difficult for them to fight it and corporations are taking advantage of this by harassing creators with numerous flags and using false alliases to take a video down right after its put back up. In court, these disputes would be cut and dry and these videos would be rightfully kept up for good. However, corporations are hiding behind the faults of the internet to make a profit and eliminate competition, knowing they would lose in court. Its time for there to be a change. We don't live in 1998 anymore. Now is the time to do it for creators and viewers alike.
As well as the below statement which is in regard to fair use and how it is being abused in the favour of companies, it also should be noted that in Canada, where YouTube is an American company, YouTubers find it harder to start up since the legislation and legalities are different from our own, and stifles creativity. The policies need to change, not in favour of the companies, but with the ever growing world where free use should be not be abused.
Protect youtube from DMCA =/
i personally dealt with this though it was on an unknown level. i had a small amount of a song in a video i made in 2009. that video got a claim on it and for 6 years, a company was making money off of it. or not. the video didn't get a lot of views and when i noticed the claim i just took it down. but i know people use this as a livelihood and i do believe fair use must be protected. the laws are ancient and really do need to be updated for the 21 century...thank you for your time in advanced.
So I'm going today my own thing here. I'm 13 years old and a fan of such youtubers and Nostalgia critic and IHE. These are two of the main victims to this extremely outdated law. Instead of the DMCA helping content creators keep their content, it is used in a way by big companies to mess up channels. A company can strike a video, take money from that video and do this for 30 days without being contested or punished for main money off someone else's work, which is the exact opposite of what the DMCA wants to achieve. An example of this would be Merlin, A faceless corporation who took quite a few videos relating to the trend 'Damn Daniel' and squeezed all of the the money out into their thriving pockets. It also broke my heart to see my favourite youtuber IHE be completely taken off the Internet by a anonymous man who wasn't even punished for almost destroying his channel. I know my opinion might not matter in the long term. But please, I beg you, change the DMCA to help the victims and stop faceless people take money from creators.
(P.S. I find it unfair that legislation from the US is affecting people outside of the country.)
The following statements are not written by me personally, but I wholeheartedly agree with them.
We need to change what's been happening on websites like youtube and across the entire internet. People need access to the rights they have in regard to the content they upload. The current system is biased toward larger companies and in some cases is just being used to censor people's opinions.
These content creators have every right to be protected from this harassment and false content claims. These laws have to be amended to PROTECT PEOPLE. Please help the content creators I watch and support every day.
In addition, this system has been abused by people or companies seeking to stifle criticism of their product, which harms critics and reviewers.
Please review the DMCA and make the law equal for all individuals over the internet. Thank you.
I have witnessed a lot of my favorite critics on YouTube have their reviews taken down by false DMCA claims. They are always within fair-use and they always use the clips from what, they're reviewing, transformatively. Even videos with no clips at all and just feature a couple of guys talking about the movie/show get taken down.
The only thing these creators can do is send a counter-claim to have the copyright-claim be taken off-of their video. The claimant has 30 days to respond to the counter-claim and retract their DMCA claim, but they get all the revenue from the video that the creator should be getting during those 30 days.
Some companies even use this as a threat; if the creator doesn't stop posting videos like this they will keep posting false claims on their videos. There are even companies that specialize in finding video-reviews and claiming their content.
This flawed copyright-claim-system is a huge threat to free speech on the internet and needs to change.
Through ages and decades laws must change to befit existing social constructs. Where in the past laws were created at the dawn of new technology to protect the creators of said technology corporation gained more security and power to preserve their products. As radio was rivaled by TV laws were needed to limit the abusive actions of channels to steal movies and other media produce. To protect News outlets new laws were created, but when the prior outlet is threatened by a new one. It spreads abuse and selfish accusations against its opposition.
I am not a provider but a person who views entertainment as an outlet, and it is hardening for a consumer to see their preferred outlet being abused and devoured by laws and automated responses failing to function. I am only an engineer but I have seen and personally know that while technology is not flawed, its programming will never elude flaws once it is ordered to follow human algorithmic senses. Human programming flaws will not be avoided how ever well you produce the programming, if humans have trouble creating functional laws. How can they be trusted to create machines to fallow their laws.
If this the law is left as it is, there shall be a tower built by thousands of people without speaking the same language. Time renders all ineffective and it is about time that laws referring to prior states of social construct and communication be altered to incorporate the new age.
I am a consumer of media and as a consumer I ask for the change of the DMCA.
Since copyright law is archaic, it needs to be updated for our new internet society where the free flow of information should allow for the influx of new ideas.
As a platform to post content for entertainment and for those who do Youtube as a job the fair use is not in full effect and is a broken system. There are many content creators I watch and a few bits of content I want to post but at this point the system has been abused way too much that newer content creators are afraid. YouTubers that do this as a full time job such as Team Four Star, Lost Pause, and Channel Awesome have had their content and even channels pulled down. And for the majority of the time for the wrong reasons, and the only way they do come back is because of the communities that they built asking for them to be back or the use of making another channel or using other media outlets to inform the public of the situation. The worst part is anyone can make a claim on a video to take it down but in order for the creator to bring the video back they must have about a month waiting period before they can do anything and during that time any revenu made off the video goes to the person/company that made the claim, instead of putting the money into a type of waiting account and distributed to the one who won. The system has also been a form of threatening Youtubers even if they have no reals say over the video, even big businesses use this for their advantage. If a content creator makes a review of something say a movie for example, the creators of the movie put a claim on that video even if there were no visuals or music playing, just a black screen with a voice.
Please fix the system so it cant be abused anymore. Or at the very least make the system drastically faster to deal with.
I believe in a free internet.
The DMCA takedown abuse is not restricted to creative works of expression, either. Some videos across the internet have been taken down for simply talking about a copyrighted work. These effected videos largely feature a few people sitting in a room/car, expressing their first impressions of a movie, comic, etc., and even these forms of expression are subject to the abuse.
Some instances of more creative expressions of opinion and speech being taken down is most visible on the popular website YouTube. Some popular channels that have been effected by the rampant abuse are - but not limited to: Jim Sterling, Themysteriousmrenter, Channel Awesome, Anime America, Lost Pause, The Anime Man, Your Movie Sucks, I Hate Everything, Cinema Snob, and Cinemasins.
All of the listed channels that have been wrongfully punished are satirical, providing creative and reasonable critique on movies and other copyrighted works. None of these channels have ever played any movie/copyrighted work in its entirety, and any extreme critique is part of each channel's identity or persona.
What's more is that one channel - I Hate Everything - had once been taken down without any pretense of warning, cutting him off from his primary source of income without any diplomacy. Prior to his channel's being deleted and subsequent restoration, IHE was plagued by legal threats by "Daddy" Derek Savage - a disgruntled movie director.
After IHE had critiqued one of his more negatively viewed movies, IHE had to go through a slew of copyright strikes, without any repercussions.
What makes this issue so major is the fact that with YouTube - and the internet as a whole - being such a large outlet for news and other information, abuses like this can stifle citizen's freedom of speech. What was once an effective law for a 1998 form of the internet now needs serious revision if the people are to be protected by the law as it is written. What's more is that these false claims and legal actions come with no consequence; this allows anyone to abuse the system to destroy some people's lives, without being prosecuted for violating the law.
Hopefully this will open the box of chaos that is Fair Use right now, and with time this issue will be resolved, and the right of the people restored.
With great appreciation and respect;
Jacob Stuart Zimbler
~~pretty much sumarises how this is bs and favors corporations.
Abuse of the DMCA system has harmed and even destroyed content creators and businesses that adhered to the rules of fair use and copyright. This misuse of should not be allowed to continue, please act on this damaging issue.
https://youtu.be/NoIL5qUI1p8
your going to get a lot of these but its true fair use needs to change just like the internet has changed so should the laws around it. if you guys don't then it is bound to causes more trouble for people who try to make a living making content like reviews
I am a recent animation graduate on the cusp of launching my career, which will very likely have a home on YouTube. One of my first NON-PROFIT professional pursuits involved indirectly borrowing from the existing aesthetic for Red Bull's animated commercials, but even if I used existing designs or dialogue from one of their commercials, it would have been a legal practice that falls under FAIR USE, and I anticipate producing such animation again in the future.
The problem is, if I need monetization from YouTube in the future, I am fearful for my financial and professional well-being because CORPORATE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS ARE CURRENTLY ABUSING THE DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT TO STEAL MONEY FROM CONTENT CREATORS, many of whom I am subscribed to and whose content I enjoy every day.
The DMCA NEEDS TO BE REPLACED OR UPDATED TO FIT YOUTUBE'S ACCOMADATION OF FAIR USE. Please take swift action to rescue current content creators and give upcoming content creators like myself a chance.
I hate to say it, but the DMCA as it stands has been, and is currently, being used to take down anyone using content that would be protected under fair use. People who say anything that big companies don't like often get attacked using DMCA takedowns to silence them, multiple times, even if they were previously cleared.
There are even people using DMCA to take down videos or claim videos that don't even belong to them. They use the DMCA to attack content creators, and currently there is nothing that prevents them from doing so.
at the end the fair use should be a standar for every single person or company and it has to be regulated to have more content on the internet without being scared of somebody trying to destroy the small creators
People can attack others livings out of spite, hatred, or greed, and still get away with it. This can't happen anymore. While protecting your content is important, people being able to strike your channel for a music video or an animation you made is ridiculous and this system needs to change.
I'm just going to say this... people are making a living on the internet and using sites like youtube or twitch to set up shop. They make a home for themselves and build a community that supports the content creators allowing them to produce content people are enjoying. Now we are facing the issue were individuals or companies can issue false claims to effectively shut people down. I personally right now have the ability to file a claim on content that I deem stolen, but I do not have to provide evidence or even face any repercussion for this false claim. In fact if I wanted to I could take revenue from a popular youtube channel for a week as the claim slowly gets resolved. This is a problem as it is similar to owning a shop a man in a suit knocks on the door and says "We are taking this business because we made it" yet that is almost never the case. Please fix the issue of false copyright claims and allow people to continue to make a living doing what they love.
Copyright should be innocent until proven guilty.
Content creators doesn't deserve to take down his own content. They use in the right way the fair use, and is stupid to censored their opinions whit out any explanation.
Seriously, the DMCA is incredibly outdated. Time to fix it.
People are setting up fake companies to steal the revenue from creators, issue takedowns due to being personally insulted, and abusing this system in ways that would get someone fired or arrested if it was brought into the physical world.
The DMCA are abusing the Copyright Law. I've seen reviews and research videos taken down by the DMCA all of them have Fair Use. It's not just the DMCA. Companies have been doing this to. Even videos with no copyrighted content are still being taken down! If this continues It'll make people who makes the Fair Use content jobless and It could issue a internet version of the Stock Market Crash! This is horrible. The DMCA and other companies are doing this cause they are hungry for money and power. We need this to stop before it's too late. Please bring true Fair Use back on the internet.
This is a clear-as-day, common sense ideology that our constitution is based upon-- we have the freedom to openly not like something made by others but don't have the right to tear down their work from history.
Companies are abusing the DMCA, it's used to destroy and/or try to control every channel that use something related to their content, even when it's under fair use or it isn't their even their content. An example is how the spanish youtuber Rangugamer was punished with a strike when he was only recording his cellphone while showing an reviewing an app that emulated the original digimon toys, that were just a bunch of tamagotchis. The strike was claimed by the company that owns the spanish dub, not even the toy themselves, just the spanish dud, it wasn't even the distribution rights. Also he had several claims from nintendo just for playing Zelda games and post it on youtube.
He's just one of the hundred of people that are being abused by companies that uses DMCA, Doug Walker, Angry Joe, MiracleofSound (He received a claim for posting his own song) and almost every channel that uploads content using the fair use.
Sorry for my english, and please, stop this, this is just running out of control and it's reaching absurd levels...
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I am completely serious about this there are full movies on YouTube by random pirates and nobody is sueing them but having a video praising the new star wars film within copyright is claimed. It is not even claimed by Disney it is claimed by someone else
The notice-and-takedown process under thecorporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
As a content maker and viewer, we need change for our freedom on the Internet. I'm making my stand here and it will be a cold day in hell, if we let someone stop our freedom for making contents.
This needs do be fixed! People are having their work damaged or destroyed by false claims, bully claims, and claims by companies hiding behind shadows. Are people supposed to copyright their own faces? Videos are being claimed for just that! Even people who have been cleared get claimed again. I just talk in front of the camera and I have gotten claims about things that weren't even in my video. You need to bring this system up to date for the modern internet and stop all these corporate bullies and thieves! Fix Fair Use!!!
Edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw
This Video Explains how a content creator has been Constantly Harassed by the DMCA Take-down law, and how he was proven right every time, and yet They were allowed to keep taking the Videos down with no Punishment.
This is the power Corporations have. They can Ruin a Life just because they don't like Criticism or want an extra few bucks.
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It is my hope that you will have heard and will hear the above many, many times this day. As a person not from the United States I need to express my concern over this entire ordeal; this is no longer a mainly American concern, but an international one. YouTube, twitter, Facebook and the likes are no longer mainly American corporate phenomenons, but international cultural phenomenons. Abuse of the kind described in the above text has far reaching consequences for the development of freedom and for the people who uses these platforms as places for intellectual, cultural and even absurd activities all around the entire world. Cultural unification - which now is possible via the Internet - might very well be extremely important in the very near future, and what you will decide right now could either be a catalyst for the freedom of speech and indeed a unification on an international scale, or be a nail in the coffin.
Be nice, ok?
----
The whole situation is actually summed up perfectly in the Video "Save Fair Use NOW" from Channel Awesome.
Not to mention the false accusations of you tubers that affect their livelihood.
I may also add that in my own experience I have had two of my own videos, that were reviews, taken down off of youtube without fair use even being taken into account.
In one such case a video of mine was taken down by a company called Fullscreen Inc. over use of clips from the youtube video "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 2", since in the video I was giving my own thoughts and criticisms on it. I did some research and found out that Fullscreen Inc. doesn't even own "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared". This hurt my channel due to how Youtube's copyright strike system works. I was being punished and having my free speech threatened by a company trying to claim wasn't even there's.
It is unfair the the critics like me who can be bullied by companies whether the companies even owns the property or not. This really shows that there needs to be punishments for false claims.
There are companies that believe they run our country. This has to stop and we must take action. People are censored for anything and everything they do even if what they do falls under fair use.
Fair use is a given right that we deserve, our rights should not be looked over. Thank you for this oppurtunity
As a YouTuber who creates videos that fall into fair use, I have received dozens of claims on my videos, most of which being false or done through other companies to protect the claimant. For example, more than one of my Thomas and Friends YouTube Poops have claims on them by EUROPA Mini, who distribute European dubs of the show. I always use the US and UK dubs in my videos, and they block them in European countries such as Germany and the Netherlands. Another false claim comes on my Legends of the Rails music video by CD Baby, who are a site that distributes music. They are not a record label. What's more, another video has a claim from Freewings, claiming they own Jan and Dean's The Little Old Lady From Pasadena. There are many companies called Freewings, but I believe them to be an education company, and I know for a fact that Capitol Records owns the song. By far the worse cases came from my Mobile Suit Gundam music video, which I removed myself because it was blocked worldwide by either TryHardNinja's record label or Sunrise/Bandai. Monstercat also blocked another video I removed for using a song they distribute.
Now, this is not a complete list of the claims on my videos, but this should give you an idea about how bad the situation is. I have not (yet) received a copyright strike or corporate takedown, but I know other people who have. The DMCA exists for the Internet of 1998, and must be modified or removed to protect fair use. While I'm talking about this, I'd also like to address the TPP. If that act is passed, then not only will the economy be ruined, but companies will straight up ignore fair use and be able to take down anything that happens to include something they own. So, please, don't let companies abuse the DMCA and don't pass the TPP.
Thank you very much,
Trey "KeeperofToast" T.
Hello. I often watch content on sites such as YouTube and Vine, where it common to use sound bytes, music, or even video that is copyrighted; however, all of it falls under fair use (e.g. review, criticism, or parody). This opportunity for fair use has recently been debased by the new policies put in place. It is not right for companies to be able to take down a video that took lots of time and effort to create simply because they do not like the comments made in the video.
Creating content on YouTube is a job for many people, and may be their only source of income. If their videos are not allowed to be viewed because it was taken down for copyright infringement, their income is harmed.
In conclusion, the experience of creating and sharing content on the Internet has been tarnished by the unfair abuse of the laws of fair use.
While not a major Youtube content creator myself, I am an artisan who very much supports the right to free speech and fair use. I have seen numerous channels suffer from false claims, both from other Youtube users and from companies that do not understand or respect Fair Use.
Aside from that, the companies who have videos wrongly removed are the ones who gain ad revenue rather than the video creator-the person who deserves the money until the claim has been disputed. Based on what large content creators have stated, this process is long and tedious and for some of them, Youtube is their primary source of income. For them, losing money from false copyright claims could be no different than being unable to make money in any other workplace.
Even some people, such as Creepypasta/horror narrators who have proven that they had consent to share a story and who use only royalty-free audio clips and their own voices have been attacked by people who falsely claim to be the original story's owner.
Taking down an obviously illegal video (such as a full movie) is one thing and more than understandable, but the people who seem to suffer the most are critics who use movie clips for the sake of commentary or satire, which legally falls under their right of Fair Use.
America is a country where Freedom of Speech is highly valued and if Youtube content creators lose that right from false copyright claims, who is next?
I have seen so many people that I watch who put so much time and effort into their videos, have their blood and tears swept away from them, because a greedy company couldn't handle the criticism. This has been going on for long enough, and it must stop.
I want the fair use to be updated for the 21st Century. I was a content creator in the past but because of false claims and companies stopping my creativity was ridiculous. I completely stopped when it stifles hard work being put in to videos. I want to create videos that are creative and awesome but because of this blanket system it makes everyone a criminal and its not fair to people who want to become YouTube content creators. Please update the "fair use" because people are abusing it and are not being held accountable for their actions.
It is awful to realize that the videos I enjoyed so dearly in my childhood in YouTube have mostly been taken down unfairly. Videos I look out of nostalgia are mostly just gone. Not only that, many of the creators I throughly enjoy are constantly fighting their butts off just to keep their videos with fair use in the. It honestly pains me to know so many creators cannot be safe from the harassment of the law abusers that put down videos and steal their money with no remorse. This needs to change. YouTube needs to once again become a place where people don't have to be constantly afraid of being unfairly striked through an outdated fair use law. Imagine the hours of sleep stolen from them in the stress in this all. Imagine knowing that everything you worked for and so carefully molded is so easily stolen from you. I beg of you, for the future of the Internet, fix all of this.
I am currently a victim of harassment against fair use by UMG_MK on behalf of EMI for doing a highly transformative music video of a Beatles song. YouTube is giving me the option to either have my video taken down or shut up and let it be blocked everywhere. No verification of the validity of the claim is required. All the claimant needs to do is keep repeating that it is a violation, regardless of whether this is true. If I appeal again, they will not question anything, but they will take down the video and place a strike on my account for no reason. How is this normal?
No one deserves to be on the end of a copyright strike for sharing something they love. Everyone deserves to talk and share and express their interests. Some companies believe they CREATE the law, make false claims, use these to create threats and harass others alongside so many more negative things! If you want everyone on the internet to be happy and not complain anymore, then you have to take action. We, as a whole on the internet defeated SOPA. We defeated PIPA. We have the numbers and we're certainly not going to put down that easily, government. I may be from Canada, but I'm just as infuriated about this as some of my dear friends who live in the U.S and other parts of the world. The big companies may be powerful, but they can't handle the sheer numbers that is US. The Internet and everyone as a community. So if you wanna make a big change, the time is now. Step forward and stop these bullshit DMCA claims, otherwise nothing is going to change and no one will be happy or pleasant about modern day society. The power to do this is in your hands, and we'll not go down easy against this now completely unfair and unjust system.
You MUST update the DMCA to accompany for today's internet.
In 1998, the DMCA was implemented with the stated intent to protect copyright holders, but here in 2016 it is often used by entities with absolutely no valid legal claim to the material they claim to own to stamp on the actual copyright holders. The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor criticism or other content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. Warner Brothers, to use but one example, have admitted in court to filing takedowns against content to which they KNOW they have no legal claim, but have yet to be punished for their abuse.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition, extort money from innocent victims, and silence criticism.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. While companies should have the right to protect their own intellectual property, the DMCA has often been used by big companies to stamp on small companies or individuals, and they are not punished for this - this cannot be allowed to continue. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech, and punished accordingly. Individuals who issue takedown notices on content to which they have no rights would be punished - corporations should not be considered any better in the eyes of the law.
In addition to the statements above, the DMCA process is not fairly adjusted to account for False DMCA Claims (Claims that would be found as Fair Use in a court of law). This process must take into account the creators of content who create parody and satire who are attack by the DMCA process by those who do not wish for their intellectual property to be shown in a negative light. With this in mind, a process where creators can have some form of protection from False DMCA claims, or claims that are used as harassment, needs to be implemented.
Respectfully,
Thomas
False DMCA take downs are hurting not just you tubers but freedom of speech as well as well as spiting creativty which could have become the next big thing that could even possibly create a better future for children.
The long and short of it is that this old and out dated system needs to go.
People on youtube are abuseing this system becuase they just dont agree. Thats pretty much it.
As a member of a small entertainment network, I am finding it increasingly difficult to avoid fraudulent claims and abusive take down notices, even on content containing absolutely no copyrighted material. Companies and individuals have begun to excessively abuse the DMCA takedown process as a means to silence critics and eliminate their competition. These outdated laws are being used every day to exploit and berate the very individuals they were meant to protect.
As our world changes and the internet becomes a larger part of our daily interactions, livelihoods and exchange of information, it becomes that much more important to ensure that the culture and information we've invested into the internet isn't lost to or corrupted by a system that no longer works. Please, help us to stop these fraudulent copyright claims and DMCA takedowns, and protect the free speech that is the pride of this country.
My name is Thomas, and even though I didn't wright the majority of this message personally, it's words represent my concerns regarding DMCA takedowns and the seeming disreguard for "fair use." This situation has resulted in the harassment and abuse of law-abiding people by various companies, and this needs to change.
The current system used to "protect" content creators is very broken and outdated and should be revised. Many times people are taken down for using content they created themselves. Please consider revising the DMCA rules.
DMCA is used unfairly to threat, censor, and destroy content creators online. Big companies are filing false claims to take down content just so they can silence the content creator for "breaking copyright laws" when in reality 90% their content goes under fair use.
How is it that content creators who upload videos following and respecting community guidelines get so much punishment while people that constantly break these rules don't receive any punishment whatsoever?
How is it even allowed that a system so broken and outdated can still be used to commit crimes against content creators, and by big companies of all people?
This needs to stop, because content creators are not going anywhere
The DMCA system is used and abused by individuals and companies who know full well that the content they are flagging falls under fair use and should not be flagged. It is used for creators to silence their critics, by people who don't even own content to make quick money, and it is used to stifle a basic human right, the right to free speech. Sometimes there is not even any source material shown, either in audio or visual format, but a video in which people discuss a movie that they don't like is flagged, such as what happened to a YouTube user named The Cinema Snob (Brad Jones).
I own a youtube channel (that reviews films) and have personally been victim of over half a dozen false claims. Every video I have ever made falls under fair use, however this does not stop claims from being made. It is well known that there are companies that make a living from false claims, as under youtube's current system the cash from the monetization will go directly to them, without dispute. This act is extremely outdated as it was created long before the internet existed in it's current form. Youtube's automatic detection (in my experience) is almost always wrong and has never recognised that my videos fall under fair use.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
On sites such as YouTube I have noticed a lot of false copyright claims. They can cause a lot of stress for uses and even can destroy the way someone makes a living. I watch a lot of YouTuber's that use fair use and follow the law diligently, yet companies unfairly give false copyright claims left and right. They even do this on videos that don'y have any footage of what someone is reviewing, parodying, ect. and they still get taken down for no reason whatsoever and I think that's wrong. Please change this law and give people the freedom of speech and rights they deserve.
As a young adult I just don't see why this is completely fair. With the misuse of this it can lead to drastic complications. And while I know you may be trying to do the right thing you must understands the many worries of people about this.
I do have little knowledge and research of this though I can speak from the heart like any other human being. Just look at this situation in the view of other people and you can see why they worry so much.
Only an idiot (or greedy capitalist) would ever the able to play with the notion that DMCA is fair, unbiased or pro-fair use. It is not only pathetic and concerning that this (SEVERELY OUTDATED) law is still being enforced, but it's hurting a lot of people just trying to make an honest living. Stop being a total butt. Change this.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily bia sed in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This is unforgivable! This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. They think that they could get fame for taking down something that they don't like, and that's just wrong! Why are people doing this anyway!?
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at terrible risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. Some videos can be taken down when they show a clip for a split second, and take down the whole video. The music that we love from Japan on YouTube is very hard to find nowadays, because the owners of those songs has blocked it in The United States, same goes for Japanese channels that are not available in our country. This kind of damage can not be undone.
Besides, I had a reel of my own animation school that was posted on YouTube, but it was blocked in America because I used a song from Japan, but Victor Entertainment decided to block it anyway, even THOUGH I credited them for the original content. Same goes for my own mixes of videos of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic with Different music, mostly Japanese music. I don't want to let this happen ever again. And we internet creators must stand up and ABOLISH the DMCA like what we did for SOPA and PIPA.
The effects of copyright claims upon content creators are vast. Although they do not effect me as a viewer they do effect the content I consume which inadvertently effects me. Therefore I feel like fair use is vital for the survival of the future of Internet content.
I have seen how other content creators that have only uploaded screenshots of films or just talk about a specific topic, and will get their video's or photo's or blogs taken down. The internet used to be a free space where everyone has had a voice but more and more has been taken over by big business who squash out all of the little guys. Most content creators just starting out whether it be a critic or a cartoonist they meet this problem that has sprouted out of fear of being sued. Fear does not build it tares down what others have worked hard for. The internet isn't that old and it is already starting to die. I beg you to change the copyright laws. To allow for anyone to comment and share content, good or bad. Allow people to practice their first amendment rights and speak. I beg you, please see the error in the ways of big business right now, and look at the blatant abuse that is going on. The internet was great once and it can be even better yet.
Free the internet. Free our speech. Allow us to speak.
In the past few weeks multiple channels I watch on YouTube have had unjust DMCAs filed against them that have been proven to be unlawful. However, despite winning their appeals against the accusers, said channels have lost untold revenue as a consequence of these attacks. It is ridiculous that videos can be taken down by anyone and anyone can be censored for such a long period based on a groundless assertion. The DMCA laws of 1998 are not applicable to today's standard in which sites like YouTube are a reality that were beyond even imagining at during the creation of these laws. Currently, content creators on various platforms face a draconian 'guilty until proven innocent' system in which they suffer all the consequences of a crime they have not committed before it has even been proven they have done so. This is ludicrous and needs to stop. In order to maintain the Internet as an open market place of ideas, it is vital that these laws are updated and precedent is set for them to be updated and redefined as time passes so that they may always be relevant and suitable to the times. Today, companies use barely legal practices such as 'shadow companies' to file these claims and protect themselves, taking all the power away from the content creators. It needs to change. This single comment should be enough, but it is also joined by many, many others who believe in the right of the creator to express themselves freely without the fear of having what is often their only source of revenue damaged by vicious users and companies that sadly often suffer absolutely no consequences or ramifications of any kind for filing such frivolous DMCAs. The outcry for fair use can be heard today across the Internet and it's time to listen.
A lot of my favorite channels, heck even a lot of the channels I don't like all that much, have been heavily affected by these copyright strikes. dozens of video's unrightfully taken down from the web for a 2 second clip of a movie that was used as an in-joke, even while full disclaimers about the ownership were made. This law is extremely outdated and enforced with extremely unfair prejudice. That is why I support this motion
hello there i'm emailing you to inform you about why the dmca treaties are vastly outdated it was meant for the internet of the 90's back then it was much much different than it is now youtube back then was an absurd idea that would have been laughed at but now its where most people go to get there entertainment and with the dmca being from so long ago and with the rapid changes that have occurred over even the last 10 years and those two treaties originally meant to both give the copyright holder power to take down something off the internet as well as protect the small creator who is under question but right now especially with youtube it's being used to stifle free speech* and worst of all the people who abuse it claiming stuff that's not there's and sometimes even knowing that they are on the wrong side of the law** have walked away without so much as a fine some suggestions to fix it is to offer stern consequences and after a certain amount of times where they have been in the wrong about it then prevent them from filing anymore take downs at first do it temporarily but eventually they should no longer have the ability to stifle the voices of people who literally depend on the internet (youtube especially) for there own lively hood because when they cant post anything or get any revenue from what is essentially there job than that person in the current environment is out of luck especially on youtube where they almost never reach a court because there are so many of them and it would frankly be a waste of everyone's time
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0qoD3viXL0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzXSQ5f08sA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH-8PqS84qA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRW4KRPKgQU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ZmVheuxpo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfgoDDh4kE0
** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dHGVF2syAQ
there's much more but more likely than not you get the idea
YouTube in general has become a battlefield in the last couple of years. I remember the first time I heard about false copyright claims, it was on an OfficialNerdCubed video where he got a claim for having a soundbite from Portal 2 in his video for less than 2 seconds. That video was uploaded around four years ago (if I remember correctly). Dan walked his audience through copyright and proved to everyone of us that there was no reason that he should have gotten a copyright claim. Now it's four years later, 2016, and YouTube has done nothing to stop this. Great YouTube content creators are getting their work stolen and getting the money ripped from their hands because YouTube has a terrible system.
YouTube's system works like this: ANY company can take ANY content with NO PROOF, and the creator will be GUILTY until proven INNOCENT. Now I understand why we need to have a copyright system, we cannot just let people come on to YouTube and upload a full movie and make money off of it, even though it's common to see people actually do that anyway. YouTube is a giant business and I understand that it is very hard to have a colossal site like YouTube run perfectly. But on the other hand a huge business like YouTube should be able to figure out a better way to make sure that no one is breaking the law on their site and make sure that they can protect their content creators.
YouTube is this new generation's T.V, and YouTube needs to start to realize that if they don't fix their preexisting problems then it will scare off some of the people who want to be YouTube's next huge star. There are some really great content creators out there that are just too small to bounce back from a copyright strike, or people who put A LOT of time into making content that when they get a strike on a video it does some serious damage. Because YouTube isn't what it was in 2006, where you just uploaded cat videos and sent the link to your friends. This is YouTube in 2016, it's been a decade and YouTube is a BUSINESS, where people log on to entertain and be entertained, YouTube is a JOB where you put in your hours and get paid because of your effort. I want YouTubers that I personally love to get paid, to not get their hard work stolen from them.
I personally want to be a YouTuber myself, but honestly, I'm scared. I don't want to have the fear of "Oh is this video I just spent 20+ hours on going to get a copyright claim?" Even though I know that I was in the legal boundaries of fair use. If I worked in an office and I worked day in, day out. If your boss was handing you your paycheck and some random person you didn't even know ran up and ripped your check out of your hands and ran off, and your boss just said "Sorry it's your fault", how would you feel? Actually no, your boss wouldn't say it to you he would send you an automated email that has no emotion or any hint of empathy for your situation.
YouTube is wonderful, I spend anywhere from 2-12 hours a day on the site just watching my sub box to see if there is any new content for me to watch. YouTubers are a part of my life, but I know I'm not the only one. But YouTube needs to realize that if they want to be taken seriously that they need to fix their site. #WTFU
This system not only allows for computerized error but also practically invites abuse by copyright holders to tear down content that comments on their work under the principles of fair use without punishment. In these situations, the critical content creators are GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT, and the copyright holders who attack the content creators either leave the situation with no ill effects or even profit from the monetization of the content on sites like youtube or vimeo.
The DMCA is horribly outdated and is easily abused by those with malicious intentions. The freedom of speech of many content creators is under attack by these malicious entities, which is neither fair to them nor constitutional. The internet needs an updated way to deal with these copyright issues- a way that allows for freedom of expression and stops malicious entities from abusing these content creators.
DMCA takedowns are almost solely used to steal revenue from content creators. Theft like this needs to be stopped
Let fair use work the way it was intended!
you can takedown pretty much whatever someone uploads. solid
Stahp friggin shutting our mouths and let us talk and be ourselves.
This use of take-downs also violates consumer protection laws-as the take-downs can be used by company s to take-down video reviews of games that they asked the reviewer to review. If the review is bad then they take it down. I as a consumer use these video reviews in order to help make informed decisions about my purchases-If these videos are supremely easy to take-down then my ability to be protected as a consumer is violated. Also this violates the First Amendment and the right to freedom of speech. If I am allowed to say what I want about a game to my friends, I should be able to state the same reasons on Youtube or other video sites.
DMCA needs to be rewritten to engage with the modern internet. I understand and support the need to protect against piracy, but the current DMCA model does not support the creators of the content itself. Content creators can be an amazing amount of good PR for products and company's-They benefit from this content.
Thank you for your consideration on this matter.
the system in place does not benefit content creators. In fact from what i have seen, it is making their lives harder. I have heard countless stories of youtubers having to worry every day, they have to go through every day of their lives knowing that one day their account might be taken down due to an illegitimate claim. If youtube wants to continue functioning, the system MUST change
I want the system to be fair and to not be abusable by anyone.
You've no doubt seen hundreds, if not thousands of the templated emails absolutely in opposition to DMCA takedowns. I've decided to go off script, and while I won't go too in depth, I will say the practice of DMCA takedowns has become one of the most toxic and cancerous practices on the internet. Instead of protecting content creators, these takedowns have essentially been weaponized by old media corporations and internet trolls alike to silence and stifle the opinions of small content creators. This practice has gone on long enough and it's time for a change. Where's the fair use?
Basically, we need protection; not "protection". Update this stone tablet of a law and there will be major long-term benefits and it will have no adverse effect on the sales of copyrighted material. If you don't, the first amendment of the constitution will continue to be consistently violated and it will harm all of the media in general and alienate people both politically and cripple them financially. It will harm the economy and these media companies.
The things I have found being abused is mostly on YouTube when someone claims to own a video and they get the money until the issue is fixed now I know people will give you problems and not ways to make it better but I have a way for it to be better if someone issues a copyright claim but the money in a noncashable state until the issue is fixed then give the money back to the rightful owner of the video and have people fill in information because false copy right is a crime and should not be taken lightly. Thank you for reading -Gabby Alaina and Austin of PuppetMakerzVideos on YouTube.
What follows is a form letter, that I 100% agree with, but I thought I might be overlooked if I didn't add something extra.
I am a Canadian who watches a multitude of American content on YouTube and Twitch. It is hilarious how awful the system is for copyright. No penalties for false claims makes it an easy choice for companies to want to take down videos for a multitude of reasons, even if there isn't any copyrighted material in the video. This is especially prone to happen if the video is critiquing the company or the product in a way they would prefer for people to not see. The level of censorship, theft of income, and animosity allowed under the ancient 1998 legislation is absurd. Please, fix it now.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
As for me personally, I have been hit with copyright despite fair use by companies such as WWE, Hasbro, even from Nintendo and the people that made Tomb Raider. In the case of Tomb Raider, I was essentially advertising their game through a Let's Play, and they monetized my video so I can't get anything, despite their being fair use. One of my closest friends on YouTube has also been taken down due to YouTube's broken copyright system multiple times, whether it be through misuse of Fair Use, or constant spamming of flagging his stuff that let to his livelihood being threatened. This has to stop. It's time for a change.
I am a big fan of jim sterling, YMS, I hate everything, cinema sin, honest trailers, nostalgia critic and many other shows and it hurts me to see these people be abused and I suffer as well as I'm not able to enjoy the content they created.
FIX NOW
-Wyatt
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new to review the laws placed in the original act of 1998 and update it that it more accurately suits the internet of today and regularly reviews this so that it reflects the state of our society today. The changes in the review should also be safeguarding the protection against abuse of the copyright claiming system and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I personally have been affected by this since I am a Dj making me a content creator however due to the outdated copyright laws which the DMCA has enacted I am practically banned from posting any of my Dj mixes on site such as Youtube or soundcloud since doing so can and most likely would result in the termination of my account. I used to make mashups of songs and post them to youtube however I can no longer do that since one of my videos resulted in me getting a copyright strike on my video, leading me to take all of my mashups down despite the fact that I was altering both songs in a way that added value to the original source material and I was also not making any money from it since I live in a country where I am not allowed to monetize videos. Still I got a copyright strike against my video due to the automated system and out of fear that my account would be suspended or deleted I deleted all my other videos to do something else. The fact that I was not able to promote my mashups even though I was not making money or getting much exposure yet I was still forced to take down a video makes things impossible for me to gain any viewers or promote myself or gain fame. Even recently I was to make a creative project for my school and I had the idea to post Dj tutorials on Youtube and I was hit with a copyright claim from the automated system because my tutorial had copyrighted music in it. Mind you this was a tutorial, and yet I was still, what I would interpret as threatened, because a tutorial had copyrighted music in it. To my knowledge I believe the DMCA has a section which blatantly states that if I mention or use copyrighted material for educational purposes then I am protected from copyright infringement. However it also said that I would be protected if I added value to the copyrighted material but that did not stop me from receiving a copyright strike the first time. Because of the DMCA I can't promote myself as a DJ which is critical to being a successful DJ and I'm barely allowed to educate others on how to be a DJ like me which I view as unfair because it makes the art of being a Disk Jockey be seen as criminal. I understand that the copyright holders of intellectual property need to be careful about how they manage it so that they receive their rights in a respectful manner however individuals such as myself ar going out of their way to make sure that the copyright holders are always credited and by viewing my content they will receive free promotion however I do not show the entirety of the content as to reduce possible viewership of the content as a whole but yet the copyright holders or the automated system behave in such a way where it comes across as the only people allowed to show even a portion of the copyrighted material is the copyright holders themselves.
Companies cannot think they are above the law and oppress those who abide by it. We must stop this as it is unfair and immoral.
Content across many platforms have been stolen with no punishment. And many have lied about others comiting crimes without punishment. Both of these sides earn revenue for doing this. But those who are innocent suffer, and without a strong enough voice it will stay that way.
Too many content creators are losing money and being harassed and are having their livelihoods threatened.
Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer.
We are the internet. We are the metaphysical embodiment of free speech, and people who could care less about that are being ignorant, and no one seem to care. Help us, please.
People can now take down content that they don't like on youtube, and get payed for it. They can go against the law, ignoring fair use, and proffit from it, without any sort of penalties or restrictions. This needs to change, i want fair use to be fair use, not to be a joke in the eyes of people.
#WTFU
I personally use the Internet as my main source of entertainment and I have seen many continent creators who have been threatened, robbed, abused, and even destroyed. It is a broken and outdated policy that needs to be changed.
There also needs to be some form of penalty for company's who use shell companies to avoid any responsibility. As well as many companies and organizations taking the ad revenue of many video creators (mostly those on YouTube) and leaving the original creators with nothing. It goes completely against the idea of free speech and should not be allowed.
^Though that is a just a form, I''ve read it and fully agree.
"Guilty until proven innocent" is neither a just or reasonable system.
I've seen countless abuses of copyright law to quash videos and even just audio podcasts. And that is frankly absurd. YouTube most of all. A 12 second clip from a song from 1932 getting MykeruMedia's channel limited. Sargon of Akkad has had a dozen or so takedowns, even from prestigious Universities. Beyond that, any two bit hack can DMCA a vid because they don't like the type of person watching the video. The current law protects those who need no protection and serves as a weapon against the first amendment. Listen to the creators, not the lawyers of big business.
People on YouTube inflict copyright claims regardless of if there is copyrighted music, footage, or anything! Once they finally lose the battles they should, they put on another claim! They think that they make the law. They shouldn't be allowed to harass people who use YouTube as a legitement way to make money and live. They use copyright claims as threats, and refuse to take it to court, even though they still try to take down the video! Please, don't let them harass people who aren't doing ANYTHING wrong. This needs to be fixed.
Copyright is a joke in the internet DMC abuses a vulnerable system, companies use them as threats taking videos down with no music or video it is a joke a bad one too
Personal note: I'm an aspiring YouTube content creator, and the faulty takedown system fills me with dread that my channel will be snuffed out before I have a chance to do anything with it. Greedy companies and petty individuals should not be able to stifle creativity and make faulty copyright claims. Transformative, creative fair use must be protected.
Let us hope that the fair use law is not dead.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copupright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Aside from all of the other things said, I just don't feel safe uploading, due to the abuse in this system! That shouldnt ever be the case...
In my case, I am another YouTuber who is a victim of the terrible system for copyright. What happened was one of my videos got flagged for copyright and I was very afraid of getting a strike and my video getting taken down. But you know what's funny? All I did was quote one line of a country song in my review of it. I didn't play any portions of the song, I didn't play any of the music video, I was just sitting in a chair and talking about the song. I believe that the company flagged my video in an attempt to silence my criticism. This is definitely 100% fair use. If this doesn't show how much these laws need to change, then I don't know what will. #WTFU
In addition to all of the legal ramifications it needs to be noted that if DMCA is taken away or merely changed it needs to be maintained no matter what happens. It is ludicrous to see numerous content creators using viewers to manipulate the law in an abusive manner. Dedicate this opportunity to revamping the DMCA to protect content in a fair way.
False DMCA take downs have harmed many hard working people on the internet. YouTube has become a job and people live off the money that their job makes. Having a video taken down by false copyright is the equivalent to not giving somebody a deserved paycheck. Something needs to be done about this now.
Good day,
I am a small time Youtube specialized on gaming videos, in the form of Lets Plays, and gaming critique and I've personally faced issues with the DMCA system outright taking revenue from me for music used in games by game developers after they licensed it from their respective owners for the game. This system does not account for this as when the DMCA was drafted Youtube was still science fiction and the concept of someone recording themselves playing a game to entertain others and post it online was not even thought of.
This system also allows for critique videos, such as my own, to get hit with copyright strikes either by the owner of the respective content or even by third parties with the goal of attempting to destroy smaller Youtubers, who do not have any means of fighting back a account termination, and much like swatting it has become a tool in the arsenal of individuals with a chronic lack of scruples or empathy.
I've also seen legitimate Youtubers I subscribe to get hit by the DMCA system or outright nuked with little to no warning in events such as the Shining Force related google search manipulation done by Sega Japan and this was enacted via blatant abuse of the DMCA system because videos, entire channels even, got taken down for simply mentioning the game, simple words no footage, no image, nothing, from the game, and in the cases of the smaller Youtubers, those without a partner or money for a lawyer, those strikes and channel terminations were, to the best of my knowledge, never removed.
The DMCA needs a serious revision or to be replaced by a new document which follows its spirit but accounts for the internet as we see it today and for the plethora of scenarios which fall under Fair Use, critique and wholly transformative works, and stipulates harsh punishments for those who attempt to use the system as a cudgel to silence dissenting opinions, critique,etc, or marketing stunts such as the Shining Force example above.
Thank you for your time.
With respect,
The Romanian Reaver.
these take downs are being done for very stupid and unreasonable reasons, if i want to use footage to make a point or review, why am i being punished for making a video reviewing a tv show or movie,
if its fair, why hurt us?????
there are people making videos when they're talking in a car after a movie, with no footage, and its still taken down.
and the money for up to 90 days from these videos we the creators made, can be claimed by the person trying to take the video down, when really they don't deserve it at all
Not only that, but reviewers who go without the use of copyrighted material are being condemned without proper analysis, foundation or representation. Revenue lost from strikes and blocks is never reimbursed or refunded, and as a result online users are struggling in their newly chosen profession. Media sharing sights are failing to be updated or recognise these problems, much like the actual law, and fail to modernize to new, more profitable audience. The losses made in these condemnations of fairly used material pales in comparison to the gains that be made if this is reorganised and fixed to benefit all users, not just specific ones.
_______________________________________________________________________________
If we uphold the status quo, corporations will continue to stifle free speech and people's livelihoods will be ruined as a consequence. I cannot allow that to happen.
I just want my favourite content creators to be able to entertain people and get paid for it without problems. Copyright is important, but the inability to stop false claims and takedowns can destroy lives. Please, save these people. Because almost every day some idiot thinks they have the legal high ground to simply say "This is mine, I should get paid for it." when they don't. There needs to be a system to punish those who make false or uneducated claims.
Alternately if there is a way for them to be more careful instead of blindly applying these take down notices, it would be a better solution.
The copyright system today is being constantly abused by corporate and non-corporate entities looking for ways to cheat hard working content creators out of their work that abides by copyright laws. Especially today on YouTube, where anyone could ruin a channel simply by filing a DMCA takedown, yet not receive any punishment for a false claim, only encourages the behavior and abuse of the system.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected by fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I love watching the videos have entertained me for so long. But im tired of seeing video being taken down for no reason what so ever. The system is so flawed and broken and needs to be fixed. I dont want to see these content creators who have entertained and got me through the worst of days by just making me laugh go away. Things need to change and change now. Please dont let this go unnoticed and let fair use be fair use. notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The internet evolves to much for a law made so many years ago to actually function like it's supposed to in today's world. It's being abused so much by the big corporations/companies just looking to make a quick buck, 90% of the time on things they have no right to claim and that are completely under FAIR USE or they are using other smaller companies to cover themselves. Please actually listen and see that we aren't just blowing hot air. Things needs to change. I don't want to put up a video about a family event and have it claimed for something that wasn't even in the video and have someone make a profit off it when originally there was none. It's unfair and unjust.
I have seen it time and time again: Creative individuals on YouTube who rely on these videos as their jobs having their works, or even their entire channels, taken down, despite them not violating any rules and them taking the extra effort to make sure they meet fair use and free speech with every bit of new content they upload.
The copyright holders are not held accountable for these false takedown notices as they should be, and a system needs to be implemented so that they are restricted if they post too many false claims. This system should also look for other individuals who take advantage of this abused system and stealing other content creator's well earned money.
I may only be one person voicing their opinion on this, but I know I'm not alone, either. The entirety of the internet is watching in hopes that the right decision gets made, and I'll be waiting alongside them.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly abused by these people and corporations to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and abuse and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
PROTECT OUR RIGHTS!
Please watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8it This sums everything up very nicely. Thank you for your time.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Fac.ebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free spe
SERIOUSLY THIS HAS TO CHANGE THIS PROCESS CAN HELP US BUT ITS HURTING US!
The fact that literally anyone on the Internet can file copyright claims against content creators while providing next to no information on why and how exactly the content creator is breaking copyright law, while the content creators themselves must fight an uphill battle to secure rights that they should already be entitled to is not right, and not fair. These policies need to change.
Dear Who Ever Reads This,
I have not personally been affected by this, but many others have been. Even some reviewers who stopped using copyrighted righted footage, and they still get copyright claims from this, and even if they give credit to the creator they will still get taken down.
If you even just read this I thank you so much,
Ryan Weiss
Channels like ChannelAwesome (formerly ThatGuyWithTheGlasses), Nostalgia Critic, I Hate Everything, GradeAUnderA and other channels that do reviews and make content are getting their content taken down by DMCA claims that are false, under false pretenses, or strictly on the basis that they didn't like the content. It's time to ask where the fair use is.
DmCA is broken right now. So many creator that i follow have to go to such ridiculous lengths just to try to keep people from claiming and striking their videos. No matter whether or not a piece of content is fair use or not doesn't seem to matter anymore. Because 99% of videos i see that are taken down are under fair use and should be unable to be claimed.
The worst part is that you don't even need proof that something is yours to claim on it. Completely random people go around maliciously claiming other peoples videos just out of spite.
The DMCA hasn't been revised since 1998 and the internet now days is NOTHING I mean it NOTHING like it was back then. We can't protect ourselves with a policy that is over 20 years old and extremely outdated.
So please please please bring a reform to this policy. make the internet a safe place for content creators again.
If you need examples just type false copyright claims in to you tube and observe the slew of evidence.
The DMCA laws do not account for any internet entertainment, or most of the modern internet at all. There are people filing false copyright complaints, some of which to content they do not even own, and even when there isn't any of the content at all, just people putting videos of them talking about the content or the content not even being mentioned in the video, there are still copyright complaints. These people take all the revenue and can destroy peoples jobs like this, and even take personal information without having to give it themselves. They don't need to provide any information confirming who they are at all, and if they're mentally stable to have information such as personal addresses.
The worst part is that they have NO CONSEQUENCES for filing false copyright complaints. The creator will have many consequences because they decided to file a false complaint, but the claimant gets no punishment, and even get all of the revenue from the time it was being resolved (which is a long time) and not having to give it back when declared a false claim, demonstrating to all that this is a great way to get money that the law hasn't caught up to yet.
There are people filing claims because of hurtful opinions and stealing money, among other reasons, and that isn't right.
I appreciate fully the purpose of copyright, but I feel that humans should be doing the job of pointing out an abuse of copyright, and fair use should be taken more seriously, especially with regards to reviews.
There are many examples where, even if clips of media were not shown on the internet, they would simply be viewed in a similar manner anyway by people in their own homes. And often times those examples benefit the copyright holders anyway simply by being used.
Many "Youtube Poops" have actually inspired me to re-watch the films and media used to create them.
The DMCA as it currently stands is a broken, easily abused system that clearly favors those issuing the claims over the content creators. It allows virtually anyone to claim videos that contain no copyrighted material whatsoever (such as video reviews that consist solely of two people in a car *discussing* a film) and that copyrighted material that is clearly *supposed* to be protected under Fair Use law. The system is so broken that claimants can claim content that may not even be theirs in the first place!
To make matters worse, the system currently in place in no way punishes or penalizes those who issue false DMCA takedowns. Numerous channels large and small have been hit with false DMCA copyright strikes and lost revenue for *weeks* with absolutely no recourse as their livelihood is threatened and their revenue to taken from them and given to someone who has no right to do so.
This is only a few of the more famous YouTube channels that have repeatedly been hit with false DMCA claims as a means of harassment and intimidation:
Jim Sterling
Themysteriousmrenter
Channel Awesome
Anime America
Lost Pause
The Anime Man
Your Movie Sucks
I Hate Everything
Drwolf
Joshscorcher
TeamFourStar
CinemaSnob
Potatobombkyle Lego Productions
CinemaSins
AlternateHistoryHub
Jontron
BadComedian
Sargon of Akkad
Chris Stuckman
Bobsheaux
Sheeleシェーレ
BrainScratch Commentaries
NFKRZ
Pyrocynical
The Gaming Czar
Games Repainted
AdoseofBuckley
Totalbiscuit
Matthias
ToddintheShadows
And there are no doubt countless more on YouTube and elsewhere. This system is nearly twenty years out of date and is currently easy to abuse as a means of harassment, intimidation, and silencing criticism, and all at zero risk to those who intend to use it as such.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies
Its unfair and it needs to be updated
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a broken, easily-abused travesty that needs to be rewritten and updated to fit the modern internet. The DMCA was written in a time when sites like Youtube were small and bound to fail, while now Youtube is one of the biggest sites for content creation. The DMCA allows corporations to attack content creators freely and without abandon, often outright destroying them despite them having made only original content or content that would be protected under fair use. The DMCA allows these copyright holders to not only infringe on these content creators freedom of speech, but it also allows them to destroy their businesses and to even steal money from them.
A system so plainly biased against content creators should not be in place, especially if it allows a company or corporate body to steal money that said content creators had by rights and principle.
WTF DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards, which should not only include bots and programs, to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims even if these victims did not plan on profiting from their creations. It should never be too easy to profit from the creations of others, as it should be seen as theft.
Plus, one of the main reasons why I'm sending this comment, is because as one user and possible content creator, it's concerning that are no safety for creators which use Youtube, people are being exploited by the big corporations for just a couple of dollars.
The bible reloaded, Chris stuckman and them are some amazing content creators, that are being suppressed!
First, some basic stuff:
Now for my take:
The internet is THE home for content in today's world and going forward into the future. It is a unique platform, one that allows anyone from massive corporations to small individuals to share their voice. Or at least, that is what is supposed to happen. When the DMCA was written in 1998, it made sense for 1998. The DMCA still makes sense for 1998, but not for 2016. What was once a solid wall protecting creators is now a nightmarish tool of abuse that can ruin lives, harming creative individuals and silencing free speech. We need change and we need it now.
The DMCA had the best intentions when it was written. If we truly want to honor those intentions, we must take action now.
I am a part of a small YouTube channel that received a strike from Nintendo on a reel video on Mario Kart 8. I used a reel editor in the game and then uploaded it to Youtube using the game. As of why i got this claim from them even though they allow people to do it is something I do not understand.
I have seen channels like I Hate Everything taken down due to the broken and out of date DMCA system. BrainSCratchComms got a strike on a part of their video commentary by an actress that was in no way related to the video at hand. She thankful heard about this and assisted then in getting the strike removed.
Channel Awsome had lost it's monitixzation privliges for TWO WEEKS even though all of the videos on the channel are within the fair use laws. DMCA was made in the 80's, times have changed. The law needs updated to better fit the current world we live in. For the sake of the content creators on the internet, Please fix what is broken!
As a viewer, I have seen some of my favorite YouTube channels taken down without notice or even an apology. The Fair Use act, a LEGAL DOCTORINE, has long been a line of defence between the content creators from both sides (the reviewer and the creator, for example). But this law has been discredited by the creators. Fair Use clearly states that content can be used without permission as long as it is used for a 'transformative' purpouse such as parodying the source material, criticizing it or to make a simple comment on. So according to YouTube, where there is no fair use, making a SIMPLE COMMENT on a movie, game, or other copyrighted work, is copyright infringement. There are channels that literally STEAL other people's work, UNEDITED, and post it on YouTube. An example of this is the Pixel Pinkie channel, a channel that uploaded all the episodes of Pixel Pinkie, unedited. That is copyright infringement. A channel known as TheMysteriousMrEnter, made a video criticizing the show and got his video copyright striked. Fair Use states that you can use content without permission to criticize it, yet this was ignored and the revenue made by HIS video, was stolen by Blue Rocket Studios. Another example of the failiure of the copyright system was he drama between the channel I Hate Everything and Derek Savage. IHE uploaded a video criticizing his 'movie', which falls under Fair Use. Derek Savage, out of pure spite, put a copyright strike on IHE's video and literally threatened him to delete his video, going as far as to impersonate a law firm. IHE recieved all the punishment for a crime he didn't commit and Derek Savage got away scot-free. At some point, every YouTuber has to deal with copyright strikes and takedowns, but this is getting way out of hand. Automated systems take down videos with copyrighted music, which they had permission for. An example of this is the YouTube channel NFKRZ, who got his videos stricken for his intro song, which he had permission to use. Because of this broken system, channels are silenced, taken down and abused. Free speech is a dream that will never be achieved if things keep going on like this. The 'You' part of YouTube will soon become blurry. Once in my life, I aspired to become a content creator. But I soon gave up on my dream because, I saw what YouTube was. It wasn't YouTube, it was something akin to Stalinist Russia. Say what we don't want you to say, and you get punished without an apology. Today, there are people who rely on YouTube to give them money to put food on the table. Because of this, people's lives will actually be ruined. Some people don't have the blessing of riches, but want to become entertainers. Some of these people, will go on to become YouTubers, if things go on like this, an entire generation of entertainers will be stirred away.
Youtube's automated DMCA takedown system has been used in abhorrent situations of bullying and silencing critics and content creators, while letting other, far worse people, go scott free. Entire channels of original content, shut down. Youtubers like IHE and Nostalgia Critic nearly losing their livelyhood.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The Dmca Take Downs have affected me and my and friends and the youtubers I look up to today....It is setup to take revenue from a Creator and Setup so anyone can take whatever video they feel has "Offended" them Down....Freedom of Speach is a basic Human Right
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted
works.
IT'S TIME TO STOP
People are constantly battling copyright on YouTube and other social media. I'm a victim of it. All I did was use a small bit of a song on my old YouTube channel, which eventually got me copyright strikes. I try not to talk about it but it still haunts me.
I made another YouTube channel on July 2014. I try not to use anything copyrighted, yet I still have fear of strikes. There's never been a day in my life where I felt comfortable uploading something to YouTube. The copyright mess needs to stop. Hollywood makes a lot of money in the box office. The internet can't destroy Hollywood. The only thing that can destroy it is themselves.
The copyright system on YouTube is broken. You never know when or if your channel will get removed. I'm pretty sure that 5 of my subscribers got deleted because of this.
We need to stop this. We need to save the internet. Copyright was never meant to abuse the average user. Let's make the internet a better place for all content creators.
So many times have I seen many people get strikes for a simple little clip or picture, there is nothing wrong with that, things need to change now.
The current copyright laws on the internet are completely fascist. Videos that are within the boundaries of fair use are still getting taken down without any consequences for those making false claims. Creators have gotten their revenue taken from them. That is more than just taking down work, that is flat out theft. It's not okay to use a few clips but it is okay to take money away from people who have earned it? I have seen people get harassed and bullied by those claiming copyright. These companies have become little more than playground bullies who throw a hissy fit when someone doesn't like their work. Even positive reviews are taken down despite the fact that they promote the films they review. The Hollywood system is sabotaging itself with this nonsense. It's time for the internet to wake up. Where's the fair use?
The system is heavily outdated, many of us use the Internet for everything now-a-days, the DMCA was created in the 1900s, when the Internet was very small. The DMCA is not protecting anyone anymore, no one runs to it, we run away from it, because it's outdated.
It's ridiculous how the system is being abused and fir some if the most far fetched dumbest reasons too.
I agree with this, and what many people who have spoken out against this have said, the system is broken, and I hope we can fix it and stop aggressive, unfair, and sometimes toxic behavior involving this.
These companies described above even use their false claims as threats to YouTube content creators. These companies even abuse the current DMCA laws in ways to make extra cash on another content creator's video using something called a false claim. These false claims are a way for an individual to claim their copyright in another's video, and when enacted that video's ad revenue goes to the claimant. When these claims are false, a company who does not hold any copyright on a video gets to steal ad revenue on videos without any repercussions. Even after a false claim is cleared, nothing is stopping them from creating another false claim; thus stealing more ad revenue on a popular YouTube video before that false claim gets cleared. And this situation has been happing far too often, and new rules need to be put in place to reign in these dishonest practices/interpretations of the current DMCA laws.
This notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I've personally seen friends have multiple videos in a series of narrated stories taken down when all of the stories were not only written by different authors, but the narrator who pays the videos had purchased the right to use the images and music used in the video along with permission from the authors. The claims were baseless but the videos are still gone and so is the money they would have made off of them. Another video creator had a video taken down that used no images or audio aside from them taking on camera taken down because the creator of the movie they were reviewing didn't like what they had to say. This is actually rather common, where you can't make abutting coveted under fair use about certain movies or other media because the creator will always file a claim against you. It's a blatant violation of fair use, but nothing is done because of how unfairly the current law treats anyone who is making content covered under fair use.
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Copyright is abused in its current outdated form. Content creators are at the mercy of literally anyone willing to easily file a DMCA without any need for proof or punishment for falsely accusing of one. Copyright was established with having in mind defending the content creators and those who encourage creativity from thievery, but now copyright us used in the current internet by big companies and companies who sole purpose is to claim DMCAs in defense of the employer company. Time after time these claims are falsely made and are claim stolen content when the material doesn't belong to them, the creator has been unjustly accused, no content was taken (yes, there have even been claims sent on people JUST TALKING about the content), and/or the material in use is justified under fair use. Many of these companies don't even take fair use into consideration when they are LEGALLY OBLIGATED to take it into consideration. The problem with this is that, if brought to legal court, no one will be able to stand up to large companies with enough funds to sway the jury system to their favor. Because of this, many content creators have been strong-armed by corporations to censor content and restrict the artistic and financial stability of thousands of people. This is unjust and must be stopped. Please, don't let this continue. I must ask you, where is the fair use? #WTFU
Properly acknowledge fair use again for the better of humanity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
Short and simple, the DMCA laws are outdated and are being abused to an extreme, and need to be updated
I always dreamed of becoming a famous YouTuber and work with other famous Youtubers. There's no way I'm letting my dream die. I'm willing to fight for my dream. I even asked my mom if could borrow her email address for this.
Regardless of fair use, content creators across the internet have been bombarded with copyright claims because of revenue. I have seen channels that post entire copyrighted movies (full-length) with no backlash because they are small channels and gain nothing from the views. Meanwhile, content creators whose main (and often only) source of income is YouTube are getting harassed, threatened, bombarded, and abused by claims that may not even be true. Too many times have I watched a video by a good content creator and they will madly scramble to turn off a sudden song that starts playing because of copyright. While Fair Use is a law, it us horrendously abused by companies who often use shell companies to file claims.
Nintendo, being the strictest of these companies, has issued takedowns and completely removed revenue from content creators using their products, characters, or likeness. Not only does this hurt the company, but it also removes revenue from content creators.
Fair Use is there for a reason, but it seems like it no longer applies. In a country where lobbying is legal, it is unsurprising that big companies have bullied their way into the legal system, but it begs the question - is Washington the true governing body or is corporate America?
This has gone on long enough, Washington. Do something about it.
First and foremost, I am not a large entity persona on YouTube. Im a small content creator with little resources at my disposal, fan exposure, or income via YouTube. The DMCA as it stands is nothing more then a broken system used to assault others in a way where no repercussions happen for falsified claims. That single use has bin the greatest tool for harassment and out right assassination of a person’s carrier then any other form of shady business practice. Many have made aware (Jimsterling, Nostalgia Critic, Angry Joe, etc) of how this practice has happened and hurt them, and they are not unknown personas in the YouTube community. Yet, for those without the resources at their disposable, many face an overwhelming task of fighting for their content and protecting it in a fair and legal way with alternative being any effert/work/resroces/income being wasted or striped in a system made at this point to be abused. YouTube its self has failed to respond accordingly as promised with their fair use or bother to even showcase any form of protection to those abiding by the terms YouTube its self mandated. As I said, I personally do what I can to create a YouTube persona yet feel strongly discouraged to even bother as a single entity if the community. This in its self should be enough of a reason for action as content will only become routine, stale, and pointless without the flow of more people willing and safe to have their work safe. I don’t know law, yet what I do know and strongly suggest would be that DMCA needs to be updated for an internet that has exponentially expanded since the days of conception. One top of that, equally harsh penalties should be acquired to companies or individuals who falsely accuse, and abuse others via abuse of the DMCA to where any said mention abuse or abusive climes would be discouraged rather then at this point automated forms of business warfare.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgement to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
All internet copyright laws should be reviewed and updated to reflect the world wide web of today. The laws are archaic and do not have any place in 2016.
I want to insert my personal comment before the copy-paste. Recently, a favorite podcast of mine was shut down by a false DMCA. They fought, and eventually won, against the claim, but the fact that they were shut down for about 2 weeks is stupid. They were in their complete right, and the law was completely on their side. The concept that any video can simply be taken down by anyone who's annoyed with them is wrong.
Well it's something that is need to be fixed, it has may holes on it, making it a weapon to silence the masses we need to know the difference between Fair use and Steal content, if you can give a flip to this Act it would be disastrous to people who gives reviews of games and movies, remember when the newspapers was invented? the free speech of people got mute for a while, and it keeps happening now in modern days, people will get seriously mad because we grew in an era that we are connected to everything, we used to save stuff un Floppys, later on cd's, flash drives, now we do it on a cloud, we are used to have everything on our devices and shutting off free speech would certainly end up opening more doors and windows to other acts that will end us, if you keep going on this train something pretty bad is going to happen to everyone and not only in US, but the whole world.
Think about it, if we accept this Everybody will have a Bad time
The dmca system has been abused by a lot of people ever since it has been abused byu companies like viacom that if they went to court they would be fair use
The system in place has been abused and will continue to be abused by parties who can't take criticism or the idea that other people can use their content in fair use to make videos and a income off of it. As a result they file false claims and strikes against content creators to try to censor and remove things they aren't in agreement with. There needs to be a penalty for false flagging like a large fine or jail time as punishment for a false strike we need to stop this it's gotten out of hand and will continue to get worse until we do something about it.
Fix this, please.
My voice may not be heard but if it does, all I wanna say is that we need to put an end to this. Many creative creators are getting hurt and some has even disappeared from their main effort, YouTube. It is sad to see all these haters, trolls and companies have great channels and their respective just as awesome creator getting slowed down and/or even taken down by strikes that isn't rightfully distributed by haters, trolls and companies. It has made many people sad and frustrated over how stupid the current system is and how they wish that they could change it . Well now they can. It makes me and a bunch of other people really happy over this decision to change everything for the better. From me and others wish that this will change everything for the better.
People who explicitly have disclaimers in front of their videos that they do not own any of the used footage and that they are using it for satire and criticism are being shutdown and the people who call the false shutdown aren't being punished.
This system is broken. Too many companies have abused this system to unfairly attack Youtubers and even shout down channels. This
The DMCA is a relic left over from an age where the newest form of media needed to be protected. Now, Hollywood and even random people claiming to own things just to claim them for the temporary revenue until the strike is removed (or often not) are using this law of protection and defense to restrict the freedom that should be within fair use of the new media. The overwhelming majority of copyright claims are for videos that do things with the original content, transforming it into something else, parodying or in some way bouncing off of the original content. It all falls under the already existing fair use. It is completely biased in favour of the original creators of the work, so that any video saying anything negative about anything can be taken down, simply because no human is behind the system realizing common sense that a that something like a negative review of an indie movie that probably even led to higher sales of the movie does not give the angry original creator the right to destroy fair use because he believes his work is perfect or something. While the current unsupported and "new" media is YouTube and the like, it will not always be that way. If the largest areas of issue with YouTube is copyright and plagiarism of another's work for the purposes of parody and review, this must not open all doors for full uploads of movies or even other Youtubers' videos for the purpose of one's own monetization. This will not be the last thing to happen to media, and something coming after that springboards from Youtubers, who as they grow larger tend to become corporations, filing claims on smaller Youtubers and insulating themselves from copyright claims to the point where they become the people they once hoped to defeat for the freedom of fair use, must not then be beaten down by the ever-growing more powerful predecessors. This is the best opportunity we as a community of Youtube have had to make lasting change to the poorly designed, archaic laws holding back something that has been declared a right, fair use. If possible, we must work not only to fix this problem and give the current lower rung of the media (Youtube) more power to avoid unfair copyright strikes from those above, but also to create something that can continue to hold true for the lower rung of media once Youtube has inevitably become what Hollywood is now.
As a person who spends so much time on YouTube it makes me sick seeing honest, hard working people getting their hard work monetised by others, removed from the internet and their livelihoods threatened. Channels such as Channel Awesome, I Hate Everything, Alternate History Hub, Your Movie Sucks, Pyrocynical and GradeAunderA are just a few who have been unfairly struck by false copyright claims and unfair attacks by companies and individuals either out to make money or who just can't take a bit of criticism.
This needs to end now, the DMCA need to step up their game and crack down on YouTube injustice. #WTFU
Here are users that have affected by this issue:
Jim Sterling
Themysteriousmrenter
Channel Awesome
Anime America
Lost Pause
The Anime Man
Your Movie Sucks
I Hate Everything
Drwolf
Joshscorcher
TeamFourStar
CinemaSnob
Potatobombkyle Lego Productions
CinemaSins
AlternateHistoryHub
Jontron
BadComedian
Sargon of Akkad
Chris Stuckman
Bobsheaux
Sheeleシェーレ
BrainScratch Commentaries
NFKRZ
Pyrocynical
The Gaming Czar
Games Repainted
AdoseofBuckley
Totalbiscuit
Matthias
ToddintheShadows
Angry Joe
ElectricDragon505
CentralDerp
Krimson Rogue
EyeOfSOl
Dragon Mage
CreepsMcPasta
Mr Nightmare
And many others
Please look into it.
I have watched reviewers and analysts on Youtube under Fair Use be constantly put down and abused by the broken Copyright system. Companies will use "Fair Use" as a threat, but do not have the grounds to back their claims. They monetize videos that have nothing to do with their content, and steal money from the content creators who in many cases make a living off their videos.
Copyright law must be changed for the greater good of artists, analysts, and other members of the internet community who have been abused by this broken system.
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Furthermore, these social sites are currently a job to thousands of content creators who suffer financially every time their content gets taken down, as their income depends on it.
The laws need to take into consideration the modern state of internet and technology. The law in its current state is being used to abuse content creators. This is taking away our right to speak freely on camera. This abuse is taking away the livelihood of those who work hard to create internet content.
This needs to be remedied and this abuse cannot continue.
And here are some links to get you thinking
" Examples of the issues currently going on YouTube
Our original video on Fair Use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFA...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0W...
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (STILL going on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ... and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J0...
Team Four Star's issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkc...
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nU...
Chibi Reviews gets a DMCA for talking about snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWys...
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company - MMA company thinks it makes the law!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXo...
Mr Enter and the saga of DMCA after DMCA takedown on the SAME video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtw...
NFKRZ and how ransom is now on YouTube!
Relive 1998 here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1UY7...
Space Jam circa 1996 still alive - http://www.warnerbros.com/archive/spa... "
Several of my favorite channels on youtube have been unfairly attacked by copyright holders. Even simple commentaries or reviews, some without any copyrighted material at all, have been falsely flagged for abuse. The DMCA takedown system has robbed victims of their hard earned money, while no punishment comes to the false-accuser. DMCA has caused rampant abuse across the internet and must be reformed.
Suck it.
Personal Addendum: I'm tired of companies big and small abusing false DMCA claims to take down content that falls under fair use. There needs to be a penalty be it a fine or jail time for those who maliciously take down this content if proven false (even if the claim was dropped).
DMCA is hugely underhanded in dealing with the internet of today as billions of people around the world have their lively hood ruined. Changes need to be made to protect people from this bare-bones and shallow system for protecting people and their work which is clearly under fair use but is constantly being destroyed and exploited.
Change needs to happen NOW!!!
Many content creators that I enjoy have been harassed by companies and struck with DMCA flags that are unjustified. Many creators are flagged without ever having any claimed content in their videos. The system needs to be fixed.
I have seen many videos taken down that were clearly fair-use. Many reviews of movies are being taken down unfairly. Some of these reviews don't even show ANY clips from the movie, and just talk about them, and still are being taken down. Fair Use allows for use of copyrighted material for criticism and parody, which is precisely what the content creators are doing with what little they use from original source material.
I have also seen instances of videos being taken down by non-related organizations who don't even own the source material. One of such is "egeda" if I am not mistaken.
The DMCA has been used incorrectly to take down channels that make parody and things made under fair use. Many people use them just to take down content they do not like or sometimes content they don't even own.
The DMCA has been abused for to long with no repercussions, if company's are not held to the same laws as citizens, then said company's are allowed to reign over citizens with little consequences. every company that strikes content made under fair use, and gets away with it is the same as a person walking up to another person and claiming that they stole something and threatening to sue them, with no proof or any crime actually being commented. The accused now has to prove that no crime was committed all while being under a magnifying glass, while the accuser goes about his business accusing more people of theft. Is this a perfect analogy, no but it gets a point across.
A lot of these DMCA strikes are just false accusations , their just company's/persons dissatisfied with reviews, people talking bad about their content, or just random computer strikes that cannot account for fair use. The law needs to be fixed to account for so many new things, and needs to have repercussions for false or just abused strikes.
Many DMCA Takedowns don't take fair use into consideration, meaning that people's work can be taken down with no reason- even if they've put hours, or even days, of work into it.
In short, there has been a lot of abuses in this from companies that only tries to take down repeatedly content much like Troll Copyright pattenting -- fishing for settlements out of court and wasting everybody's time. This is not how it should be.
I agree with all of this and then some. My favorite content creators—mostly on YouTube—have been constantly harmed and harrassed by "owners" of the content, even when ALL use has been under fair use. The best examples, if you need proof for yourself, are h3h3productions, YourMovieSucks, and IHateEverything. The Youtube channel "IHateEverything" even had his entire channel taken down due to an unfair copyright claim. This was later, reversed, but the abuse of the system still stands.
""
History has proven all too well when people are given absolute power, it never warrants good behaviour. We have witnessed this more often than we ever want.
For the sake of our freedoms, our creativity and even our growth as a civilized species, I urge you to update the DMCA, brings some balance back to the internet, and ensure the security of humanity's progress and freedoms.
As a regular Internet user, I can see the very obvious problems with the DMCA as it works in the modern day. The DMCA was placed in effect in 1998, 7 years before Youtube was launched. In the years since 2005, how fair use is regulated has changed dramatically. As a result of the DMCA's outdated methods, content creators have been driven out of business due to lack of revenue and ongoing harassment by internet users who claim ownership to content used in the creator's work, even though no actual ownership exists. There are creators who can have their freedom of speech shut down by everyone, from major studios to independent filmmakers to other public figures, simply because they don't agree with the creator's criticisms. This is a very dangerous time to have an opinion or any kind of presence online, because a single false claim can ruin a creator's outlet for expression, creativity, and freedom. Please, do something about the DMCA takedowns. Thank you very much.
""
I've been a fan of such YouTube Channels like Channel Awesome, blameitonjorge, and Mr. Nightmare. These days, I now see them being attacked on YouTube over copyright claims, with them having to notify that it was all in their fair use. I plan on making review or top 10 videos, but with all of these takedowns, and the creators suffering through this, YouTube feels more like a place to be afraid of using.
But, it cannot continue any longer.
I'm in with this. As becoming a starter YouTuber, I want free speech and fair use to be protected.
We need to make YouTube a safer community, for everyone.
And to stop random or completely idiotic DMCA takedowns before it gets any worse.
Or just fucking take down DMCA as a whole! Let the courts resolve this kind of shit instead! DMCA is outdated and doesn't even allow us to modify our phones without voiding warranty, in an age where Internal Memory dick-tates how many programs we can have, and if we can EVEN have them, and most of the programs phones start off by taking over 50% of the internal memory and not allowing us to remove it!
Agreed and Signed
-Timothy Werder
Ive had my personal videos taken off YouTube. Please help us.
Within the recent years, content uploading sites (Youtube, Twitter and reddit) have blown up at an alarming rate. However, the laws in-order to regulate and control these content sharing websites haven't been upgraded or updated. This has caused a huge uproar, and rightfully so, as companies have repeatedly abused these old laws meant for an old and more rudimentary internet.
Doing things as striking or taking down videos regardless of actual policy or law.
When the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was passed in 1998, the Internet as we know it (i.e. the World Wide Web) was only about eight years old, and lacked a tremendous amount of the complexity and scale which it currently possesses - a mere shell of what it would later become. To put this age difference into perspective, consider Moore's law: every two years, the number of transistors in the average circuit will double; now extrapolate this statement and conclude that a new technology today will be obsolete at best by this time in two years. It has been roughly eighteen years since the DMCA was passed. To say that the law is outdated is an understatement.
The past decade alone has shown us just how much inventive and original content which can be produced given the proper avenues. For many, particularly considering the difficulties of entering the professional world of entertainment, the World Wide Web has been that avenue. Now, professional opportunities for these content creators have begun to arise, and already, they are being exploited by a law that was put in place to protect them.
For the sake of this argument, I will restrict the scope of the effects of the current DMCA to that of YouTube.com, its content and creators, and, if applicable, the corporate copyright holders of said content. The current YouTube "Content ID" system operates on something of a three-strike system, i.e. three copyright strikes and your account (including all its content) is permanently deleted. The process through which strikes are acquired may vary from one infringement to the next but the base case is as follows: If a creator who holds a copyright over his or her intellectual property believes that another user has published this property without asking permission or providing appropriate citation, the creator may file a copyright claim against the user, which may be contested by the user. If the contested claim is not lifted, it becomes a strike, and the video is temporarily removed. Through a lengthy process of appeal, the strike may or may not be lifted later on.
YouTube's Content ID system has another layer, however: a system that automatically cross-references copyrighted audio, visuals, or even titles with the content of every video uploaded to the site. If a match is found, a claim will automatically be filed. Even if the content is used fairly, and with credit given to the respective creators, the system allows creators to place a claim on the content without even viewing the video in which the match was found. This is particularly dangerous because the strike system is not just a warning: each strike further inhibits a creators ability to produce content, until, at the third strike, they can no longer continue to operate. Also dangerous is the fact that there is currently NO penalty for a false copyright claim.
A corporation can file an infinite number of copyright claims, including claims on content protected by fair use such as parody or critique, and suffer no losses financially or otherwise. Some companies have even gone as far as to place copyright claims on videos which contain absolutely no copyrighted audio or visuals, while others use the Content ID system as a form of censorship (e.g. on reviews that give negative critique to their products), or as a form of harassment; and these copyright holders will continue to exploit the DMCA in this manner because they know that, given the current state of the law, they can absolutely get away with it. In the American justice system, it has always been "innocent until proven guilty", and in order to reach a guilty verdict, it must be proven "beyond reasonable doubt" that the defendant party has committed the crime. Why then, should creators be able to file faulty copyright claims with reckless abandon and ignore all semblance of Fair Use and not be held accountable for the tribulations of those who were in the right?
The DMCA, while founded on good principles, must be amended to be applicable to the modern Internet.
Thank you for your consideration.
kedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
This system needs to be altered to better fit today's internet and society!
YES
The laws are simply too old, outdated for the internet at this point. They are being used to inflict harm on individuals and used to bully for money, greed and other selfish intents.
From what I've seen on the internet (mainly YouTube) is that I've seen people and companies falsely claiming copyright infringements on peoples videos, claiming that the content that they used for their said video does not follow the Fair Use policy when it actuality it does follow the Fair Use Policy. These random companies come in and claim parts of these videos, leaving strikes on them, with the video being strike, the creator the of video doesn't get Monetization of their video which basically means his/hers hard work of creating the content of the video doesn't get any money out of it which is completely unfair and unjustified to these content creators. Many talented people on YouTube that have made amazing works of creativity in their videos get their videos taken down for false claims. This system is being abused the hell out of and literally anyone can claim any video that it doesn't follow the regulations or guidelines of Fair Use when it actually does. YouTube itself doesn't seem to care about it's Fair Use laws either, As many YouTuber had tried getting into contacted with YouTube employees, they've either been ignored or harassed. While The Workers of YouTube seem to only care about the bigger channels on YouTube, they don't even give a care of medium sized Channels who try to work their way up to success, and if more of these companies keep falsely claiming these channels for copyright infringements, more YouTube channels will die off and there will be no more good content to create. Leaving only bigger channels who are partnered with YouTube to stay alive. The main point is that these content creators are getting falsely accused for not following the rules by YouTube, when they actually are! Its just that YouTube's Fair Use/Copyright Laws are being abused since no one at YouTube is even looking into this broken system, leaving content creators to defend their channels from corrupt companies claiming their videos as copyright and leaving the content creator to take back their Monetization and to get ride of the strike from their channel. If their channel get's three strikes, their channel will be terminated and will loose all hard work that they've possibly build years upon years of making.
These are crimes against the defining definition of what is "Fair Use" and what is and what isn't "Copyrighted". These acts are unjustified and for anyone who tried to falsely claim a video for their own greed and selfishness should be punished. Justice must be severed. So please, people of the Copyright Office. Please fix this horrible mess of unfair and illegal use of false claims from people and companies who do not have the right to claim these videos. Please fix this horrible act of unjustified take downs and let content creators upload their creations without the fear of having it taken down have or have their Monetization taken away.
It's time for a change for a better future.
This is a real problem, abusing like that it's not tolerable, come on just watch all of the Youtubers getting strikes ecc for no reason at all! If this keeps up Youtube will become a scary place and most of the people who actually make living out of it will be left with nothing.
I am still a new content creator who works part time at a Walmart and just wishes to share my ideas online. Even though I haven't had any strikes or take downs on my particular channel, I do feel that I should do this to protect my freedom to say or criticize the work of others without fear of repercussions. After hearing about the troubles of others who have created works on YouTube it made me fear that others within my own country were able to stifle my freedom's in order to stop any negative ideas from coming forth that might discredit works they have done. Not only that but when some of the assets like pictures, audio, or any lengths of any copyrighted material are used, it is immediately shut down. Now granted some channels make money for the content and ads that are being run on their channels and videos but these videos are still a part of these groups and individuals being free to express themselves on YouTube. The other part of this is that sometimes after a creator has given a bad review of a product, individuals will sometimes go out and experience these products in order to give it cult status which makes it popular enough to drive up the sales of the product. Others will do parody for a material that they like which is not saying that a product is bad but that they wish to honor the original while giving it their own original ideas. Now I am not saying that the law needs to be gotten rid of outright, but that it should be amended to better adapt to the times that we live in and to protect all the free peoples of these United States of America in order to allow them to continue to live happy, safe lives where they can grow a business or say what they want so that others will experience or think upon the ideals of others.
I have actually been a victim of this myself. I am an artist and composer and also a writer. Early in my composition career I had some of my music stamped with DMCA on it because of a similar title to other songs. I took them down to avoid conflict but it was something that has stuck with me all these years later. Just figured I would show my support for changing these laws to protect the copyright of artists.
please stop the tack down, I have meet so many different people and have learned a bunch of new tricks to save money exct. Also a lot of these sites says who owns the copyright so most of them should be takendown , soe are just good entertainment. There have been video taken down for no reason and that has to stop. Als
I mean just look at the incident with Cinema Snob's video (stone gremlin production channel) being taken down for copy right violations (which is just him sitting in his car critiquing a film he just watched [no copyrighted footage or music/audio was used]).
I'm a beggining content creator who does my work for entertainment as hobby and possible future. I have also worked with people who had their content claimed, were given copyright strikes or even had their channels taken down with no previous notice or chance to argue their position and video content. Many of them were either by companies that have no actual rights to do so.
I also have witnessed copyright claims on works 100% original content, that were claimed because they very general similarities in style to what the claimant argued they had the rights to and no other connection.
The abuse in copyright is holding back the creativity, the talent and the ability of beginning creators to present their works, gain feedback from their audience and developing their skill that they can later use in much bigger scope.
Listen, please fix this. Many of my favorite youtubers videos and my own videos have been copy right striked unfairly. The copy right itself isnt even from the maker of the music, its a 3rd party source claiming it. So, please, for the sake of millions, crack down on this. Thank you!
I personally know many creators on YouTube who create fantastic content and remain well within their rights regarding the work they are referencing. By letting companies and random parties post false claims without any form of punishment if proven false, the revenue that is rightly theirs suffers and the content they produce suffers as well. While I am not stating that all claims are without purpose and reason, there are many who take this system and abuse it. Change needs to happen to protect these channels and these creators so they can continue to inspire and perhaps work on material that will make onto the big screen someday.
I've had companies use DMCA takedowns to affect videos that have nothing to do with them, and also my review videos have been affected if the company does not like my review.
This happens even when I do not monetize my video. :/
Please fix this so that people face penalties for abusing the DMCA and make youtube remove the automated system and replace it with something more accurate and better.
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Don't allow corporations to run the legal system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjXNvLDkDTA
The DMCA, as it exists now, is one of the greatest threats to free speech in America, allowing companies to censor and delete legitimate criticism. This is grossly unfair to citizens, and may even be considered unconstitutional under the first amendment, as it abridges the right to free speech. Maybe this legislation served a purpose at one time, but now it's a threat to the personal freedoms of our nation's citizens, and needs to be changed.
This system sucks!!!!
Many of my favourite Youtubers have been struck with these type of takedowns: I Hate Everything, Channel Awesome, The Anime Man, NFRKZ, etc. This has to stop, and, hopefully, this action will help change it. People that use fake copyright claims should be punished for their actions, but it seems that all that it happens is that they get profit from other peoples work. THIS HAS TO STOP. #WTFU
I do not like how people on Youtube are being bullied, losing money, losing videos that are pure parodies, or using small amounts of footage from shows or movies under fair use, or even just talking about a movie without any footage of the movie is resulting in people being able to claim the footage their own and take down the video. The uploaders barely have a way to even try to fight back and I do not think this is right at all. Making a living is really hard to do from Youtube, but with so many people trying to shut down channels its even harder when you even think you can do it full time. I hope you take this in to consideration and hope I didnt waste your time. below is the original petition.
Hello, you will probably not see this comment because so many people believe that something needs to change within the copyfight laws. So many talented and unique content creators are getting unfairly claimed of using THEIR content, this is mainly because the person is spreadind bad publicity of their content or the compaines simply want to gain profit from the person. So you probably won't see this, but you can bet that there will be hundreds or maybe even thousands of people wanting change. Even if it takes a lifetime.
Please stop, I love the internet the way it is!
As
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
On an individual basis, many small creators are penalised by large channels and corporations for their own benefit. I would strongly agree with the face that the DMCA is a cultural artefact and I hope it is changed.
DMCA as it currently stands is biased in favor of copyright holders in such a way that stifles creativity by increasing the risk of publishing your own work under Fair Use.
The system it enforces provides no strong defense to the creators of derivative works, and doesn't punish the abuse of Content ID tagging on content that does not belong to the claimant.
DMCA additionally introduced legal dead zones that allow the installation of harmful software on users' devices without their knowledge, and without legal repercussions, if such software results in a critical security flaw.
The current version additionally provides no guarantee that a client will not lose access to their owned media or software resulting from overzealous DRM, even resulting in legal issues for the owner, if they try to circumvent the DRM to regain access to their media and software.
DMCA also causes problems for security research: all software has flaws, and by forbidding reverse engineering of security measures (section 1201) the users of certain software will not know of fatal security problems, resulting in free reign for hackers that operate outside the law to exploit trusted applications without anyone's knowledge.
It is unnaceptable that content creators are force to opperate under these copyright laws. Here are the main issues:
1-Videos that don't have copyrighted material in them are claimed, because companies look at the titles of the videos and just assume they are showing movie clips or game footage, or they just don't care.
2-When a video is claimed all the money while the video makes while it is claimed goes to the claiment. Even if it is later proven that they had no right to claim the video, they still get to keep the money. It should be put into a separate account unacessible by the content creator and the claiment, and after who is in the right is found out, they will receive the money.
3-Fair Use is still not well defined. I have heard stories about Youtubers at Youtube conferences and the likes, being shown what falls under fair use, and most of the time, their response is "I've got taken down for less!". Even 5 seconds of movie footage, avaiable in trailers seen by the masses can get claimed.
4-Some companies claim videos for the most vague of reasons. There was a Youtuber, that I can't remember that made a video about M&M's and it got claimed by WWE! (World Wrestling Entertainment). There was nothing WWE related in the video. The conclusion the Youtuber reached was that it was claimed because of an old 2000's tag team called Mercury, Nitro, Melina (MNM).
5-Claims are being used for censorship. Like that time TotalBiscuit was allowed by a game dev to talk about their game, but he foun dit to be horrible, so the company claimed the video. Similar situation shave happened to other Youtubers like YMS and Jim Sterling, on MULTIPLE OCASIONS.
That about wraps it up. I hope you take into consideration all these comments and realize that laws from 1998 don't apply to today's internet and that companies are wrongfully taking advantage of these outdated laws. Even tough I'm nor from the USA, this affects people from all over the world as most entertainment is produced in America. I hope you actually thoroughly read each of these comments and change legislation.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Please, let's make this right and stop hurting the creators.
As I personally don't create content but the people who create the content I watch are being robed of money that they work to earn by people claiming that they are using footage or audio that the creator doesn't own. The person making this claim can then receive all revenue from the content they do not own preventing the creator of said content from receiving the money they have earned. When the claim has been proven false the claimant is then allowed to keep the money they stole and suffer no consequences for doing so. In summary the DMCA needs to be fixed as soon as possible as it allows people to rob content creators of the money they earn with no repercussions so this needs to be fixed now.
Fair use is very important to me, especially with the horrible youtube system
This needs fixed.
Poza tym generalnie sądzę że prawa autorskie to bzdura i syf. Popularni artyści zarabiają kasę bez względu na piractwo czy używanie ich twórczości w celach parodystycznych, np. na YT. Mick Jagger śpi na banknotach, więc nie zawraca sobie dupy zgłaszaniem filmów na YT. To korporacje chcące tylko więcej i więcej zgłaszają roszczenia. Trzeba z tym skończyć. NIkt oprócz samego artysty ne ma prawa takich roszczeń składać.
The DMCA laws are in desperate need of an update. All across places like YouTube in particular, the copyright laws currently in place are being abused horribly. False claims on videos are stealing revenue from content creators, being used to silence criticism of certain media, harass and threaten users unjustly, threaten entire livelihoods with no legal basis; The list goes on. I sincerely hope that the laws on fair use can be updated to accommodate for content creators abiding by fair use, and that the false copyright claims and general disorder created by them can come to an end.
Please, fix these issues. I've seen people lose money from their online jobs because people become greedy, claim a creators content, and make all the ad revenue from the content, be stolen from the creator and put into a pocket that deserves nothing. Even though the content could have nothing containing anyone else's work. Some people's videos we're taken down from the mere mention of another creators name. This is just an outrage. Fix this.
I myself have been affected by this abuse of power. I've made 2 videos both of which were automatically taken down unfairly and put me in a position where I could not post the content I wanted for over a year, and considering how small my channel was at the time and still is at the moment, if I had even tried to stand up for myself I would've put my entire channel - over 3 years of work - at risk. Even when I tried to contact the people who were claiming my videos, I simply couldn't get a response from anyone.
There are many other stories where people have been abused, bullied and had their livelihoods put at risk because of this system, and its time for a change.
PLEASE, we are all begging you to make this system more fair for content creators such as myself.
All the best.
-TheMadWasp
There are many, many companies that are trying to take revinue and take money from content creators' videos that those creators were earning or are taking down channels that review or use small clips from a show or series. And part of said companies don't even want to share just small clips of a show they own to be used in a review, even if they are altered or shortened to a fraction of a minute.
Laws are meant to protect people, but the DMCA is protecting people who abuse the law. People file claims on content they don't own. Claims are being used not to stop content from being stolen, but to stop content from being critically reviewed. Videos that do not have copyrighted images, video, or audio are being taken down. Claims being used as petty threats and harrasment. There are videos that have been taken down multiple times even after they were cleared for previous claims. On YouTube, claims are being used in order to take monetization (money) from the video maker to the person who made the claim.
The world is going through serious technological change right now that hasn't been seen since the transition from radio to television. With media moving more online, content creators are afraid. In order to deal with this fear, they are overreacting to any fair use of their content (such as reviews of movies or TV shows) and taking them down.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) no longer works. It is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. For a law supposed to protect content creators, it is simply doing the opposite. Why are videos guilty first before being proven innocent. We should have moved pasted such backwards logic 200 years ago.
We need to update, review and adapt our laws to the technology and the times. The way things are now is unacceptable. We need to act on evidence, not blanket accusation.
Sincerely,
John Boak
This system is outdated and abused heavily. Innocent content creators lose revenue and can even get censored because somebody didn't like their video and false DMCAs it. It's unfair and must be amended. Most of the content isn't even breaking copyright or it falls under fair use. Think of the creators.
P.S. As a tiny channel, we constantly get hit by copyright claims from people not even affiliated with the content in question. It's just bullying. Imagine if we actually had subscribers or made a little bit of money, and think how much worse this could be. These claims are baseless and deprive people of being able to see discussion of their favorite media. Make it stop.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
(DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
As a muscian I have had my own original content taken down because of DCMA. the times have changed its time for change
People are losing money to fake companies and shoddy movie-makers, writers, anyone. On YouTube, anyone can have the power to take down people's content, disable their content, and in some cases even take down the creator's channels.
People like I Hate Everything, Channel Awesome, Your Movie Sucks have all been victims to those who believe that they can remove their ability of free speech and fair use. Director and writer Derek Savage is one of the people who has an incredibly skewed idea of what free speech and fair use is are taking advantage of an old and broken system that allows them to restrict those who believe that negative views on any content, so long as it "Tarnishes their image."
Even more recent than the "Cool Cat Saves the Kids" fiasco, a fake company came along that filed faulty copyright claims on anything at all featuring the "Damn Daniel" meme, reportedly stating that the strikes filed were over music that the FAKE company 'owned'. They were proved to be a sham when someone posted a video of a still image having to do with the meme with no audio at all still was taken down, with the same copy-pasted "video has been taken down" message.
YouTube has become a site filled with chaos, with the creators whose videos are within fair use being taken down, when content creators such as those participating in the "Reactionist" fad and people like SoFloAntonio who STEAL people's videos and give no credit to the real creators going through without a single scratch. This is a major problem with sites like YouTube and Facebook, and it has to come to an end.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
As A Content Creator Where I Utilize Music And Fair Use Rights To Build Apon My Content, I Find The Amount Of Abuse Of The DMCA System Apaulling. Its A Broken System Which Requires Some Significant Changes.
Personally, I believe that it needs securing with a more legal and hands on method in order to prevent trolls and large corporations taking down content they have no rights to remove or don't like which is just straight abuse!
#FairUseForAll
JollyOldCinema - MLP SFM Animator
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
There are many people who create content on the internet. Their jobs are threatened. I, along with many other, have a dream of creating content on the internet for the world and that dream is threatened. Please don't let our dream die and don't put all those people out of a job. Please.
the DMCA is an out dated act seriously needs to up date with the times we no longer live in 1998 .
There have been reports of videos being taken down for using copyrighted footage and music on videos that do not have music or were filmed by the person who posted it.
Im sure youve had many of these same comments. Think these are repetitive? Try youtube's copyright system
Some of my favorite youtubers were gone just because companies abused this system.
Personal Note- This is something that has been abused to all ends and has given companies the power to censor people for their content while they completely follow fair use.
I have witnessed so many people get their videos taken down. This has resulted in many people losing money to the company that made the claim and very often the claims are completely false. I have seen videos of just the host talking to a camera with absolutely no footage or music used whatsoever that have been claimed. This is costing people their very livelihood. I believe that if someone is wrongfully using content, they should be claimed. However, there must be definitive evidence that any content was misused against the copyright. It should not be so easy for anyone to click a video and say, "I'm going to claim this because it criticizes me, even if there is nothing to claim" or "I'm going to see if I can get away with claiming this even though I own no copyrights for anything in this video". This system was originally meant to protect content creators, but now, it is hurting more people than it is helping. While there are definitely some legitimate claims out there, the number pales in comparison to those who are wrongfully claiming videos where nothing wrong has been done. There needs to be a way to make sure people who are not infringing can keep from getting claimed and where people who actually are infringing on copyrights can be dealt with fairly.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use, and even on content that is original for all intents and purposes. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet, as those who have abused this the most are often trying to unethically suppress negative opinions of their products. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. Also no safeguards are in place to prevent intentional ignorance of the lack of any kind of accurate discretion by computers or even humans about whether or not the attacked content actually violates copyright.
Under the current guidelines of the DMCA, a law that was intended to protect content makers and entertainers, corporations and individuals, especially among older forms of content, have been allowed to literally steal income with government sanction of these individuals that it is meant to protect. This process should instead be protected both parties on either side of the accustion of violeted copyright.
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What that says!
For years big name companies have been taking down videos on YouTube that fall under Fair Use, and receive no consequences. The current copyright system is outdated and needs to be improved. The internet has become a major part of media, and this just limits it. We need better copyright protection, not just for the internet, but all media.
It seems this prewritten comment has much of the information I wanted to say, as well as being written at a much more useful and formal writing style than I am capable of. I agree with everything that has been said, and agree that the first step (and hopefully, the only required step) is to hold companies liable for the crimes they commit, and to allow fair use to be used freely as it should be. #WTFU?
One content creator that I feel attached to is Alex from I Hate Everything. This was because a film director by the name of Derek Savage gave him a copyright strike and may have impersonated a law firm simply because he didn't like the review of his film 'Cool Cat Saves the Kids' even though Alex's review was completely fair use. Another time where Alex went through a copyright problem was when he created the 'I Hate Damn Daniel'. With this video, he got a copyright claim from [Merlin] CDLTD. What Merlin was doing was going to every video mentioning Damn Daniel and claiming it for having copywritten audio in it. One creator tested this by having a video called '15 Minutes of Damn Daniel'. This video was 15 minutes of silence and it still got a claim. This shows that [Merlin] CDLTD was abusing the copyright system for their own benefit.
These are just two of the many problems that happen every single day.
I hope that you understand that the copyright system is being abused daily and I know that it can be made better.
Yours sincerely Oliver Catford.
Videos on youtube are taken down even when a video has nothing to do with a certain concept. Money is lost for creators and people are abusing their power with no relative punishment.
As a content creator, I hate seeing how much bogus DMCA takedown notices suck.
A few small clips should not result in legal action taking place. Those who use clips for the sake of review purposes and not simply to share them in an illegal manner are 100% under fair use.
People get false copyright claims on a daily basis from companies which have nothing to do with the content supposedly being used illegally.
As media moves from television to the internet, events like this hurt the little man more than ever. Up and coming content creators are pushed to the side.
One big problem is that people who file false claims get no punishment for filing them. The creator gets all the harm and the filer gets all the money.
With the world constantly evolving it make no sense if laws do accommodate this evolution. There are millions of people around use the internet to create content and spread knowledge at a scale unfathomable even two decades ago. Though many have had their hard work and passions taken away the misuse of the Digital Millennial Copyright Act (DMCA), an act made in 1998 and has not since been updated to accommodate the advance of modern internet content. The misuse that has been taken place is anyone has the ablitity to put a copyright cliam againt any media on website that officially and routinely fallows the DMCA as such to abide to the law the website will stop displaying the content wither the claim is true or not. While this can be determine easily by a person who could review the litigtmacy of the content and this can take up to any amount of time for any case to be resolved. The issue is not only is the act being abused but how it affect the creator of any type of content as they are the ones who must resovle the claim which stops them from making content, often their livelihood. Thus it is imperative that their time along with those who must get involved legally to not waste time resovling a false claim. A revision of the of the DMCA will benefit the future of everyone not just those who make content on the internet but everyone as the internet is so closely linked to modern life. With the DMCA the way it leads it be abused which has and will continue to be if there no revision is made.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act as it stands today is used as an attack law by private interests to silence criticism of copyrighted works, the unlawful robbery of the income of private content creators (often via the hiring of third parties to go after content creators utilizing fair use), and as a form of legislative harassment.
My Anime Freak review of MLP: Equestria Girls was claimed! The video used less than 8% of the total film, yet Hasbro Studios says that they own MY review that way made under fair use! I am going to have to take them to court! They have been holding this claim over me for nearly a year! See for yourself! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90HV4Kaxj78
IT IS FAIR USE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Although I have not experienced any hardships due to DMCA, I have seen others who have been. Not just one or two, but multiple cases of the system being abused and misused. One case was of TotalBiscuit, where he used game footage and audio while giving his honest critique of the product. The game in question being Day One: Garry's Incident. Because his review was less than favorable for the game, the creators filed a copyright claim upon the video to take it down. The video was taken down and his channel received a strike, negatively affecting his channel. After a week or two, the video was back up and the strike removed, but not without considerable effort on part of TotalBiscuit and many others. Here are the links to the videos pertaining to this incident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjTa_x3rbJE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfgoDDh4kE0
Another person know as I Hate Everything ran into another problem dealing with copyright issues. His whole channel was taken down for inappropriate content being placed on youtube. The video, called DESTROYING The Little Panda Fighter, was of him destroying a CD that he owned of the movie The Little Panda Fighter. Apparently it was considered untargeted, repetitive, and/or unwanted. He had no way to get in contact with youtube about his channel to resolve things. Instead, it took others making videos and complaining to youtube in order for them to even consider doing anything about it. This is not the first time he ran into problems either. On a review he did of the movie Cool Cat Saves The Kids, the creator of the movie used the copyright system to take down the video because I disliked the review. It did the same with others who also did a negatively review of the movie. The link to the videos dealing with this are linked here (sorry, there are a lot concerning the cool cat thing):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7w2AN3Nku0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH-8PqS84qA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoTZZYm2HZI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0qoD3viXL0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyQjcFmc-Cs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkcWbvnN0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzXSQ5f08sA
There are more people that are affected so I'm just going to leave you with one last video that Channel Awesome made about the system, and how others and themselves were affected.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
I hope that you read this comment and the many others I'm sure you are receiving so that we can fix these issue with our current copyright system.
Stop taking down channels and critics because of their honest opinion.
Stop shutting down our freedom to discuss matters we want, way we want.
This is out of politics, out of national borders- all products, which are released worldwide (be it movies,games, tv shows, series, theatre live action, toys, music ANYTHING), we have right to discuss and fairly criticize it, we have right to tell about it and show it the way we find it most appropriate to do. If copyright owners so afraid to lose their money from IP being stolen or illegaly used via piracy- they should think about only that- not about abusing and blackmailing honest people.
This rampant unlawful dmca claim nonsense needs to stop NOW
#WTFU
I will keep this nice and simple. Fix the copyrighting and bring in REAL fair use. PLEASE, help YouTube.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Recently the DMCA system has been used to abuse and exploit content creators,various people and companies were using this system to silence artists and destroying their freedom of speech.
They also abuse people how are only filming with a camera,with no copyrighted things,and they still get claims.
So please,help the artists and everybody who is trying to create,criticize,teach,etc.
Thank you.
Also there has been next to no time to react to this entire thing, and information about this hasn't been widely spread!
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Many Videos have been taken down over the past few months by company's with no right who seriously believe they own the law. They steal money from hardworking Creators and this needs to stop. Videos that incorporate fair use are being unfairly robbed of money and even their Jobs. This needs to stop so please change this. Don't allow monetisation to be abused and please fix copyright for everything. Thank you
The DMCA's notice-and-takedown process has been heavily based in the favor of corporate copyright holders and to is too commonly used to censor and eliminate content that it protected under fair use, and most of the time without a valid or fair reason. This system has become incredibly outdated in recent years due to the development of the internet and technology in general, and results in an unfair restriction in the basic rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and the right to creativity.
The notice and takedown system desperately needs to be more balanced now more than it ever did in the past. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
There are people who will file copyright claims on content they don't even own for kicks. Or to censor someone's opinion because they disagree with it or they believe they will be affected negatively by it. This system is even used to threaten content creators. Even people just talking on camera with nothing else can be affected by this. This has gone so far that some companies claim that they make the law. There are even companies being paid to make claims on videos that fall under fair use so the people that hired them can save face.
The DMCA needs to change for the internet of today.
The DMCA is an archaic law that's constantly used and abused to shut down people they don't like. Content is frequently taken down by individuals that don't even own any copyrights, and are used as threats because it's on a system of guilty until proven innocent. When content creators are shut down, it doesn't just prevent them from posting anything, but it damages their livelihood and income. Many creators make content as a full time job, and getting struck with a DMCA prevents them from monetizing their hard work. It's like a corporate bigwig being able to legally give their employees no compensation for the work they do. Except it's even worse, since anybody can file a DMCA. I sincerely hope that this outdated act is abolished in favor of a new system that doesn't harm artists and creators. An act that can't be abused by anybody that wants to. An act that presumes innocence over guilt. An act built for a new age.
Furthermore, as an individual who has been inspired by many effected by Fair Use abuse, I will in future occupations come at risk under the current system, affecting not just the current consumer Base but future creators too.
I am a Youtuber and there are companies taking advantage of the outdated DMCA laws that are very outdated, being made for 1998 internet. People's content is being taken down under false claims and Youtubers have even had their revenue taken away from them. The law needs to be changed for the modern internet.
My part: Responses to copyrights are not personal to anyone, rules can be broken without any penalty, and DMCA takedowns can openly be used as threats or bullying without any form of authority viewing them. Loose rules means any form of a takedown of a tweet or video can be be repeatedly harassed, seemingly unknowingly to anyone. "Dog eat dog" should not be the type of term used for something like Twitter or Youtube, but without anyone's help, that is what it's seeming like.
The copyright system is completely broken when it comes to all creators on the internet. Anyone and everyone can take down videos games and even informative shows for media. When everyone can shut down a youtube channel just because they do not like the content or creator makes this and issue a BIG issue. Content creators and indie game creators are at so much risk for making amazing content. This needs to change and it needs to change now. This is how we are advancing if we don't protect the rights for those who do follow the rules then what's the point. It has been decades since these laws has been changed and with creation of stuff being made on the internet at a all time high we need to change this. Please help us and protect us like you should.
Yeah, what this tekst said. The internet is broken.
Many content creators I enjoy on the internet are facing copyright claims for a completely unfair reason and it needs to change. He made a review of a movie that he thought was bad. He gave constructive criticism throughout the review and used clips of the movie (not anywhere near the entirety of the movie) to support his criticisms. A few days later, his video was taken down by the creator of the film because of "Copyright Infringement". This is COMPLETELY unfair because he was protected under fair use. He made the work transformative and used it for criticism, which is protected by fair use.
I am adding multiple links to websites that explain fair use. Please end these false DMCA takedowns and give us a voice!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/fair-use-rule-copyright-material-30100.html
This unfair justice has gone too far and has affected myself and other fellow YouTubers. It must be fixed now!
There are people who make a living of talking about or reviewing copyrighted contents. Most of these people use these contents fairly but they get copyright strikes anyway. It's just hilarious. Please make it stop.
As one of many who aim to see this abuse ended, I implore you to do what you can to protect free speech and the internet as we know it.
Thank you for your time.
Jim Sterling, John "Total Biscuit" Bain, Channel Awesome, I Hate Everything, Your Movie Sucks, Grade A Under A. Large and small Youtubers are being harassed and wrongfully accused of copyright fraud. Even when the law is fully on their side, places like Youtube are doing nothing to ensure the creators who made them great are rewarded and protected. People using no clips have copyright take downs, people making parodies, songs, reviews, all are within Fair Use yet many are still having their livelihoods in danger of disappearing. People should be free to work 100% completely within the law and be loved and rewarded for their effort, isn't that the American Dream? STOP THE TAKEDOWN ABUSE NOW.
And speaking personally, I have seen multiple instances of DMCA being misused or being outright useless as a tool to combat actual piracy, as it was created to do. I turn your attention to just one example of a YouTube personality who has been hit multiple times with this unfair system, The Mysterious Mr. Enter. He has made multiple videos on his experiences, and has shown images of actual e-mails he has gotten regarding his fights, only altered in a way to protect real names. His latest fight is against an Australian network regarding a review he did of one of their shows. It wasn't a full episode posted, not all the audio was there, and he talked over the images the whole time in 'reviewer mode'. How is that not Fair Use? And yet this single company has used loopholes to get Mr. Enter in trouble multiple times, just out of either spite or stupidity. Possibly both.
DMCA does not work, and it needs to be fixed.
I've been making small videos and pieces of content for the last 6 years on YouTube. I've given up making anything back on this content due to abusive copyright claims. Videos using images or video as part of a review, music being heard in the background, and fully-edited parodies have all been hit by copyright claim that don't take into account fair use and take any initial revenue I may have made on that video. For a small creator like me, there is nothing I can do about it. Putting in a dispute is pointless as many of these companies will merely reinstate and not take fair use into account. The next step would then put my channel at risk and at that point it's safer to simply let them steal my money then to fight.
The DMCA system is being abused in order to censor criticism, free thought and critique on YouTube. It is being used to attack content creators I support and enjoy to watch. It has very much been twisted into a hammer and is being used to beat down creativity and free thought on YouTube, attacking not only American citizens but people from around the world and that is wrong.
DMCA has failed disastrously and is being blatantly abused with no repercussions for the perpetrators, in no other form would this be accepted in the western world, but it happens on YouTube. It makes not only YouTube look foolish but also those who instituted the DMCA system in the first place. It is making the U.S. Copyright Office look foolish and like they either don't know what they are doing, or just do not care that their system is being criminally abused.
Please put an end to bogus DMCA claims and update the laws to prevent abuse of the system that favors large companies over innocent content creators operating within the bounds of Fair Use. It's unethical and unfair, and it is YOUR job to put a stop to it. Thank you.
This system has only benefited those who enjoy abusing it to ruin others' livelihoods, and allowed corporations to do the same en mass for the most trivial and useless of reasons. To make matters worse, sites like YouTube do next to nothing to fix proven mistakes caused by this system. One can get a video taken down in a heartbeat, but to bring it back in the event of wrongful punishments takes weeks with no response. This has to stop. My name is Micheal Raines. And I want these problems fixed. Freedom of expression deserves better protection than what the current law allows- or rather what it inhibits.
This law is harassing content creators and attacking creativity. It is used unfairly and by shell companies for censorship and disagreements. This law is outdated. Websites (such as YouTube) are a new form of expression and art. How can creators share their ideas and opinions when this law is being misused in this way? I believe expression and discussion is important, but how can we use them when shell companies disagree and shut down these works? This is unfair censorship and misuse. These creators work hard and deserve their free speech. Please stop DMCA takedowns.
As someone who's in charge of two review series, I want to come into this world without fear of this.
I myself have seen so many of the people I watch on YouTube be hindered by how obsolete the DMCA is for the current day internet to the point where entire channels have been taken down, when their content clearly falls under fair use. As someone who's been making YouTube content for about 2 years now, there hasn't been a single day where I felt safe uploading anything to my channel. Not helping is that I've had false claims put on my videos from fraudulent companies that didn't even legally own the content they claimed, as well as how something like a video with someone just talking in front of a camera in a car with no other footage or audio can be given a claim or a strike.
The days of the old internet are over and it's time we updated the Copyright Laws from then to accommodate for the current digital age. We're nearly 20 years overdue on that.
This can't go on anymore. People are losing their jobs, their livelyhood becouse of ingorant people that think they can get other people's money and take down videos. This needs to stop. #WTFU
Why should we let the internet be controlled? We've flourished because of the free nature of the Internet. Think of what will be lost if this is left to be continued.
Everything that needs to be said already has been said. The truth is clear. People are abusing the DMCA, and it's hurting so many people. ALL the facts are out there- to ignore them any longer would be to stop caring about justice.
As someone who uses copyrighted musics in my videos, I am perfectly OK with giving money through ad revenue to whoever owns the music. BUT, there's something that I can't accept and that is random companies making money off that. Because if you really think that they give all their money to the original composer then you're absolutely wrong, they are freaking paid for that.
Oh and also the fact that they take donwn random videos for absolutely no reason. Getting a copyright strike for filming your garden is unacceptable.
Hi,
My name is Michael Shaevitch. I am known on YouTube as "Smike" (youtube.com/Smike).
Thank you,
Michael "Smike" Shaevitch.
Many youtubers I watch, mainly reviewers, have posted videos about how companies are filing unbiased claims on reviews that are under fair use, sometimes using shell companies or another company to take down a review, whether it be positive or otherwise, simply for additional income. In fact, many of those companies make multiple claims on a single video simply to milk it for as long as possible, taking money form the creator of the review. Reviews fall under fair use, but companies either don't know, or don't care, and this is hurting the internet, as well as free speech in general.
The current state of copyright and how it seems to be entirely abusable is terrible and should be changed. How "corporations" can silence smaller individuals for some unliked comments about a product of theirs is going against free speech and fair use. People are being silenced for no good reason and have their own well-being threatened by companies who abuse DMCA. While they can use it and not be affected when copyright claims are declined or retracted, many content creators such as "YouTubers" on the website YouTube get harmed majorly from these claims. People who want to make transformative content using copyrighted material, in fair use, now can't because companies take it down since it puts their product in a bad light. A change must be made to prevent such things from happening and laws to punish those who have or may take advantage of the DMCA. Hopefully you take into consideration of what I had to say about this since this is something that I have seen people get affected by. Thank you.
Fair Use needs to be protected, especially on the internet, where we spend increasingly more and more of our free time. It has become a part of our culture. We're always connected, and, being connected, are constantly immersed in news and various media, with the ability to discuss, debate, recommend, and generally share opinions about that news and media in real time.
These thoughts and opinions that people create and share on the internet are simply the next evolution of society's interconnected network of social interactions which has existed since time immemorial. Thoughts as simple as what one thinks of a new movie, a comparison of a video game to similar games in its genre, and recommending a book to someone who never knew it existed can now be shared without the constraints of distance or travel time.
As one would when sharing these ideas and opinions among friends, one might point to certain scenes in films as reasons to see them (or not,) or let someone watch you play a new game to see if it is something they too would enjoy, or read excerpts from a novel they might be interested in.
These content creators are not attempting to claim the content shared as their own, nor are they attempting to directly profit on said content - they are merely sharing their opinions and thoughts on the content, using the content itself fairly - fair use. The fact that this content can be shared much more quickly with the advent of the internet and social media does not change the fact that sharing thoughts and opinions on content, using the content as the proof, is something that has always been.
Companies that issue automated takedown notices on videos, streams, and other content WITHOUT FIRST CONSIDERING IF IT IS A FAIR USE OF THEIR COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL is not simply protecting their held copyrights, it is censorship - a way to erase opinions about their content that do not align with their interests, or to block thoughts that do not originate from their official channels. It is bullying, and it needs to stop.
Tactics like this to continue only seeks to stifle the internet culture as a whole. If such things are allowed to continue, eventually nobody will be able to talk or share about ANYTHING on the internet. Streams and youtube videos will be nothing but blurs, as every single instance of copyrighted logos, products, and materials are edited out, filled with static filled silence, as errant music playing in the background is constantly filtered and scrubbed from existence. Opinions and free speech will be a thing of the past, as only approved content is allowed to be posted, telling us what to think.
It sounds completely ridiculous, but that kind of future might not be as far-fetched as one might think, as long as fair use laws can be continually abused or ignored. People attempting free speech on the internet will only be stifled again and again, forced to combat charges that may not even hold legal ground, simply because the companies have gotten away with it in the past, and continue to get away with it now.
Thus, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act needs to be re-examined, and updated to the world of today (rather than the world of 1998 when it was enacted.) Free Speech and Fair Use need to not only be protected, but upheld. Loopholes allowing the abuse of the law need to be fixed to stop said abuse.
Thank you for considering my comment.
I rely on fair use for my entertainment, and I feel strongly about this act.
companies weather they claim to own the content or not has been hit with copyright claims and strikes. personally i have a cover song I've done that has 12 copyright claims. 12! all from different companies except for 1 that being Disney on a cover song where i didn't use a ounce of footage from companies overseas that have no right to the song.
people have been down right abusive with this with many other people making false claims and take down when someone makes a video just saying something negative or critiquing other peoples works even when its completely protected (or suppose to be) under fair use.
Here is a list of just SOME YouTube channels affected by this far use problem:
Jim Sterling
Themysteriousmrenter
Channel Awesome
Anime America
Lost Pause
The Anime Man
Your Movie Sucks
I Hate Everything
Drwolf
Joshscorcher
TeamFourStar
CinemaSnob
Potatobombkyle Lego Productions
CinemaSins
AlternateHistoryHub
Jontron
BadComedian
Sargon of Akkad
Chris Stuckman
Bobsheaux
Sheeleシェーレ
BrainScratch Commentaries
NFKRZ
Pyrocynical
The Gaming Czar
Games Repainted
AdoseofBuckley
Totalbiscuit
Matthias
ToddintheShadows
Angry Joe
ElectricDragon505
CentralDerp
Krimson Rogue
EyeOfSOl
Dragon Mage
CreepyMcPasta
Please, help me name more who have been affected, and #WTFU
This law needs to change and be updated because it stifle's free speech and is making hard working creators jump through ridiculous hoops to barely make a living. When all these entertainers want to do is make us laugh. Companies dis not create this law. It is an archaic remnant of pre-21st century internet and should be updated. I mean when somebody can't even sit in a car after watching a bad movie and upload a video about why its bad because its "bad publicity" then your stifling free speech. DMCA's are being used without taking fair use into account and should be held accountable for the monetary infliction they cause. This will stop shell companies shielding actual companies that want the take downs again because it's "bad for business." They are used as threats to direct content creators into giving only positive reviews and are used to torment the uploader's even after they've been approved.
Many companies, firms, and organizations have outwardly abused their power in regards to the internet, due to false enforcement's of take downs that do not recognize the aspect of Fair Use that is displayed within said content. It is completely unfair that, in regards to watching online video content, or viewing reviews, that they are ultimately taken down with no basis from companies abusing the DMCA take down. Ultimately, Free speech as well as Fair Use should be enforced and supported by law.
Now for me to share my personal gripe with the DMCA: I've been creating YouTube videos since 2007 and began anew in 2015, yet I've been hit with unfair copyright claims for reviews and commentary I've done - even though they follow the fair-use protocol. I've lost revenue as a start-up review, lost ability to post full content at certain moments and wrongfully charged on some videos that are indeed fair. I've even had a friend wrongfully lose their channel - despite all her content either being under fair-use or posted for non-profit.
All of us content-creators on multiple forums and sites are truly fed up with constantly being harassed for our creations and only wish to be treated fairly in the field of production like any other organization or known creator in the field of entertainment
I was a former streamer on the popular service YouTube. I quit because every single one of my videos were being removed for copyright reasons. The problem was I did not know who was filing these complaints because the name on the complaint was vague with no contact email or address. In short, I was immediately considered guilty with no recourse and companies who fraudulently claim DMCA violations could seize my videos and insert ads to make money off of my work. No court order required.
Worst of all, with three "strikes" against us, our accounts are banned by Google. Years of work building an audience of faithful followers go out the window.
This happens to every streamer on YouTube all of the time. In America, we should be considered innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around. It's long past time that the concept of "fair use" be revised and reformed for the digital age.
I have given up on YouTube as Google continues to overreact to the DMCA in fear of lawsuits. I expect very little to happen as a result of this complaint. Perhaps, though, you will understand how the DMCA is unfair for streamers as it's used to fleece profits and stifle speech.
I have never posted a video on youtube before, but have subscribed to multiple channels on the website. So far, the owners of almost every one of these channels have fought fraudulent claims, evidenced by the fact that their videos are put back up weeks after the they are removed. Even so, the exact same videos are taken down by either the same people or a completely separate third party. Some even steal revenue from these fraudulent claims. Yet there is no penalty for such repeated behavior. The copyright laws made for this system were penned in 1998, and are in desperate need of change.
#WTFU
Companies have the ability to take down videos without having to prove why they infringe on a copyright, while the creator of the video that's getting removed has to then explain why the video is under fair use through a convoluted process that 90% of the time takes forever to even have an effect. What happened to "innocent until proven guilty"? Also, videos where no content is even displayed can be taken down, once again because companies are able to without any repercussions for making a false claim. This needs to change.
(I personally have had videos I've made taken down because of using a song which I used before and got no warning about for a different video. I went to dispute the claim because it was just a fun video I made for my friends to see conveniently and had no ads on it and after my dispute was filed my video was taken down because the claimant didn't agree with me. Shouldn't I have some sort of platform to defend myself? What happened to innocent until proven guilty? More to the point, what do big companies get out of bullying a poor kid from New Jersey who just wants to privately share some creativity amongst his friends which just so happened to have a snippet of a song in it?)
The Digital Millenium Copyright includes no mention of pentalties for bogus copyright claims and takedown notifications, therefore incentivizing people to abuse this system and there is countless evidence of just this happening, ranging from claims against what should be covered under Fair Use, the removal of content which is critical of companies, etc. Thousands and thousands of examples of this can be cited. If there are no penalties imposed on parties making copyright claims and giving takedown notifications with no grounds, this will continue. This needs changing because it is immensely impacting the livelihood of millions who make their livelihood through online content and it stagnates the entertainment industry with this nonsense which makes online entertainment both less profitable and more risky. This needs changing.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted work.
HOW DARE YOUUUUU
The dmca has harmed internet users and made it so reviewers and entertainers even get taken down for the simple fact that they used small parts of copyrighted material in a way that is within fair use rulings, this needs to stop
Aside from the default comment I want to state very clear that DMCA is outdated. It's being used to stifle free speech harass content creators, mess with peoples YouTube channels without viable claims that would actually hold up in a court of law.
People who have no relation whatsoever can easily take down a YouTube video with no risk for themselves. DMCA needs some hefty reforming, the sooner the better.
I want be able put on YouTube without being. Afraid to
Many people who do good things and are good people have been demonized by corporations and people taking down their content for petit reasons and something needs to be done about it.
I am a teenager in Denmark. I was bullied and I am having a hard time in school right now. Your screwed laws effect my main source of entertainment. Please do not side with the big corporations and realise that your laws effect my happiness. Not doing anything is a waste because internet medias will survive. So no matter what, action to protect content creators will happen. Saying otherwise is a false statement, I hope you are wise enough to see that.
Plenty of Youtubers, including professional critics, have their channels or website striked. I am not a victim of this, but many people whom use fair use still get a strike, even AFTER the strike is removed they get bombarded by more strikes. People who don't even use footage still get strikes, it is broken, and frankly, it needs to be updated to something that can work on the modern internet. Look at the channel I HATE EVERYTHING and Channel Awesome's Nostalgia Critic, NC has been cheated out and got his revenue for certain video's taken away, and IHE was suspended for 1-2 days. You need to fix this, these people, even lesser known people are getting shredded by these people. Many will say the things I just said, so please, listen to us.
The current DMCA is completely broken. Over the years we have seen persons abuse it for their own gains with little consequence to themselves. Content which clearly fall under fair use is flagged for often malicious reasons; to silence negative reviews, attacking persons, or for some sort of profit. Many of these takedowns are also done by bots which in today's world of new media can seriously affect the livelihood and reputation of persons who have done nothing to deserve it.
Yet in the face of this there is nothing to punish those who make false claims or to otherwise protect content providers. As awareness spreads we hear more and more of parodies, reviews and all other forms of entertainment be taken down when they fall clearly within fair use. There have even been cases where reviews with no audio or visual from the media they are reviewing are taken down. Often it escalate and lead to the user loosing their work.
What what meant as a way to protect intellectual property on the Internet has become a way to silence a person's free speech.
Something has to be done. The DMCA is absolutely unacceptable where it stands.
________________________________________________
We must do whatever is in our power to make the internet a good environment for all, I'm sick of hearing about abuses over YouTube on videos and I'm signing this because I'm aware of the problems and I want it to stop.
To whom it may concern,
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Our president has given his blessing for a free and safe internet. Those who abuse copyright, free speech and fair use law should not go unpunished. Only you can answer the question, "Where's the Fair Use?".
Lots of people such as corporations are abusing the DMCA, causing content (that is completely under fair use) to be taken down with no legal ground whatsoever. Some of my friends are having rough times for no reason due to this issue. The following are facts based around this.
Every reviewer I have watched on Youtube has battled with false DMCA claims on a near monthly basis. (and that is at its best.) At times, I've even seen reviewers battle DMCA claims which they have previously fought off in the past. That is, content creators being required to fight of claims that they've already won. DMCA claims are being used to stifle free speech, and silence those who review or parody content of any kind. I find this to be deplorable, and it needs to be resolved.
The absence of fair use is destroying the Internet, especially on YouTube. There are videos created that follow the fair use laws THAT ARE SHOWN ON YOUTUBE, but still get taken down for no apparent reason.
Being a content creator online is one of the best things in the world; it is a place where you can make people laugh, entertain them, inform, the list goes on and on the greatness that is online. However, the internet is also a place where abuse is taking place. Content creators have attacked again and again by huge media companies who REFUSE to acknowledge fair use in anyway shape or form and have even stolen money from content creators. Shell companies have been created to automatically claim videos that is not only fair use, but sometimes has NO copyrighted material whatsoever. It's time we stopped supporting illegal practices from big media companies and corporations ; Hollywood does not control YouTube, YouTube is a free place for everyone to enjoy and connect with other people around the world. The DMCA should benefit everyone equally, not just corporations and companies. The scales must be made equal for everyone and should tilt more to ONE side only because they have money.
And companies that don't own a TV show put an unfair claim on your video.
We need to save fair use.
Not an American, but you don't have to be. The DMCA is an horrendously outdated fossil in today's world and is entirely used unjustly, every second of evert single day, unless someone has a couple of million supporters who they can get to kick up a fuss, people are scared of creating content because of how ludicrously easy it is to abuse the very law created to protect them. That is atrocious and something needs to be done, right now.
In the past, I've made content that followed the guidelines of the DMCA perfectly. However, that content was taken down under the claims of "Fair Use." Because of this, I am anxious to create anything else, for fear or having to take legal actions against people who have more power and money than me. The abuse needs to stop. Otherwise, a lot of innocent people with continue to be abused.
STOP THIS RIDICULOUS BLOCK FOR CREATIVITY AND ENTERTAINMENT
I'm not sure what this is about, this is kinda ripping us away from sharing our opinions WORLDWIDE in a sense. Why? Why are you doing this?
The DMCA was created on October 28th, 1998. Because it hasn't been updated SINCE 1998, companies are using its outdated loopholes to abuse people who create content on the internet. Companies often file claims on things that fall under Fair Use (commentary, search engines, criticism, parody, news reporting, research, and scholarship). The reasons for a false copyright claim are as ridiculous as the idea of a false copyright claim itself, with the most common reason being that the creator expressed a negative opinion of the company's product. Even if the person doesn't even use any material from the company's product (the creator just talks about the product rather than showing it), it can still be taken down, which is absolutely ridiculous because their is no copyright infringement involved with the act of talking about something. Companies simply believe that they can make up copyright laws, and most false claims are made without taking Fair Use laws into consideration. But the worst part of this is that when a company is called out for violating Fair Use, the companies get NO punishment whatsoever. It's insane that companies have so much power to do whatever they want involving copyright law, and that the creators have no rights at all. This needs to change immediately.
Also on a personal note, so many people I enjoy watching have copyright claims that are bogus and just there to halt revenue for that creator. I want to support that creator because I love what they do.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and criticism, and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Negative critical reviews can be erased. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
The system is unfair.
There are MANY cases of unfair copyright abuse on Youtube currently, and many content creators that go by the handles TheMysteriousMrEnter, I Hate Everything, and Channel Awesome have been battling unfair copyright claims, and I'm SURE that there are FAR, FAR more people going through this unfair process right now.
You will read below that that the DCMA needs to be adjusted to no longer support "guilty until proven innocent". Many damages are being done to content creators before probable cause can be established.
This is most notable among film reviews, and many things relating to video games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI #WTFU
I've had friends too scared to try to work on new media and content under the idea that it'll blow up in their faces. People who I support have lost weeks of income under the current system. Please, do at least review the terms and conditions of 'Fair Use' and define a way where it cannot be abused by any side. Thank you.
The auto-DMC process on Youtube is heavily abused. We don't want to break the law, we just want EQUAL justice. Content and parody creators deserve their rights protected too. Penalize those who abuse the system to inflict harm and stop free speech. It's abused for a variety of reasons, and that abuse has to be stopped.
I have been affected by this because some of my favorite content creators have been taken down for doing nothing wrong at all, they completely follow the fair use guidelines but have still been abused by the original creators which is illegal. Some have even harassed and threatened some of them for making a video even though it was completely in fair use. This must stop, that DMCA is so easy to do, even if the content creators did nothing wrong. Please this must stop.
It is unfair for content creators who do reviews. Whether they have something nice or negative about a movie or piece of media, creators videos are taken down. This is halting the right of freedom of speech. People abuse the system and companies as well take down videos because something was said they did not like. Sometimes people who make videos for a living on YouTube get their monetization taken away due to false claims. False claims that the video the creator made did not invalidate the DMCA. If a company flagged a video for copyright the money originally made by the creator goes to the company that filed the claim. Even when the creator did not do anything wrong the money the company made from the unfair claim is kept. This needs to be changed. People have the right to express their opinion anywhere. Why not online in a video about a film from the 90's?
The way copyright holders abuse the DMCA is terrible and unfair to content creators. These content creators follow Fair Use yet they're being taken down without a fair reason. Content creators have been restricted from making content, why? Because of greedy, selfish and uninspired copyright holders. That are basically destroying the art, that these creators are creating. Many channels on Youtube have been abused by this and these channels have creating wonderful content. That many people love and enjoy. The way certain copyright holders can make a false claim is dangerous, unfair and without any sense of regulation. This is what's wrong with the DMCA because why is it so easy for people to destory good content?
#WTFU
This matter should be looked into and fixed.
I am a storyteller, and the DMCA is severely in need of an update.
It's so outdated that anyone, copyright-holder or not, can use takedowns to get rid of whatever they want, for whatever reason. In recent times, corporations have used this to abuse content creators who are well-protected by fair use.
The worst part is, there is no disadvantage to these corporations if the claim gets thrown out, meaning they can file as many of these as they want, with nothing to lose. Many even use automated bots for this purpose.
The content-creators, however, lose big time. This is their main source of income in some cases, and so they lose revenue, and the ability to tell their stories. They are also harassed, and suffer tarnished reputation.
The fact that this is still going on in 2016 is absolutely sickening. It's time for corporations like Warner Bros., Electronic Arts and the like to obey the law, too.
I'm a beginning YouTube or who is scared to monetize my own videos to get a little bit of money. Some of my favorite YouTubers have been unfairly taken down and targeted. I just wish that it would stop then everyone could enjoy making videos. Most of the YouTubers I watch do it as a living, and seeing them suffer for no good reason.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders like Viacom, Studio Gibli, Warner Brothers, Disney, etc. and too commonly used to unfairly censor content that falls under fair use. This system has had dire effects on creativity, and commercial innovation, content creation, and valid criticism on the Internet. The DMCA needs to be vastly updated to protect against abuse by larger companies. So much content on the internet has been taken down unjustly, which infringes on users’ free speech. This wasn't the case when the DMCA was inacted, but so much has changed. Just as time has changed, so too should law.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms, rather than rational human beings, to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, (i.e. using movie clips to make a review of that movie, using instrumental music of a song for parody use, etc.) therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legal free speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders who seek to shut down legitimate competition and critisism and extract money from innocent victims.
People are being harassed and threatened of their entire livelihood because of companies abusing the DMCA and Fair Use Law. YouTubers such as I Hate Everything have gotten copyright claims from people and companies for "breaking fair use law" even though they did nothing wrong. The Nostalgia Critic lost monetization due to copyright claims he had gotten on his videos, and the people that falsely filed a copyright claim against him get to keep their profits from the ad revenue that he should've gotten. GradeAUnderA and other Youtubers get their videos stolen by reaction channels who don't ask for permission to use their content, and they get money off of videos they don't put any effort into, and instead get money by stealing people's hard work. Copyright law is being abused more and more, and companies even make alternate accounts in order to repeatedly file false copyright claims against people at once. This needs to stop, and the internet will suffer if nothing is done about this.
It's amazing how so many content creators i personally enjoy watching, have had their videos on YouTube taken down by copyright holders, when they clearly fall under fair use laws. The system makes it so that literally everyone can file a copyright strike, sometime companies even does so multiple times after the claim has been refuted through other companies acting on their behalf and it's got to end. Someone who's maliciously abusing the DMCA takedown system can put some of these creators livelihood at risk and there is absolutely zero consequences for the perpetrators. It has to end.
with this system i can make it very hard for people to be creative and truly express themselves. This is a restriction and it needs to change now
It's unfair for an antiquated system to rule such a progressively technological landscape. It's unfair for creators to feel stifled because they are afraid of being penalized unfairly for the content that they create while obeying the laws of Fair Use. Revisit this. The power should not be with the larger companies who abuse this system on a constant basis. The internet needs to be fair again.
===========
Many content creators I am personally a fan of have been subjected to false DMCA claims upon videos that were inarguably critique in nature. These people work for a living critiquing and reviewing products, providing me and many people like me with a helpful buyers guide to products that can easily run for $60 per item. Companies that dislike negative reviews of their products have utilized DMCA claims to take down the fair use protected reviews and critiques in an effort to silence negative press. In some cases the critique in question didn't even include material that the copyright holder owned, except for the title of the work the review focused on.
In addition to censorship of negative critique, some copyright holders have been able to utilize the DMCA claim system to make money off of other people's hard work. Many of these same critics earn their living through Internet critique. The DMCA system has been utilized so that copyright holders, and even people with no claim to copyrighted material, have been allowed to monetize reviews and critiques of material that was protected under fair use, with absolutely no consequences for the outright theft of critics' hard work.
Nobody should ever be guilty until proven otherwise. There is much room for improvement in the DMCA to protect content creators while keeping the spirit of copyright protection intact! #wtfu
The DMCA system is designed to benefit corporations and disenfranchise content creators. This is because of how outdated it is. In 1998, the expanse of today's Internet could not have been predicted, and now this outdated law is being used to censor creators and to take their money.
Companies do not consider fair use, as they are legally required to do, before taking a video down. This could be accidental, it could be because of their negative opinions on their product, or it could be to take ad revenue from content creators. Companies abuse the system for censorship and ad revenue by issuing multiple takedowns on the same content under different names or have another company attack content creators on their own behalf.
Very few takedowns are accidental. This is the case with MalwareBytes, who accidentally issued takedowns on computer channels whom MalwareBytes thought were helping to pirate premium versions of their software. Many companies, such as Viacom and BlueRocket Productions, are attacking creators whose content is protected by fair use, while their content is available, unedited and in full, elsewhere. These are also only two examples of companies who are infamous for issuing false claims and multiple aliases.
I believe in some ways that the system could be improved. First, I do not agree with the use of computer algorithms to take down content. This is in direct contradiction with copyright laws that state that companies must consider fair use first. Second, there should be a way to prevent the same company from attacking the same content twice. This is unlawful, but continues today through aliases and companies that take down content on behalf of other companies. Third, penalties should be put into effect for companies that falsely claim content that is protected by fair use. If a penalty is enacted for false DMCA takedowns, companies may be less willing to flag content for ad revenue. Finally, companies should not collect ad revenue on content that is still going through the copyright claim process. This punishes content creators who have done nothing wrong, and rewards companies who are committing unlawful actions.
Thank you for taking the time to fix this outdated system and protect content creators.
I've seen a really bad abuse of the DMCA law in action when the Team Four Star Youtube channel was taken down for alleged violations. TFS makes the fan parody DragonBall Z Abridged, a video series that satirizes and lampshades everything about the show, and at the beginning of ever video, is a disclaimer. It states it is a fan based parody, lists the owners of the show and asks that we support the official release. Furthermore, as DBZA has gone on, they have put in their own original animation and cuts into each new episode, along with their own dialogue, making it a very different thing from the show. Then there's the cherry on top of all this; TFS does not make money on DBZA, the videos are not monetized on Youtube or their website. DBZA is just what attracts us to them so that we'll watch their other, completely original content, and that's what makes them money.
And yet they still got taken down, by four successive strikes, something that is not possible, except through a bot.
While there needs to be a system that protects copyright holders when their work is illegally used, the current system is outdated and can be easily abused. Content creators on websites like Youtube have had their hard work taken down by people and companies who do not want their work criticized, and these people and companies face no repercussions for making false claims. Content creators like Channel Awesome produce entertaining reviews of movies while adding their own commentary and opinions to the video, along with original sketches and characters created by Channel Awesome to transform the original work. Yet Channel Awesome has had numerous videos taken down by movie companies just because the studios don't agree with the content creators opinions. Other channels like I Hate Everything make sarcastic and comical reviews of movies that are generally considered terrible by traditional movie critics, and does so under the fair use guidelines. Yet his reviews were hit with strikes because the director of one of the movies that IHE reviewed disagreed with his opinion on the movie. The director did not receive any negative repercussions for making the false claims, and tried to use the claims to bully IHE into apologizing. The system that is currently in place is extremely broken and needs to be updated.
While content creators live in constant fear of losing their channels and their main source of income, abusers can make as many claims as they want, without fear of legal action or any form of punishment. This needs to change in order to protect content creators who are within their rights to make content under fair use. If their were severe repercussions for filing false copyright claims, the number of false claims would drop significantly, and content creators would not have to live in fear about losing their jobs because of a broken system.
I believe that everyone should have an equal chance on the internet, and that anyone who wants to make content should be allowed to. While there still needs to be laws that help protect copyrighted works, the laws should be up to date with the modern internet. By giving companies the ability to unfairly censor works that they don't like, we are taking away our right to the freedom of speech that we are all entitled to as humans. Hopefully we can work together to create new laws that protect copyrighted work and the transformative works of content creators equally.
As this information above explains, the DMCA is ruining thing, it i too easy to exploit, with no repercussions, it is as if I could sew my neighbor for false things, and force them to fight what I claimed without any effort being taken to see if my claim was true, and after that I would not need to follow up on my claims, and I would suffer no punishment for my actions. We need to be able to hold both parties in a DMCA accountable for their part, if someone is guilty they need to be punished, but if you file a DMCA falsely you need to be punished for your wrongful use of system to further your own selfish goals.
There also needs to be a system in place to keep monitization of a Video frozen until these problems can be resolved. With they way the internet works, all a false DMCA needs is two weeks off stealing monitization in order to gain most of the revenue a video makes these days.
As the internet has grow out of it infancy we are seeing more independent creators making their own content, and also seeing that the creators are being exploited by this system, this cannot be allowed to persist, we need to update this law to protect everyone on he internet, not just corporations.
TL;DR: Fix yo thing, bro.
I myself have had my own work taken down from YouTube because of outdated copyright laws and the music I used in a school project that brought acclaim from multiple teachers. I would never use it to make money, and I am upset that it was taken down due to Fair Use principles.
Please! Fix this! Update the DMCA laws so you can make my world a better place! I need a free and clear world to create a better one with story and music! Do not let these big corporations and big money use takedowns to threaten, demean, and demoralize my fellow man and make the world even more unfair!
I am well aware that DMCA rules are an absolute necessity. In today's time, it is just as easy to steal someone else's work as it is to publish your own, and a brief search through Google and Youtube can prove this. What really frustrates me about the current system is how easily companies can get away with copyright claims and take down notifications with almost no accountability. It hurts the individual they are essentially bullying, it hurts the respectability of the company issuing this censorship, and it makes a mockery of the ideals of free speech and fair use in American politics. I have heard far too many stories of reviewers and vloggers having their content removed because companies are not ready to accept that this is a perfectly legitimate form of voicing one's opinion. It is also clear to me that many companies are more concerned with stifling criticism than they are removing actual stolen content on the web. The current system heavily favors companies and corporations and gives little power or even respect to small-time internet personalities. The system is based on a "guilty until proven innocent" basis, which spits in the face of United States concepts of justice. What we need is a system that favors neither party, and is willing to punish the accuser just as much as it is willing to punish the accused.
Please save the internet and YouTube! We need help!
-Luke Ruggirello (ZS5 Productions)
And, for my comment, I say #WTFU. I say more freedom. I say that people like Cinema Snob, Nostalgia Critic, I Hate Everything, Your Movie Sucks, Bobsheaux and much more should have the right the post the entertainment based videos they do.
They should be protected and only actually penalised if they're doing something WRONG. Not simply using clips, adding commentary, like NC, or just have pics, images, like Disneycember.
People deserve this content weekly, daily, monthly, repeatedly, and lots of people deserve to have this passion, or hobby, or even a JOB, where they get their MONEY, their LIVELIHOOD.
Not have it attacked, day in day out.
#WTFU
Just think: what if it was you, as a maker, or viewer? Just think.
I think the system is being abused because i have seen thousands of videos that were a fair use taken down
Nearly all content which I support and/or consume is threatened by the massive loopholes and lack of consequences for false reports, ESPECIALLY when the reports are filed by those who do not have a stake in the IP involved, or when false reports are used to threaten creators. False reports MUST have serious, non-trivial consequences to counter this horrific imbalance of power.
This is not a trivial problem that policy makers can ignore. The internet is an inherent part of the daily of this and future generations. It is your responsibility to amend or replace this system that clearly needs updating. Please do your duty.
Honestly I could not say it any better myself, so I'm going to reiterate the comment provided by Doug Walker:
i cannot stand how all these creators are being abused and cheated out of their money please help them.
I've heard of so many channels that have had videos taken down because of the abuse of this system; a tiny fraction of them being I Hate Everything, Your Movie Sucks, and TeamFourStar. From what I saw, their videos weren't even close to violating the copyright infringement. There are youtube CERTIFIED channels out there that clearly violate youtube's terms of use, and I don't see any of their videos getting taken down. I'm afraid to even post my own content because of this atrocity.
Many people have been negatively affected by the abused dmca system. Many people lose money and lose their right to release content. People are claiming content that they don't own. Many large companies will hire others to claim videos for them. People are having their voices silenced and myself among others would like an update of the system at the very least. Thank eyou for reading this.
*- I just wanted to add that I've seen plenty of cases where the DMCA law is abused in an attempt to silence several different content creators I've followed in my time. Additionally, it's had a serious chilling effect on my own work as an amateur game reviewer. Whatever the original intentions of the law's authors were, I don't think they meant the DMCA to be used as a cudgel.
I have seen many of my favourite YouTubers suffer from false copyright claims and strikes... Fair use allows clips from copyrighted material to be shown for things such as criticism... I watch many YouTube critics who are stopped from their right of using fair use by getting copyright claimed or striked when they have done nothing wrong. Their monetization is stolen by the third party, they generally cannot upload videos as a consequence, and they're forced to take down their completely legal video. Fair use is no longer being allowed to properly be used and it's affecting content creators and watchers. This needs to be fixed.
Shit's fucked yo.
-Plainrock124, YouTube Creator
The DMCA has been used to mercilessly abuse and bully people who create content on the internet, most notably on Youtube. People have used it to claim or take down content regardless of whether or not the content falls under fair use, regardless of whether or not they even own the content they try to claim, and sometimes regardless of whether or not any copyrighted content was featured. The DMCA is blatantly outdated and unless a modern alternative is introduced it will continue to be used as a tool to silence content creators.
The DMCA is no longer effective in modern times and the internet today.
People and companies are able to make claims on content that they don't even own. Sometimes claims are made on content when there is no copyrighted footage/material in the piece at all. Sometimes these claims are even used as threats to creators. Often times the current system takes away revenue from creators unjustly, never giving it back.
Ultimately, the DMCA is stifling free speech and fails to factor in fair use when used to make copyright claims.
What these companies are doing it wrong. They are doing it only for money. Some companies are taking revenue from hardworking people just because they CAN. Fair use SHOULD be fair!
As a young creative I am afraid to post my work on social media and sites like YouTube in fear that it may be taken down, even though I know full and well that what I posted is my own and does not infringe on copyright. It is unfair and incredibly stifling to up and coming creatives. If we want to help and nurture the up and coming generation of creatives then we need change NOW.
''Git gud Youtube''
I frankly think this copyright stuff is so outdated. I find the stuff that happens disgraceful. The fact that so many sites and their users are having their content removed because of DMCA needs to be changed.
Please watch the video as the man explains why it is necessary to update the DMCA law
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
The law needs to be updated not only to protect content makers, but also to punish those who use it as a weapon to censor and silence others. It's time that big corporations stop controlling the free speech in the internet.
Recently, there have been many strange things happening on YouTube. Not the usual strange things that happen either. I'm talking about take down notices and copyright strikes on channels that don't deserve them. I'll list every channel I've seen so far that's had their videos taken down without reason, their accounts deleted, or have been bullied into letting the person accusing them of copyright make ad revenue off of what isn't their video.
Jim Sterling
Themysteriousmrenter
Channel Awesome
Anime America
Lost Pause
The Anime Man
Your Movie Sucks
I Hate Everything
Drwolf
Joshscorcher
TeamFourStar
CinemaSnob
Potatobombkyle Lego Productions
CinemaSins
AlternateHistoryHub
Jontron
BadComedian Sargon of Akkad
Chris Stuckman
Bobsheaux
Sheeleシェーレ
BrainScratch Commentaries
NFKRZ
Pyrocynical
The Gaming Czar Games Repainted
AdoseofBuckley
Totalbiscuit
Matthias
ToddintheShadows
Angry Joe
ElectricDragon505
CentralDerp
Krimson Rogue
EyeOfSOl
Dragon Mage
CreepyMcPasta
Trillbee Reviews
H3H3
LeafyIsHere
And I'm sure there are people I have missed. I would love to be able to use this site and make my own content for others to see. But when I can't see their content, even if they completely transform the video, that makes it hard for me to trust whether my own content is safe or not.
The livelihoods of many who post on Youtube as a job is threatened, as their videos are taken down, and even if their video is proven to be under fair use, the corporation who issued the takedown notice gets to keep any money accumulated by the video in the time it took to reinstate the video, essentailly robbing them.
Many companies have used this as a means to gain more money by placing their own advertisements on videos clearly protected by fair use. These exploiting companies can suffer no repercussions for their actions and have taken to monetizing videos containing no copyrighted material for the sole purpose of stealing money from the Youtuber.
YouTube is limiting the amount of content that the creators need to create
I get the dumbest copyright notices from people that do not own it or studios that say my claim is invalid. ( In which it actually is)
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review. That is ridiculous. That has to be at least 300,000 people being copy written in invalid ways. And some companies believe they are the law and can abuse this and use this for threats and harm.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Critiques that have valid concern for social and/or fair use justice to know what you should spend your money on are taken down and the owners who work hard are bullied in harrased. Like Derek Savage with IHE, YMS, etc. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
Do something now. Or do something never
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use and can be used to steal monotisation income from reviews just showing a clip for a few seconds to punctuate their point. This system has had dire effects on creativity and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse by companies who you shell corporations to file claims for them or out right abuse the system to remove any form of negative feedback.
All I'm going to say is that the DMCA law needs to be changed, and by this I mean the law needs to be updated for the 2016 internet as opposed to the internet from 1998.
It needs to be addressed because many of my favorite creators on YouTube such as Nostalgia Critic (a funny and creative movie reviewer and media commenter), I Hate Everything (comments on popular media topics/ideas and explains why he hates them and reviews bad films), Mysterious Mr Enter (tv/movie reviewer), Team FourStar (Dragon Ball Z Abridged series), Anime America (reviews multiple anime that got copyright striked by the animation companies in Japan even though they barely played audio in their videos), Lost Pause (has gotten his YouTube channel taken down due to "overly sexual content" even though there are numerous videos that are far worse [example: https://youtu.be/A5uKIlAafxg]), and even Smosh was copyright striked back when YouTube started in 2005 for a simple Pokémon parody they made.
Even if there's a slight chance the creators are actually in the wrong, I find that incorrect. Many of the comment creators were copyright striked due to fraudulent or flat out unfair claims by people that don't even own the creators content (example: I Hate Everything's copyright issue in these three videos was caused by movie maker Derek Savage "not agreeing" with IHE's negative review: https://youtu.be/d0qoD3viXL0 https://youtu.be/TyQjcFmc-Cs https://youtu.be/yXVkcWbvnN0 https://youtu.be/jzXSQ5f08sA)
Even YouTube creator Lost Pause made a video about how his videos that were over a year old were copyrighted out of nowhere, and also he talks about how YouTube is screwing over the creators that make money for them. Please watch the whole thing here: https://youtu.be/zFT8-JyBXU8
All in all, please fix this law, or make a new law that tackles all the problems I've mentioned. Please take action. YouTuber's livelihoods are constantly in danger from false copyright claims/strikes, and that should never have been a problem has the DMCA law had been updated for today's internet.
Thank you for listening,
Nicholas Tyler Brown
THE TAKEDOWN PROCESS SHOULD BE DEEMED UNCONSCIONABLE. It is heavily weighted in favor of those claiming copyright, who has much more power and control than the YouTube users. By law, the monetization contract should be declared an unfair contract, and lost revenues returned to the users.
The system is to far out of date to deal with new and ever changing fronts that could have never been dreamed of in 1998. And though at the time was fine, changes in the way the information, ideas, and art are used, distributed and consumed are making it easier and easier for people that have no legal standing what so ever to stifle innovation and creativity.
A fully automated system is good, without human interaction it can spare us from the issues of bias and mistakes but a flawed system is easily corruptible and rife with error.
A change must happen or things will continue to grow out of hand, we've already seen it. Companies and those that wish to harm or silence others push and now the people are pushing back, in return those that pushed first will return it with interest. This will continue back and forth escalating each time until it hits a boiling point. You must change things before its to late.
The DMCA has taken-down many Channels Like Doug Walker's (who uses Fair Use to make Reviews) and Pyrocynical, with out factoring in Fair Use, It's Unfair to Creators and Viewers alike, For Example Pyrocynical was striked by Sam Pepper for Using Clips of Sam's Videos in parts of his own video, that was Fair Use as it was not the Video in its entirety,and Pyro is a youtuber I watch, and that effected me. As the hash tag says, Where is the Fair Use?
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had diret effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I'm a British citizen from Liverpool who use a youtube account. I started making videos with my friend (Matthew) Hat&Shades for film and media reviews and hat&shades games for video game commentary. we may not yet have problems with companies or individuals who dislike our work, however. If our channel grows then we may face similer problem like other British you tubers (like I Hate Everything, Sargon of akkad, Tunderf00t and Tears Of Grace). The channel I help made, dose not want to abuse or mistreat anyone in real harm, we only want to criticize, analyse and entertain for the viewers. I only ask you to look on this and reevaluate about the fair use for other people, as I worry for their well being and soon, our channel. So people of amarica I can only say this, if your work is being shut down for their gain while you did nothing bad, how would you like it?
(The bottom page is pre written, so I'm leaving it on for you to see the test in more detail. Thank you for reading this)
I'll keep my personal statement short since the text below should give all the necessary details. Although I don't make content myself on sites like YouTube I greatly enjoy the content created using Fair Use like parodies or simple reviews, and I of course have a few favorite videos and content creators who get taken down or harassed even though they didn't do anything wrong. I can think of multiple times when some of my favorite videos have been taken down for inadequate reasons. I understand pirating is a problem and I agree steps should be taken to prevent illegal streaming but not in the way its happening now.
Thank you, now here are the details you really should read.
There are bigger corporations and copyright holders abusing the DMCA system to silence reviews and criticism, and to hold innocent users of fair use hostage until they get their way. There are even fake companies who pretend to represent a copyright holder, and take all the ad revenue on videos just as they are trending in views. Even if the content creator is later found innocent, the filer of the claim still keeps all the money, and doesn't get a single penalty for their false claims. There are legions of copyright claim abusers comitting fraud every day without punishment, cashing in on the currently inadequate and corporately biased DMCA system. I am a prospecting content creator, and I've been personally terrorized out of creating derivative content under fair use, such as review and commentary. We're tired of being bullied into submission by DMCA abusers. Fair Use is dead.
The following text sums it all up better than I can:
I have literally seen someone upload a video that was 2:00 minutes of a black screen. the person titled the video with the name of a song, but the video was 2:00 minutes of complete silence
that video was hit with a copyright claim for the the song mentioned in the title, and youtube claimed there was an audio match
on what? there's no audio? this type of thing happens constantly because there's is 100% no way to contact youtube directly and no human element to the process what so ever. it is a blatant abuse of fair use laws and the youtube copyright system, and it is just flat out illegal
Over the last year I have seen soo many people who create and entertain have their livelihoods threatened because of people who can't stand to see things that they don't personally like. The way the dmca copyright law works in its current form is an easy way for those people to silence those creators. It is a counter to free speech, a direct insult to fair use, and what I imagine is the first step to a future not unlike gorge Orwells 1984 novel. I want to do my own sketch videos but I'm too afraid to do so because someone might want to delete me because of something they have no right to attack me for. I hope this cause will work.
In addition to the previous statement, I would like to add that this also is scaring new content creators from trying to make a living in a new market. The very thing that America is supposed to be about. This has to change because people are having their rights violated.
As a content creator hoping to make a career in entertainment, the current copyright system is not only unfair, but dangerous to my career and the careers of thousands of other creators.
this system is being abused and it is also outdated, content creators on site like youtube are being heavily effected by this, not only is their content (videos) being taken down due to false claims there is no repercussions for those who file said false claim. people get threatened with these claims/strikes so others can manipulate them this also applies to company's/organisations. this system can be abused to the point where anyone can claim the ad venue of a video and KEEP IT even if their claim is false and is removed, this messes with people livelihoods on places like youtube where content creators can make a living off of the videos they make, people use this broken system to stifle the most basic human right FREE speech but people are being silenced by the threats of claims and strikes. Something has to change the internet is place where people can be themselves and speak their mind it isn't 1998 anymore these law need to be updated and changed to compensate for the change in times and so that the internet can stay place free of oppression from censorship. Please hear our cry's of help.
fr*ck YouTube man
Don't have fair use be abandoned other have no meaning, please take action!
Sometimes on YouTube people spend hours on end making creative content to spread smiles, but sometimes all that hard work gets taken down never to be seen again, all those hours upon hours of work down the drain. All the creator wanted to do was to make someone happy and that that one 20 seconds of a song, clip, etc. all that work gone due to one 20 seconds of footage out of 20 minutes. Even if you give credit in the description you still have a risk of it being taken down.
Where's the free speech? Don't we have a right to talk about something? Even opinion videos get taken down just because they have an opinion isn't that free speech violation right there? Where's the fair use?
I completely believe that this should be changed
People are taking advantage of Content Creators with False claims daily and this is hurting the reputation of the internet, not only that but some people are afraid to post videos because people keep abusing the law, Dispite having original content or if it's under fair use. We shouldn't be afraid to make content. Please help us
I feel like anything I say is redundant. A simple YouTube search for "Where's the Fair Use?" or any related movements will bring up so many stories mind bogglingly false take downs, it's unreal. You're taking money from the people who need it and giving it to those that don't.
As someone who is working to start a brand new review site, DMCA abuse has always been a constant concern for me. Negative reviews and portraying products in a negative light are often met with DMCA take-downs, even when you're following the law. It creates artificial positive perception of specific products being reviewed. Larger companies abuse this to filter negative opinions of their products. Website owners and people looking to stand up for consumers who are seeking the truth about faulty products are powerless in the face of a frivolous DMCA complaint. This also manages to create a situation where smaller competitors who can't afford to abuse DMCA are seen in a much more negative light, because the larger companies are removing negative reviews via DMCA take down abuse while the smaller ones can't.
DMCA being out dated has a lot of effect on video creators and content producers, but it also negatively affects user review sites. The Internet is a place where people should be allowed to discuss products without fear of being implicated in legal action, even if you're completely aware of the law and complying with it. Here's just one well known case. https://fstoppers.com/business/updated-2-gopro-issued-dmca-notice-digitalrev-3589
A review site didn't meet Go Pro's expectations of fawning over their product, so they shut down their review with DMCA. This isn't right, there's not enough room in current DMCA law for content creators and content curators to protect from this sort of abuse.
These things need to end. Allowing more leeway for content creators and content curators helps small businesses, individuals looking to earn money, and it helps consumers get the truth about products they're looking to buy. The only parties who benefit from current DMCA laws are large companies who are able to get a competitive advantage by silencing their critics, while the smaller ones can't.
(DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
DMCA is bad, people are losing money from greedy snobs who don't know(or don't care) what fair use is
DMCA takedowns are now used to harass and abuse content creators. There are companies who use the systems to take money from people who create original content for everyone. People who may of portions of the copyrighted material take down their videos and other content even when the content falls within fair use. The DMCA laws are too old and we to change them to help the new and exciting age of content we could not of dreamed of 20 years ago.
Large corporations are abusing copyright takedowns on YouTube content creators, particularly those whose content is issued using under fair use, reviewers and the like, please stop them from doing so as it's harming internet creativity.
The DMCA is a fossil that doesn't quite work in today's internet. I once tried to do a video where I passionately talked about one of my favorite anime, I had no footage, no audio, it was just me and the camera, and it was still pulled out from youtube, and my account deleted under a copyright infringement claim. This isn't fair. I was basically giving free press for that show and my video and my channel got the axe. I tried really hard to get my account back, but it didn't worked. I had to create another youtube account and start over from scratch, all that 'cause I just wanted to talk about my favorite anime with other people.
The DMCA isn't a form of protecting copyright, it's a way of bullying small content creatours
There is a lot of copyright material that is plagiarized on the internet. But many companies use copyright laws to unfairly to silence content that would normally be covered by fair use. Recently every video on the website Vimeo with the word "pixels" in the title was taken down by a company trying to protect the movie "Pixels". In the takedown the original short that the full movie was based on. The company that took down all of the videos wasn't the producer of the movie (Sony) but a company that Sony paid to handle piracy problems. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/08/dmca-takedown-laser-brings-down-vimeo-videos-with-pixels-in-title/ . Similar things happen on YouTube. Some movie news, reviews, or parody videos that have no copyright material in them are taken down. Many of the creators of these videos use the add revenue from YouTube to make a living. In some cases the video isn't taken down but revenue for the video is given to the claimant. http://youtu.be/zVqFAMOtwaI .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8&ab_channel=ChannelAwesome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
I hate the fact that the content I enjoy watching can be jeopardized by anyone with a click of a button. It is completely unacceptable that millions of individual people are being bullied and their dreams of being content creators destroyed because corporations do not wish to compete. And if it isn't a billion dollar corporation, it can be a 13 year old pressing a button to destroy someones career. Please fix this!
Beyond the DMCA stock response below, on a more personal note, we are seeing content creators (including myself) are finding it too painful to create content. Anyone can apply a DMCA strike, even if EVERY piece of the video is original content. And the law favors corporations and third parties over the average person in such a way that all the damage is done to the average person. False DMCA claims at a bare minimum should force corporations to be financially penalized as an incentive to avoid destructive noise. And take down notices should be a burden on the accusor (as in innocent until proven guilty).
Today's Copyright laws are outdated and are often abused. Copyright holders use the DMCA to stifle criticism and completely ignore Fair Use laws. In fact, videos on YouTube which are protected under Fair Use (such as reviews and parodies) are taken down multiple times by various entities, even by those who don't own the copyright, and have been used to harass content creators. This needs to change. Where's the Fair Use?
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet as well as the freedom of speech of the people they rightfully should have. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. It is allowing for the companies to get rid of videos that may be completely under fair use without any question at all. It is also threatening people who want to start making content on the internet into making them afraid to for they might be given copyright strikes. There are copyrighted videos out there that don't fall under fair use, but not every video existing on the internet with even a hint of copyrighted material is breaking the law. In fact, in a way, the people doing this are breaking the law for stripping people of their freedom of speech, a right granted to United States citizens under the constitution.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Most people today get information from the internet, and they have the right to know what people are trying to get across using the copyrighted material. In fact, often these videos and tweets and such give the copyrighted material more publicity, whether it be because it is good or bad, the corporation that owns it is making money. So they are not only hurting other people's livelihoods by doing this, but hindering themselves from making the amount of profit they wish for.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use and to take down content not even belonging to the ones requesting it be taken down. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. People can even be blackmailed into paying money at threat of their content being taken down. This kind of damage can not be undone.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies and individuals that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
SAVE THE FAIR USE! HELP OUR YOUTUBERS!
People should be held accountable for trying to gain profit off of content they do not own...
The DMCA has several times been used as a weapon against my YouTube channels. The filers never take the matter to court, but instead issue takedown notices that penalize my channel for weeks while they are given endless time to respond to my counter notice. Why should copyright holders--or even those falsely claiming to be--have so much power? Why should creators like me be terrified for our livelihoods thanks to a broken copyright system?
Finally, this abused takedown system directly harms the profession and livelihoods of content creators. Don't let people's livelihoods be harmed.
The DMCA is unfortunately anriquated to serve the needs of a burgeoning and vibrant internet. Many years have passed since the policy was first implemented and the DMCA desperately needs to be retooled to serve the public interest better. Without significant change, the DMCA will only to hamstring guranteed rights and the free exchange of ideas. I implore the Copyright Office to consider the implications of apathy.
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I would just like to add my own personal comment, here, to the already well-written one above. As a consumer and avid video watcher, I've noticed a steady increase in my favorite videos being taken down simply because someone, somewhere, felt butt-hurt over them and issued a DMCA takedown notice which YouTube is required to uphold.
Parody and informative videos fall under 'Fair Use', and yet these videos are constantly being taken down and their uploaders harassed, just because some big name company or internet troll decides to threaten them.
This needs to stop. It just needs to. If this keeps going, then the only form of entertainment we'll be allowed is whatever the big name companies decide we should watch; despite what 'Fair Use' says, and that's just not 'Fair' at all.
As a person whose main form of entertainment is the internet, the content creators that I watch on a daily basis get their content taken down due to "infringement of copyright", which, if you watch these shows, is utter farce. In the cases of shows on Youtube like The Jimquisition, YourMovieSucks or I Hate Everything, they have been content IDed because, they gave negative reviews of products and used clips to illustrate their point and to educate their audiences on certain issues in the film and video game industry inherent within them. Their critics are silencing them. Others like The Nostalgia Critic, Electric Dragon Productions (Or Animat Reviews) and TheMyseriousMrEnter are film and animation critics and had their content taken down by third party companies that had been imploded by studios like Disney or Warner Bros for using clips to review or commentate on their films or television shows.
This is hurting my ability to access the entertainment I want to enjoy. It is hurting the content creators, whose financial situation relies on platforms like Youtube to have strict laws on protecting these people and their jobs. I implore you to take action.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has l had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Man this DMCA thing sucks. Not for the youtube creators also for the watchers. I really youtube should be protective of the people who make content instead instead of those jerkwads with. Padon my language
I am a Youtube viewer that views several peoples channels. I have seen them post fair use reviews and content that is created by very creative people who use videos for fair use to entertain the viewers.
It is ridiculous how many false claims are being placed. People who have 100% fair use are being copyrighted, even if it's for one second of a video that was put in, and they gave credit to the creator. Everything is being taken down just because the creators of that clip want the money. The video doesn't even have to have a clip of someone else's, and someone can claim a copyright just because they don't like the video, and it doesn't even get looked into- it just gets taken down. I have seen that happen multiple times, and we really need to get this fixed. It's come to the point where people are just scared to make content because they're afraid it will be taken down. We really need to fix this, now, and I, and many others, will be hoping that you will.
I'm only signing this for 1 reason: DONT REMOVE THE LAW, JUST EDIT IT. The only thing wrong is the broken people who use it, like the companies that attack people protected under fair use on YouTube
As I am part of the people known as the human race I enjoy the internet (like no s**t Sherlock) and when I video I love gets taken down for absolutely nothing it pisses me off. A lot of videos get taken down when they are under fair use and it ruins YouTube creators hard work, for example take a look at cool cat and daddy Derek vs I hate everything and other channels. Another example is channels not having ad revenue for long periods of time. And don't get me started about reaction channels, taking a whole video from a channel without permission and watching the entire thing in front of a camera for loads of money. Anyway copyright law is s**t with false copyright claims and strikes me and the rest of the internet want a change
The abuse of the fair use system is simply barbarism. Please put penalties on false accusations. I have been affected, and I a not alone.
This shit be bad, so stop it.
Please for the love of all that's right get people who understand the internet, who understand technology, and DON'T have a tie to major corporations that do nothing more than steal from the little guy. Let this country be what it was always meant to be, a place where anyone with the talent and drive can be successful, and a name for themselves, not constantly be in fear of when the next corporate boot will come down on them.
I've have seen way too many content creators have their works taken down and revenue stolen through the abuse of DMCA. Far too many people either don't know how it works or abuse it in order to censor, including corporations. This needs to stop and the DMCA and copyright law in general needs to be updated for modern times to account for an ever growing and increasingly complicated internet, which is more integral in our lives than ever.
It's not cool man pls stop
Criticism, Review, and parody, have always been 2 things that always been part of fair use. However with Youtube being the pet of corporate tools like Viacom, they believe that ANYTHING using copyrighted material is not allowed. Heck, third party companies have been trying to take down videos as well. Not the people who made the product being parodied or what not, but the people who distribute the DVD and stuff...yeah. Let's Plays, which are videos where people play a video game, and record their playthrough are being targeted as well, despite them having done nothing but boost the sales of games, as people show why they love it and convince other people to buy it as well.
I am very concerned with the copyright system currently in place. Right now, the balance is skewed so much in favor of big corporations, that the rights of the average person are being trampled. There are currently no consequences for submitting a false copyright claim and abuse is running rampant. The system can and has been used to censor negative reviews. Please stand up for the rights of content creators.
im a reviewer on youtube, and i make videos as a way to have fun and be creative, i do not try to steal money or content from people, and i credit those i borrow content from accordingly, but after hearing that some of my friends are getting copyright strikes, channel terminations, and unfair claims on their videos, i am terrified to post a video, in fear that that video may be my last, thats not how youtube should be, so hostile to content creators who use a bit of copyrighted material, and who actually credit the owners... we shouldnt have to live in fear... or be harrassed just for being creative or doing reviews...
This copyright abuse has been absolutely disgusting, and as YouTube is becoming a actual viable source of income for many content creators, this bogus and outdated system harms their income, well being, and career.
Completely innocent people are being striked for no reason by these malevolent people who either cannot take criticism, or want to take the income of a popular video (case in point, I Hate Everything vs. Merlin).
Overall, I am surprised this hasn't been brought to congress sooner and the government should do something about this as quickly as possible as YouTube and other social networking sites continue to grow.
The current DMCA was written nearly 20 years ago, it is heavily outdated and SHOULD be altered to represent the current day internet. When the DMCA was written, sites like youtube weren't even an idea yet. I've seen content creator after content creator get sent a false DMCA take down, which robbed them of their income, time and time again. Knowing this could happen to any one, at any time, without ANY repercussion to the claiming party has kept me from giving content creating for a living a try, the scare that all of my hard work would've be wasted. The thought that a random business, or even a single person could just walk away with my income, because that's how the system currently works (on youtube). That is theft and illegal . But not in this case. The DMCA legalises monetary theft, to put it bluntly. The DMCA NEEDS to change, it should've been changed 10 years ago.
I fully agree with the default statement below.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken off-line at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I have been a part of the Internet's video-creation community since I was young, and it's hard to see what it has become. The DCMA was once perfect for the young internet; but now has become a tool that large businesses abuse to block out negative opinions. Take YouTube for example. YouTube has a system where programs are used to issue multiple strikes on a video to shut it down. But YouTube is not only to blame. They are practically forced to do this due to current copyright laws. There is no consequence for false copyright claims and no limit to how often they can strike. This is an issue that needs to be addressed at the highest level.
We need you, members of this decision committee, to allow free speech, criticism, and parody to prevail.
In a world where freedom of expression is a necessity, the exception of the internet is a large oversight.
The YouTube copyright abuse problem. This issue is a violation of our BASIC RIGHTS. You know certain unalienable ones we have as citizens of the U.S.? YouTube has turned a blind eye to these issues and allowed channels to be shut down, allowed companies to abuse the system, and they have allowed them to do it without punishment or fear. These grievances against the people are unacceptable. That's why I want this to stop. This comment may sound very middle-school-essay-esque but that's the only way I can get my point across. Please. PLEASE fix the YouTube copyright issue.
It is in my opinion that the DMCA Act of 1998 is very outdated. When this bill was signed into power, YouTube was a pipe dream, Mark Zuckerburg was nowhere near Harvard and MySpace was barely functioning. So much has changed in the nearly 18 years on the Internet that it's near impossible to compare the two.
However, despite the DMCA providing some useful policies, it can get abused like nothing. Reviews that use only snippets of the piece of media they're reviewing can get taken down, even a five minute sound byte of silence was taken down for having the same name as a piece of music was taken down, which means that not much consideration was given on how to take down the video. Companies can assign bots to take down content with no human factors involved at all. Videos can get taken down by the creators of the media the person is looking at just through petty squabbles and pure jealousy and it'll nine times of of ten be safely in Fair Use territory. And not only that, but the copyright content system put in place by YouTube can be exploited by anyone. Say if I, a secondary school student, decided to place a copyright strike on a video reviewing a film (let's say Batman vs Superman) I can get that video taken down and any ad revenue taken from the rightful creator of that video and into my bank account despite me not being associated with DC in any way. And it's going to take a long while for the victim to get that claim off their channel so they can start making money back off their creation. And the crazy thing is, this can happen multiple times to one person and the claimant will get no ill repercussions against them, leaving them free to do whatever they what. Even if a creator uses only pieces of the film from the trailer, they can still get taken down despite them being released by Warner Bros. on their own YouTube channel.
This has been going on for many, many years now and unless the government decides to step up and change something, Internet entertainment products are going to dwindle and dwindle until there's nothing left. And yes, change is scary. We're facing a cultural revolution unlike anything anyone has ever seen since the 1950's. Please, please, please, do something.
Thank you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
While it is important for copyright holders to have tools to protect their property, the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders.
Too commonly this system is used to censor content that is protected under fair use. Major sites that have become and continue to expand as major players in the entertainment industry like Youtube are constantly under assault from false claims. While it is true that often times the claims are reversed in favor of the content creators, the entire process can take a month or more, resulting in lost income for the creators and makes their career path either extremely difficult to continue OR totally impossible. This is made even worse when false copyright claims can completely delete a creator's channel and/or content.
Overall, this system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. Much of my interaction with the entertainment industry is done through these new media creators, which unsurprisingly is where most of the money I spend on entertainment goes as well. This young, yet huge new industry needs to have proper and modern protections in place to protect copyright holders AND content creators.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
Here are a few examples on how DMCA is being abused by companies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZimL8vJejY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ9U8YLY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYL_eLZLfw8
They are many fine people whose reviews are being taken down by these false claims and misunderstandings on fair use. They have been threaten by said companies and even lost revenue from these said claims.
The internet has changed since 1998. Lets update this law so that fair use can be fair for everyone.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
In the past year, I've had many copyright claims on my Youtube channel, the great majority of which are from shell companies that don't even own the copyright they're claiming, but DMCA forces Youtube to account for it as legitimate when it isn't. And this isn't just me, many fellow Youtubers are having the same issue.
DMCA doesn't account for people that are attempting to abuse the system for quick cash. It needs to be changed.
There are people who have jobs for making money, There are also people who want to work independently or there are other people who just want to work by making a living out of it. YouTube is something that people just want to entertain, make money, meet new friends, being excepted towards the online community.
Hollywood for some unknown reason wants to remove, silence & harass other content creators on claims that are lies just because they believe that the internet is killing their industry, which is not true whatsoever. This just doesn't effect content creator's careers, but also their lives, because all they want to do is tp achieve something bigger in live, to make a difference.
All I ever want to do on YouTube is create original content. People would think making original videos would be fine since there are no copyrighted material, but yet that's still not enough for Hollywood & other entertainment industries to keep them from striking & claiming for something that never belonged to them in the first place.
YouTube can be a place where everyone can be famous independently for doing something they love to do. I believe content creators new & old can still have a chance to stand to the industries from interfering their careers & lives from this absurdity of lies.
I am Corey Messenger, and I say that you should save our youtube videos and tweets before it is too late.
Channels like Channel Awesome, I Hate Everything and MysteriousMrEnter are not all but some examples that i know have been completely abused and bullied into the hands of many using this old abusable system to get whatever they want. Please for the sake of freedom of speech and expression and most importantly fair use. fix thiese awful DMCA takedowns .
As Youtube Content Creator I'm directly affected by this law and it has to be changed as it favors people and companys that abuse the DMCA for their own advantage. This has to end.
I really have knowledge of this in terms of youtube and while the DMCA has been abuse in many ways the most common I have seen are people claiming to own other peoples voice's or likeness (which makes no sense). And seen same videos get taken down over and over again inorder to hurt that content creator in one way or another. This is can be done by anyone doesn't matter who you are or what age. This makes me worried about my own content that I post because I fear that this will only get worse if nothing is done to change it.
There was a pre-written comment here but I feel that is just ironic considering this is dealing with piracy. But, I do agree with the DMCA policy being poorly written. Nintendo has held people hostage on youtube when they offer to pay them for endorsing their products by playing their games and streaming them. However, the moment you upload something that isn't a nintendo product, you'll either have this contract terminated, or that video will be removed on copyright act.
I have also noticed some videos, deviantart posts, fan-fictions, and tumblr accounts get torn down through no laws or copy-right violations have been committed. Copy-right infringement can only be enacted upon pirated content that is being used to make money illegally off the owner of the content.
Personally, I believe that this law should be revised so that there must be evidence, that said content is being pirated and earning money off of the content owner. Legal action should only be taken when the evidence is stacked against the accused, and the accused refuses to remove said content.
creator rights are being obused by bigger companies, strikes are being used as threats content that would come as fair use in cort is taken down people file claims on content they dont own DMCA's are used to inflict harm on individiual crators and they are being used to stifle free speachpeople without copy right music or futage are being taken down companies think they make the law DMCA's are used without factoring in fair use DMCA's are being send by shell companies to shield companies the companies sending the take downs videos are being hit multiple times even after their cleared DMCA's some times resort in lost reveniew and horrasment.
I just want talented people to stop getting flagged for critiques or fan-works, It's dumb and unfair.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I'm not a content creator myself, but a few friends and I want to start posting content on Youtube. Because of how the copyright claim system works we're terrified of any content we make being claimed and having monetization taken from us, completely disregarding proper procedures and fair use. This makes it difficult to start creating content and posting it on Youtube. This kind of exploitative system is stopping us and many others from spreading original content.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. The internet can not be a place of free expression and ideas, if the corporations are using the DMCA as threat for false claims that hampers internet users and producers who host content on the Internet. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
There have been many people who wanted to watch a video they thought was interesting or show it to someone else and then it got taken down on DMCA claims that shouldn't affect the Fair Use policy, which isn't enforced enough. This includes videos that advertise a company's previous product without said company having to pay them. They would make money even without pulling copyright claims. Tell me, how is that fair to the people who work hard to tell us about things that might trend one day after its obscurity is potentially ended by internet fame?
This system is outdated and needs to be updated to fit the internet that we use today, not the internet we used in 1998. People have been abusing this system to limit content creators who are using videos or content legally under the statue of Fair Use. This system needs to change now
These laws are unfairly being used to strongarm online criticism and are being utilized more for economic gain rather than for violations of Fair Use. notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Good honest people who are just trying to make a living are suffering from these takedowns. While I might not be one of these people who put up entertaining content, I do enjoy watching their work and know many others who do as well. They don't deserve this and could easily defend their videos under fair use in court. Bring back fair use!!!!
The DMCA law is being abused across the internet to censor criticism and harass critics. The Internet has changed vastly since this DMCA law was established, many, including myself, consider the internet to be a main source for entertainment and feedback. Yet, this may end if the DMCA law is not changed. It's hard for content creators on the Internet to continue making their content! False copyright claims are filed just on the basis of the name of the product being mentioned! There was a case of a video with no audio getting a copyright claim on said lack of audio - And those that filed that claim weren't affected at all! The DMCA law needs to be updated to fit with the changing issues of today's Internet culture AND jobs. If you want people to not steal content, then don't punish those who don't steal content instead of those that do.
The DMCA has been steadily being used by shell companies to take legal videos down from various websites. This is done indiscriminately as there are no repercussions for a false claim.
I have noticed numerous problems being encountered with practically every YouTuber I watch. Fair use is simply not being considered in many usages of the DMCA. I feel this is a very imprefect artifact from a world that couldn't envisage the current climate online. Entertainment has progressed and changed and this policy of allowing anyone to claim copyright to something without any evidence having to be presented is backward.
Crimes are not tried against every suspect in a case without any evidence as it is a waste of time and resources and the current DMCA is being used in the exact same regard. Creators are being treated as they have committed wrong without doing anything.
What needs to change is evidence needing to be gathered before any action is taken and some level of repercussions for false claims.
To balance the process, copyright holders generally need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech, fair critique and generally fair use of otherwise copyrighted works.
I am a former Broadcasting major and the fact that friends of mine have suffered from lack of fair use makes me sick. We need to be able to speak out about anything, which is covered in our freedom of speech, without worrying that we are going to have full channels taken down and out right banned because one development studio didn't like the fact that we didn't like their produce, or one company doesn't want clips shown for review purposes even after the property has been available for for decades. When it comes down to it these big companies can ruin the livelihood of anyone they wish to and suffer no repercussions for the act, and that is not fair to the creators or the people who wish to view these creations. So please take this seriously and give the people the right to fair use and the ability to use it without fear that they will lose everything because they are speaking their mind.
resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Please stop people from taking down fun stuff on the internet.
I've seen videos from youtubers I like getting taken down for the most minimal of reasons, even if they show no content of what they review: their videos taken down, some even got harassed even got their accounts as well as add revenue taken away.
I want that to stop please, youtubers getting sued or things taken away for no reason.
Including the above, and repeating some of it I'm sure, the systems are far reaching and too easily abused by those who would either simply antagonize or misuse the system. These people are using what is a simply outdated function to abuse and harass content creators and even in some cases, companies. This system needs to be at the very least updated or reevaluated. Such a thing should occur with any and all laws or functions of such an elaborate and intricate system such as government or as sensitive an environment as the internet. It needs to be updated and modified, or clarified and the abusive mechanisms or behaviours removed or otherwise eliminated.
This is a new form of entertainment that is being hampered by archaic systems in place that only help those already in power.
Stop bogus DMCA takedowns.
Personal Experiences: I work with a small start up studio that's been affected. Various YouTube Channels I've enjoyed watching (Nostalgia Critic, Game Theorists, CaptainSparklez, DocM77, Mindcrack Channel, among others) have been constantly harrassed by people trying to cash in on their hard work... or worse, their flagship videos ripped down or forced into private storage because people are abusing an ancient system that cannot keep up with this current generation of content. I've witnessed horror stories of people/content creators being harrassed by alien countries, or left to the whims of an automated system, with little to no connection to the human aspect of the service that is supposed to serve the content creator... and worse, the service isn't showing any real evidence of making an effort to improve the quality of life for the content creators, the very people using their service and making it grow.
I stand with all the undersigned in delcaring that things for the internet of today MUST CHANGE.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, freedom of speech, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I know Youtuber gamers who have gotten into despair over unfair DMCA takedowns on the videos, despite following copyright regulations. There is no punishment for false claims of copyright infringement and that needs to be changed.
This is also made worse, thanks to morally bankrupted bosses of a non-internet world, meaning that this is too important to not change. ^_^
The state of fair use on YouTube right now is a train wreck. Companies can take down videos just because they don't like them or because they want the money made from the videos. The way YouTube is set up the only people that get punished are the law abiding content creators. Companies don't get penalized for taking down videos that are obviously fair use. Please change this.
as an example, I myself have done AMV's with the purpose to showcase and promote not one, but two copyrighted IP's have been blocked or have ad revenue redirected ans outright blocked... bear in mind I'm not monetizing content... and it has been done by 3rd party companies most of the time, not the direct copyright holders...! I'm just a guy, rtying to promote things I like...
A company should not be able to falsely claim that they own content, causing the material to be removed despite their lack of ownership, and not face any consequences.
I don't have cable or satellite TV. Like millions of Americans, I rely on the internet more and more for my news and my entertainment. Of course I use more traditional sites, such as CNN and BBC for news, and Netflix for entertainment; But I also use user-created content sites like YouTube. These individuals on YouTube create entertainment for my generation, they focus on news that is important for my generation. Sometimes these are news stories that either haven't been covered yet by traditional sources, or were deemed not important to the whole of viewers, but they're important to me and my generation.
The fact of the matter is, our current laws were designed in a time where the technology we have today was still science fiction. More and more News reports are citing video, audio, and written accounts from people on the ground through YouTube, Twitter, and other social media site. We have devices that allow us to watch any video, listen to any song, and read any article we want anywhere we want. We live in a world where our 1st amendment right of free speech is no longer confined to how far we can shout.
But so many of these Content Creators are falsely attacked. Their content, that in court would be held as fair use, gets targeted by people that often don't even have the rights to the music or video that they're claiming. The current system says that you are guilty until proven innocent. And even when they're proven innocent, there is another person or company waiting to make the same claim again. And frankly why wouldn't they? In our current system there is no punishment for falsely sending a DMCA takedown, and there's no reimbursement of revenue stolen from the content creator while the takedown is in effect. For every correct DMCA takedown, hundreds of innocent people are attacked by false DMCA takedowns.
Below this section is the generic comment that the nonprofit organizing much of the outcry has written and I support it. But I have one more final thought. We haven't replaced judges with an algorithm that decides who's innocent or guilty, or what the punishment for the guilty will be. So why do we allow an algorithm decide what is fair use? Why do we let an algorithm decide when content should be taken down? It's not a judge ordering these takedowns, it's an algorithm. A human should approve DMCA takedowns, not a computer.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
As someone trying to start making reviews for youtube I have been hit with false dmca and it ended with me taking my channel down all together because of the constant threats and fear that I would loose my channel because of these false clams. I didn't have a huge channel but it was hard to see all my hard work go a way because I knew I wouldn't be able to fight these huge company in court even though it was fare use. It is time for the law to be updated for the modern times and its time that false clams be punished. Its not fare to the creators.
I have seen some of my favourite entertainers and even some of my friends get their voices silenced, get their money stolen from them and get their way of living threatened by these DMCA take-downs. Criticism is a way to protect the people and let them know what exactly they will be spending money on. Companies have a right to try and market their products to us but we have a right to speak on why we shouldn't engage in their products. Protecting copyright law is important but fair use isn't stealing or destroying these companies.
While the DMCA was created in good intention, namely to stop people from stealing the digital property of others, it's now devolved into a contrived way to remove any form of criticism and to steal from content creators on sites like Youtube.
Furthermore, there is no real consequence for companies that file false copyright claims. In order for the DMCA law to survive, there must either be real, legal consequences for the act of filing a false DMCA with these consequences being pursued and upheld, or a complete re-write of the laws to state that it will unequivocally follow the principles of "guilty until proven innocent" and help the people who have been falsely DMCA'd to get justice against the companies or individuals who've filed the false claims.
Regardless, there must be consequences outside of a fine, and content creators and critics must be protected from people that want to abuse the laws.
In addition to this, as a creator who may in the future want to make content for the Internet, I don't want to be threatened or bullied by large companies or individuals who take down my content for no reason whatsoever, even for a short period of time. There is a better way to do this and pretect fair use and copyright law as a whole.
Individual creators are being hurt by the power of corporations on the internet. Its easier than ever for a company to take down a video or post without a rightful claim. This is against Fair Use, as many hard-working creators have their content striped from the internet. This hurts the creators and their products. People should have the right to create reviews, videos, blogs, and other forms of media on different products.
The DMCA is also heavily outdated and needs to be re-established for the modern era. The internet has new websites for people to discuss their thoughts and opinions like never before. The original law was created in the late 1990s, around 18 years ago. Its outdated nature leads to large corporations taking control of the operation leaving people and small businesses with no chance to state their own claim. Plenty of removed content would be under fair use if taken to a fair court. However, most creators don't have the money or time to deal with such an opposing task. Websites need real humans in order to sort out the unlawful and the content under fair use. Most are run by machines which create issues as they cant fully judge the certain content accurately.
This is a serious issue that must be fixed soon. Simply too many hard-working individuals are hurt by this outdated and wrongful system.
Fair Use and Copyright laws and regulations have been butchered over the years since the Internet has grown. The Internet of 1998 was in its infancy, where only a technologically smart person could create content on it. So, it would be easier back then to track and regulate unfair use. But now, especially with YouTube now a prominent figure on the Internet, people who just talk about something can be manhandled and bullied with a regulation system that has more holes in it than Swiss cheese. The Internet is bypassing TV much faster than TV bypassed its predecessor(s), and it isn't going to stop anytime soon. As someone who wishes to bring content to the Internet as well, I hate having the worry of having my voice being silenced by some greedy corporate façade or miserable troll, just because I talked about or showed a portion of something that some company owned. Reviewers, music mixers, and the like who want to give their opinion or take on something with praise or disgust should be allowed to do so. Update them or completely redo them, I don't care. As long as Copyright and Fair Use laws and regulations don't work to protect the many, and not the greedy few; to protect the innocent and not the corrupt, then creativity and inspiration will die at the hands of those who wish ill will on those they cater too.
the dmca is outdated and needs to be fixed. it's not used to protect content creators, it's used to harasses them. people can make false claims against creators like on youtube and suffer no consequences for this.. only the creators are punished .. fair use isn't be taken into consideration for content and t needs to be. protecting copyright holders is fine, but contain creators uses material under fair use need to be protected too.. companies have all the power and creators have none.. this needs to change
I have seen many Youtube videos where a copyright claim has been used to silence those who wish share their views and opinions with the masses, but are constantly abused by shell companies to silence them. Youtube has changed the way of how everyone now views our modern world and these outdated copyright laws need to change if we are ever going to see a difference.
Content owners such as Derick Savage are violating fair use laws because they don't like criticism.
Fair use is important for todays internet. Many videos have been taken down for their title alone, with many showing reviews or parities of copyrighted material but not the material of itself. If news shows can do it why is it only internet shows that are being targeted, with many not able to defend themselves from the automated systems that are put in place with bias to the copyright holder and not to the person using the material under fair use. Many of these people are small business owners that are making a substantial living on the internet with their own production or filming companies and rely on a steady source of income that is being disrupted without a proper means of defending themselves. Please support these people that just want to be able to use the material under fair use.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
My friends are legit content creators and follow every law...yet their lives are wrecked by hateful companies to block criticism and honest content creators. This has to stop.
We can do this by making a law that holds claims with repercussions if found fake. If a take down claim is false, we have to make sure they have a punishment so they don't just pass out take down notices in the thousands. A new form of ripping and scamming has came through, now companies in China and Korea are stealing millions of american dollars by making a false claim to still revenue from youtube stars, making millions on this and stealing money from hard workers till they prove their case...which takes 90 days and that money taken is not demanded back because we have no law to punish false claims.
Dmca is being used to abuse many youtube channels and really upsets me just the common veiwer many of my favorite channels are being attacked by these unfair laws and something needs to change. I'm just one person but something needs to change for creators and just the avid viewer.
Many people involved in laws of piracy are taking unfair and unjust action against content creators, particularly those that occupy Youtube. It has reached a point where content is at risk of being removed even if there is no copyrighted material. Videos from vloggers and aspiring musicians are being reprimanded for having content used under fair use, which seems to be ignored as some are still being targeted even after being cleared. Aspiring creators are being deprived the opportunity to create due to people unfairly claiming copyright for whatever reason they see fit.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
People are being taken down for all the wrong reasons.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital m Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
To Whom It May Concern,
Many of my favorite content creators are being taken down due to unfair copyright claims despite them clearly being protected by fair use. Some examples are Teamfourstar and Channel Awesome as main examples. They have taken the abuse of the obsolete DMCA laws with grace that deserves a hard look at what the laws are actually doing to the online community. Many online content producers have lost their livelihoods for days without the claims being validated. This would never stand in any other industry and should not here. Such a disparity between the internet and other industries and communities is antiquated and must be changed. The internet is the future and we must make the future is fair and reasonable for everyone.
The paragraphs which follow this one were made by an individual other than me, I have read it and to be honest I agree with it wholeheartedly. Although I may have never been subject to a 'take down' personally, I don't believe that it is morally justifiable for someone's hard work, in forms of either, gameplay, commentary, satire or any other types of creative entertainment to simply be taken down without consequence if it was shown to be a legitimate creation of their own. That is to say, so long as credit to the original sources is given where credit is due there should be no issue. If not then FOX could sue a ten year old for drawing and posting his own Simpsons cartoon made of stop motion LEGO, that is simply not right. I personally believe that what is said below is true to the situation in which the internet is currently in, we should not be castrated for giving our opinions or retelling a story in a new light. So I urge anyone in power who reads this, if such a thing should ever happen, to fight for our rights to creativity and joy; let us do and watch our reviews, our parodies and our other creative content so long as we do not make blatant claims to creating original content which is not actually our work. Thank you.
I've not personally had an account with the DMCA but i know the effect takedowns have on those who rely on youtube and other internet medians to get by. There's no way that takedowns can be legal if the video in question is two people talking about a film they saw (as but one example). I situations like that where no content present is copyrighted other than the topic of conversation, if topics can barred from conversation then that infringes freedom of speech at the very least.
#Where'sTheFairUse #ProtectYoutubers
People get unfairly hit (it has happened to me, on my other channel, a review was blocked, even thought it was quickly resolved but I am one of the lucky ones not a lot are as lucky as me and need to be protected). Thank you
Free speech and fair use are being stifled. Creators are being abused by other creators just because they can not take criticism. It is the adult version of "MOM THEY ARE PICKING ON ME." "MAKE THEM STOP." Is it wrong to nit pick someones creation? No. You make it, then charge people to see it, and cry foul when people complain about it. Free speech and fair use is a fundamental right given by the government to the people. With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured...the first thought forbidden...the first freedom denied – chains us all, irrevocably
Beyond all of this, the way policies and procedures have been implemented illustrates that the DMCA itself was a piece of legislation bought by those corporations that benefited most from it with lobbying and influence. The pieces that have been nothing but lip-service in the act itself engender it as one of the strongest demonstration of exploitative design in a piece of legislature on the books. Until the copyright holders who orchestrated the development of these systems in their favor, or exploited the opportunities these systems provided face severe and tangible consequences for the abuse of the DMCA it will only ever be useful as a tool to exploit and harm others.
I agree with everything said, as a content creater myself I am of course biased against dmca in its current state. I understand the nessesity not the practice, please correct this.
It's ruined many, many videos and caused many problems for Youtube viewers.
Recent abuses of the DMCA include content creators using the system to try and stifle competition, but the most egregious violators are third party groups like Collective Digital Studio (they have recently re-branded themselves as Studio 71) who base their business model upon DMCA claims. They're "clients" think they are paying for content protection, but in reality these groups will go out of their way to find a reason to flag any content, on any site in order to fleece money out of the creator.
This is especially prevalent on YouTube, as many YouTube content creators are simply individuals making and sharing content for others to enjoy and do not have any legal knowledge or advice when groups similar as Studio 71 come calling. The DMCA's original intent was to protect the rights of content creators; however, as the times have changed, this law must change as well in order to effectively protect such rights instead of offering loopholes to those too shameless to care about taking advantage of others.
A refusal to take corrective action now to prevent this abusive behavior will be seen by many as the US government condoning these shakedowns; a course of action that will only contribute to the deterioration of the internet's ability to provide a free and open environment for the sharing of content, communication between people all across the world, and the conversations about our opinions that result from this. Already, companies based largely in the US have shown a startling acceptance of foreign censorship of services they offer (such as Microsoft, Apple and Google), and if the United States Government were to in any way allow the websites under its regulation to begin along the same path, it would be a major setback for free and open speech on popular websites.
As an artist, the DMCA does not allow me to be open and creative with what I draw. I have to tiptoe on eggshells about drawing fan art of my favorite movies, shows, books, and games. If I don't state the exact specific righf things, I could be barred from being creative on several sites. That is not ok.
Please pay attention to these comments, as thousands if not millions of people trying to make an honest living are being wrongly punished while others who commit actual crimes are getting away without any form of punishment or penalty. This is a legitimate problem that needs to be corrected immediately.
These unfair DMCA takedowns must stop. I have seen too many internet creators censored by bogus or unjust claims. The problem with the claims themselves is that the system that is used by sites such as YouTube is built on a "Guilty until proven innocent" foundation. You don't have to have any copyrighted material in your content for it to get flagged. If someone wants to flag it, there's little you can do. Disputing a claim is often much harder and expensive than just taking the content down. This is bullying, this is wrong, and this should be ILLEGAL. Fair use is there for a reason, and internet content often gets targeted because there are no protections in place to stop this censorship. We need to expand fair use and make it actually work. We need to see the internet as a legitimate form of entertainment and expression, and most of all, we need to protect free speech from copyright holders, who only want to line their pockets.
It baffles me how I didn't know that any of this was going on in the first place. The content from creators I love have haven't been protected from a law that's supposed to work now; but was originally created in 1998. Please, let my voice be heard that this needs to be fixed on YouTube, and all across the internet for that matter. I hope that one day, people won't constantly be living in fear if their video will unanimously be taken down by a broken copyright system. Thank you for your time. #WTFU
I have seen many of my favourite channels fall foul of the current DMCA laws. I seen a few taken down for things that clearly fall under fair use. Over the last few months it's become clear that the platform needs to change and become more incorporating to the multi national and ever growing Internet.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a law that was passed in 1996 to protect copyright holders, 2 decades ago. Because of this, the law has become outdated because it was written for an internet of the past, when almost all of the content was owned by corporations. In the present (March 31, 2016), many people rely on the internet for many more reasons than they did back when this act was first passed, and as a result, certain individuals, as well as corporations, have been abusing the law by taking down content that falls under fair use.
Because of this, many people have had their content taken down unfairly whether it's because someone did not understand fair use (which is not an excuse), or for malicious reasons, such as to shut down disagreement (illegally violating free speech), to remove criticism of a product illegally, or to claim rights to revenue produced by content which is not theirs (illegally, of course).
As a result, the DMCA needs to be updated at the very least, or removed entirely, with a replacement that is updated to today's standards, because in it's current state, the DMCA is commonly abused, and that needs to change.
I have seen many issues with today's DMCA, the internet has been harassed time and time again from producers in Hollywood claiming copyright while it is obviously fair use. And if all of these matters went to court surely all would win. It's even too the point where a two people just sit in a car and do a review on the movie is being claimed as copyright, with absolutely no movie footage in it. It's to the point now where internet streamers are now doing this as a living. And all the money that they could be making, goes to the fault claimant's account where it's too the point where it is stealing, fix the DMCA.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyrightm Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While I do believe that YouTube wants to protect content creators, the copyright system currently in place is hilariously broken. YouTube's copyright system just begs to be abused. There needs to be consequences for issuing false claims, so that the shameless aren't encouraged to keep doing it. Seriously, without any consequences for issuing false claims, what's to stop people from doing it again? And people who issue claims, need to prove that they actually own the content that they're claiming. So many YouTubers have been hit with claims on videos that contain no copyrighted material. And how is it possible that people get hit with copyright claims, when their videos don't contain a shred of copyrighted material? Also, this system has been used far too many times by bitter movie directors and game developers, to silence critics of their work. So this system is also affecting people's free speech. This system desperately needs to be fixed. #WTFU
Thank you very much for your time.
Fear of false copyright claims is something that stops me from making the content I want to.
Otherwise, you must have serious brain problems to think this is okay to do! I know what that's called. Stripping your RIGHTS. Is that why there's crappy bots in charge instead? That would leave a lot of people in poverty, and it would lead to other well-known role models to quit! That is all sorts of messed up itself! Don't forget other places like Tumblr, Vine, Instagram, etc. THOSE are important sites as well! THIS GOES FOR YOU, IMMINENT UPRISING AND ANY OTHER BABY WHO JUST FALSELY CLAIMS VIDEOS BECAUSE OF NEGATIVE REVIEWS!!!
Fair use is being undermined, there are shell companies used by large corporations to protect themselves from the consequence. Peoples videos are being taken down even when there is no copyrighted material present. Where's the fair use?
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The DMCA is an obsolete, highly antiquated law that is abused by big corperations, especially in the movie-, music- and gaming industry on a regular basis. It more than ever needs a complete overhaul that puts content creators not affiliated with those corperations in a better standing and give them more ways to defend their Fair Use. #WTFU
IT'S TIME TO UPDATE THE DMCA to PROTECT THOSE IN LESS FAVOR!!
I find it extremely unfair that people who provide commentary or who blur images of something copyrighted get their videos taken down, while those who make videos of harassment get away scott free. Point being, I and many others would really want the copy right laws to be changed.
DMCA was introduced in 1998. It's 2016, times have changed, and its time for this set of rules to be updated.
People use YouTube as a job, and are being forced to be careful about what they upload, even though 99% of the time it is fair use! People want to be freed from this tyranny! The internet is supposed to be a place where you can find things easily and make reviews fairly, but companies are saying "If you say it is good or bad it will be taken down." I personally do not want this, not a single person does. People's jobs are on the line, people who create content for us. They would be afraid to create anything or be taken down.
()
All the above I have read and agree with I have seen many content creators on youtube that I enjoy watching get hit time after time with false or illegitimate DMCA claims. This really worry's me for many reason's 1'st: I have seen reviews of movies being taken down even ones without video clips. 2'nd: I have seen videos being taken down because views are expressed that someone doesn't like and they use it to bully/intimidate other youtubers. 3'rd: I have heard that these false/illegitimate claims really hurt content creators by taking away there only source of income and putting that income into the pockets of the people making the claims. 4'th: I have seen evidence that points at companies using shell organizations/companies to protect them from being scrutinized and being blamed for these take downs.
These Issues have made me time and time again bulk at making or uploading videos that I would like to share with the world. I want join the youtube community so bad that I can taste it. But with the current problems with the DMCA claims it's stopping me from sharing my visions with the world. In fact it's gotten so bad that right now because of my age and disability status I have so little income that I now can't afford any equipment to even get started. However that doesn't mean that I have given up on this dream I am working and continue to work on finding ways to get the funding so I can get started. I hope by the time I am able to make the content I wish to make that this law has been changed to accommodate the internet and content creators of today and the future.
As a simple concerned citizen, I’ve spent years of my life unaware of the DMCA, SOPA, PIPA, and other laws that control the Internet I use every day. But I’ve heard plenty of my favorite content creators on YouTube express their frustration as their original content is attacked as “copyright infringement.” Sometimes, companies abuse their power as rights holders to censor negative criticism of their product, as when Digital Homicide and Imminent Uprising filed a takedown against video game reviewer Jim Sterling in an attempt to remove his video review of their terrible game “The Slaughtering Grounds.” In other cases, creators live in fear of unjust copyright complaints. The man behind the Gaijin Goombah channel, which teaches Japanese and international culture using video game stories as examples, has expressed worry that his small business could be destroyed at the whims of large corporations because he uses footage of video games in his videos. At best, a YouTuber or streamer can hope to be used as an unpaid advertiser for the games in the videos he publishes, as when a company sends early access copies of a game to a streamer. The current system allows large corporations to abuse small business owners, and so it must be changed.
https://youtu.be/NoIL5qUI1p8?t=166
Here's a very short list of people who've been victim to this system.
Jim Sterling
Themysteriousmrenter
Channel Awesome
Anime America
Lost Pause
The Anime Man
Your Movie Sucks
I Hate Everything
Drwolf
Joshscorcher
TeamFourStar
CinemaSnob
Potatobombkyle Lego Productions
CinemaSins
AlternateHistoryHub
Jontron
BadComedian
Sargon of Akkad
Chris Stuckman
Bobsheaux
Sheeleシェーレ
BrainScratch Commentaries
NFKRZ
Pyrocynical
The Gaming Czar
Games Repainted
AdoseofBuckley
Totalbiscuit
Matthias
ToddintheShadows
Angry Joe
ElectricDragon505
CentralDerp
Krimson Rogue
EyeOfSOl
Dragon Mage
CreepyMcPasta
LeafyisHere
I have been personally affected by this as a content creator and I know several other personalities that have been affected by false copyright claims, unreasonable copyright strikes and in some case deleted accounts which have temporarily halted the flow of income for some individuals as their content is their job. In some cases some companies and individuals some small and some fake have falsely accused of owning copyrighted material found in someone elses work and as a result people have been losing funds since the site has directed the cash received by the new content to the company or individual who made the false claim. This ruins people's carrer and their cash flow income and has the possibility to ruin people's lives. The DMCA has to review their outdated laws to protect those who make honest livings by providing content on the internet. If the system is not reviewed and remains the same, entertainment will not be the same anymore. Personalities like Movie reviewers and critics, DJs and parody makers will cease to exist because copyright laws is preventing them from making content because copyrighted material is how they make their content. Visual artists and Musicians will become restricted heavily because they will no longer be allowed to make content using previously existing works as inspiration and then altering it by giving their own interpretation of the subject because that would be deemed as copyright infringement thus in my opinion ruining art as we know it. Claims like that may sound extreme but in reality since the general public has mostly shifted away from traditional media and more towards the internet, laws which affect the type of art and content displayed on the internet highly manipulates the experience of entertainment for everyone. The current DMCA laws which are in place were created in 1998 for the internet of 1998 but 18 years later it is showing that those laws were not timeless and are hindering the growth of the internet and to an extent society as a whole. Back in the 1980's the average man could not just buy a camera and create some movie with him and his friends and show it to an audience just like that, it took money and time, now in 2016 a child could do it in less than an hour almost free, the laws around what that child is allowed to create should reflect that now. The DMCA laws must be changed and they must be update frequently as to reflect our society at that time, in order to achieve what's best for everybody.
this law is so broken, not even Steam, yeah, Steam, the gaming platform is safe, I've seen friends of mine lose the ability to upload artwork because of these trolls
Corporations are abusing the copyright related procedures to shut down videos that are protected by fair use and often the people attacked can't even fight back and that's stupid and unfair.
The internet as a whole is dying.
I am afraid to start being a Youtube reviewer because of large corporations taking down or claiming monetisation from videos that fall under fair use, using the DMCA as their justification. They use it as a threat and to bully, knowing that the individual doesn't have the money to take them to court, leaving them safe from the fact that they usually don't actually have the legal right to claim the video. Fair Use dicates that the small clips many Youtube reviewers use, talk over, and comment on are allowed under Commentary, Criticism, Parody, or Satire.
Kyle: As a YouTube content creator I rely on fair use to produce my material as I do reviews on film and television. I have had several strikes to my channel just for using a snippet of copyrighted material. My channel is Red Spotlight Entertainment. Please, help me in taking down these stipulations.
My YouTube channel, Jem Reviews, has been unfairly hit by false copyright claims by 20th century fox before on a family guy REVIEW I did that is considered a critique and therefore covered under section 107 of the copyright act, 1976
I've seen many YouTube reviewers get unfairly hit by false copyright claims such as the mysterious mr enter, Mr. Nightmare, and the nostalgia critic, all three of them, as well as myself, have made videos pointing out why these claims are false and how easily they can be abused, the mysterious Mr enter, for example, recently showed clear evidence of copyright abuse and harassment by a company called blue rocket
This is a growing epedemic that needs to be fixed
In short it sucks major balls.
In many cases, any false claim instituted by irresponsible companies can violate the first amendment (example: youtubers having their channel taken down when all they were doing is talking about how they liked or didn't like a movie.)
These are people's jobs, lively-hood, and expression. Don't censor it
Many Americans make their livings on the internet, producing content for everyone to enjoy through monetized broadcasting services. The public needs to acknowledge all of the content creators who are being taken advantage of by deceitful copyright allegations that are going unchecked. Any small amount of research shows groups like [Merlin] CDLTD gaining advertisement revenue and/or punishing content creators due to faulty automated copyright detection systems.
Informational links describing these matters and demonstrating evidence are provided at the bottom of this message.
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Info/Evidence Video Links
Overview:
youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (Ongoing):
youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0Wpn1zmU
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkcWbvnN0
First and foremost, I am an avid YouTube user/watcher. My favorite channel is channel awesome run by Doug Walker and I support him every step of the way. But so many of his videos are constantly taken down. When videos that don't use any clips from any movie or show get taken down.
So many people use the internet as a means of entertainment and even to make money but since big corporations are able to report anything they want, the get the revenue from people even if it's a comleltley unrelated video. In today's day and age things have to change to accommodate people on the internet and not allow big corporations to push around the little guys. Things have to change!
Just solve the problem you twats.
Well...as you'll look on YouTube, there are many people breaking the laws YOU created. YOU created them to help humanity against theft. I have seen many people take down videos just for the money. Like Daddy Derek, he abused your system just so that nobody thinks bad of him, but now it was a start of a reaction. Also an Australian company, which the name I can't remember, just wanted money and falsely claimed videos. So my final note to the world: I'M IN TO HELP! My voice will be heard. I don't wanna see more people suffer from other peoples greed!
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
DMCA: Destroyers of the Mighty Channel Awesome. Where the hell is our fair use?!?!
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
People are getting abused and losing their jobs, income, and partnerships over this abuse. This has to be changed
I have seen this happen to numerous youtubers both now and in the past, including Nostalgia Critic, Angry Joe, TheMysteriousMisterEnter, TeamFourStar, LittleKuriboh, Matthias, Faulerro, Anime America, and Jeremy Jahns and this is just what I've seen as a viewer, be it both short term and long term. These were all content creators who all recieved false claims on their content. Some even lost revenue on their videos, and the claiment recieved it, when it was either a false claim. As someone who wants to one day become a content creator, this is very concerning. This is a serious problem that needs to be addressed, especially for those who are doing this for a living.
serious yo
Several content creators have been harassed and unjustly punished by the DMCA. People have filed claims against content creators and have taken away profit from them. Content creators's free speech has been restricted by ones who filed copyright claims who would take down any reviews of their copyrighted material with complete disregard for fair use. Youtube channels have been unjustly suspended and, on many occasions, have received almost no actual support from Youtube itself.
This is the American government's chance to be productive in solving actual issues. Please, content creators need to be protected so there can be a flourishing market of voices being spread without censorship due to companies seeking an unfair and disgusting advantage in said market. This market needs to exist so that we don't have people with non-objective sensibilities abuse the system, stifling free and harmless speech. I don't like to beg and I can promise that everyone else who takes issue with the abuse of the current DMCA don't like begging for justice either! Especially when justice is an entitlement that all people deserve!
All these companies and even other people keep abusing this copyright system for personal gain and it works because it's all an automated system so I say hire real people dammit.
As it stands at this point in time, I am not a content creator. I plan to be soon, but right now I am just a casual viewer on Youtube who is subscribed to many channels, such as Channel Awesome, joshscorcher, and Mysterious Mr. Enter. Recently, each of these content creators and many more have been hit by false copyright claims by several corporations which hindered their ability to produce more for their fans. Before these copyright claims are proven false, these content creators can go through several months of their channel being taken down, and if another channel claims the victims' revenue, they won't get any of the money back if the claim is lifted, meaning their income can tank severely and even threaten their very lively hood for people like the before mentioned joshshorcher who gets by only on his Youtube income and his G.I. Bill. As I stated before, I want to start creating content myself and hopefully develop a fan following in the near future, but seeing so many channels that have inspired me to do so is making me very wary of the dangers and ways people could potentially abuse my status on Youtube, and this makes me less confident in doing so. I guarantee I'm not the only one thinking this way, which means that the copyright system currently in place is not only harming content being made today, but also limiting the content that could be made tomorrow, and action must be taken to fix it if we want Youtube to still exist as a place where anyone can make a name for themselves.
""
This article was found on takedownabuse.org and I whole-heartedly agree with this article to the extent that I could not have said it better myself. The internet's copyright systems are broken, abused, and do not have much of a fair structure. This is not only hurting the internet. It's hurting our entitled rights of free speech and expression of people's ideas and points of view that were granted to us since nearly the very beginning of America. These acts of corporate greed and unnecessary censorship violate the Fair Use Doctrine and even if a claim is false and the claimant made money off the new content, they still keep every cent made off them which is basically thievery. Sometimes, even if there's no copyrighted content of anything on a video, it is still taken down from some source who is most likely lying in order to possibly steal money from the online content creator when the creator is the one who rightfully owns the content and money made off it. I feel that the United States government must hear about this issue and work toward making the internet and the world which is connected by the internet a better place. I ask America and the corporate businesses "Where's the Fair Use?".
- John Frick (known as John the King in some small parts of the internet)
Things simply do not work the way that they are.
As a Content Creator myself, I can only hope that you will stand up for us in this horrifically biased and unfair system in which automated systems and actual humans can bend the rules in their favor and constantly find ways to sabotage our way of life.
There Is currently a business in stealing creator add revenue on youtube because of this broken law. It's so easily abused to hurt small channels and It needs attention now!
Balance is desperately needed in the notice-and-takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
To whom it concerns,
I am an aspiring content creator who wants to take advantage of the constitutional right to make think-pieces and criticism about art and storytelling, which will involve using small pieces of copyrighted material, which is itself a right protected by the country's fair use laws.
Below you'll find a thoroughly written explanation of the DMCA's faults in the modern, online world of entertainment, and how it wrongfully penalizes and exploits people with passions similar to mine, as well as notable people who already make a living producing transformative critical work.
Thank you for you time.
#wtfu
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People who are critiquing movies with NO footage used from said movies are being flagged. This is grossly inappropriate and a infringement on our basic rights. They are also stealing money from people who have original content on their youtube page, if the person feels as though their stuff ia being used. This happens rarely. We cannot post anything right now, for fear it will be flagged. This needs to be stopped and managed better as it is almost 20 years later.
People constantly file claims on content they don't even own. DMCAs are being used to inflict harm on individual creators and are being used to stifle free speech. People just talking on camera with no copyright footage or music are being taken down for no reason. Some companies seem to believe that they create the law. DMCAs are being used without factoring in fair use and are being sent by Shell companies to shield the company sending the takedowns. DMCAs are also used as threats. Videos are even getting hit multiple times even after they're cleared cleared. Takedowns & claims affect content creator's revenue and is abused as a form of harassment.
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As someone who has had their creative work for private and public use censored, this abusive law is something that does not support our current platforms.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
It isn't working at all right now #WTFU I support the nostalgia critics movement
The free speech of individual creators is being stifled and , with false claims being made that cause irreparable damage. This blatant abuse of the system that's currently in place needs to end.
This issue is an important one to me. Though I don't create content like many Youtubers do, I still I feel like censorship is a problem for all involved, both viewers and content creators. Fair use is freedom of speech. There needs to be a change from youtube to protect it's content creators. There needs to be a consequence for filing false claims like spam. There needs to be compensation for content creators who make their livelihood off the internet and have their monetization wrongfully stricken from them. Worse still is the fact that the money being denied is sent to the person filing the false claim and is never returned to the creator! This needs to stop. Please if Free speech, Fair use, and the law mean something to you then end this now.
Where is the fare use ?
To see various types of abuse will be in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
Copyright and fair use starts out simple. But when the world is introduced to the technology we have now, well... a problem is revealed. A massive problem. A large flaw.
Fair Use is people's shield against prosecution and being sued or anything for criticizing, educating, (etc.) for using copyrighted material.
Sites such as YouTube and in the real world is full of flaws. It's gotten to the point where the world needs to make Fair Use a stronger shield for everyone. Please.
There is also the problem in mind that despite what youtube as said, the fair use law is constantly being ignored in favor of Youtube's faulty Content ID system + third party holder takedowns abusing the DMCA.
I don't want to live in a world where big corporations can shut down whichever channel they want just because a person used some videos of their game or movie (or, even worse - didn't even use it and just expressed their honest opinion of it on camera!). They don't even need to prove their accusations, and the fact that they are given the tools to do that is horrible. It's incredibly unfair that these companies can destroy other people's work just like that, without any objections or penalties for false takedowns. It's legal abuse, and it straight up violates freedom of speech. I believe that everyone's work should be protected by law, which includes the work of people who're just making videos to entertain others - and now this work is not protected. I want this to change and that's why I want penalties for false DMCA takedowns. At least this way companies will think before striking some creator they don't like.
People have made copyright claims on my youtube creations, both claims and strikes, on properties that fall under Fair Use.
My original account was taken down by DMCA strikes from people who did not own the content they claimed to, but rather made similar content and sent multiple fake takedown notices so as to eliminate the competition.
On my new account, which has since been monetized, numerous videos using public domain content has been flagged and claimed illegally, taking away my legal profits from my videos.
Claims have even been made from shell companies such as The Orchard Music or Merlin Entertainment, claiming content that is in no way theirs and was either in the public domain or entirely my own creation, while using these shell companies to make sure they will not face any repercussions for these claims.
The DMCA takedowns on youtube are ridiculous, an outdated methodology that is used as a weapon to destroy content creators, either by false claims on items the creators do not own, or claims on content that is entirely within fair use such as reviews or parodies. This system is rife with abuse, an example being those who destroyed my original channel illegally, using the DMCA takedown system as a weapon to get rid of competition, and something needs to change.
The way false content claims steal money from creators is downright criminal. True that there are some cases where internet content has unauthorised material, but the way things are now it does not even matter as bots can make false claims based on a couple of words. DMCA really should be updated to 21st century.
Many content creators that I watch and enjoy have been hit hard by this, and for completely unfair reasons; Channel Awesome, TeamFourStar, and joshscorcher just to name a few. This system is clearly outdated and should be gotten rid of or at least dramatically updated.
I feel that taking down YouTubers just because even the smallest amount of copyright content is in one of their videos is the most idiotic thing someone can do. Coming from a YouTuber who uses music and pictures that may be copyrighted, I really never knew about copyright in those videos. But now that It may take a toll on me and my small review channel, I want to do everything in my power to protect my channel. Hopefully something pulls through and we don't have to deal with this madness.
DMCA claims through third-party services (e.g. YouTube) are treated as guilty until proven innocent.
Anybody can make a false flag DMCA claim for content they do not own and they are not held liable. Nor is the authenticity of their claim ever evaluated before it is acted upon. Third party services need additional protections to allow them the leeway to not just automatically and immediately act on claims to prevent abuse and identify abusers for punishment under the provisions of the law.
I've seen fair use being abused from music, any kind of music that can be found. I've seen it being abused from film soundtracks, TV show soundtracks, even video game soundtracks. It's not just music that's being abused. Anything from movies, anime shows, books, to video games is under the threat of fair use abuse. This kind of abuse of a doctrine that the internet has had since it's creation needs to stop. That is all. #Where'sTheFairUse
I personally have seen the hard work of my friends removed from places like YouTube due to claims like this, even when there was absolutely nothing wrong nor copyrighted.
I know quite a few people affected by DMCA attacks where they had no copyrighted music, no infringed material, and the owner of the game they were playing was perfectly okay and even partner with the youtube streamer. DMCA was used by an extremely angry, homophobic, twat Russian guy to swamp this one girls streaming channel for Warframe videos (which actually is an income source for her) because she said he was homophobic.
I have seen free speech abused countless times over when it comes to Youtube, with content creators trying their hardest to stay under fair use just for the companies to abuse their rights. The system is being used illegally and wrongfully, and it has the end.
The system has been geared more towards reviewers under fair use, as opposed to people who actually upload what the companies own in their entirety. That should be what companies go after, not people who's livelihoods and jobs are being put on the line with absolutely no fairness.
Violent videos involving harassment or gruesome content are also be uploaded, yet have been pushed to the side for ridiculous copyright disputes. The unfairness needs to end now, and the right of fair use needs to be protected. This system has been abused long enough, as the copyright system doesn't even hold up today.
This needs to end now, and people need to see how this system is being abused illegally and hurting people across the internet.
So many content creators who make a living off of the content they create are hurt by false claims and things of that nature. The current system hurts more than it helps, and needs to change.
Adam "Your Movie Sucks" makes a great video about copyright misuse : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ZmVheuxpo It's a rebuttal to someone who's been using this very law to silence criticism of his movie. And then later tries to "teach" us fair use, while only digging himself in a deeper hole.
Now as someone who makes and plans to continue to make some content related to copyrighted materials under the fair use law, I find the outdated, fossil of the DMCA law to need at least updating if anything else. Many people use this as an advantage to silence people when they don't like what they have to say.
Many people on the video-sharing site "YouTube" have suffered from these false copyright claims, by people who essentially were trying to take their livelihood away because they criticized something they made, or said something they didn't like.
I have seen dozens of my favorite YouTubers get their channels unfairly taken down by a misuse of the copyright system. Some of these people have lost hard-earned money creating their content just from an automatic claim by a company - and a false one at that. They have to deal with this harassment daily, and it needs to change.
I have made videos in the past discussing films and tv shows in the context of review and I use footage to help get the points in my videos across. This has lead to multiple copyright claims which has discouraged me from producing content. My favorite hobby and thing I had hoped to make a living at one day was crushed by these big corporations that were only out to silence my content out of fear of losing money where they obviously wouldn't. This is a problem because its suppressing my right to free speech and that's just depressing because this country is about (or at least should be about) the people and what they want, not big corporations that bully content creators.
There have been many channels taken down, abused or completely disregarded due to the flaws in these rules, while a plethora of content "creators" continue making profit off of stolen work or monetization. This is wrong, and needs to stop as soon as possible. Alongside this, it should not be the original content creator's work to see if a video is stolen, yes, BUT the system to detect copyrighted work needs to be fixed.
I have been watching this situation grow for too long. YouTube unfortunately supports uncreative, unwanted, and repetitive channels rather than the ones that need help. Only you can make a difference.
The biggest problem here is that people are greedy. I don't mean people who are content creators on sights like Youtube who use footage in fair use. I mean the people who put up fake copyright flags as a way to steal money from content creators. As where I understand why the law is in place it is simply out of date and does not account for the modern internet. people need to realize that this footage is being used for normally analytical purposes. I'm not saying that people should be allowed to upload full films to the internet, I'm just saying that sights like Youtube should at least check videos for the supposed copyright infringements before damage is done to content creators and their reputations.
DMCA needs revision to bring it up to date with modern use of the internet. As it stands across many mediums false claims are being used outside their intended purpose. With takedown orders being used to censor, threat, and stifle competition. The protection of the creators of content both large and small must be protected, and open to critiqued.
My favorite youtubers are having their content, quality, and overall appeal to consumers damaged by an unfair law. This in return makes youtube overall a less appealing site to use.
The harassment from false DMCA claims stop content creators before they even start. I want to make Youtube videos of some sort but the constant misuse of the DMCA makes me hesitant to be willing to even deal with the hassle of bots attacking me with false claims and constantly threatening content creators no matter how notable and legitimate their content is. These false claims are clearly against the law and unconstitutional but this guilty until proven innocent system won't change until the law steps in and modernizes itself.
I completely support the prewritten comment below. The DMCA is in dire need to be changed to impose penalties and accountability on those who abuse copyright strikes on internet videos.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
This effects my Favorite youtubers and I scott woodman believe that their needs to be change
Note: the way the system is headed will stifle creativity and the current advancement of our society as it has shown in recent years with greater access and freedom on the web.
I have my own YouTube Channel where I really just post vacation videos and just life blogs, however lately I have been afraid to post up new videos. This is because of all of the false copyright claims. I'm afraid that I might say something wrong in my videos and will get copyrighted or worse of all that I might get sued. I'm a college freshman I can't afford that. Mainly I have been afraid to post one video in general. I visited Washington D.C. on March 19th and made a tribute video to Thomas Jefferson. I did this by going to the Jefferson Memorial and singing (well more like poorly rapped) a song from the new musical Hamilton written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. I'm afraid that no matter how much I claim that all owner ship goes to Miranda or how much I praise the musical because I like it so much, that I will still be copyrighted. Please do soemthing so I don't have to be afraid to post videos.
Hi. My name is Sean Murphy, a 16-year-old internet user with a small (i.e. almost nonexistent) YouTube channel and a defunct blog. I don't claim to be expert on copyright law, and I'm going to let the pre-written form letter handle all the specifics, but I'm still going to put in my two cents about why the laws governing copyright on the internet don't work, and I think I can sum it up with one little anecdote. Recently, I posted a video on my YouTube channel that, within minutes of being posted, received an automatic Copyright Claim. The funny thing about that is, there were no copyrighted images or music in that video. The images are ones that I created, and the music is taken from the Peer Gynt Suite, a piece of music that has long since passed into the public domain. But it was the music that got claimed, by one "UMG, On behalf of DG", which as best as I can tell, stands for Universal Music Group and Deutsche Grammophon, respectively. To reiterate, the Peer Gynt Suite is in the public domain, as it is well over 100 years old. But that doesn't stop them, because there's very few barriers to issuing these automatic claims, the companies that issue them can monetize other people's videos, and there's no penalty for abusing the system. Oh, but it gets better, because after I disputed their claim, they REJECTED MY DISPUTE, dragging out the process further, still with no legal grounds for doing so, and continuing to make money off of my content. I'm currently appealing their rejection of my dispute of their claim...another problem: the system is way too complicated. Now, I understand that, technically speaking, most of this silliness is the result of YouTube's policy, not federal law. However, I'm also under the impression that federal law, and specifically the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, is not only allowing such abuse, which ranges from censorship of criticism to outright monetary theft, but also makes it near impossible for YouTube to change its policy in any meaningful way. This needs to stop. Also, as a bit of an aside, U.S. Copyright Law in general is pretty terrible. Again, I'm not an expert, but I can tell you that it's thoroughly stupid that I can't watch movies or listen to music that was created in the '30s by people who are all dead now, especially now that the Internet should be making them freely available.
I feel that the DMCA needs an update to function as intended in the internet today. I've seen examples of videos from a creator going out and showing a video of themselves and their front garden being taken down to legitimate game reviews being taken down.
I think that there should be some form of penalty or accountability in place on people filing complaints so that they are not being abused and thrown around for no reason. DMCA use on YouTube places all the burden of proof on the accused rather than the accuser and the accused is deemed guilty until proven innocent and can have their livelihood removed while an issue is being processed.
This is why it should be update in my view.
There are people on the internet who have abused current copyright laws for their own personal and corporate gains. People have lost their entire streams of income because someone copyrighted their material. Honest creators are losing revenue they deserve because of these bastards. Do something about it for once. The government's been nigh useless for the past 16 years, and it would be nice to see them do their jobs for once and help the people they serve, not the corporations.
Content Creators can get taken down without having copyrighted footage in their videos and without their footage being reviewed whatsoever. Major losses of revenue and harassment are caused by this and it needs to change. This outdated abused and horrible system hurts all users. Companies can have representatives file claims for them as many times as they want. Change the system and I'M IN.
I haven't personally been affected by Copyright abuse but actively take part in content creation on Youtube, which as most are aware is rampant with Copyright abuse and false claims and strikes. I'm sure that if I were to grow as large as some of the bigger names on Youtube, I would no doubt be struck with unfair claims purely so that the claimant could profit off of my own work or censor my opinion as it has been done largely to the bigger Youtubers who are easy to make cash off of. This system also stunts the growth of smaller channels who get hit with these false claims as they have no means to defend themselves and their work. For Youtube, for the entertainment industry, and for the protection of free speech and fair use, there needs to be a change.
DMCA is and outdated method that is not fit for the internet of today. More and more people are using the internet as their main source of entertainment, and more and more people are using it as an avenue to express creativity in a fashion that has never before been seen. People are able to make their livelihoods through this medium, especially sites such as YouTube, and millions have had their dreams realized because of it. However, these people are under attack. Under DMCA, companies are allowed to place content claims on videos that, for example, use even a portion of a copyrighted song as background for some other focus. And this claim can do anything from sending a simple notification to the content creator and the copyright owner, to diverting all of the ad revenue from the creator of the video to the copyright owner. For playing 5 seconds of "The Imperial March" to emphasize a different point.
Because of a complete lack of supervision of these claims, companies have taken to abusing them. For example, one prominent YouTuber that goes by the handle of "TotalBiscuit" (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy1Ms_5qBTawC-k7PVjHXKQ) posted a video as part of a series of "first impression" critiques of games that gave an undoubtedly negative review of a game called "Day One: Garry's Incident". (The video in question can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjTa_x3rbJE). The studio that created the game, Wild Games Studio, filed a copyright claim against this video and had it taken down, claiming that "TotalBiscuit had no right to make ad revenue using our license". The video was later put back up, but the underlying problem still remains. It was far too easy to abuse YouTube's copyright claim system to censor unwanted content. And this is only one example, there are thousands more videos that have been unfairly taken down because this system is in place, and honest people who's livelihoods have been at risk because of dishonest companies. DMCA needs to be updated to include some sort of punishment for these unfair copyright claims, or the internet will no longer be a place for the free expression of ideas from everybody.
Content criticizing movies or products are particularly targeted. And there is no recourse for the creators who are harassed.
I feel it is unfair for people to harm people's lives for people who do there work on there internet through videos and such.
At this point in time I have seen more than a dozen of my favorite YouTube content creators and myself become affected by the DMCA. It is a system that is out dated and we need change. The DMCA take downs have been abused to harass content creators, steal their revenue, and altogether ignore the Fair Use laws set forth by the government. It is irresponsible to operate on a law set for the internet that was made in the late 90s. It must be updated with improved protections for content creators.
Content creators deserve to use whatever they wish for entertainment purposes, so long as they use it for their own new creative purpose. For too long, copyright claims have ruined the lives of content creators on YouTube who use said platform for a living.
I'm a random viewer of YouTube. One day I would love to 'Broadcast Myself' on it as a means to express what I love and who I am. However, I don't have the courage to do that if I know anything I make will get taken down through a damaged system (currently known as the YouTube Content ID System or the "Copyright Bot"). Is this how it should be? Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Speech being censored or silenced through the Digital Media Copyright Act? I have already accepted that making a living to 'Broadcast Yourself' under the modern system or simply creating works on YouTube under the modern system WILL NOT HAPPEN, but at the very least, make it so that there is some semblance of justice for any that are currently making videos today.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) of speech and creative expression on the Internet.
And that some companys are using this as a threat and taking down videos multiple times that have already been settled.
As a viewer, I believe due to DMCA loophole with video and media sites like Youtube, it has been harder and harder for many content creators and even viewers to enjoy and be creative. There are far too many cases were content creators were afraid to post anything or were discouraged to release anything due to the fact his/her channel may get terminated. Many reviewers and critics are getting tired of constant harassment from larger companies when said reviewer gives the product a poor review. Some smaller, lesser known channels just give up, knowing they will go no where. And the whole Nintendo fiasco is a different beast entirely. Overall, I believe there needs to be change.
My note: The DMCA needs to be updated to protect the Fair Use rights of users that are currently being abused by copyright holders who dont face any penalties for false copyright claims. The DMCA must be updated for the current internet, and must have both parties face penalties, not just the users.
Fair Use on YouTube is under attack. Content creators can't upload or talk about anything or anyone, without some false flag occurring. The YouTube fair use system is broken and not moving foward with the 21st century Internet. Thank you for your time.
Fuck all of u
Personal Note: The information in the automatically set comment below sums up the present issue with as much accuracy as possible, much more than I could say myself, but I would like to speak of how this issue has affected me, in particular. In the very least, the rampant and unwarranted copyright takedowns occurring on YouTube have negatively affected some very talented and intelligent content creators that I am subscribed to. At the most, it's scared me from expanding as a content creator myself, for fear that no matter how hard I try to safely utilize Fair Use in my videos, they will be at terrible risk of being taken down anyway. This would be especially detrimental to me if I made ad revenue off of my videos in order to make a living, as it has been especially devastating to many of the content creators I am subscribed to. The broken copyright system that YouTube utilizes for greedy corporations and anonymous thieves to abuse in order to steal from content creators and significantly harm them in the process is turning not only YouTube, but the internet as a whole, into an unfathomably Orwellian nightmare. The future of free speech on the internet as we know it is at stake, and something needs to be done to make things right. Thank you for reading my two cents on the issue; below is the automatically set comment I mentioned earlier:
As a frequent user of Youtube, I often hear about the unfair DMCA system that is in place. Block now, ask questions later is essentially how the system works. Furthermore, even if the content falls under fair use, corporate entities simply deny this fact and "dare" the content creator to go to court, knowing full well that many are not able to to so.
Even if a company makes a false DMCA claim, they are not penalized for it is any way whatsoever. This makes the system highly biased towards these companies. This has to be changed. Fair use has to be protected.
I could send a notice full of legal details and facts but by now I'm sure you've seen it a dozen times. Honestly it doesn't take long on the Internet to find an example of dmca being abused or misused and hurting creators, Internet users and even entire businesses. While it was designed to help protect creators it has become a weapon of large groups to use agains small ones. The need for some system of protection is obvious and I don't believe there should be no law in place however the laws that are in action are not adaquate and are a hindrance rather than a protection. The examples of dmca attacks are absurd. Things like parody or review that use footage or parts of constant from a price they don't own are some of the largest sufferers while these acts are explicitly protected there are no guarantees or checks to make sure this protection holds up. Other cases just just talking about a product like a movie with no footage or music is enough to be stricken down. This kind of thing would never stand in any other form of media. Imagine news statins being sued for talking about a new movie. SNL having to remove a segment because they changed the lyrics to a popular song. The primary problem is automated scans and checks that are never reviewed by a person without complicated and sometimes unavailable means. This results in hours of work for creators just to keep from being locked out of their creations and sometimes cut off from any income it brings them and even IF they manage to regain control of their work and their finances they are often not compensated for whatever was lost in the time between.
I want to create video reviews online, as well as entertain people by commentating over video games. However, I cannot do this due to companies striking my content because of a particular song being played for less that 30 seconds, or because of a scene being used from a movie as an example point. I am tired of companies claiming copyright when it does not apply to videos that I have written, acted in, and edited myself.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
I'm sick of my tax money being used to attack the little man. The DMCA is being abused and that is a fact. Creators are being silenced with tactics that ignore Fair Use and intimidate anyone without a huge corporate legal department.
Once again, the current system allows for people issue takedowns maliciously. It allows false takedowns that either ignore Fair Use or simply blindly without even looking at the content. There are even cases where those who do not legally own the copyright using a takedown. There needs to be accountability for the issuers, not just the content creators.
All of this is true. I'm just a common viewer on YouTube, and every other day, I see videos posted by online reviewers such as the Nostalgia Critic, AngryJoeShow, TotalBiscuit, and Cinemasins, who's content clearly falls under Fair Use, yet get taken down within the week, sometimes the day. It's to the point where one of those Reviewers, the Nostalgia Critic, has had to change his style by re-enacting scenes in films in order to review them and not have his videos taken down. And beyond the reviewers I've mentioned, so many more have dealt with false DMCA claims that clearly have no basis, yet violate the law and takes down content unfairly, and profits off of it. All of the above may have already explained this, but I feel the need to give my own experience as a viewer as to how much these youtubers have to worry about and deal with. Where's the fair use?
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content creators that have done nothing wrong and are in fact protected under fair use law in the United States and elsewhere. This system has had dire effects on freedom of speech, particularly criticism and reviewing, political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of free speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s restrictions are important for making an open, free and fully expressive Internet possible without legitimate infringements on an artist's own creations, the notice and takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright abusers who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses and individuals who have become reliant on using content under correctly applied FAIR USE LAW. This kind of damage can not be undone.
Thank you, and I hope that you will make the right decision for the sake of justice, creativity and above all; freedom of expression, the foundation of the internet.
#WTFU #MakeYouTubeGreatAgain
When heading into office, a politician's responsibility has to be to better serve the people, not silence them. The DMCA needs to be re-examined to properly protect fair use and free speech on the internet.
Please change the world for the better, content creators are being threatened every single day, please make sure we can change this.
The core of the DMCA is a good concept, but it is lopsided in its power. There needs to be some sort of repercussion for those that file false take down notices. Fraudulent take down notices are being used to block legitimate commentary on copyrighted works even if there is no material directly shown but merely the topic of discussion. Even worse take downs are being used as attacks to essentially steal money(generated from ad-views) from content creators with no direct method of compensation if later found to be free of violation.
At the very least the ruling in Lenz v. Universal Music needs to be revisited and stricter requirements be used for automated algorithms. Maybe stricter penalties for companies that file false takedown notices using an automated system vs. human review. Ideally automated systems would still allow for finding potential content violating copyright, but would not be allowed to file a take down notice without human review. It is ridiculous that it is considered too onerous for a major copyright holder to review videos manually, but it is perfectly ok to burden small content creators with fighting corporate lawyers. There must be a balance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1_GpfFSLNQ
huge corporations abuse the copyright rules and creators get punished because of it.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and is too commonly used to censor content that is protected under Fair Use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. Unfortunately, this rarely happens. For example, a video featuring a toddler walking across the kitchen while music played in the background was taken down for "copyright violation." The violation? The music was copyrighted. All the rest of the video, despite being the legal property of the man filming his child, was also claimed as "copyrighted" by the company owning the rights to the music only. Moreover, it has become common for third-party institutes to claim copyright on content that is clearly not theirs to begin with, but because of the bias towards corporations, content creators are left with few avenues to (rightfully) claim both their innocence and their own content.
The state of copyright law on YouTube is a complete joke. Companies, Developers and even random idiots with an internet connection and a god complex can take videos down without warning if they want, seize ad revenue that was never theirs to take and censor honest criticism for either childish or malicious reasons that are beyond a violation of fair use. I cant believe i need to tell you but i will any way, YouTube videos are woven into peoples livelihoods now! The majority of content creators on the internet are not just kids having fun online, most YouTubers make a living off of their videos and most of them have families to support. Keeping this in mind, i find it totally ridiculous that a bunch of sly, scummy cowards can sit there and hurl these attacks at people who are just doing their job, while suffering no consequences themselves. They can seize the ad revenue of content that is trans-formative work(which is covered under fair use) at best and not even the claimants property at worst. They can repeatedly harass, slander and bully a single content creator in particular just because of some negative criticism. But the most infuriating aspect of this is that these claimants, these spammers and abusers, they can completely ignore fair use as if it either doesn't apply to them or just doesn't exist at all. Some of the ludicrous excuses that i have seen these people use show a total lack of understanding about copyright law in the US.
An Australian company called 'Blue Rocket' took down a video containing a review of a cartoon that they had made 'Pixel Pinkie'. The reason they gave for this was that the video had clips of the footage and audio from the show in it. Where this falls flat ,however; is that the clips of the footage and audio were necessary for the critique of the cartoon-and reviews are trans-formative work and are a perfect example of fair use!
The state copyright law is in right now, its ripe for abuse. However, i do not believe that the situation is unfix-able. For starters, lets face it; there needs to be a system that is controlled by a human being, not a machine. i know it tempting to have automated systems control a daunting task, seeing how many jokers firing claims there are, but the situation being dealt with by a robot is just not working. Not only did it give birth to the fun Gestapo that is Content ID, but also makes it very difficult for victims of this spamming to counter claim strikes and can result in total channels going down basically without a fight.
Another thing is that there needs to be a penalty for false claims or claims that get disputed, i believe that the primary reason that claims are so popular is that if they work, the claimant wins, if they don't, the claimant basically wins anyway because the content creators time was wasted and may have a YouTube account forever in bad standing, screwing with their video length, potentially stealing ad revenue that was never theirs to begin with and just messing with their work. I believe there should be a sort of temporary bank account to where all the add revenue that a claimed video goes, if the claimant wins, the money goes to them, if not, the money goes back to its rightful owner.
Also i believe there should also be a sort of 'counter sue' functionality. The claimants should be held accountable for what they did if the copyright claim does not go through, they should be somewhat penalized for doing something so petty and pointless. The claimants should be marked and have their YouTube accounts held in bad standing, they should be noted and tagged as abusers of the system and should be barred from filing any claims unless they are not an example of fair use. Furthermore, the reason i want the copyright goings on to be monitored by a human is so that people who just lose a claim and make a new account to spam will have to explain exactly what about the content is not fair use, to an actual person. its too big a subject to be down to a button press.
Please take these thoughts into consideration, i love this site and the people on it, but this madness has to stop.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. Sometimes the people assaulted with such copyright claims haven't even used the soundtracks, images or footage from the films and/or music they're talking about. It's RIDICULOUS!? The most damage that could come from these mouths are SPOILERS.
This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech and way of making a living need to be held responsible. This is not just some place to muck about on, it changes people's financial status for the better. For example, Darius Bensen, a Viner and Youtuber used his videos to pay his way through college, and Channel Awesome (who really live up to their name) provoke deep and analytical thoughts through their editorials and humorous reviews.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet, even when the create has given references at the end and pointed out that NONE of the content belongs to them.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review, so why isn't this happening?
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims who've put an incredible amount of effort into creating their content and have no malicious intentions towards the copyright holders.
Yes, there can be ill-intent behind SOME creators' content, but the overwhelming majority are having their own rights stripped by a prehistoric system that hasn't been adapted to suit today's internet since 1998!
Please. I know you want what's best, so this stressful, unfair and stifling internet environment needs to be changed.
Where's The Fair Use?
I also support Lawrence Lessig's proposals when it comes to copyright protection and laws.
I have seen youtuber after youtuber get taken down for copyright claims that have little or even nothing to do with their videos. Fananimations are taken down despite the fact that they showed none of the shows legitimate work or characters. Music reviews, movie reviews, and anything with clips in it have been taken down, despite this being considered fair use. This has led to "companies" abusing this in order to put striker on people and take their revenue. This has even led to copyright ransom, where one youtuber, who had permission from the artist to use a certain song for his opening, was contacted by another artist and threatened by said artist to pay 1000 dollars or he would strike all the youtuber's videos and take down his channel. This is not only ruining someone's lively hood but is also blackmail. This system was put in place to protect creators, but now it's being abused to crush creators, in favor for big companies. Please consider this, and reform this policy.
Plus it will be hard for me to review movies and video games and other things with this system other people like the big name you tubers get to play certain games like Nintendo games without signing up for the creators programs and we should have the freedom to post things if it is fair use for example I wanted to make a dedication video to a certain person using 1 song but face book would not post it . People at movie company's abuse fair use so does Nintendo because we have to sign up for there creators program that's not fair use it takes money away from the creator people starting out can't get videos publish without getting copy right big you tubers with about more then ten million subscribers get to do what ever they want people with 1000 subscribers and below don't get that plus we want to have a society that does not copyright every one of everybody's videos YouTube needs to take notice to the lower subbed you tubers that's all I have to say thank you
This is getting out of hand. media with no copyright footage at all is getting copyrighted, copyright claims are being used as threats and simply a extortionate way to suffocate content creators into creating less honest content.
Whatever the DMCA's original intent, any benefits have long since been left behind. It has become a nightmare shackling creativity and a weapon to stifle criticism, harass creators, and even going so far as outright theft. The DMCA desperately needs to have some kind of penalty for abuse and false claims.
Without these, this system would unfairly restrict content that gets released, and will remain in a far too primitive state for an Internet heavily reliant on social networking for communication.
The notice-and-takedown process puts important content for creators and viewers at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
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Okay, the above is the standard pre-filled out form, and I agree with what it says. I am not an American, I am a Canadian citizen, however your legislation affects my freedoms due to the nature of the internet. I am not a content creator, however I am close friends with one, specifically one from Youtube. All she does is make small scale videos to show her friends, yet even something as benign as putting music to her videos gets them immediately flagged as copyright infringing.
This is not okay. There was no due process, and the opposite of innocent until proven guilty. Her videos were flagged and strikes were given without a human ever giving them a glance.
That is not how the law should be used.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This has caused many a problem with small businesses and individual content creators alike, from having content being sued for copyright after the claims have been settled, videos being taken down multiple times, even accounts by the content creators themselves are being removed without a truly valid reason, even when they were not even using any copyrighted material. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech, which is in direct violation of our first amendment in which we have the very RIGHT to free speech.
Okay Government... You guys need to not only fix the copyright laws and the DMCA but update them as well!! Over the past few years, companies and more have screwed the people over with the copyright laws and eve abused them. They take down not only videos they like, but more. And its only getting worst.... Even if you don't have stuff TO get copyrighted these corporate children still put up a strike. They do not care for the people or anything. They're trying to make a quick buck that they do not need.
#WTFU?
Innocent, law-abiding content creators and distributors on the internet are being repeatedly punished by an automated system of Copyright protection. This system does not check for fair use, nor does it check if an item has been cleared of previous accusations for the same infringement. There is no punishment for posing false accusations, in spite of the fact that it infringes a creators free speech and possibly steals monetization of content for the duration of the false claim.
The following is the message created by www.takedownabuse.org indicating that I fully agree with their statements.
- Shaun Porter
Show rest of the world that you are not staying behind of the time this world is in. DMCA needs to be updated and badly.
The notice and take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice and take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice and take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Their is a very long list of people affected by the out dated law just on YouTube alone so here is a list of some I know of:
Jim Sterling
Themysteriousmrenter
Channel Awesome
Anime America
Lost Pause
The Anime Man
Your Movie Sucks
I Hate Everything
Drwolf
Joshscorcher
TeamFourStar
CinemaSnob
Potatobombkyle Lego Productions
CinemaSins
AlternateHistoryHub
Jontron
BadComedian
Sargon of Akkad
Chris Stuckman
Bobsheaux
Sheeleシェーレ
BrainScratch Commentaries
NFKRZ
Pyrocynical
The Gaming Czar
Games Repainted
AdoseofBuckley
Totalbiscuit
Matthias
ToddintheShadows
Angry Joe
ElectricDragon505
CentralDerp
Krimson Rogue
EyeOfSOl
Dragon Mage
CreepyMcPasta
Hello. I am Robert Murray, a 15 year old student, and I rely on the Internet for my entertainment. So many memories and laughs I've had were because of YouTube, where I love to watch reviews of movies and games, lets plays, and listen to music remixes made by aspiring content creators.
However, corporations have been taking advantage of the DMCA to claim or even take down videos that are easily passable by fair use laws, and would win in a court case, however, America's courts have much more to be dealing with.
Update your DMCA, America. This is the new age, not 1998, look at the Internet and how much content there is. I am young, and I do not want to have grown up in an age where there was no freedom of speech, the reason why I live in this great country.
The Internet has always been about free speech.
The DMCA is outdated. As a friend of a "youtuber", I can say I've seen the frustration that comes with a company abusing the law. He has to work a second job as it is, and has little time to be playing around with Hollywood's big bad wolves. Why are videos without any clips from the movie in question being taken down? Why are random people being attacked for speaking their mind? The First Amendment of the United States reads like so:
"...Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH, OR OF THE PRESS; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." (https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/constitution)
If Congress can't censor people, what right does any other citizen have to do so? None, yet people are getting away with this RIGHT NOW. I respect the right of copyright, of giving a creator their due. Its only fair and sensible. If people aren't complying with the law, bring down the hammer, hard and swift. But these critics, reviewers, reporters, and video gamers are often within the bounds of the law. Then, businesses swoop in and take whatever profit they can, directors have tantrums and rage fests worthy of a two year old, and studios step in to ensure that their investments do well, no matter who may get hurt.
As a Citizen of the State of Michigan and the democratic republic of the United States of America, I as well as many other rightful citizens DEMAND that the Copyright Office review and update the DMCA in order to create a better and more equal atmosphere on the internet.
Thank you for your time.
Dmca's are being used in all the wrong ways. I have seen content creators disappear over time due to false dmca's. These false and frequent abuse of this out dated system has cost people their jobs. It's getting to the point were people that are not even content creators are just claiming other peoples work to either silence them or to take away revenue illegaly without any worries that they will get in trouble or caught.
Corporations are using the DMCA to unfairly hobble legitimate Internet content providers. These providers should be protected by Fair Use and free speech, but many times continue to be shut down.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The system is being abused and it's outdated, it needs to be fixed. People are being hit for absolutely no reason without any provocations. People who are just talking and nothing else are being hit. We need to fix it.
DMCA is taking down videos from YouTube creators that have worked hard to make videos for entertainment that go well under fair use. This needs to stop. A lot of YouTubers make a living from creating videos, and it's wrong how they essentially don't get paid for their work just because comporate organizations can take down their videos. So many people who make videos under fair use experience this all the time, so I think some change is in order.
Fair Use as defined by google says: The doctrine that brief excerpts of copyright material may, under certain circumstances, be quoted verbatim for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research, without the need for permission from or payment to the copyright holder.
Now that's fine an dandy, it's not right to use someone else's work and claim it as your own, unedited and straight up the same. So Fair Use makes it that people are safe if they make original content, with using copyrighted material for parody or criticism, right?
Not really.
Fair use is being abused and down right ignored by hot shot companies, how ignore the law. People are being reported on content that are clearly fair use, and their careers are being jeopardized by copyright strikes and claims that ARE SUPPOSED TO BE PROTECTED under fair use!
There have been countless accounts of companies either striking content and stealing revenue or paying another company to do the same. People are being harassed and threatened by these companies.
There are people out there who wake up in the morning, only to fear that they won't have a job because some robot put a claim on one of their videos illegally.
Heck, I just watched a video not too long ago about a guy who had an unlisted video that has been sitting there for two years, untouched. The video used clips of the Pokemon Anime, but with out sound and there was discussion about the episode, making it Fair Use, and it got a copyright claim! HOW DOES THAT EVEN WORK?!?!?
There are even videos getting copyrighted for just talking about it, no audio, no visuals, just two guys sitting in a car talking about a movie, And it got a copyright claim.
This ain't the 1950's! Things have changed since then, technology is advancing and more and more people are turning towards the internet for information and entertainment. There needs to be something done about this.
I myself dream of making a YouTube account were I can just be me, and make videos to make people happy. But I'm terrified to do it because of the luring threat of getting strikes again me and my channel's removed forever! I feel like a goldfish in a shark tank, it's quite unsettling!
Thank you for reading this, and this need to change. Good Night.
The DMCA is now abusing their power by taking down videos and comments that voice opinions and pay tribute to what we enjoy. This is not right, and it needs to stop! Let everyone upload videos of their favorite shows and movies! Let everyone comment about shows and movies! Let their voices and their tributes be heard!
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Currently i'm a young teen aged 16 living in England and trying to strike out in youtube to have a future around what i love more than anything cartoons and games but currently the system in place is hurting me more anything please help me.
I enjoy watching educational videos that use fair use media, but many of the videos are being removed erroneously. Please update the fair use act.
Too many time this law has been abused, and with no penalty to the claimers of product they don't own. The internet is the future, do not tie it down with an anicent law
The DMCA must be abolished or at the very least changed to accommodate current laws and generally for the way the internet works nowadays. The DMCA is letting legitimate criminal go unrecognized and is allow these people to get away with their crimes lawfully.
The DMCA is a system that is used to bully creators and prevent unfavorable reviews. A company has no right to take down any video or work of art that is made with fair use. Furthermore, that company has ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHT TO TAKE THE REVENUE FROM SAID MEDIUM! Not only is it wrong, but it's illegal. And to top it all off, a company faces no repercussions if the claim was found false. Or even worse, they can keep filing the same claim to renew a claim and, therefore, make more money. I will not say that there isn't a problem with copyright infringement. There is and I am completely against creators who unfairly use copyrighted material. However, a huge number of the people that are taken down are people who use the content within fair use, have the rights to use the content, or, in the case of I Hate Everything, have a copyright claim on a video that is blatantly false where the claimant claimed a song that was not in the video at all. The system is old and needs to change. It is a joke in it's current state. As a creator, I should never live in fear that my life's work can all end in a day if I review a game that the developer might not like. Hell, even with Nintendo, I can't play any of their games and I love all of them. But they are able to falsely claim videos. So here are my revisions to the current DMCA system.
1) Any company or individual that claims the content of another infringes on the copyright of their work is equally libel to the creator in question. A claim made by any company or individual that is deemed within fair use will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
2) Any company or individual that claims the content of another infringes on the copyright of their work cannot profit from the creators work until the claim is reviewed and shown to not be within fair use.
3) Any creator that is claimed has the right to counterclaim by any company or individual. Once a counterclaim has been issued, the company or individual and the hosted site must contact the creator within 48 hours. During this time, creators who have not offended copyright law cannot be punished by any means necessary (i.e. channel takedown, video takedown, demonetization of an account, add a strike to an account.)
4) Any company or individual has a limit on the amount of claims they can make in total. This is based on whether or not claims in the past have been deemed false or not.
This system protects the strong, when they need no protection. We as creators are at the mercy of copyright holders, rather than being on equal footing.
This needs to change.
Where's the fair use.
While the DMCA was implemented with the well meaning intention of curbing piracy, the law in practice has serious issues. Without any oversight the system is too easy to abuse, stifling valid content creation and sometimes censoring free speech.
Under the current system people and companies can issue a DMCA takedown without first offering prove that they own the content in question. Content meant to review and/or criticize can be taken down under the current system and the entity responsible for the takedown receive the money generated by that content with little or no risk even if these DMCA claims are false. It has gotten to the point were a video showing two people sitting and talking about a movie and nothing else, is getting taken down due to the abuse of the DMCA.
#WTFU so many people dont know anything about copyright law and they use it to abuse people who are doing nothing wrong using material in a new way and using it to review the product falls under fair use law and we need to stop people who think they can issue take down notices and abuse the system just because they dont like what they heard about their product please stop this abuse of copyright law now give people the right to post their videos on youtube without the fear of someone taking it down because they think they know how fair use works SAVE FAIR USE TODAY #WTFU
I heard by my friend richard kenobi on youtube and I agree with him! I don't have videos on my channel but still planning to... I say stop these evil things right now! If we finally win this, the youtube universe will finally rest in peaceful that we can use pictures, music whatever in our videos!
"Stop the youtube abuse and we can have finally our golden future in the youtube universe!"
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The system as a whole is atrocious. It makes platforms like YouTube a "guilty until proven innocent" system, which is terrible as a whole. We need more inspection and comparison to law before a strike can even be issued on such sites. The people should be able to defend themselves before any form of punishment is given to them, considering the DMCA strikes are being abused by people without any legal knowledge or experience.
I am personally appalled that it hasn't been dealt with sooner. As society changes, technology, etc, then the laws surrounded it should be as well!
We need the internet to stay as a virtual wild west. Please stop making it abide by rules that only benefit the already thriving. The entertainment addicted plebeians are being harmed by these skewed and abused "laws" that serve as a tool of oppression. The cyber apocalypse is UPON us. First comes this DMCA bullshit and next thing you know we won't even be able to view tentacle hentai OR hire hit-men off our favorite subreddits.... The time has come for us laymen to stand for what is just and RIGHT. #MAKEINTERNETDANKAGAIN
I personally am not a content creator, but I've seen enough videos of my favorite content creators showing how unfair the current laws are. Change them.
I've been seeing a lot of my favorite YouTube channels been getting a lot of serious copyright claim and it really makes me sad that all the hard work that they worked on that one video gets taken down or the money that they deserve goes to the DMCA and some of the YouTube channels even get copyright claim as threats. Even some companies pretend that they even create the law. Some DMCA are being sent by shell companies to shield the company sending her the takedown to the YouTubers. So manyYouTube channels are being affected by this and it makes me really sad to know that all their hard work is going to waste.
Here is a list of names of channels were being affected by this:
Your movie sucks
Angry Joe
Channel awesome
I hate everything
The anime man
Jontron
CreepyMcpasta
Jim Sterling
And so much more. Where's is the fair use...
http://youtu.be/zVqFAMOtwaI
DMCA is seriously being abused.
Nostalgia Critic says DMCA is fucking gay m8, so get rid of it plox.
The internet and its content creators have been abused by companies and individuals who believe that they can censor others and get away with it. People's livelihoods have been threatened and some have had their YouTube videos and channels taken down or have been flagged multiple times by fraudulent claims. The law must adapt to the current age in order to allow fair use on the internet and those who make fraudulent claims need to be penalized for their behavior.
Where's the fair use?
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I believe the current DMCA system is heavily used for abuse. Companies and trolls use the system to fraudulently take down content that doesn't match their copyrighted property. Since there is no cost to using the system and no consequences for abuse, the system can be used to censor any content for political or monetary reasons. Even automated reports are possible under the current system. I think the system should hold the copyright holder accountable for their reports. There should be some kind of a system to make an appeal for fraudulent report.
The law is outdated and needs to be modernized. The internet is for the free movement of thoughts and ideas, and has old media such as newspapers and cable Television starts to downgrade, the internet has grown exponentially to bring us news, information, entertainment, and criticisms.
As the law is now, it is far too easy to censor and block all of this on a whim, whether or not there is a legitimate claim of Copyright infringement.
It has personally affected me and many others that use media sharing sites in order to try and appease a large audience. Content is getting erased unfairly, not just for free use of video or music formatting, but to the point where specific words used in the titles of these forms of media (that aren't derivative of swears can be unknowingl
On a personal level I've seen many large YouTube creators who live off the money made from their videos been taken down for reports that don't even make sense. If I wanted to I could bring down every one of the Top 100 YouTube channels before the company would even notice it happening.
I'm going to be very frank here. I have, personally at least, never had to deal with the system. However, I do know what this is like from second hand, as so many YouTube content creators have had false and even downright ridiculous strikes against them, to the point where the YouTube copyright system is a joke, pretty much. This system has done nothing but harm the one simply trying to do what they love and what others enjoy. There should, at the VERY least, be a penalty for false claims, and monetization should NOT be taken if the claimant is false. I mean, I could be wrong...this is just my views on this situation.
Signed, Zachary Bosh ~ZLB
The DMCA, as good as its intent might have been, is starting to severely damage the emerging internet culture. It has been used for personal gain, and to silence any form of critique. If freedom of speech is to be preserved, actions must be taken. We must preserve the voices of the people.
DMCA is used to allow for corporate holders to silence people. Even in a case of a fair use case of a video game review or a movie review. You can use that content for reviewing purposes. If a company disagrees, they can get content removed from the internet and the creators have little chance to fight back. People talking on a video, with NO music, photos, or video of content still get taken down. This affects content creators and those who depend on the internet to make money. People can make a real legit living from content creation.
If you look it doesn't take long to find an abuse on fair use on the Internet has inconvient or even permently taken down some of my favorite creators making the creators a host for parasite companies/persons who only feed of the income of these creators. This inefficiency is ruining creative works on the Internet and should be corrected post haste.
You guys should realize by now that you are stifling creative license and depriving fans of things they enjoy, while also diminishing your own potential profit by reducing the amount of fans of various properties and not allowing them the creative freedom to propagate your works in unique ways and maintain interest. The reason long lasting properties have flourished is because they allowed this to happen. They allowed parody and fair use to keep those properties alive well past their generation or era and still be relevant today.
COMPANIES ARE LEAVING MONEY ON THE TABLE BY NOT ALLOWING FANS TO ENJOY WHAT THEY LOVE.
Thats all. Thank you.
I have been part of the YouTube audience for years and it genuinely saddens me to see so many creators, who are WELL within copyright law, be punished for doing nothing wrong. The companies that make the claims, that get videos taken down and that sometimes entirely remove a person's channel face no punishment at all, even when they are clearly in the wrong. This. Has. To. Stop.
Companies feel that they can bully whomever they want just because they have the money. I'm sick of watching them get away with it just because it takes so much time and effort on the creators side to deal with the issue, while companies just get to sit back and do nothing. It's time for Fair Use to actually BE fair.
Simply put, enough is enough guys. The idea of how free speech works in this country needs to be updated and enforced for the new millennium. I want to see the Internet as a place where thoughts, opinions, and information can be shared freely without the bullying of corporations, politicians, and everyone in between. It is not fair to the citizens of this country, let alone any other one. Simply put, to let this kind of bullying and tragedy continue would be unconstitutional.
The DMCA was created to help protect companies from people stealing their content but now it is being used more to take advantage of content creators on Youtube. People who use clips or images for reviews or parody cannot do so without fear of being punished. Often times, some videos won't even have copyrighted content and it will get flagged either way. There has also been a trend of fake companies flagging videos and getting money from them without even owning any rights to the content in the video at all. It's been a huge problem for youtube and its content creators. The DMCA needs to be updated so that copyright infringement will be prevented but without allowing fair use and free speech to be trampled over.
I have personally experienced my family vacation videos or videos shot with my quad copter get taken down for supposed copyright infringement, I know content creators on YouTube who have experienced their videos getting falsely accused of copyright infringement because they talked badly about a movie they saw.
Stop youtube from continuing to legally steal from content creators, please.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The system also fails to work because it takes more innocent creators who work within copyright law than it takes actual pirates. Countless critics have had their livelihoods put at stake because of corrupt companies or broken automatic systems.
Adding to this, it also prevents people like myself from even trying to join the community. I used to do let's plays like a lot of people. I only played Free ware and games that no one else had put up. but since I'm just a working class guy, I wound up deleting all my content so someone didn't try to take my channel down.
I get by OK as is, but I don't want to pay what little i got to some company for something that's allowed by the law. I never claimed it to be mine, and was just showing the games and giving critiques on their individual parts. I didn't even monetize my account. There have been a great many people that lost their livelihoods to these false attacks. I don't want legal claims to go unpunished. far from it. But the DMCA needs to be updated to account for the newer internet of today.
Fair use needs to be better defined and properly enforced. and those who would abuse the system need to be punished in equal measure to the harm they cause. And no one should have their livelihood given to a company, false claim or otherwise.
If others company's can't get away with giving employees earnings to someone else because of a claim; justified or otherwise, why should YouTube and the companies abusing the systems in place now be allowed to do so.
All I want is to be able to take part in the community without fearing some random person filing a copyright claim just to get it shut down.
As usual with most Government censorship, it only protects elites and fails to help any common American.
Also copyright laws nowadays are pretty much pure autism, shame on all of you.
Hello,
I am a content creator, a very little creator who does not have that big of a reach unlike other various people, but I have seen major content producers who have made amazing entertainment get knocked down and take advantage of by companies that are just finding away to shut them off. Content creators on youtube that have been the source of entertainment more than any other big named company. The way they are treated it is awful, and they barely make it by. Imagine someone who is a starting out film maker being knocked down from there dreams because some big company came in and denied them what they wanted. A chance to do something big and important, something that was denied because some company just wanted the few extra bits of money out of it. For the future of content creators who are yet to come, please help stop the false DMCA take downs.
We are not criminals. We are content creators. We are artists.
My Cannibal Holocaust Review was copywrited because of the theme was taken from a vid from some random guy who was not involved with the making of the movie. I only have 19 subs. Im not big so what the hell
Es necesario detener el abuso sobre los creadores de contenido tanto como en you tube como cualquier otro medio de comunicacion el derecho de la libre expresion es universal y nunca se tiene que retirar o censurar de ninguna manera , el FAIR USE tiene ese proposito
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You know, I really love potatoes but I can't express my love on the english part of the internet anymore because of Derek Savage. No, that was a joke, the real culprits are the Finebros. STOP IT PLEASE!!!
People like Youtubers who now make a living off of making videos and to entertain, inform, and inspire viewers like me and countless others are suffering under these laws the way they are now. We must update the DMCA and other laws involving copyright to better level the playing field between content makers and companies who TRULY own the rights to such content, and there are others who think we should. We need to give power to the people of the internet again. We spoke against SOPA, we stood against PEPA, now we're making a stand against those who're ignoring fair use and are taking away our rights. It's time the people of the government help us do something about it.
This has been outdated, after its application in 1998. The DMCA has to be updated for the modern age, and to facilitate use. This has affected many of my favorite content creators, and as such this has been abused by the mayor companies falling on their side, as they get revenue and the ones who devote their life to this creating entertainment for the better. And those who falsely create content and make it seem that they are creating content but mostly steal, and those who falsely make a copyright claim in order to silence the facts in the product they release, or to hide the facts. This has to be fixed for the better to punish those who break the law, and of course to help and make an improvement on the internet for the medium who has been in ways almost stopped entirely. And that of course must be known, and even if they haven't gotten me, but this affects others. And this has to bring true justice to the ones who walks away cleanly.
If this is not fixed soon, free speech as we now it will be severely dismantled and held hostage to whoever places copyright claims on videos and such. Not to mention that this disaster can spread to non-video content created for the internet.
The DMCA is doing more to hurt content creators than it is doing to protect them. Copyright law in the current form is so easy to abuse that it's allowing corporations and individuals to stifle criticism and discussion, which cannot be tolerated.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet.
To balance the process, copyright holders NEED to be considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use NEED to be held personally and financially liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech, including criminal charges in the case of egregious violations.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose mandatory financial damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns need to be the rare exception rather than the rule as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I'll remind you that the U.S. Supreme Court in their ruling of ACLU vs Reno almost twenty years ago declared that the Internet deserves the fullest possible protection under the First Amendment. What these companies are doing with the blessings of the government in regards to the DMCA's fair use provisions is a violation of both the letter and the spirit of that decision.
Creativity should NOT be punished and that is exactly what this system is doing.
I want to enjoy watching videos without it being destroyed by a law that causes more harm than good, not just ethically or morally, but economically as well. We want Reformation or Verification of the DMCA and stop from others abusing the unwanted advantages of the law. Free Speech should never be a crime in the world of the internet, so it is a absolute requirement that this law should be looked upon and changed to benefit everyone.
Many people of YouTube have been taken down for criticism. People in cases like the Dereck Savage incidents or Viacom incidents, even Hasbro has stopped fans from creating videos that show support for them. The only reason these companies do this is to make money from hardworking you tubers. Like a reverse Robin Hood. This law has been too loose for those big companies, that receive no penalty for wrongfully abusing this out dated law. I believe they should at least pay a fine for the damage done to the YouTubers.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use like reviews, especially on YouTube. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Spurious copyright claims are used daily to silence criticism and to unfairly monetize content that the abusers have no right to. Protect our right of Fair Use!
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted content.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Below is a form letter that I have read and agree to, but first allow me to share my own personal anecdote related to this issue. I am an avid player of the most popular online game today, League of Legends, and as such I try my hardest to get better at the game. One of the resources that I use is streams of pro players on twitch.tv, particularly n3ac3y, Who can say some inflammatory things on occasion. These inflammatory statements he makes cause many people to become angry at him, but I didn't realize how angry these people were until recently.
A little under a month ago I subscribed to his channel, pledging to give $5 every month. Something that he does for first time subscribers is play a game with them and commentate on the gameplay to sort of teach them. There is a lag between the game and the stream though, so I turned the stream off while I was playing so that I could come back and watch the broadcast later. When I did finally get back to watch the broadcast, I saw a notice that said that certain portions of the video had been muted because of DMCA claims. I thought to myself "ok, fine, the music he plays when a donation comes through could be copyrighted. I mean, it's under 30 seconds, but if they mute those few seconds, that's totally fine" and I started to watch the video.
To my surprise, the entire 9 hour long video was muted out. Keep in mind that the only piece of music that n3ac3y plays is the donation music which barely comes in once per hour, so this must have been someone angry at n3ac3y for his prior mentioned inflammatory statements claiming copyright music on the whole stream. Not only did this anger me because I was basically out of the coaching that my $5 had paid for, but I was angry that there was nobody to check the video and see that there was no copyright infringement there. Some little shitter just decided that they would claim copyright on the entire video and they have no repercussions whatsoever, and me and the 9 other subs that day don't get to review our content.
So that was my rant. I hope this gets sorted out soon. Now back to your scheduled form letter.
Bring back the fair use. Let the content creators of YouTube do their jobs!
Fair Use is important to anyone who makes content. That means freedom of speech for everyone.The DMCA is supposed to protect the content creators we love so much. Instead companies use it to attack those creators and even put an end to their entire channel. Today, Companies can claim your video for content that they don't even own. Youtubers that I love could potentially get taken down any day due to the broken Copyright System, and Youtube is doing nothing about it. If you wanted to review a movie, even if you used no copyrighted footage of that movie (which would definitely put it under fair use) a company could take it down. Companies that falsely strike channels get no punishment for doing so. That means they can continuously strike channel after channel with no penalty. They can claim your videos and steal monetization money from those channels. There have been hashtags going viral all over Youtube, the main ones being #WTFU (Where's The Fair Use) and #MakeYoutubeGreatAgain to try to bring awareness to what these shady companies have been doing to content and content creators. It's a scary time for all content creators. It's affected me to the point where I don't even know if I want to become a future Youtuber because before I know it, I could lose my channel instantly. Whether we think something is good or not, we should be able to say so. That's why I want change because everyone has the right to say their thoughts on a subject, product, or basically anything. So until then, #WTFU and #MakeYoutubeGreatAgain. Here are a list of channels affected by DMCA take downs:
Jim Sterling
Themysteriousmrenter
Channel Awesome
Anime America
Lost Pause
The Anime Man
Your Movie Sucks
I Hate Everything
Drwolf
Joshscorcher
TeamFourStar
CinemaSnob
Potatobombkyle Lego Productions
CinemaSins
AlternateHistoryHub
Jontron
BadComedian
Sargon of Akkad
Chris Stuckman
Bobsheaux
Sheeleシェーレ
BrainScratch Commentaries
NFKRZ
Pyrocynical
The Gaming Czar
Games Repainted
AdoseofBuckley
Totalbiscuit
Matthias
ToddintheShadows
Angry Joe
ElectricDragon505
CentralDerp
Krimson Rogue
EyeOfSOl
Dragon Mage
CreepyMcPasta (And this is only a fraction of people who were wrongfully affected)
I would like to address that I am not blind to the idea that this likely won't peak your interests in the slightest. Helping those who probably can't do half the things you can in a business setting and only have a creative mind as a means for funds likely is not high on you large shopping list of priorities. However, riddle me this. How would it effect your image to ignore the plea of not only the commenters I write among, but also communities who have numbers that cross the billion marks? You will be hit by wave after wave of criticism and rage that will only subside until the next attempt at appeal is ignored.
The best part is, i'm not exaggerating; they'll do it! Millions upon millions of individuals with throw in their say towards the situation. Why? Because they all share a passion towards the sites they love, Youtube and Twitter, and would yell and scream towards the end of time just to defend the people they respect on those very sites. Just picture it all in physical form, imagine the volume. Just imagine seeing the eye of the tiger individually spread out a billion-fold, all crying out for one main purpose: Where's the Fair Use.
There may be points when terrible things have come out of the internet, but anyone would be called a fool to question the sheer power it holds in terms of exerting justice. The halting of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was a fine presentation of how incredibly unstoppable we as people are when we put our heads together, so why have SOPA happen again? The internet is ready to accept help from anyone, even if a small minority will refute you.
This is a force that will stop at nothing until justice is served. Now riddle me this, would you like to join forces and serve justice, or be served?
The DMCA has been used to attack and scare many content uploaders on the internet. Companies will claim to have employees to manually check videos and discover copyrighted material, even though the video only has a title which could mislead them into believing this, and is in fact, ten minutes of silence and a black screen.
It is being used as a weapon against many people who simply want to share their ideas and creativity with others, and is a method of circumventing free usage. It damages our free speech, and even many people's livelihoods. When something can be abused to viotlate one of the most integral and sacred rights our county has given us, the freedom of speech that so many other countries stifle, we cannot simply lie down and allow this to be ignored!
This crap needs to STOP!
Corrupt people and Companies are using and abusing a broken system to Thier advantage and destroying a free media.
Although I do not create videos on youtube, I still am against the abuse of a website that has a corner on the market for unfair attacks. This is against the law, both on and off the books.
Automated DMCA takedowns are a serious problem. American copyright law is outdated and because of that it is abused to censor content with valid free speech.
The United States is supposed to be a beacon of freedom to the world, sadly the DMCA is a shameful display of harassment to legitimate content creators.
Please protect the right of free speech and the fair use of content. If you don't, who will?
People use DMCA's as threats on youtube. Sometimes DMCA's occur when content is completely within the region of fair use. People often abuse DMCA's, sometimes this is done by content creators who steal content, completely outside fair use, against people who criticize them. This is in complete opposition to freedom of speech.
Unfair copyright claims are being filed every day on videos that are completely under fair use, and I can't stand it. I know people who have made videos with no music or clips of the content they are talking about, yet it is still being taken down! Not only that, but there are false companies putting claims on videos saying they were sent by a content creator, but there are two problems with this. On multiple occasions this "content creator" has stated that he or she have no involvement with this and had no idea what was happening. These companies are trying to steal and cheat YouTube content creators out of their money with little to no work.
So many amazing Youtubers that my friends and I love have had their videos and even channels taken down for virtually no reason. Copyright holders seem to think that using something that belongs to them in a video is automatically copyright infringement, whether or not it falls under fair use.
What's most ridiculous is that when a false claim is made by a copyright holder, nobody gets punished and sometimes the holder can even monetize off of the video that in no way is infringing upon their original work.
We need to help the people who work hard on their own transformative and original content and are constantly punished by big corporations or people of power who don't understand copyright laws at all.
The U.S.A is said to be the land of the free, where free speech was aloud, but with what has been happening with all these calms and takedowns, it's more like Stalin's Russia. On the internet at least. Content should not be taken down if it falls under fair use. Angry, greedy, bitter, companies have been profiting of other people's liflely hoods. Please. Do the right thing, and update the system. Make the internet safe for all people.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Also, I am getting extremely tired of Youtube forcing creators to constantly watch their backs and worry about the future of their businesses over a broken law.
I can't stand how terrible fair use is nowadays. There's been claims on videos that are a single picture of something with no sound, for a MATCHED AUDIO CLIP. That's just unacceptable. People can use these "laws" to bully innocent people ILLEGALLY. This is not a good thing. This has no use. Fix it. ASAP.
The reason for my part take in this is due to the fact that DMCA is a poison for the digital media. I under stand that peoples / companies work need to be protected but it is not done in the way it should and many upload various material on the web with out any care nor acknowledgment for the creators. I live in Iceland (born and raced) and I know how it feels when the only way to experience entertainment on our great world wide web is by some questionable ways and this DMCA fiasco is doing no good for anyone for the long run.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected by fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
So many content creators have been taken down and attacked on more than one occasion even AFTER their status and situation has been cleared. The content creators that use YouTube as a way of income have people steal their content, and when it's taken up with the plagiarising user, the money that the original creator lost is never returned or substituted to them. Reaction chanels that never ask permission, prank channels, and other videos that clearly show sexual harassment and offensive violence are ignored, whereas harmless chanels get taken down. This is unacceptable and should be changed. #WTFU
To start, I have seen so many creators taken down for no good reason at all. As a viewer, I love to watch real content made by real people. I enjoy it. You can see the heart and soul of someone poured out before you, and take the time to enjoy it. However, I have seen so many good people lose all of their hard work just because someone wanted to leach off of their success, or cut them down for no good reason at all. Creators today are seriously struggling with this problem. They are being forced to either dumb down their content, or play it SUPER safe just to keep their channels alive(Youtube in specific). I myself have wanted to make a channel of my own, but am too afraid that it will be stricken down due to the current state of this "Fair Use" act. I myself am an individual that loves to throw out references all of the time, but the way the act currently is prevents me from being, well, me. I personally refuse to put out content that I myself am not proud of, and I find it nearly impossible at this moment to do so. I am not putting my two cents into this for my own sake. I just want to see the people of this world express themselves the way they desire(With some limitations of course). Support creators, not people who filch off of other people's success. By no means am I saying "Let people post full episodes of shows and songs", but rather allow us to use our little clips to help push our vision. We as people reference media every single day, so why are content creators limited in this way? In short, support those who are truly in fair use, and cut down those who are abusing this system. Update it. Make it relevant for the modern day. Penalize those who abuse creators. Make the internet a better, safer place for viewers and creators alike.
Thank you for your time.
-Miko
The DMC NEEDS to account decades worth of advancement, change and abuse of the system as it's stagnated with age. Many individuals have their rights trampled, their livelihoods disrupted, and voices deadened under the weight of people who do wish to stifle development in this industry for short term gains. Amending is required and I will vote only for people who support amending and discount the possibility of anyone who opposes amendment procedures. Search the hashtag #WTFU and see all the complaints against the current system. Support a reform, or you WILL be voted out of Washington with a vengence.
I have had several companies try to claim my videos just because they can. Almost every single video I've made has been claimed by someone who just plain doesn't understand fair use and it's really annoying. One company that really urks me is Bent Pixels. I checked out their website and YouTube channel and their literally a company that goes around claiming videos and clips that they don't own at all! Why? Because they know they can make money off content creators! It's messed up! Please do something about this!
I may not live in the United States of America, but neither does so many popular Youtubers, bloggers etc. And even though the DMCA law was created in the U.S people across the world are being abused by it for no good reason.
Wether it's because of automated "copyright claimer" accounts or Hollywood itself. Is it really an issue that people around the world share their thoughts on a movie? or a game? No matter if it's good or bad thoughts it is vital that everyone has free speech and the freedom to express themselves. But right now the entire internet community and people that get their financial security from Youtube are threatened and scared and why? Because of an outdated law from the USA that was created in 1998, it's time to either scrap the law and make a new one or make some big and crucial changes to the one existing now and most importantly UPDATE IT TO THE 21st Century, because if it's not then Copyright claiming and the entertainment industry will be stuck in a stone age forever!
So please make a difference for creators and viewers around the world, change the DMCA law and DO IT NOW!
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright abusers who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
I am a currently studying college in Mexico.
During high school I was a member of plenty of cultural goups and I recorded and uploaded many of our events to YouTube.
Of fifteen events uploaded 6 of them have received copyright notices, many of which are there just because there's some copyrighted background music playing.
Do you think this is a good reason for it? It's playing in the background!
I have read and would like to keep what's beneath as my statement, however, I would also like to say that I know a lot of good people such as Doug Walker, Matthias, and even Smosh (Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla) of which have been restricted heavily of their content simply because of greedy copyright claims of which have no right to do so under the Fair use act. We as citizens have a freedom of speech and self-expression and our right to do so is protected under the first amendment to the constitution. Restricting this right should not only be unethical, but unconstitutional. Using fair use can be compared to quoting someone in a writing. The credit is given and not everything is shown, Only what's important to the users material. So if quoting someone is perfectly fine according to the DMCA, even if it's copyrighted, Then why is it not ok to quote a piece of a movie or a video game? That is all I have to say personally as well as what is written below:
-Tay (DerpsMcPineapple)
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected by fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I've personally have seen many people suffer at the hands of the abuse of the DMCA. The laws are archaic and need to be reviewed and better enforced. Many foreign companies thinking they're above the laws in order to take money out of the pockets of simple people trying to make a living. It's crippling the growth of a blooming outlet that is becoming the norm in our current society. Please, the rules need to change and the big corporate companies need to be shown they can't do what they want.
I should know, some of my favorite content creators got their work taken down because of this. Specifically YouTube, mind you. The Nostalgia Critic, Lost Pause, Misty Chronexia, TotalBiscut, etc. And the list goes on. Someone somewhere needs to fix this. I'm not one to use hashtags, but for this occasion, I think its only 'fair use'. #WTFU
Hello. On top of the comment listed below (which is very well written), I would like to add my own take.
I am not a content creator, but I do follow many on youtube. On top of the fair use claims that have fallen on deaf ears; what gets my blood boiling who abuses the Youtube copy write system and how they use it.
The youtube copy write system allows Third party companies to flag videos on behalf of a company, regardless of whether or not the company asked them to. This has created a predatory environment where a company in another country can profit by stealing ad revenue from the people who actually put the time and energy into creating these videos. Not only is it highly immoral, it also SHOULD be highly illegal. Please create something that will protect creators and ENFORCE IT PLEASE.
Thank you for your time.
The law must be updated for the changing world. It's that simple. That said, here's more reasons to protect Fair Use:
In addition to the above, YouTube users and content creators especially are under attack. False claims being reported to YouTube on hundreds if not thousands of creators videos are not even challenged or checked by real people at YouTube's head office, it's all automated. Claims made by people who don't even own the specific item or content in a video they claim to own are made every day and YouTube always chooses the side of the claimant, and not the creator. This is costing those of us who work for YouTube as content creators such as myself money, as when we have false claims being made on our videos, there are harsh penalties that involve us losing both money made on that video and others, and sometimes even our own channels. It's costing us our lively hoods, and these companies are fleecing us for every penny we've got. We need change, and we need it now. We need laws to protect content creators, and strict, harsh penalties that discourage anyone from claiming something as their own falsely.
DMCA takedowns are issued on the hourly at YouTube, they are being used as threats, as intimidation and scare tactics, and as ways to silence free speech and steal a content creators hard earned money. One example I can give is about a year ago, a song I had created and posted on my YouTube channel was first claimed by someone who didn't even own the song, and they then issued a DMCA takedown when I'd contacted and confronted them about their bogus claims. We need stronger laws. We need ways to protect ourselves and our content. We need help, and we need it now.
The DMCA has been an interesting experiment however it has failed to protect the speech of the american people.
I'm a huge fan of comedic movie critics who use film clips that are clearly legal! I've know these men and women who make me laugh for many years and to know that their revenue is being cheated out away from them by outdated laws and money hungry companies I feel a great distress. PLEASE LISTEN!!!!!!!!!
The DMC forced me to remove most of my youtube videos which were under fair-us however I have been affected mostly by the damages done to the content creators that I watch on YouTube. Most had their videos taken down or even their whole channels were removed. This needs to be updated to account for YouTubers who simply use content under fair use.
This includes, but not limited to: Let's Plays, Reviews, and parodies
I am not personally a US citizen, but the majority of social networking and media sharing websites are based in America. This act has an effect on the world as a whole and is currently being abused on a massive scale simply because it wasn't written with today's world in mind.
I choose to second and add my name to the message already created below. The message is far more articulate and concise than any I could create, and as such I let it speak for me. This is a genuine message. Do not dismiss the voice of the people. Thank you.
I am going to leave the comment below, because i agree with it. But in my oppinion the dmca is using draconian laws to its advantage to bully small content creators to make more money. The laws need to be used properly to protect content creators not corporations and fair use needs to be expanded to give rights to those who follow fair use properly to fight against take down notices and lost revenue.
Look, the DMCA is ridiculous. It is used to massively destroy creativity or criticism of so many different products.
Its ridiculous that this is used to massively affecting everyone across the world. You need to understand that with the amount of jobs that have been created through the internet a dmca takedown can mean the end of someone's lively hood.
The fact that this is affecting people across the glove should really make you realise that this is not acceptable as DMCA has been used as a way for people to censor critics for too long.
The current form of the DMCA is insufficient and too easily abused. It is too often used not to protect creators and free speech, but instead the exact opposite. There needs to be clarifications made to reflect the current environment. There are too many gray areas, (for example, are "Let's Plays" transformative work protected under copyright or not?) and there absolutely needs to be more effective ways to punish people/corporations that submit false claims. As it is, individuals and companies can issue a claim without providing any proof and thus hurting and in many cases outright steeling money from creators without any repercussions, even if they later admit their claim was false. This creates a win/win situation for those who seek to abuse the current deficiencies in the way DMCA is enforced (or more commonly, ignored) and a lose/lose situation for the victims.
Here is a list of just SOME YouTube channels affected by this fair use problem:
Jim Sterling
Themysteriousmrenter
Channel Awesome
Anime America
Lost Pause
The Anime Man
Your Movie Sucks
I Hate Everything
Drwolf
Joshscorcher
TeamFourStar
CinemaSnob
Potatobombkyle Lego Productions
CinemaSins
AlternateHistoryHub
Jontron
BadComedian
Sargon of Akkad
Chris Stuckman
Bobsheaux
Sheeleシェーレ
BrainScratch Commentaries
NFKRZ
Pyrocynical
The Gaming Czar
Games Repainted
AdoseofBuckley
TotalBiscuit, the Cynical Brit
Matthias
ToddintheShadows
Angry Joe
ElectricDragon505
CentralDerp
Krimson Rogue
EyeOfSOl
Dragon Mage
CreepyMcPasta
I enjoy the vidoes that gk uo on social media and on YouTube. Thses are job for some people and its their job. Its not fair if we took away your job so don't do it for them. In reality they are advertising certain games, company, movies, shoes, and other things. We as people enjoy the things that go up on the internet. Don't take away our enjoyment.
-Alakina Garcia
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content (even content with just a person talking into a camera with just their voice) that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible and get the monetary punishments regarding monetization for lost revenues on reviews and the sorts.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review as some could be false.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims some of which who are under the age of 18.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone and might lead to the suicides and homicides of people just trying to do something for the world to see.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
1998. That was when the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was passed, and it hasn't been updated to accommodate today's internet at all. That's 18 years. 18 years of astounding advancements of the internet as a whole. The internet is a very different place then it was back in 1998, and its about time the DMCA becomes aware of that fact.
Additionally, take-down notices are already misused as a way of shutting down critics. While lifted after the issue is invalidated, it hinders free speech by muting voices, be it temporally.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Many cases such as the case with YMS, I Hate everything, and Bobsheaux against Derrick Savage just for their reviews on Cool Cat Saves the Kids, or even a YouTube stream of Sarahndipity cosplays got taken down by Disney just because audio from a special they were reacting too was heard. They didn't show any of the copyrighted material, except for the likeness of copyrighted characters of the program they had reacted to through their cosplay costumes, and yet the day after the stream went up it was blocked by a copyright claim by Disney. The strange part is that the next day it went back up. I don't know if it had to do with the creator of the video filing against the claim, or if the video wasn't monetized so the case was dropped. Either way the video was taken down although it didn't violate any DMCA law.
The DMCA does not apply to the internet anymore. On YouTube in particular (but ultimately across the whole internet), the system is so broken that it allows people to outright censor the opinions and voices of others with fake copyright strikes that would never hold up in court, all without evidence, and all without consequences. There is no meaningful way to fight these fake claims. The DMCA fully and absolutely supports fake copyright claims such as these, all without giving actual content creators any tools to defend themselves with. Some examples are given below.
On YouTube, videos can get taken down even if they are perfectly legal. SEGA had once taken down videos that merely contained content of people talking about one of their old games, even though it had no gameplay footage. SEGA faced no consequences for this whatsoever. In another incident, the videogame critic Total Biscuit had legitimate reviews of a game successfully taken down just because the creators of the game disliked his opinions. Again, the game developer that did this had nothing to worry about, nor did they need to present anything resembling evidence for this false copyright claim before the DMCA put its full support behind them, leaving Total Biscuit defenseless.
The YouTuber 'I Hate Everything' once had a movie review he made taken down by the director of the film. The director did not have to worry about making a case that I Hate Everything actually violated fair use, nor did he need to worry about repercussions for lying about what I Hate Everything did. Nonetheless, the DMCA was not there to support and defend I Hate Everything, but instead the copyright troll that wanted to censor his free speech and opinions.
The DMCA is widely and rampantly being used to enforce the destruction of free speech and expression on the internet. It is being abused by individuals and large corporations alike, all without any potential repercussions whatsoever. This can happen because the DMCA does not apply to the modern internet as it works today. The internet is not the same thing that it was back in 1998. Changes desperately need to be made to the DMCA that removes power from copyright trolls and bullies, and that gives more tools to actual content creators and people who wish to legally express themselves. This is not just for YouTube, but for the good of the entire internet as we know it, and for the continuation and support of free speech.
These videos created by the YouTuber 'Channel Awesome' sum a lot of this up very well:
Channel Awesome - What The Hell Youtube?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC3NIdiZF_E&ab_channel=ChannelAwesome
Channel Awesome - Where's The Fair Use?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI&ab_channel=ChannelAwesome
Thank you for reading this. I sincerely hope you will consider what we are all saying in unison: The DMCA needs to be fixed.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they destroy the value in free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The false claims made by countless corporate copyright holders limits free speech and is an abuse of the DMCA. This act needs a serious overhaul that shifts power in the hands of the content creators that all properly use fair-use to create videos that literally millions consume. Do not let the DMCA continue to be abused by copyright holders.
I personally have witnessed several critics and reviewers being attacked by copywrite holders for infringing on copywrite, despite the materials falling under fair use, simply because the company did not like what they had to say. I am certain that many small channels and websites have been outright destroyed by this due to lack of resources to dispute the claims.
The problem has become so great that, notably on YouTube, there is now a business in issuing false takedown notices to siphon off the ad revenue from videos, regardless of legitimacy or not. In fact, in some cases whole channels have been shut down and only restored after mass outcry from the channel's fan base. This abuse of the current iteration of the DMCA needs to be stopped.
I'm not noticeable enough to have been affected by this trainwreck of a system, but by the same token I'd have a hard time fighting a random or malicious takedown order. So yes, this concerns me.
People with more experience than I have say the following:
Hello -
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is clearly protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The DMCA has aged too much and has not evolved with the internet, and the proof is overflowing that something needs to be done. There have been false claims everywhere, and they've only been growing as the DMCA is filled with loopholes that people have exploited to take down content they simply don't like. There have been reports of takedown requests that don't take fair use into consideration, reports of takedowns of content that the claimers do not even own, takedowns of content that don't even show any infringing content, and much more being used as harassment and even as threats.
And one of the worst parts is that the false claimers are not getting any repercussions or consequences, they think they can just do this all the time without punishment. The DMCA is failing to into account for the internet of today and how much it has evolved. It is now used by bullies and jealous people against content creators to censor them and destroy their livelihoods. Even companies such as Warner Bros., Viacom and Fox are also aware of this and also have taken down legitimate Fair Use reviews of their content in the past using this same method, also with no consequence. When videos that are matched are not taken down, the money that content creators SHOULD make is being taken and stolen away by the claimant simply in exchange for the video to remain. And even worse, there are companies and multi-channel networks on Youtube such as an MMA company that take videos down simply because they think they actually create the law and bypass REAL laws in general, trying to strongarm and actually threaten content creators into taking down videos they don't like. For example, Derek Savage(Cool Cat) impersonating law firms to take down Fair Use reviews of his movie, Valleyarm In-house taking creators' monetization money because they don't believe in Fair Use, or in their country of Australia, Fair Dealings; Blue Rocket Productions using Valleyarm as a shell company to make more DMCA claims on a single video when they lost a previous case, how users are now using it for ransom purposes, etc.
The DMCA law needs to change to take into account the internet of today as opposed to 1998. If this doesn't change, this could spell the end of lots of people's livelihoods as the internet is growing to be a place of business as much as any job. People like Nostalgia Critic, Mr. Enter, Brad Jones, I HATE EVERYTHING, YourMovieSucks, Jim Sterling, and many more people are being harmed in illegal ways thanks to the fossilized DMCA law. We need to make it accommodate for today's internet now.
People can`t watch their favorite video, or their favorite photo because of the unfair use, and some of these videos, or photos are sometimes removed no reason, This needs to stop.
Please, and Thank You.
I am a consumer of online content and The current copyright laws are outdated and abused. We need this avenue of creativity for new and exciting content. Please help people like Channel Awesome, Chris Stuckman and Pieguyrulz who are begin abused by people who have too much power.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Y'all need to update for today's internet. Right now content creators are being abused due to this system and this make the internet less enjoyable for everyone. It had gotten so bad to the point that some people are making fake copyrights, or that people's content are being taken down even tho the person didn't use any footage from any companies. So please, update the copyright system to be fair for everyone. The internet will be more enjoyable when you guys update this system.
There are people copyrighting original videos saying that they own the rights, just look up #wtfu on YouTube, there's your proof that this has to be taken down
One of my favorite youtubers NFKRZ is having his channel held for ransom because of the faulty copyright laws. I want him to post his content freely without having to worry about this #WTFU #MakeYoutubeGreatAgain
With the way YouTube is right now it is way to unmotivating and very scary to even attempt to make content online. It is incredibly unsafe and that needs to change.
Videos and channels are getting taken down sloppily the dmca is a relic and needs to get renewed. The internet is peoples lively hood, my lively hood and doing any small thing can result in years of hard work destroyed. Even if it under fair use take downs are getting sent out left and right it needs to stop.
I am a new content creator that wants to make videos for fun. I have tried to release videos talking about my favorite anime. I released 2 videos, and each video received more than 6 claims each within seconds of being released. Each claim was automated. Each claim was upheld in an automated fashion, until the final appeals process. None of these claims were upheld during the final appeals. It tooks months for any of my videos to be view-able to the public. The entire process felt as if I was being censored off the internet. Copyright felt more like an excuse than an explanation. And during the appeals process I never was given the option to argue for my rights using fair use.
Hello my name is Taylor W,
and I am a viewer of many critics and online creators that utilize the the tool of "Fair Use" and have recently experienced many false copy right strikes and claims on their channels when they should be protected by the DMCA, but they aren't.
I am sick and tired of watching these people who create such amazing and insightful videos get abused and silenced by people who either can't take a criticism and use strikes to censor them. Along with having their lively hood threatened from companies who do not get punished for not only using false claims that cripple them from creating content, but for stealing money from these hard working individuals on the videos that have claimed. Often times outsourcing to other companies made to file strikes and claims for them instead. This system needs to be fixed and enforce, everyone deserves to feel safe to create material that utilizes Fair Use on the internet, and not have to worry about being bullied to the point of being too afraid to do so.
So I beg you, please take a deeper look into this, and lets fix this massive issue together. Because this problem will not go away, and will grow bigger if kept unchecked.
In the world of the Internet, each new year often renders the acts and sites of the previous year obsolete, and new updates, programs, and methods are constantly devised accordingly. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), however, has not been updated since 1998, and now causes far more harm than benefit towards the ones it was meant to protect.
I personally follow many original content creators who work through YouTube, whose free speech is constantly infringed upon due to the DMCA. Many videos have been taken down which contain no copyrighted music or videos; these videos simply involve one or more persons casually discussing a film, show, or song and giving their respective opinions about theses forms of media. These takedowns occur without factoring in the provisions of Fair Use, but even in light of this fact, these videos should not have to be defended in terms of Fair Use since they solely involve the opinions of individuals. Freedom of the Press is largely favored and upheld in law, as is Freedom of Speech, even to the point of the legalization to burn the American Flag in protests. How then is discussing opinions about a copyrighted work not equally protected?
Additional infringements caused by the DMCA is the removal of individual content creators' work containing copyrighted material which is being used in accordance with Fair Use. That is, even if a fragment of a song or film is shown for purposes of criticism or discussion, or otherwise used for original content, it will be taken down regardless of its legality.
Furthermore, shell companies are often created to disguise the true company issuing a notice of takedown, and therefore are used as bullying and threatening tactics to creators, warning them not to post additional negative (or even positive) criticisms, parodies, or commentaries about their copyrighted materials. When this occurs, and a false takedown has indeed been cleared, there are no existing penalties for the company which issued this false claim. This allows the company issuing the takedown to continue to file as many false claims as they so choose, even on a video which has already been cleared in the past, resulting in loss of revenue for content creators at the hands of the claimants without regards to the protection offered under Fair Use.
The number of invalid takedowns is far too great, and often times they are caused by claimants who do not even own the copyrighted material they are claiming to protect. Much of the time takedowns are conducted by an automated process without the careful review of a single human being, increasing the frustration of the content creators and adding to the possibilities of unjust copyright claims.
The current situation greatly favors corporate copyright holders, at the expense of the general public. I agree that there must indeed be a system to protect copyrighted material, but the current system is extremely outdated and biased. The DMCA is not protecting anyone, but rather is stifling content creators and their rights to free speech.
The following are additional reasons the DMCA can no longer be considered just or fair in our current era.
We need more humans monitoring copyright claims and preventing companies from claiming the same video over and over again under different names. Also, companies must be punished if the claim turns out to be false. Anybody can claim that a video violates fair use laws, and while the claim is being appealed, the ad revenue from that video goes to the claimant and stays with the claimant, even when the claim turns out to be false. The DMCA is extremely outdated and must be updated to accomadate for sites like Youtube, Dailymotion, Zippcast, and other content sharing sites.
The DMCA has been abused and Youtubers who make content under Fair Use are unlawfully taken down by Big companies, Trolls, and other specific people. The DMCA NEEDS to be updated for the modern times. A LOT has changed since the DMCA has been in effect. It's time for Fair Use to reign supreme!
On my YouTube channel I once uploaded a video that got claimed for a royalty free song by someone who had no association with the creator of the song so I couldn't receive MY money because a person who didn't have the rights to my content falsely claimed they did.
I would also like to add, that has a new and upcoming channel for YouTube I am more than half of the time afraid to upload any videos, because of people been hit with false copyright infringements. This needs to be fixed, and fast.
All the intelligent commentary I can only guess at has already or will be said here. I'm only going to tread a well laid out path by saying anything, but I still want to add my voice, as this needs to be heard and understood. I love the internet, I honestly and wholeheartedly believe it's going to be the greatest tool for human advancement for the next 100 years, maybe more. It will manage this not because of download speeds or coding finesse or carefully crafted algorithms, but because it will connect people. Everyone who uses the internet can use it to learn, to laugh, to educate, and to create with one another. That last one is key, because everything we have as a species is the sum of things that came before it. Companies have a right to protect their intellectual rights, they are after all what makes them money. But protecting their rights and abusing a system of no checks, balances or repercussions isn't the same. It might be easier to do things by making it so companies can issue DMCA take downs without reprimand or check, but history has shown repeatedly doing it the easy way when you're clearly in the wrong has come and will come to bite back eventually. Increasingly making living in the digital age harder for literally everyone who isn't a faceless corporation isn't progress or healthy for the world. Please consider revisions. Thank you.
It's unfair to see people like the Nostalgia Critic or IHE struggle against fair use abuse, i don't care if it's the law, THIS NEEDS TO STOP.
The DMCA is obsolete and is not being used properly. There is nearly no way for the creators to combat these strikes. It is easy for anyone to make a copy right strike. Anyone can say they're a big movie company and can take down any video they want to, regardless of whether it's justified or not. Far over 40 YouTube channels have dealt with the DMCA and false copy right claims, likely far more people have been shut down as with the case of Derek Savage and YouTuber I Hate Everything. He claimed that IHE's review wasn't fair use. As in it wasn't fair of him to review his movie. He harassed, threatened, and abused using this caustic system. Countless channels have been shut down by people abusing the system. With YouTuber Jim Sterling he reviewed a video game and the owner thought it was unfair use of the game since it was a harsh review, they are in an Intense lawsuit which will impact the future of the internet. Often times even after videos are cleared of it they will still be bombarded by copyright strikes, it works like Baseball; 3 strikes and your out. Essentially what businesses are doing is sending one strike on their main account, and creating 2 other shell accounts to send strikes as well. The people facing these strikes have no way to combat this. That is why the DMCA needs to be updated.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Look, I know that protecting the content you make from people sharing it for free on the internet is important, but any Joe Shmoe with an internet connection can tell you right now that the system is broken. If an average guy like me can figure that out then surely professionals in this field such as yourselves can figure it out too.
Thank you for your time.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright abusers who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The DMCA is way to exploitative, it allows big companies to bully smaller entities into submission despite the fact no laws are being broken. It is used to silence fair use, the most popular being negative or sometimes even positive criticism. On sites, especially YouTube, fair use is constantly being violated by big companies either claiming the video that have no right to own, or by removing it because they disagree with whats being said. I have seen many violations of fair use myself, with obviously nefarious intentions behind them. It is imperative it's looked over and fair use is much more strictly enforced.
This has personally impacted me by removing the option of starting a career as a YouTube personality from my list of viable choices. Given the current state of YouTube thanks to the misuse of DMCA requests, one of the very few means of making money from home is too risky to even contemplate, as all of your work can vanish in a heartbeat if a company simply decides you need to vanish for talking about their content, despite you not even having a single frame of their content in your video. Apparently in today's day and age simply saying "I dislike the Avengers 2: Age of Ultron, here is why" is a violation of copy write.
The DMCA system allows corporations to bypass Fair Use laws, and destroy negative opinions. This specifically is responsible for literally millions of videos, which are legal under Fair Use, being taken down because the DMCA system allows this violation of the law to occur. Because the system as it exists right now allows corporations to stomp on the common man, crushing him underfoot in the name of controlling all content.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. Those who violate Fair Use via the DMCA system should be required to compensate those they harmed for damages, just as they would be if they damaged or disrupted a physical business establishment, because that is what online media is, a business. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I have seen too many new creative people and new visually engaging people suffer under these unfair dated and exploited laws up date and revise the laws so faceless copra toon can not keep taking and striking new creative videos down and encourage the use of human imagination and creativity and put the control back into the individuals not the corporations
I have been a viewer and enjoyer of Youtube content for almost two thirds of my life so far and to realise that some creators who have passion for their art are having their passion and creative flame snuffed out by someone or some people who do not deem them worthy enough to make money and provide for their families through their hobbies and creative art. My full thoughts can be found at the following link:
http://redfoxradio.co.uk/blog/post/14
False claims and abuse of Fair Use needs to be stopped. Now. It's as simple as that. To protect peoples livlihoods and their futures. Thank you.
If you are going to use a blind takedown system then ensure people can sue those making the false take down claims. Frankly the media industry needs to get together and make a library of data(kinda like the ESRB/MPAA but covers all IP) so we all know who owns what so claims(false or otherwise) can be better processed. If we can better process claims then all we need are a few tweaks to ensure fair use and freedom of speech is protected.
Lee Jarvis/ZippyDSMlee
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I am speaking to you because I am a fan of Doug Walker, a creator whose videos have been taken off YouTube due to untruthful claims. Mr. Walker, in addition to hundreds of other creators, makes his living through monetization of these videos, but when these videos are taken down, he loses the ability to make a living. Please, I urge you to fix this system as soon as possible and secure the Internet for the modern-day world.
My version: The DMCA takedown system on Youtube is broken beyond belief and needs to be corrected at once. It's made so that ANYONE can take down a video, even if the video does not belong to them. It's also made in a way that multi-million dollar companies can abuse it to arbitrarily take down videos that use their content, even if the video's use is absolutely within Fair Use. Most insultingly of all, people who get their videos taken down are all but powerless to be able to defend themselves and keep their videos, their channels, their LIVELIHOODS up. This is an unbelievably atrocious and downright ILLEGAL abuse of Copyright Law. This has to stop, and it has to stop at once. Please fix this system. Please do something to prevent Copyright Abuse. Please do something to give content creators a way to defend themselves when attacked by people who prey on them through the Copyright Strike and Video Takedown System. Change must happen.
Longer, more professional version:
I've seen people on YouTube have their videos taken down even though it was the person's own creation. One of my favourite YouTubers who is a reviewer of animated shows had a video flagged on YouTube three times by the same company under different names, they ended up harassing him by flagging the video just over 10 minutes after YouTube declared it was fair use and re-uploaded it. I have seen many YouTubers post videos about Where's the Fair Use and even the biggest reviewer on YouTube faces unfair flagging on a daily basis. I've heard of companies even flagging videos related to a game or product(like the previous game in the series) to alter the search ranking. I may not be an US citizen but I've seen how bogus DMCA takedowns affect YouTube and many YouTubers.
Theres so many people who have gotten their videos taken down unfairly. There's one guy who just sits in a car and talks about a movie and he gets his videos taken down! Please do something
Heck, yeah.
I got a video of mine DMCA'd for using royalty free music than YouTube had recommended from YouTube. It's ridiculous!
In two immediate examples for myself: The first was a copyright claim from the Jimmy Fallon Show over a Resident Evil movie clip used to show a basic difference between speed and power.
The second example is over my review of 'Wrongfully Accused' where I got hit with a pair of copyright claims (Due to a song if memory serves), so they are permitted to stack 'charges' in an attempt to remove a channel outright if they do not like how things are going. Unfortunately I am no the only youtube channel that got hit with the 2-in-1 combo strike.
But in short, the DMCA seems to be used more for the, "Accuser wins" kind of thing on all ends as opposed to any data going against it.
The system is so easily abused, I could make a copyright claim on any video, I would get the revenue stream during that time, even though I have no association with the actual copyright holder and would have no consequences.
So many videos by people who are making videos for fun or to make a living are having their content of taken down by false copyright claims. Even after many of these claims are dismissed a company will just go and use a different name or shell company to make a new claim against a video maker. One example is a man named Doug Walker who has had a few of his reviews of movies taken down because of false copyright claims made against him. Sometimes a video is taken down just because they can, even if there is no picture or audio from a movie, tv show, or music in the video.
There needs to be more involvement to keep false copyright claims from happening and have the whole system fixed and updated. As a person who enjoys watching content made by talented people it is a shame that there is not better protection for these creators of videos from companies who are not being stopped. The DMCA needs to be brought into the year 2016 where anyone can make a video but, anyone can just as easily have their videos taken down because of falsely made copyright claims!
This system is constabtly abused by false companies hoping to silence anyone who dared stand against what they desire. The Internet has grown so much since the copyright law passage in 1998. Youtube especially, is how many people make their livings. This is their jobs, their lives. They live and love to make media to entertain the masses. But recently, many cannot due to this noticably outdated copyright system being used to abuse Youtubers and the Internet as a whole. This needs to stop, as so many people's lives rest ob your system. Please help to stop this injustice. Thank you.
Content creators such as musicians, comedians, and critics are being targeted , harassed, and threatened with legal action due to false DMCA copyright claims.
If a critic says something about a movie the director/creator doesn't like, they can file a DMCA claim in order to stifle what the critic says.
A record label can threaten legal action against someone who's video contains more than five seconds of a song that the label owns, even when the video's creator vehemently claims they do not own the song.
A copyright claimant can even profit off of someone else's content regardless of how much of the claimant's work is in the other's video or other work due to these false claims.
There are even businesses popping up that file DMCA claims on behalf of the copyright holder, and protect the holder from legal action.
To make matters worse, when these claims are found to be false, nothing happens. Whoever filed the claim isn't punished, and they are free to make another claim, causing the other content creator to lose more money and waste more time.
Many content creators and even people who enjoy the content they share are being harassed and threatened with legal action because of false and frivolous claims. The DMCA needs to be updated and include possible repercussions and punishments for those who file claims that are later found to be false.
I have had many videos that have public domain music, many times over 100 years of age and companies unrelated to the content, they claim sampling so I must remove my audio immediately as soon as I get the seemingly instant copyright notification and it seems to be on every video. Even videos I post without music receive these messages. Essentially any video I make public, regardless of if I monetize or not. This policy is being excessively abused and something should be done about it. Please stop the excessive violations of DMCA takedowns and flags.
My experience with this is limited, but made me angry enough to write here.
I recently did a livestream on youtube of a classical piano competition. Lots of music were played live, of composers that are long dead.
I immediately got copyright notices in youtube, where copyright holders claim the rights to my video, because they thoght the music in the video was taken from one of their CDs. But it was live music, with other musicians. I disputed the claims, and most of them went away. In the meantime, my videos were not availible for some of my eager international audience, and ads were put on the videos, even though i opted to have them ad-free.
I then noticed that some of the claims returned, now even stronger. I had to sign with a full name, and if I said something wrong, there would be legal actions. I disputed again, confident that this was just a machine error on their part, and it was resolved.
I realise that my experience is nothing compared to what others endure, but it felt wrong and abusive.
To add to this comment above, I have seen many people on youtube post horror stories about their struggles with DMCA takedowns. As a result many youtubers are scared to post videos under fair use and also have been false flagged. This wouldn't be so bad, if the reaction to these false flags were handled seriously and did not take forever to fix. Youtubers and fair use users shouldn't pay for harassment.
Youtube has been especially prevalent with this issue of fair use. In regards to showing small movie clips, certain sound clips, or the use of public domain material, automated takedowns have been affecting many Youtube creators who's main source of income is from the videos they produce. A lot of companies have abused this system either to take ad revenue, that originally belonged to the creator, or to silence bad publicity. The DMCA should be updated in favor of the United States' first amendment, freedom of speech. A creator should not be afraid to share his/her opinion of any topic they wish to express, and enforce manual investigations if there is indeed a copyright problem. This type of law cannot be handled by automatic bots, as they simply make the process not easier but infuriating. Where is the Fair Use?
The current state of the DMCA law has opened the door for copyright holders to abuse the system and stifle the fair use of their product by content creators. Critics, parody creators, and the like have had their freedom of speech suppressed and, in many cases, their monetization taken away by copyright holders freely abusing the system to claim copyright infringement on videos that, under proper review, would fall under the protection of fair use. Those abusing the system go so far as to use their unchecked power to harass and threaten those who use their content for transformative purposes. Content creators have had their content taken down and their livelihood threatened, with no risk at all to those claiming copyright infringement. In the era of the Internet, this needs to change. The current state of the law allows for online harassment and stifles the freedom of speech and fair use.
I agree with the default statement below in addition to my own. I have seen a number of online content creators many of which are using their freedom of speech to get their word out. Organizations like YouTube have enacted automation and policies not only to protect themselves, but by mandate, and these systems are being abused. I have seen videos and channels get taken down, that had 0 material in their video, that the creator had not put together themselves. These false claims are put in by groups or individuals with opposing ideas in attempts to censor and silence the opposite side. This does beyond fair use and property rights, but against free speech itself.
It is my worst fear that my own reviews of which I try to stay in fair use for my own comedic approach will be taken down by a bot by a company claiming I am stealing its money. I've invested too much to let my hard work to make sure I am fair to be taking my livelihood away. I beg you not on my own behalf but on the behalf of all content creators.
There are Youtube content creators who are constantly attacked by false copyright claims. This is especially prominent in the anime community. There are multiple accounts that have been taken down on FALSE claims. It was just people talking on their camera without any copyrighted music of footage. They now live in fear of whether their next video might get a copyright strike even though its far from crossing any boundaries. It is possible for just anyone to claim that a video has copyright materials without any proof, and due to the lack of care, the video may get taken down, or at times, the account could get terminated, because one irrelevant person made a false claim.
I have seen hundreds of people I follow personally have their hard work removed, or their accounts even deleted because of these incredibly unfair policies, that usually are completely legal. Not to mention that DMCA takedown notices are often used as threats against small time content creators who make little or no revenue off of the content they generate.
As a content creator on YouTube, I find it disgusting how much the content ID system is abused.
I mean, a video of a baby dancing to a Prince song gets taken down just because of the song playing in the background? Where's the fairness in that? Everybody on God's green Earth has the right to free speech and I will not have that be taken away!
Content creators on YouTube do this stuff for a living, and by having their videos blocked from monetization and even have their channels deleted for unfair reasons, they're getting screwed over time and time again by the countless unfair takedowns on their channel.
So I'm asking you... and everybody on YouTube is asking you... where's the fair use? #WTFU
The current copy right law is flawed and outdated. It allows people to claim ownership on whatever they want even if it's protected under fair use. Perhaps the biggest flaw of this system is that if someone is falsely charged with a copyright claim, they are punished immediately, and when the claim is eventually proven false, there are is no consequence for the person who made the false claim. This law is easy to abuse, and it takes forever for the victim to prove that the thing he or she was referencing, or showing, is protected by fair use. It must be revised.
Content creators within the bounds of fair use should not have to live in fear of being struck down by bots or those claiming content for profit.
The DMCA system needs to be either fixed, removed in place of a better system.
Pretty much - there's no sanction for companies that abuse the takedown process, making it difficult to work with online content.
Several of the YouTube channels whose videos I watch have been forced to deal with unfair and time wasting takedown notices, with no consequences for the companies submitting these notices. Content creators rely on YouTube ad revenue to make a living, and there is no way for them to recover this revenue once a video is put back up. Many times, another takedown notice is sent, and the video is offline again. This faceless practice is infringing on free speech, and there must be consequences for such actions.
I watch most of my media online, and where I think it's fair that companies protect their copyright, they seem to be abusing their means of protection. Much of what I watch online is video criticism, people like me, reviewing films, shows and music, and who use snippets of these types of media, (not the whole thing obviously), and their critiques are unfairly getting removed, and many without any way of these people being able to appeal this process.
Fair use protects uses online to critique and discuss content from various pop culture media. However large studios and conglomerates have submitted objectively shady claims of copy right infringement simply because there is no penalty and can actually profit off of the targets users monetization. Securing copyright is essential and necessary but there needs to be some sort of system overhaul to protect online users who provide content derived from visual media, such as movies or video games, from false claims.
The copyright system is being abused, and because of this it is destroying content creators, who are in their standard rights. People like: the nostalgia critic, I hate everything, your movie sucks dot org, GRADEAUNDERA among many more are being affected. This really does need to be looked into, because people can make false copyright claims and practically destroy someone's job and source of income, whilst so called 'reaction channels' get thousands of views for basically adding nothing but a few 'oh damn's and 'oh my gawd'. People need to not get away with false copyright claims, and companies need to read the laws of copyright because clearly they don't know what people are allowed to use, and just boycott and abuse the system over and over. YouTube (one example of where copyright is abused) is supposed to be a community, where people can sharer videos without fear of their content being dragged down by a big lawfirm. My name is Liam Lynch. I have experienced false copyright claims. #takedownabuse #wheresthefairuse #makeyoutubegreatagain
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The default message displayed here has probably been seen by the copyright office many times before, so I am going to say that this is not spam, just something that sums up just about all of my common experiences with the DMCA.
To put it more simple. It's a broken system that gets illegally abused.
It may also be noted that this may in fact harm websites for fan based stories of media content such as fanfiction.net. Although it is common knowledge that the base material is copyrighted and all rights reserved to the original owners, anyone could kill the entire site and its content with a fair use abuse claim. Such an action would destroy many creative works and rob the world of an individuals take on a piece of media that they love. Please do not let this outdated law stand any longer since it has long outlived its original purpose and does more harm than good when abused.
This entire situation is just sad and outdated. These days the internet is getting bigger by the minute. Copyright laws on the internet need a system that prevents false claims and the destruction of all online entertainment. This is the culture of the future.
Don't let the future end before it arrives.
I myself was targeted unfairly for copyright on several video i posted that were protected under fair use.
Even videos of nothing but people talking on camera have been wrongfully taken down.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. On top of this, media such as video reviews can be flagged by bots that search specific key words, whether or not the video itself contains media that violates fair use. This kind of damage can not be undone.
It hinders and controls YouTube creators through different companies using other companies to make the complaint and strikes, and then repeats the process ending up taking months allowing time for other companies to make their strikes and shut the channel down. Basically businesses are trying to act like dictators without realizing or caring that it's fair use and or trying to shut up a particular YouTube creator under fair use. They avoid people who actually rip off and bootleg videos for money and bully them into lawsuits I.e. So flo Antonio. This needs to stop now
Examples of this abuse include:
1. TheMysteriousMrEnter, who had multiple videos which should have been protected by fair use taken down for weeks, even though some of the videos only showed pictures of the copyrighted content for the sake of review, as well as having the same video be taken down again, even after it had been declared to be protected by fair use.
2. IHateEveryThing, who had his entire YouTube channel taken down by having three false DMCA claims occur in less than a day, giving him no warning or time to prepare or respond. The only reason he was able to get his channel back up was due to a massive response from various powerful YouTube personalities demanding his channel to be returned. Upon review, none of the DMCA claims against him would be able to hold up in court of law.
3) Jim Sterling, who received a copyright strike against his channel on a negative review of a video game (the killing fields) from the game's developer. The goal of the strike was to silence Jim Sterling's negative review, and was eventually removed. During this time, however, all proceeds from that video did not go to Jim Sterling, and has not been refunded. In fact, the legal battle between Jim Sterling and the publisher of The Slaughtering Grounds is still happening, due to the fact that even though the publisher has no legal reason whatsoever to send the strikes, the system is so broken that there is virtually no penalty for sending a false DMCA claim.
4) TotalBiscuit, The Synical Brit, who also had a video of his taken down by a video game developer in an effort to silence a bad review (the game being: Day One, Garry's Sh*tty Incident.
5) Doug Walker, who's movie reviews have been taken down time and time again despite all falling under fair use.
There are far more YouTube who have fallen victim to this, including: Angry Joe, BirgiPall, Uberhaxornova, kootra, and many, many more. In fact, the cases listed are all cases where the YouTuber had enough of a following to dispute the claim and salvage their channel. Far, far more smaller YouTubers are not able to dispute or recover from these claims. As a result, any YouTubers who commentate, review, or discuss video games, television shows, movies, music, etc., are at constant risk of their channel (and livelihoods) being taken down by companies. This allows companies to bully and silence the YouTube community with almost no risk to themselves. This needs to change. Please.
First off I'll leave in the default quote because its a good summation of the issue. My personal comments will be below.
""
And.... back to me! (I'm sure you've read that quote a thousand times now)
My personal story is not about obvious DMCA abuse. Rather its about the chilling effect that happens when independent artists and students are too poor to afford legal representation. The copyright laws were put into place when copying could ONLY be done by companies big enough to afford printing equipment. If you can afford thousands of dollars of paper, ink and machines... a few hundred dollars of a lawyer's time to check for fair use is not a big deal. And its fairly unambiguous and easy to spot when plagiarism occurs in print.
Music is not nearly as clear cut. In fact there has been at least one recorded case of a singer being sued (by former label) for sounding like one of his previous songs. Was ruled in favor of the singer - but the judge must have thought they had just enough case to not simply toss it out of court.
Fair use for video rights is even less legally clear. There has not yet been enough landmark cases. Any student or independent artist wanting to hire a lawyer to argue Fair Use is looking at thousands of dollars of court fees - not a few hundred dollars of a lawyers time. And even a few hundred dollars is a lot to a starving artist with a new idea!
One of those new ideas is music videos. Specifically when a fan takes 2~3 minutes of footage from a movie or tv show and re-edits it into a new story. Usually (but not always) to a song. And its not usually one continuous scene either - but dozens to hundreds of clips spliced together in a different order from the original. Is that Fair Use?
Well.. if you look at copyright law... maybe? (Needs a court case to decide for sure) But under DMCA the simple fact that ANY amt of footage or music was used means the artist will be monetized by someone else or taken down at whim by any third party.
Years ago I made a music video that used clips from a full eighty-one different sources set to a three minute song. Obviously none of those clips were very long. Most were a second or less in length and edited very carefully for cohesion. Its currently making money for a Data Storage company based in Japan that didn't even EXIST when the video was made. I do not have the money to hire a lawyer - so under DMCA.... I have no rights.
The reason why I'm commenting this is so that many people can still use copyrighted material. I don't post videos and stuff like that but I don't want my favorite youtubers to stop because of copyright.
I've personally been affected by these outdated Practices. A video on my youtube channel gamershaven was taken down because it mentioned the words orange juice. We were covering a game with that in the title. Our video was flagged because of the video didn't directly relate to any orange juice product, and our entire channel was shutdown for months. We lost the interest of fans and followers from our site setting us back tremendously. Please reform the DMCA laws and think about how these outdated rulings are affecting content creators everywhere, thank you.
I've seen so many content creators been getting copyright strikes and even channels taken down by people who think that are above the law. Some are officials, others ACT like officials. There have been creators who point out criticism to one's work and those people take it as offensive and wants to censor it out. We're under the laws of freedom of speech. There are creators who parody one's work, sometimes bits of pieces and they usually get taken down. Whether it is anime, music, TV, or movies. Reviewers for movies and video games they get flagged or copyright strikes from certain people or companies. Channel Awesome, I Hate Everything, TeamFourStar, TotalBiscuit, and much much more creators have dealt with this kind of bogus DMCA takedowns and really hurts them creatively. A lot of us are fans of their work and we support them throughout. They can't fight this battle on their own. That's why fans like us crying out for fair use to be brought to the internet. Where's the fair use? We want it. And we want it now.
Don't let content creators be held hostage.
Hi, my name is Mickael, I'm a french internet Reviewer. I makes videos where I give my analysis of a movie or TV show, not just to show how bad it is, but also how great it is. My videos represent no danger for the cinema industrie, heck, it's even free publicity... But Hollywood and his producers just refused to see it this way and attack my videos and other videos because of "copyright" even if my videos totally respect the fair use right. I've got my review of the Shyamalan movie "the happening" take downed because of this, even if this is probably one of the few videos on this planet who says that the movie is actually really good and people should see it.
Another video of mine, a top 10 of the best super heroes movies, was taken down becaused i've used a clip from A TRAILER... A video made to be distributed for commercial purpose, not the movie itself, that insane.
The real problem is that producers claims that they do it to protect their right and creators rights... But in reallity they destroy creators rights, because that what we are, creators, but they can even see how the fair use can actually help a movie's popularity.
Ever heard of Troll 2 ? No ? Well thanks to internet reviewers, it's now a cult classic ?
What about The Room ? Same thing.
And that just for bad movies, imagine good movies.
The recent successfull movie "Deadpool" was possible only thanks to internet reviewers who talk about how bad the first appearence of this characters on screen, in X-men origins Wolverine was a total betrayed. Deadpool exist and was a success only thanks to internet and his reviewers. That the ultimate proof that hollywood have nothing to fear and don't have to abuse of the copyright to censored.
For more information about the different problems of this case, here's a video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
I find myself extremely concerned by the way the DMCA system is currently being wielded with impunity by organisations and individuals with an axe to grind against small content creators on the internet. A huge number of my favourite YouTube channels rely heavily on the fair use exemptions of the DMCA, and work extremely hard to make sure they conform to them. At present there is no system by which content creators can protect themselves against malicious takedown notices of perfectly legitimate content, takedown notices which threaten their livelihood and jeopardise the future production of the work that I and so many others thoroughly enjoy.
I firmly believe that for the DMCA to be able to serve its purpose as a legitimate tool to protect the investment of content creators, provisions need to be included to discourage the frivolous use of takedown notices by larger media companies on smaller internet entertainers. As of now an agent claiming to be acting on behalf of a copyright owner can effectively silence any criticism of a product, without taking fair steps to consider whether the use of said IP was genuinely infringing without any fear of reprisals when, following a lengthy counter-claim process, the creator of the fair use work in question is eventually vindicated.
In the case of YouTube, a critic who uses fair use clips of a film or TV show in their review can effectively have their video removed from the internet for the duration of the time it takes to fight the frivolous claim. In some instances, repeat harrassment of a YouTube critic can result in the deletion of their channel, the platform via which they earn their living. As it stands it is not even necessary for any of the critics work to be infringing for this to happen. Furthermore, the claimant is able to obtain ad revenue from a video which in many cases the have no legitimate claim to and when finally their copyright claim is proven to be unfounded, are under no obligation to pay back any of the money which they effectively extorted from an original content creator. This cannot be allowed to stand.
I implore you to consider a system by which people can be sanctioned for using DMCA provisions to harass and swindle innocent content creators. The current model clearly isn't working.
Also this entire situation is bullshit that shouldn't even be a problem.
Bring freedom of speech back on the internet. In the last few years the situation is getting much worse, the current system is abused by the big corporation and the people, that should be protected have almost no voice. It's so fundamentally wrong I almost feel silly that I even need to explain it and everyone knows it. It's time to change that. And right now is too late to do so, since this should have been done a long time ago.
As a creator and artist myself I have had to deal with fallacious claims , some of which were by companies that had no relation to the content. For my original work, the expectation would be that DMCAs would be a useful and powerful defense when people do actually steal my content, but I frequently notice their abuse more than I need to utilize them myself. Some form of repercussion for fallacious DMCA claims is needed, especially at the corporate level.
Because I am independent, many times claims I need to file of blatant theft of my work (items that are direct, unedited duplications) take time to process or don't even go through, whereas a fallacious claim from a corporate entity (such as filed against a review or parody) can be pushed through with (invalid) legal threats, and even resent under a different name after it's been successfully disputed.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The internet is being stifled by these unfair practices. If freedom of speech can be stifled so swiftly and silently in some of the largest public forums in the world, then how, I ask you, can we feel safe in regards to the future of our creative expression as a whole? Once the government starts to stand against its own Constitution, where does that leave its citizens? A government has to be kept fresh and updated to account for rapid change in the world as a whole. A DMCA is, simply put, outdated.
As an aspiring content creator, I am loathe to share my creations in a public fashion for fear that some corporate entity with deep pockets can come along and file a bogus claim that will allow them to control and monetize my content.
Copyright laws is stifling free speech, harassing people, and ruining people's right to have an opinion. True copyright violations are being ignored while people simply doing creative arts are being taken down, bullied, and, in some cases, being robbed of revenue that is rightfully theirs.
There are hundreds, literally hundreds, of people being taken advantage of for no good reason. Creative is being stopped. People are being abused. You can stop this utterly unfair and vicious cycle of abuse.
Fair Use is a right as basic to me as Freedom of Speech. I can't understand how anyone living in our modern day can't see that the internet is the true neutral ground for creative to evolve and become something far beyond what it was. The internet changes so much. It always has.
Don't try to stifle the internet. It's the only equal ground in our modern day.
Muy buenos dias. Viniendo de un pais en el cual las leyes de derechos de autor son frecuentemente abusadas y la corrupcion es prevalente, entiendo la necesidad de proteger el contenido y asi evitar el mal uso de este, sin embargo, como un admirador me muchos de los canales que se han dedicado a utilizar ese mismo contenido de manera responsable y siguiendo las reglas establecidas por las respectivas plataformas (YouTube, VImeo, entre otros) tengo que denotar que muchos problemas con las actules condicones de evaluacion de violaciones de derecho de autor se han reflejado en el ultimo año, personas que han dedicado mucho trabajo y esfuerzo y que en general atraen interes en el contenido de distintas fuentes que utilizan (y siempre usandolo legalmente) si esta situacion continua y sus videos son eliminados sin razones validas terminarian, afectando gravemente la estabilidad de las paginas donde se encuentran y en general causarian una perdida de riqueza cultural y libertad de expresion. Por favor, tomen las medidas para arreglar este sistema problematico y permitan que los creadores de contenido puedan continuar con su buen trabajo, ellos no se merecen el sufrir inconvenientes sin razon
I am a casual viewer of YouTube videos. Everyday, I'm online watching the newest videos of creators who follow the Fair Use laws (all their videos are reviews/parodies, which are protected), but almost everyone I follow was always hit by an unfair DMCA takedown notice.
I'm positive you already heard of many different YouTubers who were able to get justice after a while, but one YouTuber, TheMysteriousMrEnter, is being harassed by an animation company because of a negative review. Just one look at his channel and you can see that's what most of his videos are, reviews. The company that took down his review claims they are trying to protect their product, while a channel that contains every unedited episode of said cartoon is untouched.
I won't copy and paste the Fair Use laws because you should know what they are. If I, a 19 year-old girl with only a basic idea of how to do basic math, can understand these laws... How can these "mature" adults misinterpret it?
Not only does it censor creators it has also been abused to censor negative opinions of products and legitimate reviews. Companies have been created (Namely one: Ad revenue for a third party) to create false claims. People who even had not used any footage clips or audio have been taken down under these false claims. There have been malicious instances where companies have threatened and used slander against youtube channels in return for sending counter notifications that are needlessly lengthy and abandoned anyhow. This is not a stable system on any level. One famous example was that someone had even faked being a law firm and threatened to sue under different names.
The DMCA was created for the internet of 1998 and now 18 years later it has become outdated. Content creators outside of the internet need to have their rights protected but it should not come at the cost of content creators on the internet. Many creators have found their work to be taken off of popular websites such as YouTube and have thus lost their ability to earn money EVEN WHEN OPERATING WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES OF FAIR USE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
This DMCA thing is being used to bully critics, silence and censor opponents, as well as trampling all over freedom of speech. Please, fix this mess.
My YouTube channel, "cjhitchcock" has been issued multiple DMCA take down claims from people who don't even own the content they claim to have. Even if they did own the content, my videos are still under Fair Use. The process to remove these unjust claims takes too long and makes it impossible for me to produce review based content.
As someone who frequents the likes of youtube, DMCA takedowns are rather annoying, especially for creators as the "copyright" holders can just spam these without fear of any consequences of filing a takedown even when the content is actually breaking copyright, weather it be fair use or just similar enough the filters pick it up.
I am a YouTuber under the name "BombShellGaming". My experience with the copyright system on YouTube has been fairly minor compared to other content creators. One of my videos in which I was playing the game, Batman: Arkham Knight, I got a copyright claim for a song in the soundtrack when in reality, I was protected under Fair Use which was and is being ignored. Instead of fighting over crumbs, I ended up not fighting it and just submitting to this incompetent claim. I did monetize that video but I barely made any money off of it so in the end, if they want not even a fraction of a cant from that, I don't care. And I still don't. It just irritates me that someone with 31 subscribers is sought out for this childish game that the corporations want to play with us, the content creators.
-Sincerly your's, Someone who's fed up with this bullshit,
Seth/BombShellGaming
Now for my own comment. The law was passed in 1998 and MUST be updated for the modern Internet. There are many people on YouTube that I am a fan of who were temporarily shut down or even permanently shut down for a bogus copyright claim. Almost always these would go to court and be protected by fair use laws, but no one is doing anything about it.
Not a day go's by where YouTube's DMCA system is constantly being misused for unfair means. False copyright claims, strikes, loss of revenue, accounts being falsely shut down all because people or corporations will take advantage of a system which is meant to be used to benefit it's users. As a constant uploader I and many of my friends have been the victim of unfair claims made using the DMCA system due to material in our videos which 3rd parties claim is their own property. The use of such properties is legal under copyright law and YouTubes system is being used in a way that completely ignores that. People are not just losing revenue but losing out on their will and strength to keep making creative content when the system is so unfairly used against them like this. This needs to stop. The DMCA system need to be put in check in a way in which it cannot be used for unfair means.
I am not a US citizen, as you probably have noticed, but I wanted to adress this anyway. I didn't modify the original text, it expresses the problem at hand very well.
We, the free world, take pride in democracy. We take pride in the freedoms so many have suffered and bled for, in the US, in Europe, everywhere. It was a hard earned victory.
You, the US gouvernment, can now prove that you are indeed the leaders of the free world. Prove that freedom of the press and freedom of speech are not hollow phrases used to blind the masses, but that they mean something.
Set an example. Show us that you are not puppets to big money and corporations who seek every oportunity to opress the rights our ancestors fought and died so hard for.
This is not about taking away rights from corporations. They surely have the right to protect their property from being misused. But random takedowns have to be stopped. The DMCA needs revision. It is an ancient law, by todays standards.
To whomever reads this, thank you for your time.
""
Please check out this video by Doug Walker, a youtuber, who has created a great video detailing the major issues with the system as it is.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
As reference i would like to mention a videos by one of the content creators that got hit by this system: Doug Walker, "The Nostalgia Critic"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
The fact that this law can be used to stifle free speech and directly benefit no individual at the same time is bad enough, but the fact that this has been in place unchanged for nearly 20 years for something that changes as rapidly as the internet is ludicrous. Heck, the DMCA is almost as old as I am! The DMCA is outdated and out of touch, and this has become more important than ever with the rise of sites like YouTube. Now, people's livelihoods can be, without notice, taken away and put on hold for over a month at no fault of the content creator when the creator does not even violate any copyright law, and this is all done in the name of the DMCA.
I want the internet to be a better place, not just for me, but for the people who make the internet a great place. Right now, the DMCA is a huge obstacle to that. Please make the internet a better place for everyone.
I have seen how just a simple comment on something can have a video taken down. Please do something about this and really look at every angle to see what needs to be done.
I have been a YouTuber for over 10 years. YouTube needs to be fixed. Make YouTube Great Again.
On a more personal note, this process is out off date, easy to abuse, and negatively affect people. Many people now make their living on the internet. When they get a false DMCA, it makes them lose money.
Preface: Below this are the words associated with takedownabuse.org and I highly agree with them.
However; I felt a need to write a simple statement.
I have avoided getting involved in many creative efforts on the internet for fear of this level of abuse. I almost never upload anything or leave it around because many times copyright flags attack people using absolutely no material that is owned by anyone else other than the person who uploaded the video. From music to videos this is constant... and it has driven off creativity, myself included.
I can not invest the time, money, and effort into trying to place something up on the internet and depend on it to secure my personal american dream when anyone, including automatic bot programs, can remove my source of income, and force me to spend time, effort, or even money to prove that I own it... and if I had uploaded such content on youtube they would be entitled to my money until the claim is resolved, that is money they steal, money they take from me, and that is as unamerican as you can get.
So, below you will see the aforementioned takedownabuse.org statements... but please remember this one first... The DMCA lets people steal from hard working Americans, and for that reason alone it needs to be addressed and fixed. Copyright should work for all of us, not just for a few.
I've noticed that some videos on places like YouTube where people have been attacked for false copyrights. One example I've seen is one guy got a YouTube copyright strike on a video where he just sits in his car with his friends and talks about the movie he just seen, no audio, no clips, nothing. Yet he still got a strike. In another case, a person put a picture of a pair of white shoes, titled the video 'Damn Daniel', because of the recent trend, had no audio in, and it got blocked. Another example is on one of my videos. I did a cover of a song, and the video got a YouTube copyright claim, pretty much asking 'remove this audio, or you will get blocked', where other covers of the same song were still up and still had their audio. I may not make a living off of my videos like the other people affected by this, but it still doesn't make the abuse justifiable. I've seen other people talk about their issues with this and they show how companies have other companies help with the claims, claiming videos multiple times, and some where they just steal the revenue the video creates from the creator. This is not legal. This is just to silence and steal. Please consider fixing this issue.
Futhermore the use of takedown notices is a excerise in corprate thuggery not seen since the nascent days of organized labor movement. Please be on the right side of history.
The number one issue with the DMCA takedown process is that it can be automated. I have had original content with zero music or motion picture content automatically flagged and I lost out on advertising revenue (that subsequently was split with the "copyright holder").
I use the Internet for all of my entertainment. Thanks to the creator's fair use being violated, a lot of my entertainment has been taken down. The Act needs to be updated and be with the times.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is unbelievably biased in favor of corporate copyright holders (and irrelevant third party companies) and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible and punished appropriately.
Content that is made primarily to entertain is also at risk. Videos that contain nothing more than people talking about a movie are being claimed for copyright infringement, purely for the purposes of making profit. This is of course illegal, but there is no disincentive to prevent companies (who may or may not have anything to do with the copyrighted material in question!) from doing this.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech and free expression. The process of taking down content needs to be humanised, and the system needs to be changed radically so that individuals and small to medium sized businesses are no longer exploited by companies.
Just as companies should be protected by copyright laws, so too should creators of online content be protected from the abuse of these laws.
The current system fails content creators.
Someone just talking in front of a camera with no copyrighted footage can be taken down.
I am a youtuber who has content unfairly taken down in the past on the footage used has clearly been done so under fair use. Eventhough this hasn't affected me personally, people are also losing their money to companies and people who are unrightfully claiming ownership of the video. False allegations are being left unpunished and entire youtube channels are being taken down for no legal reason.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is being abused by the means of false claims. Despite no infringement of copyright, or despite fair use, many content creators on the internet are being unjustly silenced or punished by false claims put upon them by those who seek to dishonorably gain from such false claims. Due to a lack of proper appeals processes, this often results in irrecoverable losses in terms of audience and revenue for content creators, with no consequence to those abusing the system. There must be safeguards put in place to prevent further abuse, and to make those who would abuse the system take responsibility.
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
As an aspiring entertainer, the idea that my work could be compromised simply because someone doesn't like what I have to say is genuinely frightening. Fair use exists to protect discourse.
The Problems with Copyright
Thesis
Originally, copyright laws were created in order to protect the work of artists and creators alike; however, many IP holders, from multi-million dollar companies to small one person artists and studios, have abused copyright laws, ranging from unethical extensions to using copyright to censor criticism and journalism. Due to this, copyright needs an extensive overhaul to better fit this more online and connected world.
Introduction
In the year 1790, an act was passed. This act enforced a collection of laws that have influenced the entire world and shaped popular culture. The act that was passed is known as the Copyright Act of 1790. The laws passed allowed Americans the soul right to create and distribute their work, it allowed artists to make a career from their creations. It inspired authors to write remarkable stories and scientists to discover the world and freely share their research.
Now, a little more than 225 years later, copyright laws are being abused and misused by copyright holders, and despite claims from various parties, is in need of serious changes.
Copyright Is Outdated
As previously discussed, copyright is a very old idea, dating back hundreds of years. Virtually all laws have changed in at least some way since the creation of copyright, and the copyright laws themselves are no exception. However, society and the world has transformed into a different entity over the past several decades. One of the biggest changes in recent memory, and the one that most frequently gets involved with copyright, is the internet.
While the first recorded creation and uses of the internet dates all the way back to the 1960’s, the internet did not become the global force it is until the 1990’s. Despite this, the last major revision of the act was in 1976, around 20 years before the internet started to become commonly used by the general public. This has caused many problems for copyright holders, users of fair use and consumers.
On the internet, many companies fear the possibility of piracy, the unlawful and unauthorized distribution of content online. Piracy is where someone copies a piece of media and releases it online for free. The media in question includes music, movies and video games, as the three most common. Piracy has been a major concern on the internet, with many organizations and movements attempting to eliminate and control piracy in the past and even today.
In October of 2006, the company Google bought a small but steadily growing video sharing website called YouTube. Five months after the purchase, in March of 2007, Viacom sued Google due to alleged claims of the website hosting thousands of pirated videos and material. Google claimed that they were not to blame, as they were only providing a service that pirates could take advantage of. However this claim was refuted, as U.S. laws require the company to provide some form of protection against piracy. Due to this, Google started to implant forms of copyright protection against illegal material. DMCA takedowns and content ID were implemented in an attempt to ward off Viacom and their law suit.
The systems put in place have proven to be faulty, incorrect and easy to abuse, making the lives of content creators a much harder pursuit, with takedowns and ID matches occurring even while using only a minimum amount of the source material. This is an unfortunate and unhelpful situation for both consumers and producers as it limits the type of media that can be created. While it is true that YouTube is not the only online video sharing platform, it is almost certainly the largest, most influential and easiest to use of all, boasting an incredibly high amount of people viewing media every day.
While the YouTube copyright situation was large, it was only one website. In 2011, the internet faced a much greater danger, in the form of SOPA. SOPA was a controversial act that the United States had planned to enact. The act would put much greater control of copyright online. The act was primarily focused on combating the issue of online piracy, hence the name, Stop Online Piracy Act. The act would have censored thousands of important, well made, and informative media online, whether or not the media in question was infringing on copyright. Hundreds of thousands of peoples careers would have been lost if the act was passed, along with the destruction of many pieces of historical importance. (Everything Wrong With Digital Copyright, Gizmodo, Kyle Washer)
The internet and online community still deals with this problem even today, with the problems of past efforts to prevent piracy still making life online much more difficult than it needs to be.
Copyright Can Be Abused
Copyright Can Infringe On Freedom of Speech
A year after the copyright act was enforced, in 1791, the first amendment to the constitution was created. The first amendment allowed the freedom of religion, the press, and criticism. It is known as Freedom of Speech, and is part of the Bill of Rights. Without this freedom, people would not be able to partake in the religion they believe in, people wouldn’t be able to report stories of corruption and war, people would not be able to criticize or even praise media. It acts as a right that all people should have. Despite this, copyright laws are set up in a manner that can allow copyright holders to completely ignore this right, and be able to censor any manner of work a creator has made.
There is some understandable logic for copyright holders. If someone is using a piece of media that you made, it would make sense that you get some form of compensation for it. However, some copyright holders simply claim ownership or even simply take down these pieces of media, despite them clearly falling under fair use. Fair use, is an important and useful law that allows people to use a piece of copyrighted material without it being considered piracy or infringing on the copyright. However as it turns out, many copyright holders unsurprisingly ignore this useful law.
What classifies as fair use tends to be up for debate, but can generally be determined by legal experts. There is a tangible difference between using copyrighted material and stealing copyrighted material, no matter how much the copyright holder would like it to be the same. Generally, this occurs when money is involved, and a content creator is using some form of copy written material. Despite the fact that they are the ones holding the copyright, some copyright holders are not well educated on these subjects, and are freely allowed to disobey them with minor, if any repercussions at all. (Copyright Law Changes That May Affect You, Stanford University, Rich Stim)
One issue that comes with free use is journalism and reports telling the general public about things some companies might want to keep under wraps. It is entirely possible for reports about a company or the product of the company from journalists to be taken down because of alleged copyright infringement, with the actual intent of the take down being to censor and hide these reports. While this sounds implausible, it has occurred in the past and shall happen again. (Indie Dev Retaliates To Negative Video with DMCA Takedown, Kotaku, Patrick Klepek)
In 2015, a video report detailed Konami’s relationship with Hideo Kojima, along with the cancelation of the game Silent Hills. The video was made by George Weidman and included various anonymous sources, who were purportedly employees of Konami. Two days after the video was published, Konami sent a DMCA takedown against the video, the flag was for using footage of the game Metal Gear Rising, despite the fact the game had no audio and composed less than a minute of footage in the entire video. The video was later reinstated by staff at YouTube, due to it not meeting the requirements of a DMCA takedown. This was a first for YouTube taking matters into their own hands and protecting freedom of speech. Since then, Konami has never issued a public statement on the issue nor have they faced any repercussions for attempting to censor quality journalism at all. This is a blatant disregard for the laws that have been put into place and is incredibly unethical for anyone to do. (When Does Freedom of Speech Trump Copyright?, the Guardian, Charles Swan) (Why Didn't Konami Want You To Watch This Video About Hideo Kojima?, Polygon, Ben Kuchera)
Copyright Extensions Can Be Unethical
In 1944, a little girl kept and wrote in a diary. She wrote about her experiences during World War II until her death at a Nazi Death Camp. The girls name was Anne Frank, and the diary was eventually turned into the book known as Diary of a Young Girl. The book had won many awards and inspired people across the world by educating people about the horrors the Nazi’s committed during World War II. Despite the fact that the book was primarily used for education and praised as being a well-crafted documentation of the life of a Jewish person back in Nazi time, the book was not free from the unethical usage of copyright. While Diary of a Young Girl is not a very profitable title on its own, with it selling very little copies in modern time, what it does have is sympathy. The book is most famous for its retelling of a horrific time and place to be a Jew in and as such garners a lot of sympathy from many people. Due to this, the Diary of Anne Frank foundation receives a hefty amount of donations each year. As such, they want to protect their primary, if not soul financial aid. The copyright protection of Diary of a Young Girl was extended for 50 years due to the current copyright holders being able to add an alleged “co-author” to the book, despite the fact that the only other author being Anne Frank’s father, with him writing the introduction which explicitly states that the main and almost soul author of the diary was his daughter. (Anne Frank’s Diary Gains Co-Author in Copyright Move, New York Times, Dareen Carvajal)
While Diary of a Young Girl is a good example of why copyright extensions can be unethical, especially with older properties, one of the most famous examples is the case of Happy Birthday to You. The original melody of the song was created far back in 1893, by the Hill sisters, who worked at a daycare. The melody was used in the song Good Morning to All, and was used to help children fall asleep. Decades later, in 1918, a new song using the now famous melody started to appear. The song was created to celebrate birthdays and was unsurprisingly called Happy Birthday to All. This song started to become popular quickly, and in 1935, the melody was acquired by Summy Company, and kept the melody until all the way until 1988, there the melody found its way to its current owners. In 1988, Warner & Chappell bought out Summy Company and thus claimed the copyright of Happy Birthday to You. Warner & Chappell had claimed that the copyright would not expire until 2030, without any extensions. Warner & Chappell had then got to enforcing their claim and starting to make millions yearly due to the broad use of the famous song. This did not change until 2015, when an independent film director by the name of Jennifer Nelson managed to get enough support to take them into court, where it was ruled that the claim on the song and melody was not legitimate. Warner & Chappell have lost their claim since then, but have been attempting to reclaim it somehow. The Happy Birthday to You case is a rare entity in copyright world, where copyright claims and trademarks are rarely challenged. (All the 'Happy Birthday' Song Copyright Claims Are Invalid, Federal Judge Rules, Los Angeles Times, Christine Mai-Due)
Copyright Favors Large Companies
Copyright has been shown numerous times to unfairly favor large companies over smaller companies and independent content creators. Nowhere has this been more apparent than with the TPP, or the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP is a huge trade agreement between dozens of companies near or bordering the Pacific Ocean. The main point of the Trade was to act as a financial buffer and rival to the huge economical nation that China has become. Were the agreement to pass, thousands of laws would be pass. The majority of the laws passed would be beneficial to the economy, and would help many people. However some of the more vague laws would allow for copyright holders to more easily protect their property, going so far as to allow police to go and arrest supposed violators of copyright infringement in some countries. This is an extremely anti-consumer and producer practice, it would be completely unethical for governments to allow copyright holders to take this much action against citizens and content creators so easily. These laws would almost completely destroy the fan art, fan fiction, remixes, covers and modification industry in the countries affected, which would lead to a less successful industry overall, along with making it harder for fans and content creators to become involved in the industries and lose valuable experiences. The biggest problem the TPP faces is that it is being written by companies and for companies. The laws being passed are almost exclusively for the benefit of corporations and companies. (Trans-Pacific Partnership: Why is the IP Rights Chapter Receiving Criticism?, Law Street, Samuel Whitesell) (Japan to Strengthen Copyright in Light of TPP, the Japan Times, JiJi,)
Copyright Infringement Is Flawed
Copyright is a complicated subject, and often confuses the general public, due to its vagueness and copyright holders being frequently unwilling to talk about why they trade mark these phrases and why. How something gets copy written is another convoluted process unto itself, but the laws that govern what can and can’t be copy written are easily exploitable, and make it easy for immoral companies to take advantage of the system. We have gotten to the point where a single word can be trade marked by companies. This allows companies the ability to pursue legal action against companies that use these words even if they are not claiming to be part of the copy written material. This is a bleak situation, as legal action against them, even if they are not successful, would lead to wasted resources and time that could have been used on creating content that did not steal ideas in any way. It creates an atmosphere that makes artists afraid to develop and publish their works, for fear of copyright strikes no matter how little the supposedly stolen trade mark is used. (ALA’s Carrie Russell Talks about Copyright in the Classroom, School Library Journal, Debra Whelan)
While these claims seem silly, they are all true. Over the past five years more and more cases of these have occurred. In 2010 Tim Langdell tried to copyright the word “Edge” due to his help in the creation of the game Mirror’s Edge. In 2012, Zenimax sued Mojang over the word “Scrolls”. And, despite the fact that these actions are usually scummy, companies are encouraged to do this for fear of losing the claim. If copyright holders do not go after a claim, no matter how small, it could damage their liability in the court when trying to sue for a claim that is legitimate. All of this is caused from how very broken copyright laws are today.
Finally, in 2016, the corporation Sony attempted to copyright the word “Let’s Play”, despite the fact that Sony has never had an IP with those words in it. Companies have been pushing the boundaries of what is allowed in copyright laws to the breaking point. The fact that Sony tried this shows that even companies are starting to see how easily exploitable the system is. In doing this, Sony would be able to profit off of hundreds of thousands of people, by taking a large portion of Let’s Players already small count. At this point, almost everyone has started to see that copyright laws are flawed. (What Legal Experts Think of Sony’s “Let’s Play” Trademark, Gamasutra, Chris Banker)
Although the issue with Sony was a larger issue overall, another copyright fiasco was developing online. In early 2016, the video production company Fine Brothers Entertainment started a program called “React World”. The Fine Bros. were most famous for their “Reaction” videos, in which a group of people from a specific demographic reacted to a popular piece of culture or important political events. Though they did not create the react formula, they did become the most popular. The React World program’s main purpose was to allow other content creators to use their likeness and style of their videos. However when the program launched it was met with backlash from millions of angry fans, with a large amount of people misinterpreting the situation. The majority were under the impression that the word “React” was trademarked and could not be used by the public. This is false, as the Fine Bros. insisted several times. However, in the past the Fine Bros. had attempted to copyright more specific terms with the word react, such as “Elders React” or “Teens React”. This had gone unnoticed by the general public until the React World controversy, which brought copyright laws into the eyes of the general public. (The Fine Brothers Reaction Video Controversy, Vox, Alex Abad-Santes)
Copyright Allows Artist to Profit Their Work
Copyright, is an important idea. Without it, artists, creators and companies everywhere would be unable to profit off of their work. Copyright encourages and creates a free market, it is almost a necessity for a productive and stable economy. If copyright laws did not exist, then anyone could defame and delegitimize someone’s work while making a profit off of it. Copyright, for lack of a better word, is good. It is a benefit for everyone and without the economic situation of the world would be much less productive.
Copyright can be changed. The way it currently functions is harmful and counterproductive to the entire world, regardless of whether you are a copyright holder, infringer, or consumer. The laws currently in place are regularly abused and ignored, with incredibly unethical events and ideas being caused due to the lax nature of the law. It needs to change, and would lead to a more artistic world and more productive economy for everyone.
Conclusion
Copyright has been proven to be a flawed system an innumerable number of times, it has restricted the economy and artistic world while allowing the destruction and censorship of thousands of creators everywhere. Copyright infringement is an important tool that needs to be reworked to better fit the world we live in. It needs to change now more than ever.
Works Cited
ALA’s Carrie Russell Talks about Copyright in the Classroom, School Library Journal, Debra Whelan
September 27th, 2012. January 14th, 2016.
All the 'Happy Birthday' Song Copyright Claims Are Invalid, Federal Judge Rules, Los Angeles Times, Christine Mai-Due
September 22nd, 2015. January 14th, 2016.
Anne Frank’s Diary Gains Co-Author in Copyright Move, New York Times, Dareen Carvajal
December 10th, 2015. January 14th, 2016.
Copyright Law Changes That May Affect You, Stanford University, Rich Stim
October 10th, 2010. January 14th, 2016.
Everything Wrong With Digital Copyright, Gizmodo, Kyle Washer
March 21st, 2013. January 6th, 2016.
Indie Dev Retaliates To Negative Video with DMCA Takedown, Kotaku, Patrick Klepek
March 19th, 2015. February 4th, 2016.
Japan to Strengthen Copyright in Light of TPP, the Japan Times, JiJi
November 15th, 2015. January 14th, 2016.
The Fine Brothers Reaction Video Controversy, Vox, Alex Abad-Santes
February 3rd, 2016. February 4th, 2016.
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Why is the IP Rights Chapter Receiving Criticism?, Law Street, Samuel Whitesell
October 28th, 2015. November 5th, 2015.
What Legal Experts Think of Sony’s “Let’s Play” Trademark, Gamasutra, Chris Banker
January 18th, 2016. February 4th, 2016.
When Does Freedom of Speech Trump Copyright?, the Guardian, Charles Swan
February 13th, 2013. January 14th, 2016.
Why Didn't Konami Want You To Watch This Video About Hideo Kojima?, Polygon, Ben Kuchera
May 12th, 2015. February 4th, 2016
We have the opportunity to bring back fair use, so we must hurry before I is too late.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted material.
Personally, I have experienced loss of revenue directly because of abuse of YouTube's copyright claim system and automated claimer systems. Others however are harder hit, as YouTube's copyright claim system has been misused again and again by shell companies and individuals who wish to suppress criticism.
Men and women abuse the cooyright system DAILY! I am too nervous to create productive content when random people can make accounts and false claim content just because they don't like the creator's opinion. This is censorship and I will NOT stand for this anymore! The abuse must stop, and rights of the public must be accounted for and the will of The American Dream must continue!
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I'll just put these here so y'all know I read it 'n stuff.
Companies who doesn't own anything in a YouTube video have been filing false DMCA claims. Everyone is abusing the copywrite system. Even average people who aren't part of a company is able to file a DMCA take down.
The DMCA is incredibly dated and needs more people to listen and less autonomy. There is NO PENALTY FOR FALSE CLAIMS and this NEEDS to change. This is crippling several content creators who are using content under the laws of fair use and are unjustly suffering because of it. If you find the time, look up the "Where's the Fair Use" movement to see several examples of how the internet is essentially crippling itself. #WTFU
Too many people are having their creativity stifled and livelihoods threatened due to abuse of DMCA as they are utilizing the media in question under Fair Use. Please review and update to be on par with today's use of media in free speech.
Thank you.
The utter lack of oversight and enforcement regarding fraudulent DMCA take-downs has resulted in an environment that is genuinely hostile to legitimate copyright holders.
And funny ass videos gets taken down by fake companies
Look, the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Without it, content creators will be censored for the content they make because of stupid DMCA takedowns.
The n and fair use of copyrighted works.
I don't make a lot of content for the internet, but I support those that do, and this needs to be fixed. We cannot allow people or corporations to stifle peoples rights of free speech, or steal revenue or threaten people who are using content legally. Other people probably say this a lot more eloquently than I do... but I just want to add my voice and say that this is important, not just for youtube, or facebook, but the precedents set here help bring copyright laws into the 21st century.
I had a video of mine on my YouTube channel Gitbag the Great [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHmq7KX4Qc46VGhYzWqQfOg] lose its revenue for almost two weeks in February 2016 due to a claim on content in the background of a video that was under fair use and did not belong to the claimant or their representee and I was unable to build revenue on that video for almost two weeks and came very close to receiving an actual strike on my channel.
This is happening on a larger scale and more frequently to other YouTubers and internet personalities who more often than not are well within fair use and are being abused through the now outdated DMCA system and in some cases are not only losing money but their online careers over illegitimate claims and strikes and I, like many others am afraid that this could happen to me without protection, compensation or proper regulation for the current nature of the internet and YouTube as a whole and in particular.
Therefore, I, Ted Richardson [aka Gitbag the Great] am pleading you to update and reform the DMCA system to properly suit and accommodate the nature of the internet as we find it today.
BBC STOP TAKING DOWN MY VIDEOS GOD DAMN IT
WHERES THE FAIR USE??????
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
On Youtube, there are many people who create parodies, creative/comedic mashups and edits (Youtube Poops), reviews, etc.
Of course, all of these fall under Fair Use, right? Not according to many copyright holders, like Derek Savage, many cartoon companies, and so on.
Many times we have seen many good Youtubers who's videos fall under fair use who are abused constantly because of this DMCA system.
Here's what happens:
A Youtuber, say, The Nostalgia Critic, or TheMysteriousMrEnter, I Hate Everything, and misc. channel named Quack Addict, etc. make a video using footage from a copyrighted movie, video, some music, etc. to make a review, parody, Youtube Poop, but then a copyright holder decides:
"Hey, I don't like what they said about my movie, I need to give this a copyright takedown!"
After the butthurt copyright holder takes it down, the original Youtuber who made the video will be seen by the DMCA system as guilty until proven innocent via a dispute. During this time, monetization is disabled, disallowing the Youtuber to make ad revenue/money off of their video, which is bad since many people use Youtube to make a living, and the video is taken down from the website, and the channel the video is from can be given a strike (3 strikes and your channel is terminated) and the video won't be allowed to be brought back up. Also, on a side note: if the video was monetized, the company can take money away from the Youtuber and steal their ad revenue.
Another way this happens is if the copyright holder sets up a program or robot to automatically issue takedowns on any video that has any footage from the copyrighted work regardless of the purpose of said video.
Another way this DMCA system can be abused is if some random person decides they want to take it down, they can do it even if the video contains footage/sound from something they don't even own.
One thing that is very bad about this system is that when a company or internet troll does this unfairly or if it is unwarrented, then the company/troll gets off scott-free. No punishment whatsoever.
The DMCA system is hurting content creators and violating the First Amendment of the constitution, which of course is illegal.
Please replace a DMCA system with a better, more free-speech friendly system.
One suggestion is that whenever someone issues a claim on a video, the creator of the video is innocent until proven guilty. The video shouldn't be immediately removed from Youtube, and shouldn't be immediately stripped of monetization. And we need REAL PEOPLE to review these copyright claims, instead of the robots Youtube has been using for quite a while, who provide no support for content creators in need of assistance.
To anybody who read through all of this, thank you for your time.
The world changes and with that our reallity we can´t support laws that don´t go with our reality. The DMCE sure helps to protect the people but how far can it goes in orden of protect them and don´t turn it into a weapon of punishment .
just as the technology advances We need to evolve with it and by that we need to study how this impact our sociaty and look for the tools so everyone can enjoy it without risking their free of speech.
The DMCA has not been fair, in the past few years they've been out of control. They've been taking down videos because they say it's content is protected by copyright when in reality the videos where reviews or clips and are protected by fair use (I've even done a vlog review once and a picture was the thing that made it get a strike I didn't even hate on the film I gave it positive ratings and told viewers to look in to it at the end so I was giving them more possibility but one picture and they put a strike on it). A lot of people make they're money off of YouTube and yet when they get an unfair strike the money they're suppose to get is all given to the owner until the issue clears up, a way around this could be to put all the earned money to the side so whomever wins the dispute can gain the money. People do YouTube for a reason, we want to share our opinions and creativity (and maybe to get some money on the side), but we can't do any of that if people just saying a movie title can get a video taken down I get that there needs to be laws to protect a product but the DMCA needs to remember that we are with in the law. Ask yourselves where's the fair use.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The DMCA may have noble intentions but in practice is too one sided. There are few consequences for organizations or individuals who issue false copyright claims.
I support this content.
I just think, in terms of Lets Play's for me it has been mostly fair, some games do not like their soundtracks being monetized if present in games but if I am commentating over it, I don't see how it's a problem if the music is pretty vague, because I think it's pretty relevant to reviewing the game. Also some classic games for the PS1 on games like MediEvil 1 have Content ID'd soundtracks which would be hard for anyone to believe as their just like other composed game soundtracks from that era that do not have copyrights on them and also the soundtracks are not even available for the public to purchase in the first place so I don't understand the relevance in protecting it unless the soundtrack has an official purchasable release. Also Particularly Nintendo games cause a lot of grief to gamers including myself even full adhering to fair use, not allowing users to monetize their videos when they are fully eligible and some people even get their videos take down.
The current copyright situation is unsustainable. Rather than being a way to protect intellectual property it is being used to silence criticism. Content creators need a practical way of fighting back against false copyright claims. An individual who, in many cases doesn’t even own the copyright to an IP shouldn’t be able to profit from making a frivolous claim of copyright infringement. But, that is exactly what is happening under the current system. We need harsher penalties for people who abuse the system.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
----------------------------------
Personal Note.
I'm Gamemaster13000, I've been uploading Let's Play videos to youtube for almost 5 years now. 2 Years ago, a Let's Play video was mine was taken down from my channel and I received a strike. At first, I assume the video was taken down due to a link in my description leading to a "Points2shop" website and youtube labeled is as a scam(which it wasn't). However, to this day, I still have no clear reason why my video was taken offline. All I know is that my video is gone and I can't do anything about it. If Copyright law allows user submitted content to be taken off the internet without a given reason, The DMCA and laws like it aren't in a suitable condition.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Also, it's just a terrible system preying on people not knowledgeable enough to fight against it.
In addition, I have seen too many cases of companies going so far as to abuse and harass content creators using fair use because of criticism on their works, we have a right to agree or disagree with content released by companies and they need to know that they can't please everyone and that abusing the DMCA just because someone doesn't like their work is not only wrong, but illegal. These companies are stealing revenue from content creators, revenues that they need to pay for bills, families, and homes. I personally run a small YouTube channel doing mostly playings of video games from various systems as well as the occasional review. I recently got a video removed from my channel on an episode review and analysis of the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, while the company Hasbro has left my channel alone, I have become nervous about posting new reviews even though I should be safe uploading them. Others that have been hit include YouTube users such as AnimeAmerica, MysteriousMrEnter, TeamFourStar, and many others. Please help make the internet safe for content creators.
I am mad as hell, and I can't take this any more.
Many creative people have been hurt by this , it can take away their livelihood,we need to stop those who seek to mess with these peoples life's for selfish gain are just to cause mayhem in others life's, we need fair use in this world ,please for everyone's sake help the world change!
Especially when big production companies such as Viacom and Fox claim copyright on fair use videos, but don't claim on unedited videos.
From a YouTuber perspective, this needs to be fixed. Hard working YouTubers videos and channel striked by companies that don't even exists. Videos be claimed by fans, and removed from YouTube.. Then STILL receiving strikes after it was removed!? This copyright law hasn't been updated for years, it was passed before YouTube even existed and needs to be updated to our modern society.
Thank You
Many of my favorite content creators and entertainers have had their videos taken down due to false claims. Some have even had whole YouTube channels taken down like I Hate Everything who got no contact from YouTube or copyright holders. False claims absolutely need to be punished because they are abusing their power right now with no consequences.
DMCA takedowns hurt creators I love and are completely unfair. We can't give companies the power to cry wolf with no consequences and siphon the profits off of people who want to use their content for completely legal purposes. The internet is a place for sharing ideas and opinions, and opinions on entertainment shouldn't be shielded like this. These unregulated and uninformed takedowns hurt free speech. We shouldn't let a law used to protects the internet in its earliest days hurt creators on modern day sites.
Above ^ was already up and I have nothing to add. Automatic computers take down content without an explanation limiting content producers I enjoy viewing and intimidating future people from trying to post anything out of fear. People that make a living off commissions and sites like YouTube are suddenly unable to pay for what they need to live and hit hard times fast especially if the money goes to help someone else. More people need to monitor copy right claims if they can't refine the take down system from being abused.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in
favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
It is not fair for youtubers who are being harassed and to feel threatened, have their rights violated or revoked over content. As a youtuber myself i recieved a claim imediately after posting a video once it was uploaded. I have friends who have left the site all together because of unfair claims. In addition all these people and companies who are abusing the copyright claim system are violating our consistitutional right under the first amendment regarding freedom speech/expression. Youtube's earliest videos in 2005 were nothing more than orginal content. Why didn't those get flagged as well. The videos being flagged now are the same as they were when the site started. That is why this injustice to youtubers is a clear violation to the first amendment - freedom of speech/expression.
The DMCA has stifled creativity and has muffled the important voices of many around the world. It has absolutely harmed the internet to no end, and I, along with thousands of other content creators, are SICK OF IT!
I am a teacher and fair use helps me provide meaningful content for my students. I can use videos made on YouTube to teach my students so much. Until education has the money to make and buy high budget films. I want to use the creative compilations of others. The internet is so different than it was in 1998. To assume an archaic law can protect people's interests is absurd. The only ones protected are large corporations that feel threatened by individual users.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is not only heavily outdated and therefore unprepared for today's media but is also heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use, even by those that do not hold the copyright. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies and individuals that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
This issue is made worse by individuals who make false reports of infringement for personal reasons as petty and immature as not agreeing with the opinion of the content they are flagging, or even as another form of cyber-bullying And in instances when these takedown claims are given human review and are found invalid, the content in question will be flagged again, often by the same source
I do movie review videos. These videos involve me TALKING about the movie/show/product in question and giving it a review. Yes I use screenshots because it's needed for showing the subject of what I'm discussing. I do not claim the movie etc as my own, I often even praise (though not always) the work yet these copyright strikes still happen. It's all fair use yet the system automatically sides with the claimant, who often which isn't even human, a robotic algorithm made to hunt down creative work.
fix copyright abuse pls ty
The DMCA, as it stands right now, does little to nothing to protect fair use of material, as evidenced by the countless stories people who make their living on sites like YouTube can tell you. I understand the fact that there needs to be some kind of defense to stop people from uploading entire movies or other works, but this is not it. Companies have time and again abused automated systems, sometimes with their own automated programs, sometimes in person, to take down videos that critique their product or service or to meet some sort of goal.
Noted video game pundit Totalbiscuit has had multiple copyright strikes and takedown notices thrown against him; from the Shining Force incident where SEGA took down multiple videos that even mentioned their 'Shining Force' title so their trailer for a new Shining game wouldn't struggle against videos with higher search ranking, or the Day One Garry's Incident fiasco where he got Wild Games Studios's permission to make a monetized review of their game, found it to be an utter mess, was honest in his video, and got it taken down because he 'violated the terms of the agreement.'
League of Super Critics and the Angry Joe Show have suffered this as well - the former having to migrate to Channel Awesome and reupload all of their non-offending material, years worth of work, and Angry Joe having to file counterclaims one at a time for months. These people are lucky - for every Channel Awesome or Angry Joe or Totalbiscuit, there are at least a dozen other channels that are wiped out of existence because they lack the power to defend themselves or any sane protection.
One of the tenants of US law is that one is innocent until proven guilty. On YouTube, and other sites I'm sure, this is grossly violated with regular impunity. Anything, not just a company or even a human being, can take offense with a video for whatever reason and issue a claim or a strike with no consequence. This either gives them all of the ad revenue from the video they didn't make or takes it down entirely. And on YouTube, if someone gets three strikes, their channel is lost forever. I remember when we had a three strikes rule for drug offenders - that didn't work out, did it?
With a few clicks and strokes, someone's entire livelihood or passion is in danger, no matter what their video contains. Even if it's a wholly transformative work that uses audio or video clips to demonstrate a point or why to or why not to buy something, it doesn't matter to automated systems or companies or trolls. Reasoning can boil down to 'I don't like it' or 'they used video/audio I created' even if they only use ten seconds of said material in a forty minute video (see Nintendo's takedown of various videos before making their own - and very backward - Nintendo's Creators Program.).
We need a system where it isn't that easy - or painless to throw copyright claims and strikes left and right. We need a system that treats not only the original creators, but those who are inspired by and comment on their work as human beings first and foremost. We need a system that treats someone as innocent until proven guilty. The DMCA does none of these things.
The internet is the future of media. Already thousands of shows and channels have come online through legal means, and immeasurable amounts of content that would have been unthinkable thirty years ago have been created because of it. To protect that future and to have one where original works and transformative works can coexist, the outdated laws surrounding copyright and intellectual property need to change. And they need to do it now.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, commercial innovation on the Internet, and generally makes internet content creators feel unsafe at all times. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Many creative people will be affected by this law!!! People should be able to upload content that they had the idea to make and not worry if their video is going to get flagged. So please stop the dmca, it was designed for the earlier Internet technology has evolved so much since then!
This law needs to be changed for today`s media as now people have lives based on what was just a new form of information gathering. If the DMCA is not updated, Thousands upon Millions of dollars can be lost in copyright hassles and companies can use a simple system to bully creators for free content. There is not a way for someone to destroy a movies ability to make money through suing but yet this can.
The abuse from people using false copyright claims needs to stop. Innocent people areally loosing their hard earned revenue from fake companies trying to abuse the system. This needs to stop.
The copyright laws have become corrupted. They are not used to protect content, but simply be abused and taken for granted. The reason why is because the ones who support copyright laws are the ones who silence others because they are afraid to hear opinions as well as hate opinions. This needs to be addressed. This needs to be stopped. We deserve better!
I'll make my comment short : people are using the copyright-strike stystem of youtube to "claim" content that they don't even own they claiming those content because they just want to be assh*les !
#WTFU
I've seen someone lose his youtube account because of a animated dancing cat !!!
please exuse my language but WTF ?!??
a dancing cat ?!? really ?
So fucking fix this shit already, dumbasses.
I've seen many Youtubers come under attack by big corporations and even random trolls claiming to be copyright holders steal ad revenue from them when it is entirely wrong for them to do so due to fair use. Nostalgia Critic and several other Youtube critics have been constantly battered by abuse even though the videos that have been targeted (review videos of varying original content use) clearly fall under fair use.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use, be it fair used, parody or critical content. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I also want a sandwich
For me personally I have used audio that is stated by law that is Fair Use yet the DMCA does the takedown anyway. It is harassment and limits content creation on the internet. We need to bring this law into the 21st century and work it around the internet as it is now. These false claims are out of control.
In the past, videos done by people I know and by myself had their videos taken down by DMCA take downs. In fact, other people have been taking our videos down for content that they do not even own. Some of those videos include original content created by my friends. Our other videos that use copyrighted material only serve for educational value were taken down as well, and we do not make a profit from any of them. And those videos fall under fair use.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The internet is an extremely special and important place, and after decades of work, it plays a part in all of our lives now. And because it's such a huge part of our lives, companies are using it to reach inside our lives and mix things around.
Companies have started taking down content that in no way infringes on their rights whatsoever. It is a blatant violation of the law and needs to be stopped.
Examples of abuse include the issues that Channel Awesome has had such as loss of monetization after copyright claims despite the fact that their content is protected by fair use (satire, criticism, etc). Brad Jones has also had issues after a video of him talking about a movie with NONE OF THE VISUALS OR AUDIO from said film in his video...but he still got a copyright claim on his video. The abuse has to stop.
Too often I have seen my friends and other people that I admire be negatively effected by the constant abuse of the copyright system. For too long companies have been abusing their power. It is time for all of this to stop. Otherwise, they are really not going to like what happens next.
If fair use isn't held up we're going to see a high rise in unemployment as people can't use YouTube to make a living. It will give the job market a huge break that it needs right now and in the future.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Please, update the DMCA. It's antiquated nowadays. There are a lot of people being affected by this issue. Companies that are trying to silence any criticism they don't like, people that are trying to make profit out of others hard work and many other similar situations.
I live in Argentina, I put my content in the Internet and therefore this affects me, so, please, update the law.
I've seen so much original content get taken down on youtube all because someone wants does not like what someone else saids about their work and can't take criticism or just because they can. If not a single representative or senator has not seen any such crime at least once on youtube, then maybe they should get their heads out of the global warming debate and focus the real crime right under their noses
Your system targets incredible review channels, while channels that upload full movies or songs get a pass. Corporate pandering makes this even worse. The amount of drama this has created has left you tube and the internet as a whole as a cancerous mess.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and any Tom, Dick, Harry, Pam, Jane and Sally who too often misuse and abuse it to silence content creators REGARDLESS of fair use. This has effected a lot of YouTuber's not matter the size, false DMCA's are put on videos... and wheres the consequences? there are none. The only person who gets shit on is the content creators with loss of income from that video and it effects what they can and can't do on YouTube with features being disabled. Further effecting their income as they may not be able to upload videos on that channel. Such as with The Drunken Peasants on YouTube. They got a false claim on a video which was clearly fair use , it was just the guy didn't like what they said... because of this false DMCA they couldn't live stream to make their videos. This is a big concern with the loss of revenue for those where YouTube is their day job and because of a false DMCA they could get in some real trouble. Do you know who doesn't get in any kind of trouble? The false DMCA claimer. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse from those that infringe on user's free speech and content which should (but isn't) be protected under Fair Use law need to be held responsible.
Even as an Australian, America's DMCA laws affect many businesses I interact with on a daily basis. I've seen a review get taken down for showing no actual content of the movie they're reviewing, just talking about the movie (Cinema Snob). I've seen long, protracted cases where reviews have been threatened with the law - the very content creators the law is supposed to protect being threatened with it like a cudgel.
There needs to be a punishment - a strong punishment - for interfering with the revenue of businesses unjustly. Below is a standard email.
I like the internet as it is :(
Most content creators on the internet just want to praise something they love, or critique something they don't like. In the internet's current state, people aren't able to do that anymore. People like TheMysteriousMrEnter and The Nostalgia Critic are getting videos taken down just because the companies behind what they are reviewing don't like what they're saying. Fan-made parodies of songs are getting forcefully removed from YouTube because some of them are getting more views than the original music videos. What's even worse is that these corporations are getting away with all this simply because the victims often can't afford to take them to court. This era of rich people just removing anything that makes them slightly uncomfortable from the internet needs to stop.
The DMCA is one of the WORST bills to exist. The only bills worse are: SOPA, PIPA, and The USA PATRIOT ACT. If we could stop SOPA and PIPA, what is stopping us from ending or changing one of the worst things to happen to creators?
This CAN NOT STAND!
For example, companies have sent DMCA notices to many YouTube channels (such as "I Hate Everything", "Mr. Enter", and "Jim Sterling") in order to either steal ad revenue, since these companies are allowed to send these claims and can still take ad revenue even if the claim is being disputed by the content creator. This results in the unfair practice of essentially stealing money from content creators that were never at fault in the first place. Other companies have done this to stop a content creators opinion, viewpoint, or analysis on a specific subject from being shown publicly, despite it not being constitutional under U.S. law.
The DMCA system is too lenient toward automated systems that have not yet been optimised to usefully account for fair use and public domain. This is stifling media creation, as automated systems will incorrectly attack content that is legally in the public domain, causing considerable monetary losses for media creators, due to an exorbitant amount of care needing to be taken in order to prevent these false triggers.
Every DMCA takedown notice should require direct human oversight, and above all, a real risk of legal retaliation if used to take down content that falls within fair use, the public domain, or is owned by a party that has not explicitly consented to be represented by the party issuing the takedown.
Ludwig Grann
Independent media creator
Åland Islands, Finland
It's 2016 for God's sake it's for some serious changes. This needing to be one of the many, and we will do what ever we can to make things right. Quit fucking around with this Mickey Mouse bullshit and do whats right. For everyone's sake.
I am not an American citizen, however I am still affected by American law. The DMCA specifically.
Today people all around the world can access Youtube and watch videos. People have also began to upload videos onto the platform and earn money entertaining the people who watch their videos. However, whether the content creator is American or from another part of the globe they still must abide to the DMCA as Youtube is first and foremost an American company that must abide to U.S. law.
The intention of this law was to provide people with the power to protect their intellectual property. However it has become a common trend for the owner (most notably large companies in the entertainment industry) to misuse this privilege to attack content creators, specifically on the Youtube platform.
Content creators work within the bounds of Fair Use. The creators will edit and manipulate the original source material (for various reasons) to create new content. Owners of the original material are able to disregard Fair Use and take down the content regardless. Not only does this pervert the laws of Fair Use but it also threatens the livelihoods of those that depend on the Youtube platform to earn a living, whether they be American or in a separate country.
The new law needs to be updated with the culture of the modern internet in mind. It also needs to find a balance that will allow owners to protect their intellectual property and prevent them from abusing fair use.
The internet has moved on a lot since 1998 and the law needs to move forward as well. I have seen many developments in it over the last 12 years and much of that is thanks to websites like YouTube. I watch many people on YouTube and many of them have been putting up with a lot. There is always one of them talking about how one of their videos were taken down due to a false copyright claim (Which is illegal as you're aware). I have seen many different versions like people reviewing movies and adding their own commentary and changing it so it falls under fair use but they still seem to get hit with something from some shell company that is most likely controlled by the studio of the movie being reviewed. A rather infamous one of this is the channel "I hate everythings" review of "Coolcat saves the kids" by Derek Savage where he watched the movie and then reviewed it in one short video. Where as Derek didn't take too kindly to his video being ripped apart so he claimed IHE video and got his channel taken down. IHE eventually got his channel back thanks to the community but Derek still threatened him with legal action even getting to the stage to impersonating a lawyer and this still never had any consequences.
It simply feels like the term "Fair use" carries no weight on Youtubes from angry protesters who don't like the content of videos to upset companies getting angry over reviews of their movies. Its getting out of hand and something needs to be changed to protect the day to day content creator from being bullied into silence.
Sargon of Akkad for example used a piece from the Oxford Union who claims to be "the last bastion of free speech" and they took his video down because they didn't agree with what he said. Another example of this is his critique videos of MTV shorts on YouTube he had his videos limited down to 15 minutes per video (He usually does 30 minute long) because one of the girls didn't like someone breaking down her arguments. People should not be able to do this. Not on a platform where many people make a living.
DMCA claims are being used unfairly and a new system should be set in place to protect content creators. Using the current system, companies can take down videos or even claim all monetization on videos, without the need for an actual human to review the claim and asses whether or not it is fraudulent. In this sense, even an entirely original work can have its revenue taken away with the click of a button. This has happened in the past with companies like Merlin, and it's still happening today. A new system must be issued that protects the rights of content creators and fair use, while still allowing direct reuploads of stolen content or non-transformative videos (for example reaction videos) to be identified, removed and dealt with properly. Keep in mind, scripted criticism, reviews and critiques of content all fall under fair use by definition, but an unscripted video of somebody viewing stolen content is not transformative enough. All that can be hoped for is a better system for protecting fair use and the preservation of the right to express yourself as a content creator.
This is a system that has been abused and is largely used to hinder content creator's content, not to protect it.
Companies are now starting to use claims to stop youtubers from using their rights to free speech by taking down a video if they disagree with it.
I'm a huge YouTube junkie and seeing my favorite accounts be threatened because of false copyright strikes is a joke. The legal system has made it impossible for these content creators to have a voice, and they are constantly being harassed by the law. This outdated law needs to change!
I (brought here from the great Doug Walker, MME, and many others) oppose the false DMCA takedowns on the video streaming site YouTube. These systems on YouTube had been created to stop piracy, but have been maliciously abused by many companies to destroy fair use and freedom of speech on the site. There is way too much for me to cover in this comment, so I'll put up some links for a few examples.
https://youtu.be/zVqFAMOtwaI
https://youtu.be/jiSXoEbILhw
https://youtu.be/JQfHdasuWtI
https://youtu.be/Cz09W2Z6OOU
https://youtu.be/REHOdqYkX4Y
https://youtu.be/ghpiMKueZM8
https://youtu.be/bDy8TEQgwEg
https://youtu.be/5FmTbag5Lz0
https://youtu.be/-noYEhlgNuQ
All of these are examples of the abuse of the fair use system on the site. I humbly ask that this comment is used along with thousands of others to bring down this tyranny.
I have seen first hand on multiple occasions abuse of copyright laws and destruction of creative content. If the Internet is to remain a place of free speach, the law MUST be updated to modern systems.
Look I'm just going to come out and say it I wanted to do reviews for a very long time and I have been scared ever sense I saw some of my favorite YouTubers or concert creator's (whatever you want to say) videos taken down. It almost seems like fair use is just something that doesn't exist or just has been there so we can abuse it. I can go on and on listing many examples but I feel as if most of you have heard them before. I sadly don't have any personal tales to tell but I do just want to say, I don't want to be scared that a random person or company (who may or may not even be involved in what I am reviewing) will take down my video. All in all I just want this abuse of DMCA takedown to go on any longer.
Don't allow giant corporations to censor criticism. Do your job and protect our rights.
The multitude of people who make their living off of YouTube from copyrighted material under the conditions of Fair Use are at a major disadvantage and amendments to Copyright Law is deperately needed.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I've always enjoyed everybodys work, everything that's been done, The fre-sprej, open-all-out aktive talk though The comments (wether it's on commentsection on YouTube or on a video) and i like to keep seeing this whole free-use thing Rather than get restricted because of a "Internet-Bot". Ok, i'm rambling on right now (it feels line) but My friends probably has better sayings than i about this but it's the closest i can get to cohesive words that makes slight sense. Not a good speecher but a talk-ative person nonetheless
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Also... I'm tired of amazing talented people having hastles in producing content for us all to enjoy from the poorly enforced DMCA laws and automatic copyright takedowns. It's not only a cut on our enjoyment, but affecting people's lives.
In addition to the following, I want to add that many of my favorite content creators have had to deal with constant harassment, loss of revenue, and threats to their business from companies issuing takedown claims as a weapon, despite the content being entirely covered as Fair Use. The system as it exists is regularly used as a weapon against free speech, and it needs to change to reduce the power people have over creators of legitimate content.
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Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
End this bullshit
The takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and is has been abused to the point that anyone can have content restricted regardless of whether copyrighted material was even used. Fair Use currently has no meaning as once ANYONE reports a video it will be taken down without actual review of the content.
This is unfair for people looking to create videos whether it be reviews or discussions as again ANYONE can report the video and have it removed via DMCA. YouTube is meant for people to share their creativity, thoughts, ideas, critiques, etc and they can't do that if the system used to protect copyright holders is being abused to the point of affecting millions of people whose videos genuinely fall under fair use.
Content creators that bring their own views of the content or parity that they made is being abused by people who don't even have things to do with what they've created there in it to either take down the person who's making the videos or to cash in on their money that they get through it believe it or not this is actually a stable way for our economy almost every person on the planet watches YouTube and if this goes on I can predict that you will probably have a riot on a global scale not only are the YouTube content creators getting their stuff taken down there having their whole channels deleted and they can barely fight back with only three claims and allowing them to dispute only one at a time they're being abused to the point where its like being a whipped slave so please consider revising the law where false claims will be punished and that YouTube creators won't have to live in fear that they will go without earring the money they desirve.
I want to live in a future where I'm not afraid to be freely creative.
At this point, this has gone too far. So many companies are abusing this system for profit with little consequence. It's time for a change. People I watch have videos claimed and can't do anything about it; please, for the sake of content-creators, make the changes that are needed.
In other words, the copyright system is really fucked up and you should fix your shit.
The DMCA is supposed to be something that offers protection to all parties. However it is instead being used as a weapon to silence those who decide they don't like what is being said about their product or even the fact that somebody is making money of off something that can be as little as mentioning the name of something they own.
With a lot more people striving to make a living online by entertaining others through reviews or parodies the fact that companies can just abuse the DMCA to silence them is disturbing and provides a dim view on all of them. This copyright abuse needs to stop because as of this moment major corporations are able to ruin lives and face no consequences for it.
The internet is one of the greatest bastions for free speech and spreading views, and the act of silencing voices that corporations don't like flies in the face of everything the first-world stands for. Automated take-downs and blatantly censoring opinions that are deemed hostile and/or disagreeable towards products, films, and other marketable options for the sake of silencing dissenters and making a slightly taller profit is despicable. The simple fact of not having a human presence to monitor and follow copyright law allows companies to target content creators online without risk of breaking the law and get away with something that would otherwise be illegal. This has to stop, for the people who make their livings online, and for the pillar of freedom that is the internet to continue bearing that title.
Look, I understand the importance of copyright. It's a necessity to have some form of protection for content creators to properly market and sell their content. But the way the DMCA has been exploited these past few years is frankly inexcusable.
You should not, under any circumstances, be able to take down legitimate criticism of your product. There are far too many people abusing the overly loose provisions of the DMCA to censor opinions they don't like, regardless of what they are. The fact that you can simply say something on the internet infringes your copyright with no proof whatsoever is completely ridiculous.
Not to mention that now, the DMCA equivalent of Patent Trolls are popping up on Youtube, just randomly taking ad revenue from videos they own nothing in via DMCA strikes because they know there's absolutely no legal recourse. In fact it's even worse here, because companies like [Merlin] CTLTD don't even have to create something vague beforehand; they can just claim anything they want, anytime they want.
The law needs to be made clearer and more accountable. Things like criticism should be explicitly stated as fair use in the law, regardless of what footage is used. More importantly, there has to be a punishment for frivolous claims. As it is now, a failed copyright takedown on Youtube results in at least 2 weeks of revenue lost and time wasted for the video creator and nothing but a potential revenue gain for the claimant. Without accountability measures to prevent these situations, copyright laws that were designed to protect creativity are the first tools used to stifle it.
Here are some videos to refer to if you want examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0Wpn1zmU
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (STILL going on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ9U8YLY
Team Four Star's issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkcWbvnN0
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nULnD9OQ
Chibi Reviews gets a DMCA for talking about snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWysPctePw
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw
Mr Enter and the saga of DMCA after DMCA takedown on the SAME video!
The reason why we need to fix this is because of some things like one,content creators or getting strikes on videos even though they follow the Fair Use rules even though people who post episodes/Movies arent being bothered at all,two, Some people who give content creators a strike sometimes don't even understand the Fair Use themselves (if you need proof watch "Cool Cat Learns Fair Use" from YourMovieSucksDOTorg) three, Some people also just put a strike on anything for example theres a series called "Midnight Screening Reviews" where it has a man names Brad Jones and his friends sitting in his car and just talking about the film no clips just them,and that was taken down for no reason or a 20 sec video that had a kid dancing to a prince song and universal took it down... yeah thats how despreat there getting.So please lets fix this now.So everyone let's say it together "Wheres the Fair Use" #WTFU
Taking away free use has gone on long enough!!!!!!!!!!!!
As a Youtube viewer, I've seen users be abused by companies in unfair ways. Youtube claims to follow fair use, but from what has been going on, this proves to be not true, as many companies take down fair use videos, often multiple times! I'm a big fan of critics who review films and TV shows, and I've seen people and companies who remove videos maliciously because they did not like the negative review of their show or film. A lot of people are making their livelihoods on Youtube. Companies will often take ad revenue on videos that are fair use. Since the videos are fair use, this is stealing! And there is no way for them to get that money back from the companies who stole from them! Some companies even claim ad revenue, even if they don't own the video! It's very easy to get away with! There have been videos in which there was no copyright material, just people filming themselves talking about a movie, that was taken down. This happens to a lot of people. It is time for the people to stand up against these cheating companies. It is time to stand up for fair use.
I use online media as my primary source of entertainment, and while the DMCA easily protects content creators from industrial level abuse -being pirated by a large player like Netflix, it exposes those minor creators that are nearest to my heart to industrial level abuse in the opposite way. In the last few months I've seen nearly all of my favorite content creators affected -sometimes with incredibly drastic consequences. They lose income, often their sole source of income, and I've even seen some content creators lose everything because one person filed a complaint.
When applied equitably copyright protection is beneficial, even necessary, but the current system is not applied equitably at all. Large producers have the resources to develop systems that automatically flag content related to their intellectual property regardless of transformation, satire, or educational intent. Then automated systems at host websites flag, remove content, and even ban users even though absolutely no copyright infringement has occurred. What's worse is that copyright claiming has even come to be used as a weapon, with people claiming videos critical of them simply to punish the person for speaking out against them.
Copyright laws are put in place to protect those who create intellectual property, but they are currently being used to favor the strong and injure the weak. There is currently no penalty for falsely claiming someone else's content even fraudulently. That needs to change.
The DMCA was well intentioned, but as times have changed and online media has evolved it has proven toxic to the very people it was intended to protect. Copyright battles in this medium are no longer fought in the courtroom -"justice" is arbited by private companies which allocate enough resources to protect themselves but not enough to protect the people at large.
The law needs to change. It needs to change in a way that forces content providers to protect their users in addition to themselves, and forces the government to do it'so job -to uphold the first amendment and ensure that those who wish to speak can do so, even if it is to be critical of those with more power than them.
What is truly abhorrent about the use of the current iteration of our current copyright system is that it exists to favor the copyright owner by an overwhelming margin. Giving companies the ability to protect their works is extremely important, if a company produces "Product xyz" and a second attempts to dupe the market by producing "Product zyx" which is simply a repackage of their product, this is harmful to everyone. However, when a company is allowed to say that because they produce "Product xyz" they have the right to interfere or stop others from producing product that even resembles or fills the same use as the original, we reach a territory where we prohibit growth, evolution and improvement to industry as we now need to spend too much time simply making sure a product doesn't appear too similar to another and that it works in a different manner.
Worse still, is when a company knowingly uses this extreme control to push out competition or negative press, using copyright law as a weapon to harm others over protecting themselves. In many areas, online especially, with anonymity and automation we see rampant abuse as companies know that its simply impossible to actively fight back, as often many websites simply state that you're not allowed to go against them. We are building a system that has gone from protecting ideas to crushing them, instead of fostering new growth we salt the earth.
Im no lawyer, but even I can see that this system simply doesn't function as intended. It certainly doesn't help that these laws are so ambiguous that determining their actual meaning is nigh impossible, creating a blanket effect over all of industry that darkens creativity. When we choose to punish a new idea in a free market system, we've already failed. The free market, which the US claims to represent, supports the best iteration of the product. If a company cant reliably make the best version of a product, they should fail. However, we should still make sure that a company cant simply re brand another product for profit, we should make sure that a persons ideas stay theirs, and that ownership of a design remain protected. But, we should not stand for abusing a system meant to protect. Allowing a clearly flawed system showing great overreach shouldn't be allowed to continue simply because its original intentions are still being held. Change occurs constantly, and if laws do no adapt with the changing times, we see friction arise in many ways, from overreach to failing to uphold the laws intentions to requiring court cases simply to define small interactions.
This is America! The freedom of speech is being severely undermined and used against creators for the sole purpose to make already greedy people more "empowered". This country was built on people who had dreams and the guts to pursue those dreams and now people with those same dreams are being shut down unfairly and unjustly. One
People and companies are abusing the copywrite system and will take down videos just to steal the profit off of it or don't want any criticism, even if said footage is under the fair use rules! Videos get taken down and effects people's jobs and livelihood. No one is actually monitoring any false claims and it takes too long and too frustrating when attempting to counter the claim. Worst is even if they claim is eventually countered, the person making the false claim is given no consequence and are able to do it again! It's also pretty much impossible for smaller channels to counter this because YouTube only pays attention if it's a large channel! Serious changes to be made so none of these things can be abused again!
People's parodies and reviews, which fall under fair use, are being taken down.
Companies can take videos down with no consequences whatsoever.
The abuse of copyright content is extremely widespread, shell corporations claiming content they dont even own and literally stealing money from the people who do is sickening. People who created videos that are covered by fair use deserve better and the people who steal full movies, tvshows, art and music need to punished accordingly.
As a small content creator, I find it difficult to conduct my business with the continuous threat of abuse of DMCA, and I have been hesitant to put up content because of the rampant abuse of DMCA, with people forcing takedowns of content they don't own, and content that doesn't even contain copyrighted materials.
Hello.
I do not know the specifics of this DMCA stuff, in fact I know nothing at all. However, I realize the implications of what these Youtubers are saying. In a world where one needs to know someone to accomplish anything, it is extremely valuable to have a system such as youtube where the possibility to acquire fame and fortune is readily accessible to the common man, where no one is required to grovel at the feet of anyone, for anything, ever.
However, this process is slowly but surely being taken away from them, away from us all, and it is being done illegally. If someone can have their video taken down for absolutely nothing, for no reasonable legal reason, even when there is legitimately NO case to be made, where does it end? What happens when there is real news to be told, when light needs to be shed on injustice, but it will never be heard because the instant the video is uploaded, it must be taken down?
I am no one. I know little about the world, or about the nation in which I live, though I am trying to change that. But one thing I do know is that making the wrong decision with the DMCA will be one small part of the beginning of the end, the end of free speech, of creative freedom, of the power of the people to keep themselves reasonably informed of important matters, without needing to go to unreliable mainstream media outlets.
This is an issue of freedom, an issue of Constitutional Rights, and it does not only affect how things are run on the internet. In my opinion, the decision you make will affect the overall state of America itself. Please make the right call and stop wrongful DMCA takedowns.
My name is Lisa, I have an extremely small channel called LisatheAmazoness and even I have had problems with the bs copy right claims going on Youtube. I have gotten 3 claims in the two months I have been on Youtube when I have had full rights to use the material under the fair use law. One was even set to private and I still got a copy right claim!!! I was the only one who was able to see it yet I still got a copy right claim and had it banned in 240 countries (which doesn't make sense since there's barely 200 countries!!).
I don't make any money off of any of my videos. I do it cuz it's fun and hope that I make someone else's day better by watching my videos. I admit I use material that I have not personally created but I still try to give the developers and the creators of what ever piece I'm using the recognition and even used to put a disclaimer at the beginning of my reviews that I do not own ANY of the following material and that all rights go to their original owners but because I am using this for commentary and review purposes, I am protected under the fair use law... Yet no one cares!
Youtube is a place where everyone has an opportunity to be able to grow and be able to do what they enjoy. Whether its video game let's play, movie reviews, animation, reaction videos, cat videos, music, art, THE LIST IS ENDLESS!!! Youtube was an opportunity for people able to do what they enjoy and being able to achieve something when they could do it on their own. So the fact that people are taking advantage of others and the Youtube system yet nothing is being done about it... It's down right appalling!
So please... help us make Youtube a better place.
The internet is for free speech. Yes Universly illegal actions like child porn etc should be restricted i think the right to free speech should be protected.
The DMCA system is abused very much. There are companies that only exist to make claims on content they do not own. This is highly evident with Youtube, as the site uses the DMCA for it's takedown system. Reviewers and other Content Creators are harassed by Companies who simply do not like their opinion. Then those Companies hide behide the outright false statement that whatever content they decided to takedown "was not fair use".
Content Creators now may make their income off of their content. Even if you make money off of something, that does not automaticly disqualify the content from fair use. If that were the case, we would not have News reports, we would not have Television becuase all the tropes have been used before, we would not have Retail buisnesses as most do not sell their own products, and we would not have Parody at all.
Yet all Corporations seem to think that monetisation automaticly means that the content in question is not fair use. Many Corporations do not even check if you are monetising that content, they automaticly assume you are.
In a legal sense, DMCA abuse is legitimate stealing. Again, look at Youtube for an example. People have been copyright claimed for their own music, their own videogames, and their own movies. These are people that created their works from scratch. Companies that have no involvment took the revenue from those people or outright took the content down.
In another sense, DMCA abuse has become a common way to threaten, harass, and blackmail. Content Creators find themselves reciving emails from Companies with an ultimatum, usually saying to not fight the claim or risk legal action. These same companies are almost always the ones in the wrong.
Videos that people have no copyright to are being taken down by corporations and individuals just because they disapprove of the message said video had. It is unfair and unjust.
https://youtu.be/NoIL5qUI1p8
I am a musician. I want the right to also post songs that I've created using other people's Beats and make Revenue off of it. It is a sad day when I can not use my talent to fund my family and I have to go to Great Lengths to provide for them. If all people were able to monetize all music, the internet would be not just a great place to obtain funding from the people but also a great place for people to post their creative works.
ever since I was 15 years old, I wanted to make youtube videos, as someone who has Asperger's syndrome, dyslexia and anxiety and is also very introverted finding a job is difficult, I live in the UK so I don't know how things are in America but this is something that has effected the internet as a whole and most of all, YouTube, I've seen people get their videos taken down falsely, some of them didn't even show any form of unoriginal footage, some of them did, however the clips were not shown over the time limit and yet they were still falsely claimed, some people have even had reviews taken down which is protected by fair use as it means that any footage is being used for criticism purposes, I've even seen a youtuber get threatened for giving a film a negative review to the point were the person doing the threatening pretended to be a law firm and said that the youtuber was violating the law when they were protected by fair use, I've seen videos get copyright claims multiple times even after these videos have been proven to be protected by fair use, I've even seen some youtubers get false copyright claims by people who make money specifically by making false copyright claims, now while I can't say that any of this has effected me in terms of receiving any false copyright claims or false copyright strikes however first of all, this is effecting the livelihood of many youtubers as they can have their monetization taken away when they haven't done anything wrong, this is made even worse by the fact that most YouTube videos get a large amount of views when they first go up and then after a day or two get a lot less views and a lot less views means a lot less money from that video, from what I've seen YouTube videos are more likely to receive false copyright strikes or false copyright claims when they first go up and seeing as how (as far as I'm aware) you can't receive money from videos if they have a copyright claim or a copyright strike whether they're false or not. Secondly I want to speak about how this all has effected me personally, as someone who has anxiety I don't think I would be able to fight off false copyright claims or false copyright strikes every day, in fact I'm almost certain I wouldn't be able to handle that level of stress and a lot of these channels do have to fight off these false claims/strikes every day and so this kind of treatment that youtubers are getting means that if this continues I doubt I'll ever be able to make videos on YouTube, I'm now 17 years old and I was always inspired by youtubers, often times if I was having a bad day or if I felt like I couldn't take the stress of every day life anymore, I'd watch one of my favourite youtubers I then started thinking to myself that maybe I could be one of those people, maybe I could help others the same way they helped me and that's why I'm so passionate about this topic and that's why I wanted to be a youtuber so badly but if this continues I may not be able to and I know that I can't be the only one that feels this way, I can't be the only one that wanted to be a youtuber but is now too afraid and that's why I'm writing this and I wait in hope that this situation will become better over time.
Because of this, unfairness, I don't want to put my stuff out there or even try YouTube. Due to the fact that someone will Copyright claim it and have it taken down, or my account to be gone, or make money off of it.
YouTube, currently, has the worst ever with this. Taking down channels, like Dr.Wolf's or Mr. Enter's channels, or striking Channel Awesome's videos. Just cause someone placed a copyright claim on it. When there was no right for them to do that, since, it didn't violate those rules.
To add insult to injury, the ones that put the copyright strike will take the add money from it, to which that's how some are making their lively hood, and they get to keep it! No matter if they falsely accuse them or not. The ones that caused it won't be punished at all.
It's time to update this law in our time now. Not the late 90's rules. As times have changed, our laws need to change with them.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
The current issues around the DMCA and it's requirements do not match up with today's fast-paced quick-access entertainment and content creation. There are many cases of claims on content that fall under fair use (which in and of itself needs to be updated and better defined as a law), and while there have been many cases of legitimate claims, there is a massive influx of entirely false claims that have cause many artists, writers and content creators to have been virtually robbed of earnings for their work. Almost all of these false claims have little to no punishment for the claimant of these cases and the DMCA promotes a 'guilty until proven innocent' approach that makes things very difficult for individuals and small businesses to thrive and grow.
There have been many cases on websites likr youtube where people's channels/ videos get taken down for false copyright claims. The people who submit these false claims get no punishments at all
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and individuals/shell corporations which have no claim to the copyright who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
As a common patron of the Internet, I have witnessed countless, unjust takedowns of videos which either parody or review digital content. I have also witnessed opportunists violate the DMCA takedown system by claiming they own content depicted in a video or are in some way associated with the rightful owner when they are not. The current system is being abused and needs to be updated.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Seriously, just look at IHE, YMS, NFKRZ. This is insane. Please fix this old broken and abused system
Yo dudes, how is this still a problem? And why hasn't something been done about it yet. There are many things that America stands for, but when it affects two of the bigger ones, freedom of speech and the american workforce, you would think the government would get on that. Cheers, Mr. Will
Make the web fair again. Make it fun and make YouTube less abusive.
This has been a problem for far too long. DMCA takedowns have never been properly monitored and the people it effects most are ignored because they lack the representation and the funding to be considered. not only is this a danger to free speech but also to small business and the economy as a whole as important marketing content is being taken down under broken or just nonexistent authority and maliciously framed and torn down at a method of eliminating competition. the fact that this has gone on as long as it has is an embarrassment.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
"This is not okay"
Please read this and fix this.
Please put a stop to companies falsely claiming copyright across the internet primarily. In the internet's current situation, especially on Youtube, you don't even have to rightfully own the footage you're claiming in order to be successful in taking down people's content they created.
This goes beyond reviews or anything that needs to follow the Fair Use law, I created videos that were solely my ideas, yet a company out of the blue wanted in on the monetization and claimed the rights, even though I created everything within the video. I won the dispute, but the company got no penalty for their false claims. I felt like there was no justice served, a lot of other content creators feel the same.
These people should not be able to get away with this shady behavior to begin with, the fact is, this law isn't being taken seriously enough on the internet and it needs to be!
Speaking personally, I have seen a claim filed against a Youtube video I made that altered footage from the film Kung Pow within the standards of Fair Use. The claim-holder initiated monetization of my video, seeking to earn money off it even though I wasn't even monetizing it; I'd simply uploaded the video for the purposes of displaying the work, not for personal profit. This is but one example of how DMCA is exploiting and hurting online content creators.
First of all: this is NOT the year 1998, nor should it look like some "Orwellian 1984", but it does, and this in the year of 2016, it is OVER 15 YEARS since the millenium.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works; something I have first hand experience with.
Back in January, I made a video review for an Anime, Sword Art Online, in which I used clips from the series to illustrate points that I was trying to convey (most of them being unflattering towards the episodes I was critiquing). The video I uploaded to YouTube did perfectly fall under Fair Use in that I was providing commentary and criticism of the original copyrighted material. However, just a few hours after I uploaded the video, I was hit with an automated takedown by the copyright holders of the Anime. My video was removed and my YouTube channel was penalized for doing nothing wrong in terms of copyright law. I could get the original video I made back up and get the penalty on my channel removed, but considering to do that would require me giving all of my personal information to the copyright holders and the next step for them to keep my video down would be to sue me, I'm not going to take my chances in case they actually do believe my video is violating copyright law.
Regardless, the fact that they didn't review my video, but merely relied upon the automated content ID system that YouTube employs, is a clear example of how the DMCA takedown process is being abused.
Really!
Additional Comment: I have been an audience member of creative online content for some time. I've seen the transitions that many creators have gone through in order to develop new material and when this content gets flagged, I as an audience member am not able to enjoy their content but these creators are losing money, time, and energy when they have to fight regulations that limit their content. I know these laws aren't directly affecting me, but I have the right to say that if something is unfair or should be changed, someone needs to call out on.
I think this sums up almost EVERYTHING wrong with the DMCA take downs: https://youtu.be/NoIL5qUI1p8?t=2m46s
Speaking as someone from the UK may detract from this however this is a global issue that needs to be looked at and preventative methods needs to be put in place to penalise people who are abusing DMCA claims and as a result harming many channels operating within fair use parameters.
If nothing else please look at the impact this is having on content creators
I produce a review series on YouTube called "Some Jerk With A Camera," and I recently released a three-part review of the film Escape From Tomorrow. Part one of the review was briefly copyright-claimed by Cinetic Media, the company that owns the film - I disputed the claim, arguing that my video, being a critical review, qualified as Fair Use, and the claim was released - but a completely different company, only calling themselves "VERY US O&O," claimed part two of the exact same review, claiming that THEY owned the film. I disputed that claim too, but it was rejected, and I'm afraid to appeal that rejection because I could risk a copyright strike that could damage my channel. In the meantime, "VERY US O&O," whoever they are, are collecting 100% of the video's ad revenue. A Google search for "VERY US O&O" yielded no results whatsoever, which convinces me the claim is completely fraudulent (along with the fact that Cinetic Media is demonstrably the ACTUAL owner of the film).
In this regard, I am one of the more fortunate YouTube content creators I know - many have had entire videos removed, their ad revenue withheld, and in some cases their entire channels taken down, by "copyright holders" (fraudulent or otherwise) who abuse YouTube's notice-and-takedown process, informed by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and with precious little regard for the Fair Use law. Only a broken system, with an unforgivable bias towards corporate copyright holders, would allow this to happen. Remember, the DMCA was written in 1998, when the internet was still very new, television was still the most-watched visual medium, and large media outlets were still more-or-less the only ones with the capacity to reach millions upon millions of people. That has all changed in less than two short decades, and the law must be amended to reflect that. YouTube has been a tremendous boon to the first amendment and all who believe in it, and it has been tainted by those who still crave media supremacy and refuse to recognize Fair Use.
As the system stands now, if a "copyright holder" makes a claim against a video, that video's ad revenue immediately gets transferred to the claimant. No fact-checking, no due process, no justice. Even if the uploader disputes the claim and that dispute is successful, the claimant gets to keep the revenue the video made in the interim, with no punishment whatsoever for the false claim. In the words of fellow content creator Nash Bozard, "YouTube copyright is like someone walking up to a cop, claiming you stole money, and the cop handing your wallet to them."
I'm aware of the counter-argument that says "Fair Use is a defense, not a right," to which I say, then let us use it as a defense in something resembling a proper trial. I'm not the first to propose the following potential solution, but I do agree with it: when someone claims copyright on a video, give the uploader thirty days to dispute that claim (the same amount of time copyright-holders have to respond to claim disputes) and in the meantime, funnel the ad revenue into a third account, where it can accumulate over time and eventually be awarded to whichever party wins the copyright dispute. This way, claimants will have far less incentive to file fraudulent claims. At the moment, YouTube has very little incentive to make those changes to its system, but it might if the law was changed. The system is broken, and must be amended.
Thank you for your time.
The DMCA often does not take in mind fair use, and many innocent content creators have been attacked by this very flawed system
You only need to look #wtfu on twitter to see the problems the DCMA causes. With millions depending on the internet in some way to put food on the table, support their family, pay bills etc. the DCMA is in a big need for an update. People's livelihoods are at risk everyday for creating content that legally is under fair use that major corporations force the take down of even if it is 100% positive. This problem is now even leaking into normal citizens lives now with content being taken down for no apparent reason where these people were not even making money and the content falling under fair use. The internet is a beautiful place where anybody can express their opinion, make their own content, and actually have a voice. Heck I am sending this right now through the internet. The DMCA has not been updated with modern tastes in mind since 1998 and in a culture where not reading a tweet an hour ago is considered late the action to update our laws in the 90s needs to be taken now.
The DMCA has been used to harass thousands of small content creators who lack the deep pockets required to fight legal battles.
It is a clear example of a system ripe for abuse. Without penalties for abuse, it will continue unabated.
The DMCA is the most atrocious thing to happen to the internet, and its been around basically since the very beginning. Its unfair, outdated, and has been consistantly harming content creators for years now.
Do something.
I've heard stories of big-time Youtube channels losing their livelihoods and even their entire backlog of creations being deleted due to false or unfair copyright strikes, when their work clearly falls under Fair Use. I'm a small Youtube content creator, with less than 500 subscribers, but even I've had my creations hit with false copyright strikes. The law desperately needs to be updated, both to protect real copyright holders and those who use their content under Fair Use guidelines to create new works of criticism, commentary, or parody.
I dmca as it is now, allow people to take from other people that have little or nothing to do with what is claimed, and, the people that claim it when they know they are in wrong have nothing happen to them
It needs to change to hold the people that put the claims and hold them accountable. If the claimers are taken $ from the people that are making it and it is being found to be fair use the claimer should have to pay the $ back + additional $ for the time it took to get it all strait, or a fine from the government the person/company is in
but as it is everyone is at risk, #WTFU (Where's The Fair Use) if you don't know what that means took it up on youtube or watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
thx for your time and please change this law
I am tired of seeing my favorite content creators be abused by a broken system. The internet is a place for creativity and spreading ideas. Copyright is important and should always be enforced appropriately, but that does not mean using it to abuse and steal from legitimate content creators.
I'm not a creator of content, but I have seen very well how is that these system has affected a lot of YouTube channels. Channels run by people that sometimes live thanks to their work in their channels. I've seen in some cases where this system has been used for extorsion and abuse. But this system does not allow fair users of the internet to defend themselves with the law that is suposed to defend them.
This is all, thank you for your consideration.
People need an equal footing with corporations. There is an inherent bias in media that supports corporate structures at the cost of individual liberties. Corporations have access to near unlimited resources for content creation but have been focused instead on holding monopolies on content and shutting down criticisms rather than focusing on creating better products. As society moves into the digital frontier, free market capitalism needs a removal of these unfair restrictions that favor the holders' of copyrights rather than the creatives that contribute to the new product that is taking precedence.
It is unfair and disheartening to see content creators' hard work be taken down when it clearly falls under fair use. Nobody should be punished for abiding with the law. The DMCA must be updated to account for fair use and preserve freedom of expression.
The notice-and-takedown process under the D Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I also love to add, I don't want to be taken to court by someone who doesn't abid to the fairuse system because they don't want their material being criticize or usedbfor educational purposes.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsibl fak
I have had my videos taken down that in no way infringe on copyright. I lost portions of money that I made through monetizing my videos, and they kept money from my work. To be frank, this is bullshit.
I've been affected but the abuse of the DMCA because multiple youtubers i love to watch are constantly have their content time after time halted or taken down claiming it wasn't fair use yet every video they have permission and are even making the videos non profit. It's wrong to have this abuse go on and some of the most creative people on YouTube are either afraid to put new stuff up for fear of the claims placed against them or have been buried so much by the claims and harassment that they just gave up on YouTube all together. It saddens me to see such creative people leave YouTube and to see what it has become to the point i dont want to even start my own channel which I've always wanted to do. In closing I just want to see YouTube be the great fun place it was before it companies legal battle ground for money hungry companies. #WTFU #makeyoutubegreatagain
tl;dr summary: Fair Use is being ignored by corporations who want to take down negative press at any cost. Laws are being ignored, money is being stolen, and people are being censored. Please, monitor these companies more.
I have followed many content creators for years, enjoying all of their works to varying degrees. Yet, time after time, I have found a number of them unexpectedly struck down by a DMCA claim. These people have tried fighting back in numerous ways, but with the way that copyright laws are set up, and the fact that YouTube, the primary video-sharing site is all too easily exploited, the cards are heavily stacked against them.
In order for the Internet to grow and evolve, it must change with the times, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is, to put it bluntly, a cumbersome fossil of a law that hinders the people it is meant to serve rather than help.
I believe that while the Internet can be abused for a variety of nefarious deeds, it is one of, if not THE most crucial piece of technology that has shaped the modern world. We have gained new insight into how the world and its people work, and continue to do so every day because of the Internet.
However, a significant part of this is due in part to brilliant people who use this tool to entertain, educate, and enlighten all of us. This can't be done with a law that will allow just about any person to silence these voices for any reason. It is because of this that I am making my voice heard for the protection of free speech and copyright abuse to stop.
People are getting their YouTube accounts taken down for false claims that dictate that this users are using their content unfairly,this is a big problem because for some people this is their only job,one of the most clear examples of this situation is the youtuber "I hate everything";this user got his ENTIRE CHANNEL taken down for a claim from the creator of the film "Cool Cat",the user in case made a REVIEW (I want to get this clear A REVIEW) of the film,the thing is that the youtuber wasn't claiming the content as his,yes he used the source material to COMMENT about it,in fact some users got videos taken down for similar reasons like the youtuber "Cinemasnob", the video or well videos that got taken down DIDN'T SHOWCASE ANY MATERIAL AT ALL,in fact the content was him(usually in his car with another person) TALKING ABOUT THE MATERIAL,but his content got taken down for the same reason "false claims",the creator of the film "Cool Cat" that i already mentioned actually made a video talking about the review (wich by the way has a lot of explicit expressions),that is actually online RIGHT NOW,but in my opinion it is not fair that people that doesn't want their content's flaws exposed or not want "bad publicity" about their product or creation make fake claims to only avoid getting public opinion about it.In conclusion:what is wrong with the DMCA?
-it's outdated.
-it can be used unfairly.
Thank you for your time.
Please consider the following grievances carefully.
Seriously, this whole deal with the lack of fair use has gotten out of hand.
The laws are not practical for the time we live in now. They are not a help to anyone and a harm to all people on the internet. The internets laws and regulations need to be changed to fit with the time we live in not the past.
I have witnessed many good people on the internet have their primary source of income shut down because of people exploiting this. People who falsely copyright claim should be punished.
There has to be change or there will continue to be abuse.
Where's the fair use?
When there is actually a copyright issue, with a video on YouTube, it is ignored. When someone files a false claim, the video is taken down without any investigation. Where's the fair use?
In addition to this, the DMCA needs to be amended to account for the growth of the internet in the last 20 years. It needs to account for online media in all regards, and needs to protect both the content holders, and the content creators.
In this day and age, sites like YouTube and Dailymotion, as well as FaceBook and Twitter, are some of the regular sources of feedback for a film, TV show or other media. Gamers use content for reviews and commentaries. Reviewers such as Doug Walker from "Channel Awesome" critique movies and television; sometimes the critique is good, and sometimes it's not. The DMCA allows corporations to harass these people, sometimes for no good reason at all, without any repercussions, just because they can. As a whole, we all must put an end to it.
Personal Notes: Because of this old Law, it is nearly impossible for any new Youtuber to be become a celebrity. I don't have much else to say but the next sentence is absolutely true; If Pewdiepie, A.K.A. Felix Kjellberg were to start Youtube today, he wouldn't be able to. That, in my opinion, is the biggest argument for these recent events.
Notable examples of this issue involve Youtube. Youtuber rely on ad revenue but the money can be taken away from them by people and companies claiming their videos violate fair use. It is crazy, people can post a vlog and their video can be copyright claimed for no reason whatsoever. The system is hurting Youtubers livelihoods as it allows people, companies and ghost companies to take away money or completely shutdown the youtubers account(IHE) without any consequences. They get the hard earned money of the content creator and are in complete control with the ability to bully and blackmail the creator without consequences. Youtuber's have a 3 strikes and you are out rule, how does this not apply to people who are falsely claiming videos!
A notable company is one called Merlin.
The system is broken,listen to the voices of creators such as Anime America, The Nostalgia Critic, I Hate Everything and there are many more whose lives are basically getting violated by the companies through this current system.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I don't believe I need to say much. This shitstorm has been going on for a long time now and it's time for change. (It was needed earlier but hey it's happening!!) Just look at major and small youtubers that get copyright striked unfairly. Just fix your fucking shit please. Update the old laws and fix this bullshit PLEASE.
In addition to the harmful affects listed above, the DMCA also allows the following harmful practices:
- Allowing shell companies to spring up to take down videos in order to protect companies or individuals
- Allowing unrelated companies or individuals to take down content they do not own
- Allows people to silence any valid criticisms or reviews if they believe it is unfair
- Allows companies or individuals to take down the same video multiple times without consequence AFTER already being cleared by fair use.
This is only a handful of the large amounts of abuse possible by the current DMCA system.
Seriously. What is happening to amazing Youtube content creators is completely unfair. Fix this. Fix it now.
tldr; Companies use DMCA to take down fair-use videos that are completely legal.
There needs to be tighter regulations and punishment for false flagging. The next generation of Youtubers need a platform.
Dear government officials,
I am one of the many people who has experienced the direct and indirect pain of the abuse of the Fair Use. I've seen so many videos, even if they are simply reviews, get taken down because of the companies claiming that these videos are copyright law.
Not only are the videos taken down, despite following the Fair Use law, but these people constantly have to claim their videos back for months, only to be taken down again by the same companies, only in the shield of smaller companies working for them. What is worse is that once the companies claim these videos, these companies claim all of the money from said videos, including the reviews. Movie, television show, and video game, reviews are abused, even if the video has no clips. Some videos are even claimed if they just have a few minutes of altered music for their work.
It breaks my heart to see these people work so hard to create these videos on the internet, only to have all the well-deserved money taken by the cooperates.
The internet is a great place to socialize, find and audience, and express your ideas. Without that freedom due to the Fair Use abuse, people are scared.
Please, understand the direness of how the abuse Fair Use on the internet, especially in YouTube, is hurting people and their livelihoods.
My favorite YouTubers are all getting strikes and claims and it's just shit, I want it to stop so I'm signing this. Please free us content creators from DMCA slavery
The DMCA laws have affected me personally through previous YouTube channels. Affects that have hindered both my viewing experience of others and also my creative plus intellectual property rights.
An issue that has occurred from viewing other content creators is that their channels have been taken down or falsely advertised through DMCA claims - an issue that has personally been a problem.
A personal example unfortunately happened in November 2014, when a video of mine where I had written a song, including lyrics without being signed to a label (no originally signed away rights) and a complete original animated music video. During this period my monitisation was taken from me by a 'company' over a 3 month time period.
After this I have stayed away from creating regular original content due to (highly illegal) false copyright claims, something that I believe I am not the only victim of.
The DMCA law must be changed in order to account for the current version of the internet in 2016. Not for 1998. Freedom of speech is on the line.
Here is a list of just SOME channels affected by this far use problem: Jim Sterling Themysteriousmrenter Channel Awesome Anime America Lost Pause The Anime Man Your Movie Sucks I Hate Everything Drwolf Joshscorcher TeamFourStar CinemaSnob Potatobombkyle Lego Productions CinemaSins AlternateHistoryHub Jontron BadComedian Sargon of Akkad Chris Stuckman Bobsheaux Sheeleシェーレ BrainScratch Commentaries NFKRZ Pyrocynical The Gaming Czar Games Repainted AdoseofBuckley Totalbiscuit Matthias ToddintheShadows Angry Joe ElectricDragon505 CentralDerp Krimson Rogue EyeOfSOl Dragon Mage CreepyMcPasta and Taraartsmovie, Please Fix the Problem, and #WTFU
I personally have had false claims on my video's I have put hard effort into. Then for someone to claim ad revenue on my video, and get money from MY video, is blatant stealing, and I think we should fight against it.
The DMCA from my perspective has done nothing but hurt online creators and is exponentualy out dated. Take TheMysteriousMrEnter for example, a simple Youtube creater who did a review of pixel pinkie In 2014 and is constinly fighting over it for TWO YEARS! He can give a better explaination of his situation then I can relay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw.
I hate Everthing did a review of "Cool Cat Saves the Kids!" and the ditecter of the film bullyed him into an appology please take notes of the dates between videos:
Part one-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0qoD3viXL0
Part Two-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyQjcFmc-Cs
Part Three-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkcWbvnN0
Part Four-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzXSQ5f08sA
Note it took THREE WEEKS to sort that out, and how much income did Alex (IHE) none. because he could not produce content!
In short The DMCA has had a NEGITIVE effect on Youtube creators such as Mr.Enter,I Hate Everything, and Doug Walker (Nistalgia Critic). People are filing claims on content that they do not even own! People talking on camera with no copyright futage are being taken down! Some of these companies beleve that they CREATE THE LAW! DMCAs are being used without factoring fair use! DMCAs are being sent by shell comanies to sheld the real ones issueing the takedowns! Creators are loosing revenue because phoney companies are de-monotising creators videos that are well within fair use! To this I ask you, where is the fair use?
Doug Walkers Summary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
It's something that could permanently damage creatives and content creators access to their fan base or to even start their careers for the greed of those in nothing but the wrong.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The Dmca is an outdated system that is being abused so Hollywood can silence critics and harass and bully people to keep quite and steal money. Hollywood likes to steal ad revenue from reviews claiming it was their work but in reality it falls under fair use and is not theirs. Viacom likes to send multiple take down notices to videos that criticizes them and if the video is put back up they'll just do it again. Even videos just talking about a copyrighted piece of material with no clips or sound that was in it are being taken down with no penitently to the person putting a false copyright claim. Universal took down a clip of a baby dancing to song that they owned on youtube. Someone sued Universal on the creator of the video behalf and the judge ruled that Hollywood must put into consideration if the video is in fair use before sending a take down notice but it stopped no one as right now Hollywood is sending false copyright claims to youtubers hoping it will stop them.
Crimes are taking place on the internet especially youtube and there are no penalties. We need an update to this law to stop all the illegal activities going on because of this act. Even though I'm an Australian this effects me because I am on a US based platform like youtube so not only US citizens are effected by this out of date law but everyone who uses the internet is.
-Message from Austin here:
-I've witnessed multiple incidents of companies or even individuals using the DMCA as a scare tactic or tool of intimidation. They block videos, shut down channels, and harass and try to scare people they don't want talking about their product or just talking about a different point of view. For content creators this means lost revenue or even the loss of their livelihood. Until something is done to update the law and system, content creators live in fear that one day everything they had built up will be gone because someone hiding behind a computer decided to shut them down. There needs to be repercussions for those who abuse the system and law so this type of action will become less common and more costly for the person issuing the claim.
This has gone on long enough I could name countless YouTube channels that have been abused just for posting about something they love doing without even doing anything wrong, without violating any claims or agreements, ill admit I don't know much about it, heck it doesn't even affect me at all personally but it effects other people, countless amounts of you tubers and even their fans, so please stop this fair use abuse before its too late for content creators
I can say no more than what was already here.
Many channels I personally watch on YouTube have been taken down, limited to 15 minute videos with monetisation taken away from them for apparent copyright claims that are actually fair use or for no reason at all. There has been time where a video is silent and black and still copyrighted over sound and image! Big companies (both music labels such as merlin and picture studios like universal) now feel like they own the Internet and do not have to follow the rules and unfortunately sites like YouTube are allowing this throug loopholes in the DMCA. This must be updated to allow members of YouTube and other sites that earn a living off of making content continue otherwise their livelihoods are down the drain due to this flaw. It is illegal to make a false copyright claim yet nothing is being done about the hundreds of false copyright claims made daily!
Also, watch Mr. Enter's #WTFU videos.
Groups like Channel Awesome, TeamFourStar, BrainScratchComms, etc. have suffered from takedown abuse, the system must either end or be amended.
Before post the comment that has been already set for me, I would to mention a few things.
This law is extremely outdated, and was orginally made for a time where the internet was nothing more than an AOL website. But with the internet's tremendous growth, this law has inhibited some creators instead of protecting them as designed.
Some of my favorite entertainers use YouTube as a forum to entertain. Many people I watch online, particularly critics/reviewers, get take down notices for content that, legally, is fair use. But due to the outdated wording of this law, these creators are being penalized, putting their livelihood at risk. So, for the sake of the creators, change this law to keep these men and women from losing their income and their craft.
There are a list of Youtubers out there who have been bullied and have had videos taken down on videos that fall under fair use.
I have gotten copyright notices for my video reviews because I used copyright footages, even though reviews were supposed to be protected under Fair Use. Even though they allow my content to be shown, they are making revenue off of my videos because they made the claim, and I have no choice but to accept it in fear of having to suffer the repercussions if I challenge the claim and it got rejected. It is quite stifling to be held hostage to these copyright claims and they cannot suffer the consequences even it is against the law. The Copyright Laws needs to be change if our 1st Amendment of Free Speech can hold any value in, not only in today's world, but tomorrow's. This cannot continue like this.
This practice is hurting content creators on the internet. I personally have received copyright claims for royalty music from people for do not own the music at all. Money is being stolen for there is no penalty for a false claim. Please let this end.
The DMCA, while seemingly honest in intention, is consistently and frequently used to suppress and antagonize small content creators, often in direct and demonstrable violation of the Fair Use act. These abuses are most often perpetrated by groups with little to no connection to the piece of copyrighted media itself, serving as proxies to flag videos on Youtube, hunt down artists making fan works, and similar things to wring them for money or force them to shut down.
Additionally, DMCA take down notices are often filed purely because the group filing it dislikes a criticism of their work presented within, becoming a legally-protected route to censorship of criticism instead of a means for artists to protect their work.
The limits of DMCA takedowns need to be curtailed, and Fair Use brought back into consideration when it comes to content creation.
-Jason Douglas
Balance is so very needed! We need this done now! We hope you're listening, because this system is just being abused! Whether to harrass, falsely claim on, or just be abused in general! Please fix this!
Under a court sanctions (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Fair use is not fair.
I hate everything, nostalgia critic, your moive sucks. All people who have reviewed moives and to just have it takeing down heck! Nostalgia critic has done clipless moives reviews (a moive review with no moive in it) yms has to put a note at every start of his reviews.
I hate everything got in the bigest youtube copyright fight ever with Derek Savage and the moive cool cat saves the kids. I also have a youtube Channel two! And that is because i got copyright so i to change (also i had no experience) so please don't hesitate to change the youtube copyright system
My favourite content creators base their livelihood, their jobs on YouTube. Most of them are almost out of a job because of false copyright claims.
The current law is totally outdated.
Nowadays the internet has become a major part in our lives.
From the news to education, from celebrities all the way to just plain education.
We use the internet for almost everything but now we're in danger of losing that joy as corperate fat-cats copyright every dumb little thing whether it be for a movie review or even for something stupid like a song playing in the background of a family video.
How is it fair that content creators get punished when reaction videos, which often steal AN ENTIRE VIDEO get to stay untouched??
The Law needs to be updated and fast.
Please consider this.
Be cool.
The DMCA system is becoming outdated quickly and is being abused to completely wipe other people off of the internet. If nobody is able to fix this issue than this will be a severe problem for years to come, and goes against the rights of fair use/free speech.
DMCA is currently damaging the film industry more than helping it, film reviews of movies/TV shows make people want to see the movies reviewed more than anything, in fact sometimes opinion is the best for the industry, because the more we know the better audiences will come and see it or buy it/rent it to watch it ourselves, they give light to movies or shows long forgotten today and would be perfect for a resurgence. I love watching these reviews which show clips from the movie as proof of the bad line or something bad about the film, because just saying it isn't enough, we need to be shown, these reviews might be comedic in nature, but there are like full essays in a video format using a source to prove their point that this movie/show wasn't good, but still we love it, they do this without selling there reviews with clips, and it's great for advertising, movies and Shows today written by these online critics would help the industry who is getting stale. this is a movement that needs to happen, because DMCA doesn't help people that could become the new people Hollywood needs to survive or even the next Roger Ebert, But still DMCA is still needed, people can and do Pirate movies to avoid costs to buy it, but DMCA needs to update to allow clips and footage to be used as long as it's not the entire movie/show, (i.e. the whole movie without any reviewing or anything). DMCA needs to update with today and for the future otherwise we might as well burn people at the stake, because that is what the DMCA is to people online, it's the Salem Witch Trials, we need a better law to protect and help people to evolve and become better for a industry that relies on new talent to pop up.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Put a stop to DMCA abuses.
The DMCA abuses cause not only trouble in the U.S.A but also in France. Several of our videasts have seen their works removed from Youtube because of unfair claims.
The problem is, there are nobody who can judge the legitimity of a claim or not.
It must be harder for trolls or malevolent people to bring down videos just because it is fun to annoy their creators or because the speech hold in these contents are a pain for the copyrights holders.
These tactics tend to kill the people who live from doing what they enjoy and transform Youtube in a tasteless soup. Many Youtubers must find other medias like Dailymotion to avoid being hit by the bots giving the claims.
Thank you for reading.
Further, the DMCA bill is very dated, and really does not fit with the way the internet is used anymore. Content that is cleared can be flagged multiple times again, and content without any infringement will be taken down for copyright issues.
The notice-and-takedown process that the DMCA is not only unfair for those who put up content that is parodied, but to those who have content that is original as well. It takes away the use of free speech from everyone simply for sharing something that's meant to entertain.
It's unfair how long this has been going on and with the amount of attention content creators have made a living doing this are now afraid to do their job and make a difference with
The DMCA law was enacted in 1998. It is horribly out of date, and has shifted from a tool to protect to a tool to abuse.
Hundreds of people on sites such as Youtube have had their content taken down when it clearly fell under fair use law. Some have even had content claimed for simply talking about a show or movie, not even showing any clips or pictures from the product. There are companies that exist for the sole purpose of filing false copyright claims on videos in order to gain monotization from that video. There are companies that have filed false claims in order to remove videos that contain opinions they do not agree with. All these things are done without the companies facing a single consequence for their actions. These practices are heavily infringing on the First Amendment by denying freedom of speech.
The DMCA law must be changed in order to put more restrictions on filing a DMCA claim, and giving heavier punishment for false DMCA claims.
Thousands of people across the internet have been asking the question: "Where's the fair use?"
It's up to you to bring this basic right back into the world.
Aside from the fair use problems, this system is also abused way to often to remove complete original content because the peron making the false claim doesn't agree with what is being said.
There are a lot of people with brilliant ideas, but some of them don't even dare to share any of them because they know it will be taken down by a fully automatic system that will have no human checking for false claims. In the end they will be the ones in trouble as they are harrassed and extorted by those fals claim.
And even when they get everything back the damage is already done. The people making false claims are just allowed to go on doing the same to others, while the victim will not be given a single piece of compensation aside from having their 'privilege' of being able to share returned.
You don't even have to be a US citizen or on US soil to be forced to follow/take in account the DMCA. Imagine if we applied the same logic to laws from other countries: people would be killed left and right for not following sharia, for defying foreign totalarian governments, put in prison for carrying a gun, the list can go on and on.
The US may be ruled by companies, but that doesn't mean the rest of the world is also.
Both the new and the old need to learn that there are changes going on in the world. These changes are here to stay until they are replaced with even better ones. And the internet is just one of those changes.
Hey, how ya doin'. Just here, doing my part. Allow me and by boyz to lay down some phat truths on you. 1st Amendment, attack!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse, and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. Seriously. Come on, people.
So what, you guys just get to stroll in and tell me I'm cheating? No proof or evidence needed, huh? That seems fair. Not!
THIRTY PERCENT. Thirty percent!? Are you kidding me!? Innocent victims, I say!
So, you know, all that stuff. Pretty much sums it up. If you've read this, thanks. The internet isn't free reign for your corporate madness.
This law is incredibly outdated and it has lead to the abuse of content creators. Change needs to happen, and soon.
I would like to throw out there that I have read everything that is below and didn't simply want to be yet another copy and paste. With the amount of horrible injustices going on at YouTube thats damaging genuine content creators and rewarding those who steal to Facebook's poorly policed video system that lets opportunists steal other people's work, profit, and give them no credit, it's about time the laws were updated. Whoever wrote all the jazz below me clearly knows what they're talking about, but it doesn't take a genius to know that the gross abuse of Fair Use laws needs to be at the very least modified if not rewritten altogether. The internet is filled with documented examples of this abuse; do something about it.
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As a creator I have dealt with multiple false claims on my videos. Some sent by tangentially related companies to the original owner so that the same video can be claimed multiple times despite being cleared of wrong doing once. One company who I have contacted directly showed a complete obliviousness to Fair Use and attempted to strong arm me to give up ad revenue in exchange for not getting a strike on my account. A defense against copyright infringement should definitely be in place but the internet is showing us all that there needs to be an update, a revitalizing of the old laws. To bring protection of content online into the new millennium as it stands now copyright owners hold all the power to strong arm everyone. It's time to give some of the power back to the masses that make up the audience and the Internet.
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I have not been a content creator for long, almost not at all for that matter, but as a viewer of many acts of creation, I see the effect of this corporate harassment. Removing Videos, music, and other creative works, despite those works being well within creative rights and fair use (Often times these works won't even contain any copyright material, and it is completely created/synthesized by the content creator) Should be legally punishable, and have real legal consequences.
While it may seem to be a bit excessive, These wrongful DMCA take-downs, are an act of terrorism. They, the companies and person or persons committing these acts, are abusing their power and resources to instill fear of critique, parody, or otherwise creative works protected under fair use, that oppose the opinion or liking of said work.
Creators, should not live in fear to do just that. Create.
We have the right to create, and to have opinions on creative and even factual works - even if they do not always fall inline with what is generally accepted. That is what makes change.
We have the right to free speech, that is to say we have the right to voice those opinions. If many like it, and wish to hear those opinions, let them. That is what enables progression.
We have the right of fair use. The right to build upon others ideas, opinions, and more is essential to human beings. That is what has gotten us this far.
Let us have that right. The right to be. The right to create. The right to move forward. That is what will push us further.
Seriously, this is something that needs to be fixed.
I have been using online services for nearly 5 years. I've been the consumer and creator of online digital content. Not one time have I heard the DMCA being praised for protecting anything.
Nearly every month my favorite content creators live in the fear that with practically zero effort, their only source of income can be taken away without any warning.
The claimant could legitimately have a reason to make a claim: A movie has been fully uploaded illegally, music is being used without compensation, etc.
The problem with claiming digital content with a DMCA takedown is that it rarely is used for removing content that is stolen. It most often comes down to the claimant being critiqued, the claimant feels insulted. A content creator gives legitimate criticism to the claimant so the claimant simply presses a few buttons and the criticism is gone. This is not the protection of the spread of illegal media. This is silencing opinions.
The DMCA does not work in the modern world. It needs to be changed to protect opinions.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be ended as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Corporations do not need more advantages against isolated critics.
Stop bogus DMCA takedowns and protect free speech!
To be honest it's all just very harmful for a growing industry of media and it needs to be regulated properly.
The DMCA is being abused by companies to silence criticism, and steal ad revenue from people, who make reviews that critique movies. These fall under fair use, which states you can use copyrighted material to critique and educate. Both of which video reviewers do, and therefore they should be protected by the fair use law, but they aren't. This needs to change:
I don't really know that much about DMCA laws or copyright laws or any of that stuff, but what I do know is this: the internet has evolved greatly since it was first created, and people have used it to make their livelihoods. These are people who make me laugh, who keep me informed, and people who, in general, have my respect. It's terrible to see their work be taken down so that the rich can get richer. I want it to change. I want the people I look up to to continue doing what they love without fear of losing their income. Protect free speech, and stop the abuse.
The original DMCA didn't predict how huge the internet would become and that large companies etc would abuse the DMCA against smaller creators, the same creators it was originally made to protect.
It's started to hurt creators, from illustrators, filmmakers, writers, animators and commenters they are all losing things like revenue or the ability to show off their own creations due to others abusing the DMCA, it needs to either be drastically altered or it needs to go altogether.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (dmca) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The Dmca needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the Dmca’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the Dmca takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I've seen multiple examples of this law being abused in order to take money from people or just to take down a video or tweet that someone didn't like. It is for this reason and the reasons above that I believe this law needs to be looked at.
As someone who is crushed by seeing her favorite YouTubers being crippled by the abuse of the copyright law, I am writing for the rights of all creators.
My personal experience with YouTube's copyright system was matches third party content. Granted, I was young and didn't know what I was doing, I used music that was not mine. I accepted the notification and just let the video stand. But now that I'm older I realized that the match was auto-detected. I thought, "That composer couldn't actually care, right? I'm just using the instrumental for a cover." But then I realized that the song was fair use, and became upset that an advertisement for the original song ON MY OWN COVER OF IT was put on the video. Today, people have had their covers of songs blocked or removed due to use of the instrumental, EVEN THOUGH THEY CLEARLY TRANSFORMED IT IN THEIR OWN WAY THAT DIFFERENTIATES ITSELF FROM THE ORIGINAL.
Another unfortunate event was when a YouTuber who translates Vocaloid songs had her channel taken down due to copyright issues. The songs she translated were not hers, yes, but she was able to CREDIT the composers and transform the content with her subtitles. With her old account taken down, she is desperately re-uploading everything on a new one that most of her followers haven't found.
My last point is EXIT TUNES, and other companies/people who have claimed content that technically/obviously isn't theirs. EXIT TUNES owns albums for many Vocaloid songs, yes, but they should not have the rights to the songs. The composers should. EXIT TUNES has, as a result, taken down COVERS (yes, again!) of songs JUST FOR USING THE INSTRUMENTAL.
This makes me scared as I want to produce my own content. I want to make covers of songs as well, but with no composing skills I have no choice but to find the instrumentals and edit them as best I can to avoid issues. I want to film myself playing games and have fun with my subscribers. I want to review and critique media utilizing content from them in order to emphasize my points. But with today's fair use in jeopardy, it's merely too risky. I beg, I plead, I pray, save fair use, and stop all the abuse of the internet's copyright system.
Art is a free medium. If people safeguard their art, how are we going to inspire people to make new art? Art should be in the fair use of the common man, and content shouldn't be taken down just because you don't like what they said or did.
I'm sick and tired of seeing the DMCA being used as some kind of faux security blanket to take down videos not even remotely related to piracy, which is arguably what the DMCA was created for in the first place. Large companies keep employing shell companies or using automatic takedowns (in the case of YouTube) to silence videos that fall well under Fair Use, especially reviews. The lack of a penalty for flagrantly abusing the DMCA has allowed companies to squash dissenting voices under the guise of "protecting their interests". As such, the DMCA is in dire need of updating its policies to protect modern content creators who did not exist when the DMCA first formed.
This is for the future.
So many people are being affected by one common thread. the DMCA. CinemaSins, Channel Awesome, Chris Stuckman, only to name a few. What are their similarities? They often take clips of movies and talk about them in excrutiating detail, whether that's a good thing or a bad thing really depends on the quality of the film.
WTFU/WTFY (Where's The Free Use/What The F**k YouTube) begs the question about a topic that the DMCA is unrightfully fighting against. They're taking down videos for simple use of their product.
Now, okay, channels that post the entire movie, tv show, or song without use of the production studio and/or band with no configuration is technically illegal. It's a form of piracy, and I accept that. But what these reviewers are doing isn't piracy. What they're doing is actually protected under the Universal Declaration of Human RIghts, Article 19, which states that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seekl receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." To put this into the current context, people should be allowed to use the arts on the internet and not get penalized for it. And that's the complete opposite of what the DMCA Is allowing.
It's not even only about YouTubers. Any time that anyone posts anything on the internet, we're at risk of someone attacking us. Be it on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, or, yes, YouTube, no one is safe while the DMCA is around taking away one of our basic human rights.
So, yeah. Where's the fair use, DMCA?
People shouldn't be half so easily able to take-down a video due to personal offence (a religious person striking a negative review of God's Not Dead, or Passion of the Christ, etc.), nor should companies have the right remove critical videos for short clips from their films, much less all of the videos containing no footage whatsoever that still get taken down. This kind of behavior is absolutely disgraceful, and in the words of Atticus Finch I ask: "In the name of god, do you duty." Insert whatever religious figure or lack there of into that wherever you please, but the point stands.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is being abused by copyright holders who think of the act as a means of censoring criticism or outright stealing the income from smaller content creators. Many times in the past a copyright holder has attacked a smaller and legally weaker content creator. In the case an DMCA takedown notice is issued the creator in question is unable to make any income whatsoever from the content, as the income will go instead to the copyright holder who has done nothing but say that the content might be infringing their copyright.
Artificial intelligence has come a long way, but is still flawed. The content identification on content sharing websites such as Youtube is riddled with various problems in the system allowing copyright holders to attack anyone at will, and so far it has been a case of 'guilty until proven innocent'.
What is needed is a safeguard against valid content creators whose legitimate content is being attacked. There needs to be a legislation which heavily fines the larger copyright holders if any DMCA takedowns they issue are proven wrong. Right now many of these companies are unscathed after a long term of legal warfare, in opposition to the content creators who suffer heavy losses to both their income and popularity. Instead of a instant takedown, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act must change so that at the very least, oversight from government bodies such as the Copyright Office is required. This is the only way to stop the abuse of the DMCA in its current state, as a weapon to hold smaller content creators hostage and earn money.
Also, youtube seems to be full of a bunch of brainless, inbred, fucking monkey brained retards nowadays, so as an Australian, I would really appreciate it if you could stop them taking down the little bit of content I actually don't find reprehensibly stupid. Thank you, and please tell whoever owns Youtube to royally go fuck himself.
After reading this, I believe that this should be put to a stop immediately. As someone who watches YouTube on a daily basis, this is a violation of fair use to the fullest extent.
As someone who not only frequents YouTube daily but is also a content creator, there are countless scenarios where the YouTube copyright system has been greatly abused by film industries, YouTube content creators, etc. Many popular movie reviewers on YouTube (Channel Awesome, I Hate Everything, etc.) are always fighting DMCAs on a daily basis, despite their content being under fair use. Reviewers, animators, gamers, and song artists, and every other Youtuber alike has been faced with false DMCA claims by third parties. This is not only greatly unethical, but also highly illegal. People who do YouTube for a living are constantly being robbed of their ad revenue by these claimants who abuse the copyright system. This affects not only Youtubers who upload videos involving licensed content, but also Youtubers who upload original content. This has affected me on a personal level as well, considering the fact that I had received a copyright strike for uploading a song of my own original creation.
I have lost 4 youtube accounts these last few years due to automated robots, or other people stealing/claiming my work claiming that it was their own, and this makes me beyond angry that the DMCA would allow this to happen. Soon I will have my fifth youtube account banned because of companies or large companies trying to take my work and claim it as their own, or their neglect of understanding "fair use", and the DMCA direly needs an update.
There are people who have shut down innocent people, and took away their livelihood and jobs because of false copyright claims when the person in question does not even have the rights to begin with.
It is not safe to post on the internet when there is someone out there who's only job is to make false claims and pocket someone else's money for themselves. If this were to go into a real court system, then the original creator would win. So how come we have to fear loosing our work and livelihoods online when the same actions are not being taken to protect the original creator? How come big companies, aka nintendo for example--give an option from the video games themselves to post your racing clips online, only for them to turn around and get your account striked or even banned just because you were given the option to do so in the game itself. Now i am only using that as an example.
There was more then plenty of times that my videos got flagged by a person called "a person of copyright claim on behalf of copyright claim holder" which does not exist, nor target a specific reason. Even if it is of me sitting at a kitchen table, talking about my day and how my gardening went in the back yard, someone is out there trying to take my name, face, and videos, even when there is no indication of any kind of copyright being violated with me just sitting and drinking coffee, while painting on a canvas. It is clearly me, painting original works, while other people watch, and yet someone is out there flagging my videos, and pocketing the money for themselves, while getting an innocent person in trouble.
This is a major problem for everyone, and this must be addressed.
=======
Examples of false DMCA claims are shown as links in the description of the following YouTube video: http://youtu.be/NoIL5qUI1p8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2I9P_jrBec
My Past story about how my channel was DMCA Abused
Stop bogus DMCA takedowns and protect free speech! There has been various content creators that have been bullied by false DMCA takedowns, even by those that don't own the content in the first place. This needs to be fixed badly. Doug Walker from Channel Awesome has suffered from false DMCA takedowns, and so has many other well known Youtubers that have done nothing wrong.
Just look at these videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ9U8YLY
They will explain everything washington.
People that just verbally review things like movies and games get dmca shut downs.
WHILE THERE ISN'T ANY COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL (like vieo or music) OF THE GAME OR MOVIE IN THE VIDEO.
Even people that make COMPLETELY ORIGINAL MATERIAL on youtube are getting dmca takedowns.
Companies use these takedowns to stifle opinions.
But that's not even the worst.
Companies that don't even OWN copyrighted material do dmca take downs on youtube to claim ad revenue from youtube channels.
they are litterally STEALING from youtubers but they DON'T GET PUNISHED.
And content creators aren't getting even advice to fix issuis from youtube.
They completely ignore them.
This is just ridiculess.
The fact that i didn't even knew that you could write a complaint here That WILL get red was shrouded in secrecy.
I had to hear it from some random youtuber for fuck sake.
Why wasn't this on the news?
Stop the abuse of DMCA takedowns.
It is disgusting that the system in place allows individuals and companies to target any video they choose with a takedown and literally steal money from the creator until the creator successfully appeals the takedown, which often takes far too long and results in significant lost revenue.
So many laws have been updated to account for new technology, so why not his one? It is necessary to resolve this issue as soon as possible both to protect content creators and to set a precedent. Copyright holders need to be protected, of course, but the current system is putting companies over people and causing far more harm than good. If the U.S. government wants to show that it cares about its citizens and in invested in protecting their rights, the DMCA needs to be updated or scrapped entirely in favour of a new system.
Big companies like Warner Brothers, game developers have been taking full advantage of the fair use system and the system on Youtube criticism being censored for being negative people losing weeks upon weeks of pay because of it, their is no punishment for people who abuse it and steal money even if they are proven wrong in the end changes need to happen now.
One of the worst abuses in this system, in my opinion, is that companies that don't even own the copyright to material in question will issue strikes against creators on youtube, and just wait out the time limit without moving forward, basically holding someone's video for ransom, trying to see if that person will break and just pay a fee to get the strike removed. It's ridiculous that this can ever happen, because it shows how little oversight is put into DMCA, when overzealous bots are allowed to strike for videos well within fair use policies.
Obviously the American copyright system has problems, and they'll never be fixed while corporations have their way with the system (Disney getting those Mickey Mouse extensions), but at least let people who make a fraction of a percentage of money from videos and music have a fair chance. At least let them fight for the income they deserve for their work, instead of letting the system completely have its way.
Fair use is essential for freedom to maintain free speech.
Certain companies have been abusing the fair use law and taking down video's they view is a threat to them whether it's positive or not, AND they steal revenue from youtubers that make video's for a living like IHE (I Hate Everything), Chibi Reviews etc. This needs to stop.
This discussion needs an extension. Please consider extending the period in which comments can take place for this, as the community at large is only starting to notice this particular forum for discussion.
As of late there's been far too many examples of copyright abuse, they perform the exact opposite of the original intended purpose. They harm content creators, and give far too much power to anyone making a claim.
I might not be an american citizen but I belive that if the most powerfull country in the world allows the abuse of the law, by endorsing the harm to it's people's right to freedom of speech, soon many other nations will follow it's example.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders aπnd too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Many young creators are scared to express themselves because of how unfairly the copyright system can take away all of their passion with just a few clicks, it's affecting every young artist and all of their viewers so please fix this issue, many critics and reviewers that entertain people for living are having their work snatched away from them by basically taking their money and being fascists, make youtube a better place for the people that don't have other possible ways to express themselves.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and cmmercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies should not be allowed to bully and abuse innocent content creators. Reviews and parodies are targeted for take downs every day to stifle criticism and steal ad revenue, even though they fall completely under fair use. This kind of criminal activity CANNOT continue.
Creators shouldn't have to operate in fear knowing that they may have revenue stolen, or being harassed by greedy companies and their shells. Nor should they have to live in a world where hard work can be erased in an instant. It's time for fair use.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of reviewers online who are having their reviews, which fall under fair use, being taken down by businesses and corporations for using their copyrighted material, even though it's part of fair use.
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Now ask yourself this: If you were watching a movie, you didn't like it, you had made an honest review about it, and someone who made that movie took it down because, they didn't like how you were being critical about their movie how would you feel? In my opinion I would be upset because, all of that hard work would be for nothing. Isn't that what the "American Dream" is supposed to be about?
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use and is clearly abused by these corporations. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Dear Copyright Office,
You know the laws, and so do I. Beloved content creators (most of whom rely on YouTube as their sole source of income) are getting, pardon my French, completely fucked over. Big companies who don't agree with a negative review can take down fair use videos, individuals cheat the system for profit, and they receive NO penalties for abusing the system. The only punishments are given to the innocent channels are just trying to entertain and make a living. Their videos are taken down, they lose monetization, and their entire channels can be deleted! Please help protect innocent channels and punish those who have no respect for copyright laws and abuse a broken system.
Thank you for reading.
Automated systems are in no way effective and the people behind it are guilty of negligence.
Fair use has hurt the internet and art as well.
The abuse of this system needs to stop. I want to make videos reviewing games, but even with the miniscule number of people I have watching and the lack of monetization on my videos I'm still at risk of a DMCA takedown notice. I can lose my channel if I'm hit with 3 of those and that's a scary thought. Companies can use this system to remove videos related to press they don't like, or steal the revenue of a channel they have a vendetta against (Jim Sterling, TotalBiscut, AngryJoe, ProJared, etc) the fact that so little can be done is appalling. Update the DMCA to fit today's Internet and protect the Internet of tomorrow.
Furthermore, the income and expression of independent, web based content creators (i.e. YouTube's) is being suppressed for the profit and dominance of large corporations illegally for what they feel is their own profit. This system is both repressive and easily exploited. It needs a serious overhaul to be in line with the protections already afforded Americans in the spheres of communication that existed when this country was founded. Now we need to change the laws to protect everybody's rights again.
The situation has gotten out of control. Companies are filing copyright claims on content that falls under fair use and in some instances content that they don't even have any legal claim to. Some of these companies and individuals are claiming content that people have hours, weeks even months of their time and hard work into making and what do they get for all that ? they get there content taken down, there revenue stolen some people even receive personal threats or are blackmailed for something as simple as giving there opinion. There's one instance where a video was taken down where it's just two people... sitting in a car... talking about a movie. I'm no expert but i'm pretty sure it isn't legal to talk about someone or give your opinion on a subject even if the copyright holder of the subject in question doesn't like it.
The situation is out of control, balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Also, these kinds of initiatives ain't nothing but corporate higherups being greedy and patting themselves on the back and inconveniencing everyone else.
Leave my memes alone.
Plenty of the critics I rely on for opinions and information on the film industry as a while, as well as learning techniques and skills to improve as an aspiring critic myself, are being constantly harassed. Many examples of such automated takedowns have deliberately featured no copyrighted content such as videos in cars with no music or footage added. This environment of the copyright holder being free and able to abuse these highly outdated and biased laws must be altered or rewritten completely with the modern internet medium in mind
My Personal Stance:
The DMCA is now used as a weapon to stifle free speech and steal from creators rather than a defense of said creators. It's loose, almost non-existent consequences on false accusers allow anyone to harass and steal from innocent people. The DMCA's automated system promotes a guilty until proven innocent mentality, one that our justice system itself is modeled to PREVENT. Large companies can target individuals who follow all of the guidelines of Fair Use and still can have their content taken down. Some businesses focus their entire model around falsely claiming other people's content and siphoning revenue from them, also known as STEALING THEIR INCOME. Some people can even abuse this system to take down any criticisms of them or their work, no matter how fully legal it is for those criticisms to exist and how ILLEGAL it is to file these false claims. Not to mention these creators who are targeted have their LIVELIHOODS threatened. These claims have the power to either make them lose their income partially, or have all of their work removed, possibly permanently (imagine someone losing their job and being arrested because some random person accused them of a crime they didn't commit, and without any evidence.)
For example, on the video sharing platform YouTube, many people have created content that follows copyright law and provides partial or all of their income. These are SOME of the affected channels on the website, many of which have made their own videos discussing the issue and ALL were in line with copyright law:
Jim Sterling
Themysteriousmrenter
Channel Awesome
Anime America
Lost Pause
The Anime Man
Your Movie Sucks
I Hate Everything
Drwolf
Joshscorcher
TeamFourStar
CinemaSnob
Potatobombkyle Lego Productions
CinemaSins
AlternateHistoryHub
Jontron
BadComedian
Sargon of Akkad
Chris Stuckman
Bobsheaux
Sheeleシェーレ
BrainScratch Commentaries
NFKRZ
Pyrocynical
The Gaming Czar
Games Repainted
AdoseofBuckley
Totalbiscuit
Matthias
ToddintheShadows
Angry Joe
ElectricDragon505
CentralDerp
Krimson Rogue
EyeOfSOl
Dragon Mage
CreepyMcPasta
If you wish to hear their stories, search their channel name in the search bar followed by "fair use".
(This video also discusses fair use quite well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjXNvLDkDTA)
We are witnessing a cultural revolution, one that hasn't happened to this scale since the 1950's. However our right to create and speak out is threatened by the DMCA. If this law is to continue unchanged it will be used as a means of theft and censorship. Theft is already wrong, and as we learned from SOPA and PIPA, internet censorship will only hurt everyone and not solve any real issues. I am an up and coming creator myself, currently honing my skills before I enter the fray, but I cannot ensure the safety of my career with such a law in place, even if I comply the the regulations.
The DMCA is like a predator drone, always lurking above our heads yet invisible to our eyes. At any moment someone can order it to attack anyone of us, no matter how innocent we are, destroy us before we even knew what happened.
Protect our creators, don't arm the thieves and liars. FIX THE DMCA OR GET RID OF IT BEFORE IT CAN HARM US MORE!
https://youtu.be/bC3NIdiZF_E
Yea, that and also I really like these guys, if they lose a job that they love, I would be totally heart broken. Youtube has a broken system and coperations are entirely taking advantage of this. It is so broken, I could file a claim right now, and steal a creator's money. This is a serious problem and you all need to look into this.
Please check out this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
He's just doing what he loves and covers the topic really well. Please fix this. For the future.
Since it's implementation in 1996 the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has neither been reviewed nor edited to take the major changes in our technology and global economy into account. This expresses itself in the way of it being more and more abused in recent years, especially on creative platforms like Youtube.
Recently, Youtube has become more viable as a buisness opportunity and has become a full time job for many people. In 2015 however, there were countless incidents of videos of creators either being claimed by third party companies, which took away their ad revenue and therefor livelihood, or the video was taken down altogether, which additionally restrictet the tools youtube provides them with because their account was now in bad standing.
In both of these cases, the claiming of ad revenue via the "ContentID" System and the take-down strike via the DMCA, the responsible companies did not have to proof in anyway that fair use was being violated. Indeed, in all of the cases that are known to me personally, the ContentID claims were lifted and the videos restored after an appeal period of 14 to 30 days. None of the Companies that used the DMCA to protect their property actually cared enough to go to court with it.
These are my main problems with the DMCA. This abuse is only possible, because companies are able to exploit an archaic law, and that has to change, if we want to keep being informed and free people on a constantly advancing internet.
Copyright claims are being frequently abused in such a way that it is affecting the livelihood of many Internet content creators and something needs to be done to discourage such abuse and punish those who intentionally abuse the system for personal gain.
The DCMA threatens legitimate creators of internet content. From major videos with political content to internet movie reviews, corporations are taking down videos that even mention their content, even if no actual content is featured in the video. The current system is a threat to the freedom and rights of all legitimate content creators, and a more balanced system must be put in place that puts power back into the hands of creators. Corporations should still be able to protect their content, but not be able to strangle legal creators out of their earnings based on illegitimate claims.
Bigger companies has current laws to shut down, smaller content creators, Some of which has being done Fan work and reviews that could have afforded free promotion for said produces.
Hello.
I am here to inform a problem that people probably already addressed but I am doing it anyway.
One of my favourite youtube channels IHateEverything was taken down for a limited time because of Derek Savage's abuse of the Copyright laws.
IHateEverything's two videos about the movie Cool Cat saves the Kids were taken down following by his channel which has been put up again afterwards. These videos were well under fair use and were in no infringing copyright.
Another Channel name TheMysteriousMrEnter had his videos unable to monetize because they used "too much footage" in the review. This video was under fair use law and should not have been taken down or unable to monetize. This has been going on too long and needs to stop.
Thank you for reading
I really hope this changes. I want to create content for people to enjoy that falls under Fair Use, but the threat of illegal takedowns ruining my career path is horrifying, especially since it means a company could make a false claim and outright steal my revenue illegally and get away with it.
I have had two of my youtube videos claimed by both Capcom Co., Ltd. and Sony music. While both the videos in question were allowed to stay on Youtube, I was not able to receive any ad revenue, revenue that I depend on to help pay my bills, until the claims were removed. While Capcom removed the claim within a day on the video. Sony took a whole month. I have also seen other Youtube creators such as Anime America, Jim Sterling and I Hate Everything, have been hit with illegal copyright strikes, multiple times, even though there videos are completely within the Fair Use. This has to stop. And it has to stop now.
It has been used unfairly on incerfibly many occasions, often used as a threat. The system is hotribly out of date.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. Too often I have seen content by my favorite creators taken down unjustly, leaving them with lost revenue, while the negligent claimant goes unpunished.The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
For the last 8 months all of the people that I love to watch have been getting false claims and have their livelihoods threatened by it. One of which is reactions videos. I almost lost one of the great ones due to copyright claim that the person doing so wasn't even in the company that was making the video that was being reacted to.
Corporations that don't understand fair use take advantage of those who can't fight back. It's unfair, and free speech should be silenced. There should be a better system in place. One which people can't abuse for their own gain, and one where those who put in hard work for their fans aren't abused and hurt by unfair copyright claims.
An additional note, do you know how much this makes the U.S. look bad? Now we will have no creative product to offer other countries and other people in general. Copyright's ridiculous time of effect doesn't just hinder videos and other content now. Several examples of DMCA abuse that I can name off the top of my head have been Sam Pepper (and other pranksters), Derrick Savage, and several international companies. I would like to say that if you want people to take the law more seriously, then start here (in terms of entertainment). We are reaching that creative low point most industries of entertainment get, so let's try to make this one the easiest to wade through.
As much as I would love to send another copy past note to you. I feel that this is to important to just spam your inbox with quick comments. The main point is that with the new age of the Internet. Not only are more people's livelihoods depending on the Internet, and on these laws, but it is also a place where companies and individuals can steal, and 'punish' content makers, and reviewers who are not in good favor with them. This silences reviewers, parody makers, punishes those who's constant has nothing worth copyrighting. Please make this issue a thing of the past and develop punishments for false, or incorrectly made copyright claims.
Please.
This is unfair and attacks my favorite youtubers.
This is b.s Most of the claims are bullying tactics from larger companies or scammers looking to make $.
I have been considering making videos for Youtube for quite a while, but one of the reasons I have been hesitant in doing so is because of this issue.
This law is completely broken. People are having video's taken down for absolutely no reason. And this is detrimental to their well-being. Imagine if, on your walk home, your paycheck was stolen from you, and there was virtually nothing you could do about it, and there was no hope of seeing that money again. That's what happens when a creator is taken down for no reason. This is so many people's jobs, and they need job security. Creators have enough to worry about, like loosing fans and constantly needing to create in order to survive (There is no break) and they don't need greedy companies breathing down their necks. Please, update these laws. There needs to be some type of action taken
As an upcoming YouTube creator, it frightens me that the DMCA is doing this. Let's end this already!
All of that
Unfair takedowns of videos on youtube has to stop now. The fair use policy protects all you tubers, but right now, it is being ignored or downright abused. Keep in mind, I am not saying to obliterate the law, because their are people who break it. But for the people who don't, they have to stop being targeted. This law was made in 1998, and it hasn't been updated since. The Internet has changed so much, but the law has not,sadly, so now we are in this dilemma.For example, a video that has no footage of copyright material. whatsoever can be taken down just because it has the title of the movie in the name. They use shell companies to avoid being identified. They take away monetization and if the content creator does get monetization back, the company keeps all the money the video made in the timespan. Keep in mind this is some peoples only source of income. This affects everyone, not just content creators. I myself am only in seventh grade. Im standing up because what these companies are doing violates the law and is affecting peoples lives.
Also, have you watched Himegoto yet?
Youtube and other companies have been completely abusing the fair use system. Hundreds of channels have been mistreated. Companies would often take down videos that are under fair use, take videos down multiple times, or take down videos that don't have their content in them, among other things such as stealing monotization. This needs to stop. The Youtube fair use system is corrupted. Let's make it right.
The process is broken. It allows the bigger man to abuse the little guys and are even allowed to say " guilty " to the small guys, even if all the evidence proves they are not. They are judge, jury, and executioner and must be stopes IMMEDIATELY!
I personaly had the opportunity to watch videos on youtube on Channel Awesome (Nostalgia Critic) and saw many of his videos go down because of copyright "infrigment". As i saw, these were using images coming from different movies as pure mean for criticism which is, to my knowledge, allowed. So why putting that much weight and power on the copyright owner when creativity is on the line ??!
The DMCA has become a fossil in today's version of the internet. The faulty and outdated system is heavily abused on sites like YouTube - being used to silence individuals from their right to free speech through false copyright claims and mistreatment of Fair Use laws. Countless times I have seen creators have their work taken down for criticisms (look no further than the satire review genre, with channels like YourMovieSucks.ORG and I Hate Everything having their content flagged and taken down unfairly repeatedly), usually by associates of the people who created the content in question (which, due to the nature of their content, is still misusing the system), but sometimes by shell companies (to protect the person who reported it), false accounts (identity fraud, in some cases - people claiming to be the copyright owner to get something they dislike taken down, or just content by someone who they have personal issues with) and straight-up fake claims (there are 'companies' who use the website to gain money through claiming to have a share in copyright of something popular, and then report videos that contain the mention of it so they can profit from these videos.) These people are abusing the system, and the only way to stop them is to fix the system itself.
The notice-and-takedown pr\ocess under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
The existing Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), as much a part as it was in making the Internet as it is today, is outdated and no longer works.
In particular, the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital is unfortunately biased in favor of larger copyright holders and too commonly used to block or seize content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Seriously, things have gotten way out of hand. I've even seen content taken down from some company's own blogs/channels etc because they've filed a DMCA against themselves.
First let me state that I understand the creators need to be able to protect their copyrighted works from piracy and unwanted distribution. However, the current notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is highly flawed and is quashing Fair Use of copyrighted material. The process is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. We all know that computer algorithms can be and often are written to find the broadest match. In the case of copyright, this causes material to be flagged a infringing when it is, in fact, allowable under fair use. This often results in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I visit sites like YouTube often. One of my passions is watching reviews of current and past movies and TV shows. I have seen creators of such shows be forced to take down reviews that do not contain significant amounts of material from the show or movie. I have seen them be forced to not even use still pictures of the show or movie because even such minimal use has been flagged as infringing either by an algorithm or a copyright troll. This is damaging the business of these sites and is removing my ability to get honest reviews material.
No one should be able to make a false accusation of infringement and not suffer any penalties. Mistakes can be made, but when they are being made repeatedly, there must be some penalty for negligence or actively making a false complaint.
Please look at this situation and structure rules that will protect copyrighted material from being infringed, while at the same time, allow fair use on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Here are some list problems going on Youtube
-Critics and reviewers' contents got either their video taken down or it terminate their whole entire channel and THEY USE the fair use policy.
-Yet, those Reaction videos who use the whole ENTIRE clip, doing nothing but "react" by just staring at the video.
-Companies can claim ANY content even they DON'T OWN that content in the first place, for example a channel, 'I Hate Everything', made a rant on "Damn Daniel" and some company name, '[MERLIN]' strike 'I Hate Everything' EVEN THO that company DIDN'T OWN the content.
-People strike down videos because they're afraid to take criticism, I remember I made a commentary on one of 'TheReviewSpace's videos and he strike my channel because I commentate on him, even tho I USE the Fair Use policy.
-Those who falsely claim videos, NEVER face the consequences while the innocent ones got their videos taken down or their channel taken down
Anyways, please update on the Fair Use policy and thanks for reading
Hello! DMCA it'd been a while. 2001 I think. GET UP TO DATE WITH THE INTERNET. There is this site called YouTube and its an amazing site! I couldn't live without it. But the copyright system is so broken and so many of YOUR LAWS are being broken by people uploading offensive, rude, depletive content. And even Porn and crimes which I may mind you is against YouTube's code of conduct laws. And while these guys aren't getting punished. People who are doing nothing wrong are! By false copyright claims has broken some channels and even deleted some channels with a fan base of over 2 Million People. So plz. Fox this
~ Connor B.
I am becoming scared to upload movie or game reviews on you tube because so many company's have been taking down those videos, WHICH MAKING THESE VIDEOS IS FINE UNDER THE LAW OF FAIR USE. thank you for reading this.
""
I have several friends and acquaintances who aspire to be full-time content creators on YouTube or other video platforms. They are talented and hardworking, and the content that they produce is highly creative and undeniably transformative in nature. And yet, I see them beaten down time and time again by an indiscriminate system that treats content clearly protected under Fair Use in the same way it treats spam or blatant pirating.
So, what has happened to those acquaintances most severely affected by nonstop claims and takedowns? One has shifted their content away from creative endeavors, in favor of vlogs and other videos that use nothing that is not 100% theirs. And who can blame this person for "selling out," when YouTube puts food on the table? Another has given up on their dream entirely, knowing the futility of one person taking on a giant corporation. A third is in limbo, anxious to upload new content - and when doing so, and the imminent copyright strike arrives, it is another kick in the stomach, an effective deterrent. This person has fallen into a deep depression as the claims become more frequent and more severe, unable to sustain a career that was once a labor of love and is now a source of crippling anxiety.
Some people still have hope, however. I have four nieces, ALL of whom are "on YouTube" and wish, to varying degrees, to make this their career. Should I tell them that their dreams are unreachable because they are built upon a broken system? Or should I wait for the inevitable - the first time that their content, something they put their hearts and souls into, is snatched away into legal purgatory? I'm sorry, but this is a lesson I don't want them to learn - that following the rules simply isn't good enough when it comes to Fair Use.
Let's mend the DMCA - for the livelihood of today's content creators, and the dreams of tomorrow's.
So many youtubers who don't deserve to be hurt by copyright laws have been completely destroyed by the laws created to protect them! We need to have our voices heard!
Please, save the internet.
- Vincenzo CONSALES from France
Most of the things I do is on the Internet and one of those aspects is entertainment. One main site I use is the infamous Youtube yet I'm being pushed away from watch my favorite people on there. For example nostagia critic I wanted to re-watch one of his reviews which was the movie the purge, yet I can no longer watch it do to it be not within fair use...ok then I'll go listen to song vocaloid songs that have been done into English so I go do that until I find out that one of my favorite songs from Razzy called Bad-end-night has been taken down...ok then I'll just go to my like play list and watch some videos there. Funny thing is once the video has been taken down that person who likes it can't get rid of those videos. Now I understand the system was put in place so that pirates wouldn't pirated videos from movies yet big-name companies especially in the movies are taking down videos that are with in fair use I mean even just talking about the movie it gets taken down you will have to fix this problem or if you do not fix this problem there will be someone who will and when they do in this is especially for YouTube whenever someone fixes YouTube's problems the big names that are on YouTube they're making a livelihood off of YouTube they will go to the other website and they will make more money and the big names are Markaplier, Pewdiepie, and Jacksepticeye those are just who there job is Youtube and yet when there lives are threatened and they are forced to stop what they are doing people will leave. YouTube will fall if you don't fix this problem because if people are being forced to stop creating content because of some company then why not have freedom of speech.
THIS IS OUTRAGEOUSLY IMPORTANT! THE DMCA HAS CREATED AN UNFAIR AND MALICIOUS ENVIRONMENT FOR CONTENT CREATORS. CHANGE MUST HAPPEN NOW!
Copyright as a law is way to behind the modern day and needs to be updated, one quick search on youtube and you can see video creators getting copyright claims and almost losing their channels by "companies" that use the copyright law in a illegal manner.
I've seen countless people affected by this. Please the DMCA must be updated and we need to stop this total abuse of the law.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and is too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgement to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright abusers who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech. Without repercussions, there is no deterrent that stops companies or individuals from filing false copyright strikes against works produced under fair use. An action that would otherwise be seen as illegal is allowed to be blatantly abused on these sites without fear of being reprimanded.
I've watched one too many illegal takedowns occur on youtube alone as, using youtube's automated systems, there is no penalty for spurious claims. Whether it's small, independent game developers like Digital Homicide and Kobra Studios lashing out in anger at content creators for making unflattering videos about their products or small directors like Derek Savage trying to shut down a channel because he felt insulted by a parody review, fair use is being ignored and copyright law is being wrongfully used like a weapon to try and censor people. This has got to stop if we remotely value our status as a free people.
I've watched one too many illegal takedowns occur on youtube alone as, using youtube's automated systems, there is no penalty for spurious claims. Whether it's small, independent game developers like Digital Homicide and Kobra Studios lashing out in anger at content creators for making unflattering videos about their products or small directors like Derek Savage trying to shut down a channel because he felt insulted by a parody review, fair use is being ignored and copyright law is being wrongfully used like a weapon to try and censor people.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and coRecognize innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Content creators are being affected, by others who abuse the system. A system in which should be controlled, not by machinery, but by people. People aren't being protected by fair use laws. Instead they are being abused by those who make up the law. Fair use should be reaffirmed and the DMCA should be updated.
It's frustrating seeing real content creators being punished and having their hard work be taken down because of a mix of immaturity and profit guzzlers. IT'S TIME TO STOP, FIX DMCA
I am trying to work on a channel where I review content but haven't been able to because I don't won't to risk showing the copyrighted content on screen with risk of the video being taken down. With the way thing are now with the internet and the country as a whole, people who have a jobs thank to the videos they create they have the risk of their videos taken down and/or their channel being terminated and lose their only source of income and becoming jobless.
While I do not create YouTube videos for people to see, I still will support those who go through the troubles of copyright abuse. Channel Awesome, I Hate Everything, TheMysteriousMrEnter, TeamFourStar, and so many more channels are getting the cruel end of the deal and cannot do anything about it while those companies or just plain trolls can claim and even place a copyright strike on their videos whenever they want while having a laugh and jolly good time and/or probably obtain the monetization money from these channels. I will not stand for this to go for so long! Let's hope that the U.S. Copyright Office hears our problems and can fix this broken system.
i may not be from the us but it affect me in some way too.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
This is incredibly important. As an artist, copyright is incredibly important to me, just as it is to these creators on YouTube. That's what they are. Artists. And they're being incredibly, unfairly abused. They put heart, time, and effort into everything they make, and the way they're being treating is abhorrent. I implore you, as a supporter of these creators, whose videos never fail to put a smile on my face, to make this change!
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This does not only apply to YouTube but to the Internet as it stands today. Too many innovative content creators are becoming victims of copyright and "fair use" exploitation. These are people are dedicate hours and sweat and blood into making the absolute best videos that they can and it is a shame to see other people do shameful acts to try and take advantage. Please, I ask that you fix this because it sure as hell is begging to be updated to 2016 standards.
It is a broken, outdated system and it is hurting the livelihoods of legitimate Youtubers while abusers of the system profit from their hard work.
I don't know why you anonymous cocksuckers continue to create elaborate scare-tactic websites like this to phish our personal contact information (e-mails AND phone numbers) to directly and perniciously attack and cyberterrorize the mindless sheeple who fall for your ruses. You actively use your abuse of the 1st and 14th amendments of the U.S. Constitution to suppress and censor the equative rights and freedoms of those who use social media to redress any grievance over your activity without any legal or federal reprisals whatsoever per diem the communicative rights declared in current net neutrality laws withstanding. Why can't anyone - FBI, Homeland Security or the NSA - do anything about you pricks? Are they too parlancing in criminal misdirection and editorial collusion in cohesion with your activities? I sincerely hope you do respond to my inquiry; because anytime someone spams your horseshit on my twitter feed, i can't help but think that even THEY are complicit in your actions!
-sincerely and empathetically yours,
A fed-up "fucking furfag"
This is a form letter, and while I agree with what it's saying, I just wanted to add my own thoughts. I have never made or posted a youtube video. So while this doesn't affect me directly. It does affect me indirectly. A lot of my favorite youtube channels are constantly harassed both from movie companies and from other youtubers within the system with false copyright claims. There is very little in the way of protection for these creators of content. The entire system seems like a 'guilty until proven innocent' kangaroo court. And if their channel is taken down all their hard work is gone. The deck is stacked against them. Their work may not seem as important as a rocket scientist's or a doctor's, but the censorship of art, and beyond that, free speech, is something that damages all of us. So I write in defense of them. While I don't fully understand the law as it is, I know that the internet has changed a lot since 1998 when it was first passed, and I don't believe that so many people would be having the problems they're having if the system wasn't at least a little broken. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope some real progress can be made.
There is nothing more to say than what has been said below:
#WTFU (Where's the Fair Use?)
The notice-antakedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I'm a viewer of YouTube. I don't poste videos, I don't edit videos, I don't make videos, I just watch them. So with all that said, this take down business is getting out of control and it really doesn't have to be. I actually think a whole bunch of problems could be fixed if instead of relying on a computer program we had actual people looking at videos to make sure they aren't breaking any laws. It's not like we're asking for anything all that drastic, but some common sense would really be appreciated.
The DMCA is beyond aged as of the modern 2016. Primarily on the site of YouTube but much along the internet. The law that started to was protect copyright users has now been used to silence, harass, and steal. Copyright takedowns are being unfairly used against videos that follow fair use. There are even people who use third-party companies to only take ad-revenue off of videos, nothing more. It hurts content creators to have their money taken and opinions silenced. There have been dozens of cases where videos were taken down by angry creators that didn't like someones opinion, this has lead to threats, bullying, and even entire channels being taken down in this process.
Users don't have to shown any proof to take down a video, and there's no punishment for placing false claims. Innocent creators are being punished for doing so, even videos that have no copyrighted material and only talking in front a camera have been taken down. The only way to stop companies from copyright claiming your video is to scare them with bad publicity, which sometimes doesn't even work since companies will use fake names to shield themselves. I've seen videos get hit multiple times after a claim runs out of it's 30 day time limit. Even sometimes within an hour after the first claim is gone.
I passionately believe in the internet as a new way for individuals to share content and for companies to make money, but not like this. Not where the companies hold all the power and creators are under constant fear of being taken down. I even create myself, but sadly many have tried to fight this, with the #WTFU rally being the most notable, with little success. Now we have the chance to fight back, so please update this law. It's broken and being abused to steal and harass.
There is no punishment for falsely claiming add revenue money from the video or trying to claim the video multiple times.
I don't know much about the law, but I agree with the Nostalgia Critic
Personal note: I've seen many of the creators (specifically on YouTube) lose videos, revenue, and entire channels due to abused and completely fabricated copyright takedowns. I've seen creators (ex: Angry Joe and his Street Fighter video) who only film themselves talking about a subject have videos taken down. I've seen creators (ex: IHATEEVERYTHING against Cool Cat) Be threatened and bullied by takedowns. While there's absolutely a place for copyright laws, current laws are not flexible enough to accommodate the current state of the Internet, and the system can easily be abused. Thank you.
Please listen! The current system is very out of date and needs updating! Content creators online now are being unfairly punished and flagged even thought their videos and content fall under fair use. Entertainment is changing with the internet, and the system needs to change with it, or content creators and the internet itself will suffer. Please consider updating this system to help everyone involved.
I am a content creator. This affects me personally.
""
You know those rights you're granting us? We want some of them back.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under Fair Use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
This needs to stop.
Although as a content creator myself, I have not suffered directly from the DMCA, I have seen plenty of abuse from it used to censor critics and other content creators who were still within fair use. At the very least a substantial update is needed for it to no longer be abused.
Look, it does not take long to see how little justice there is with the current fair use system on the internet. Please just update the current law. For the sake of creators all across the world who are being shut down and abused by the current system, being unfairly struck upon. If you need examples of Youtube Channels who are being unfairly punished by the current system then there is:
I Hate Everything
Channel Awesome
Examples of channels who are going unpunished due to loopholes in the current system:
Tyrone Magnus
Jinx
The Reel Rejects
Those are just a few examples but there are countless others on both examples.
Please make this happen, for creativity's sake. Thank you
People like Doug Walker, Brad Jones, and many others out there, should not be getting these false claims stricken against them, it is unfair and is not correct to do in today's society, where many people thrive, and make a living, through sites like YouTube. I myself, with my YouTube channel. Have been wanting to start reviewing movies. And spreading my opinion to the world. But I am afraid that I can't, because of all of the people abusing your system. And the large possibility of getting shut down.
The DMCA is a woefully outdated piece of legislation that both stifles content creators, while creating an environment that is laughably too easy to abuse. It's absolutely remarkable that we allow an almost 20 year old law to wield this much influence over a medium it was never even close to being designed for.
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It's a shoot first and ask questions later system which is frankly idiotic. Anyone can create a DMCA takedown notice without actually proving they own the content. Let alone proving that it isn't fair use. People like FrankieOnPCin1080p have used it to censor other people who attempt to expose them. People like Derek Savage have used it out of pure ignorance of fair use. It's an outdated system that needs to be changed and have some sort of approval system to remove the abuse that it has.
People use copy right to filter opinions even if their content is not shown. People who don't own the content are claiming videos and photos being copyrighted even when the copy righted material is not in there. People are using copy right to stress innocent people out when there are people who are actually going against copyright. Movie creators are using copy right to filter movie reviews they don't like even if there are no movie clips in the video. People who are in fair use are having to take their time to deal with false claims.
And I really like Mr. Enter and I Hate Everything.
I have not been hit by takedowns myself. but many of my favorite youtubers (Total Biscuit, Jim Sterling, Channel Awesome...) have seen their livelyhood menaced by it. The law in place is too vague, and extremely outdated. The DMCA system in place gives too much power to copyright holders, and it is too easy for someone to simply lie and claim content like it's theirs, gravely harming the content creator. Youtubers are extremely important, and are more than simply entertainers. We need a system which defends their job fairly from false claims, and a true protection of fair use, and protect use of content with transformation. As Isaac Newton said "We stand on the shoulder of giants", meaning we use what already has been created to create ourself and make progress. Please protect free speech and content creators.
More info here
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
The current DMCA takedown system allows copyright holders to send out thousands of requests at little to no cost. They have every right to protect their property, but this system places all the burden on the accused. Naturally, many copyright holders have abused this system, either for convenience (sending takedown requests to everyone who even mentions their content or anything like it) or to censor free speech which they do not own copyright too. People should not fear that their original works or critiques will be removed by copyright holders and trolls.
Freedom of expression is our civilization's bedrock! Help restore it!
The DMCA allows companies to take down videos that don't belong to them. Even when there is no media provided, just commentary talking about said media. Even then, showing media for educational or parody falls under fair use. Update this law you guys.
The dmca is outdated and it should be revised ASAP. Like it really sucks right now... Makes no sense by today's standards.
Also, many companies use goon companies to protect the giant corporations from getting any flack from DMCA takedowns. Some videos are hit repeatedly with the DMCA takedowns, and result in many people's jobs being taken from lost ad revenue. There are NO penalties for companies who put out false copyright claims, so they can simply use these as THREATS and take away people's jobs and livelyhoods away for living their dreams. Even videos that have no copyrighted footage, music, or content get taken down (like Cinema Snob's series, Midnight Screenings). The DMCA was meant for 1998, not 2018. This is a law that is nearly *twenty years old*, let's introduce a new one.
The DMCA is a broken system that is skewed in favor of the party filing the claim. There needs to be a system in place that punishes people who make false claims, and provides reparations for those who had content falsely removed.
I am a YouTube content creator who makes reviews of Japanese animation. IDAEntertainment abused DMCA to take ad revenue away from my review of Cat Shit One, and blocked the video in several countries despite the video falling squarely in the realm of Fair Use. I attempted to dispute the claim, which they declined and put a second copyright claim on my video. Eventually I decided to take down the video full stop.
I am a very small YouTube channel, and there are many much larger (and smaller) than myself who have dealt with companies wrongfully taking what is theirs every single day. DMCA is horribly abusable and is not fit for today's internet.
Oh, and as an added bonus, here are just some of the many content creators who have been directly effected and have spoken out about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFA...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0W...
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (STILL going on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J0...
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ...
Team Four Star's issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkc...
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nU...
Chibi Reviews gets a DMCA for talking about snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWys...
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company - MMA company thinks it makes the law!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXo...
Mr Enter and the saga of DMCA after DMCA takedown on the SAME video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtw...
NFKRZ and how ransom is now on YouTube!
Also, stop being pricks and stifling originality to protect corporations from getting their feelings hurt.
I was on YouTube doing content on professional wrestling, incorporating wrestling footage into my reviews and I was hit with a copyright strike despite the fact that what I was doing which was criticism falls under fair use
Allowing this to continue will result in the stifling of creative expression, but will induce fear into the populace that censorship is acceptable.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I have a friend in YouTube she hasn't been attacked yet but I fear if this problem doesn't get sorta out she won't be able to make her videos anymore
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, Deviantart, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
There also needs to be some sort of penalty for false DMCA takedowns. In the current state, if you post a video review of a movie/television show, with some clips in it, the creators can take it down if they don't like it.
As an American citizen, please fix this so that fair use is fair.
Added note:
As a young law student I've been getting more and more familiar with law concept and especially a theory that I cannot translate perfectly, that is the theory of abuse of right. It's exerced quite often here in Belgium and jurisprudence has shown me and my fellow students that neighbouring countries also apply it regularly and strictly. You might be familiar with it but if you're not, it's a theory that describes how the use of a right is never punishable except when it is used for the sole purpose of harming others, another's property and so on.
While it is arguable and should be argued that DMCA is not something that encourages abuse of right and that the use of DMCA to censor or delete content from those using it in fair use or not is not always maybe never solely to harm others, too often DMCA is used in non-respect of content creators, especially on the internet.
While it is clear that copyrighted content and one's intellectual property should becprotected, it is not the subject matter. The problem lies into a system that is deeply flawed and lacking in the absence of human examination of the different cases. While some do not respect the fair use terms, the way the system works lacks precision and thus affects those who do, there then are people who use DMCA and exerce a right while directly causing harm to not only the rights of those making content while respecting fair use, but also, their content, their hard work and intellectual property. These people are making content, not reproducing it. Originality and intellectual creation of content can be defined by an intellectual and personal effort from the author and infusion of his or her personnality into the content, talking only from my experience, there are too many people being wronged by the system. The work these people do to create new content is their property and this should only be contested in the cases where they do not respect fair use, but this work is more than simple pixels on a screen, lines of code on a website or a complaint from either a copyright troll or the owner of the content fairly used, this work is too much to be simply put under the rug because going to court is either too expensive or impossible for reasons undefined, this work should not be managed by machines and automated response to a click on a button, this work should be dealt with by humans because if not, there is no fair use. There is abuse, and error and excess and can't be tolerated.
P.S. :
I'm sorry for any mistakes in grammar or vocabulary or other that could have slipped under a re-reading.
:^)
the copyright systems blatantly ignore fair use and harm content creators and allow corporations to take their work and censor them and it needs to stop.
I don't think I can personally say it better than that. Please consider it all.
If I only had one sentence to make my case against the DMCA, it would be; INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY.
I'm writing in from the Yukon, Canada, and even out here this affects us. Let me make this clear- There is NO punishment of any kind for issuing false takedown notices and MILLIONS of people get them every month. Do NOT let ITIF downplay the damage of this system. We have heard their comments and they are an insidious pro-censorship think tank dead-set on stifling the net and enabling companies able to steal money from content creators. They will not be allowed to fly under the radar, and I am personally calling them out.
If you haven't seen it already, here is a paper from Berkley Law University containg data on the damages of false automated takedowns and recommends the changes needed to the DMCA. It is IMPERATIVE to for lawmakers to read.
http://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=030073122122020078008002119102017097046038052029001020118030085093021115125024081086120032033122033062107075122064079105097029117009025075093074001088084006010092029088058067118001113005118118006064113066119123086103076116009124105026095110070107119003&EXT=pdf
(backup link in case the first doesn't work) http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2755628&download=yes
As a last word from me, I will say that the net is evolving to suit individuals and not companies. We need to embrace this safe haven for the creatively minded to succeed. We live in a precious pocket of history where anyone can hear you when you speak out. This bastion of neo-entertainment and journalism is constantly under fire from corporations and biased government organizations (like the aforementioned ITIF) who live in their britches. Issues on net neutrality, SOPA, PIPA, and now FAIR USE. Same wolf, different sheepskin. It's all about CONTROL.
We will not be so manipulated. The cover of public apathy these villains with money rely on is becoming thinner, and NOTHING is safe on the internet.
-Sterling from Canada
P.S. (unrelated, personal opinion) Most dire situation lies in Lenz v. Universal Music sanction and how it damaged youtube making it into a censorship system.
Due to false automated system cobbled together by youtube there is no safety there. Worst of all - there are no counters instated in place.
So to example a shell company or even just negatively biased 3rd party individual can harm the creator by filing copyright strike or even false DMCA, and because there are no systems installed, (unlike in direct by-law dmca counters which is basically forgery lawsuit) said party gets away with it.
There needs to be a change, youtube needs to be backed up by government against corporations (most notably viacomm), shell companies and bias individuals which are most likely to censor the creators due to disregard of fair use policies, including international ones.
I am signing this petition to let it be known, among a multitude of voices, that we are dissatisfied with how DMCA has handled copyright notices specifically levied at artists and other advocates who are primarily working in the realm of Fair Use - use of copyrighted imagery and indicia for the sake of criticism, education or satire. Many such advocates make their living by means of these videos and it fuels the diverse and wonderful world of the Internet, so not only are their livelihoods being affected, but also the interesting sources of entertainment that only the Internet can provide.
Many online content creators have had their work be removed by false claims and some even have had their monetization stolen from them by false companies, not only stealing money but stealing the original creators money. Copyright claims have been a way for creators to be harassed and threatened by the "claimants" even though what the content creator used was well in fair use. This is extremely prevalent on YouTube. For example, with the "Damn Daniel" trend that had been circling around the internet, content creators who made videos about it or mentioned it briefly have had their monetization stolen from them, not by anyone associated with the trend, but rather a false company, that went by the name Merlin, who must've have a team of people searching YouTube for videos that mention it. One user actually uploaded a video with no audio whatsoever but titled it "Damn Daniel" only to have Merlin claim it and take the monetization. The claim stated that Merlin manually detected copyrighted audio even, even though the video had no sound at all.
Facebook is also notorious for being able to steal content without giving credit and since it doesn't "violate their terms of service" Facebook will not remove the video even though it is not under fair use and was blatantly stolen from someone else.
The internet today is at a great risk because freedom of speech is becoming more and more censored each day. YouTube may seem like a small and not serious issue, but YouTube is a major corporation who has dominated the video sharing part of the internet. People have made their living off of YouTube and it is their only source of income. Content creators on YouTube are more often than not a one-man show. They shoot, edit, and upload their own content. Sounds simple, but YouTubers invest a serious amount of time and money into what they do. To see something that someone worked so hard for stolen from them, especially by false companies or as harassment, is criminal.
If a creator uploads something that contains segments that fall under fair use, meaning use material for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work, should not have to be subject to false claims or harassment. The DMCA is extremely outdated and needs to be reconsidered in order to save freedom of speech and people's careers.
The notice-and-takedown process under the tal Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I think that it's pretty crummy that if someone doesn't like criticism in a video that they can take the monetisation off, remove the video, or in some cases just delete the channel. doesn't that seem just a little unfair? the worst thing about it to me is seeing people worry that with just a single video, there whole livelihood and is at stake. It also saddens me to think of what could've been made if this DMCA business wasn't the way it is.
The copyright system is incredibly dated and broken beyond belief and needs to be updated immediately before more innocent people are targeted for false copyright claims. These copyright claims are targeting those that are innocent and are using fair use and this needs to stop. These content creators have brought amazing ideas, capable of changing lives, even the world, and they are brought down by hollwood constantly. This is a change that needs to take place and I am ready to fight for it.
Dear U.S. Copyright Office,
Thank you for finally opening up to listening to the common people's voice when it comes to the DMCA laws. I hear way too often the stories of how greedy studios and trolls on the internet would make false claims of copyright infringement and would steel money from people that makes videos for a living without a refund if the accused has proven the material is in fair use. In addition to that companies are given the right to make the same claim multiple times even if the claim is proven to be false in the first place. The companies often make those false claims in order to steel money from add revenue. The problem is also that the person defending themselves from false piracy claims are not even given someone to review the material that companies claim to be violating piracy. Instead companies like YouTube would automatically have claims or even strikes for people that have their videos falsly claimed. The companies that rules material as piracy also never get punish for making false copyright claims and steeling add revenue even when it's illegal and unconstitutional. In addition many channels recieve strikes when they intead to make no money off of the copyrighted mater and edits the material for purpose of commentary or parody under fair use doctorine and still get's taken down for copyright claims. Here is a list of links of people that has been abused by the current issues with DMCA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC3NIdiZF_E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkcWbvnN0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mld4GYqbX3c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W-360iRCz4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYL_eLZLfw8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xjcuik2t78
This is only the surface of the abuse I have seen from companies false claims of piracy, please do something to revise the current DMCA which can help people who are being penalized despite fair use and/or falsely claimed.
Thank You very much, I believe that the this is the reason why I have hope for the good people of the government. Please prove me right.
One of my favorite video creators/podcasters recently got hit with a DMCA by another video maker, simply because the other video maker didn't like what they had said. This made it so they could no longer stream their podcast, couldn't even post their podcast as it made it so they couldn't host videos over 15 minutes long, and it forced them to make alternate broadcasting choices to continue their show until Youtube actually looked at the footage.
Another youtuber got hit with a copyright claim multiple times by the same 'company' but the 'company' didn't own the rights. This is now becoming a theme where somebody can make money off of other people's work and do so for about a month and there is no punishment, there is no checking to see if the material was owned by them. Video makers lose money while other people get to keep it simply by filing out a claim that takes no time at all while the video owner has to fight it for weeks, maybe even months. There is no punishment for this theft and the DMCA allows them to do it.
Many youtubers Like Anime America, The Mysterious Mr.Enter, And I Hate Everything Are about to be took down because of this abuse. I hope you fix this so they don't have to worry about fair use, even though they aren't abusing it.
The DMCA is being abused by parties who seek to use it to stifle not only freedom of speech, but also creativity. This law is outdated and needs to be revised to fit the current technology of our times, lest we stifle innovation and progress as well.
This abuse to creators and content viewers needs to stop. Add sellers are also being hurt.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I've had my own content removed despite the fact that were the case to reach court, it would have been declared protected under fair use. I've seen the same happen to some content creators I love, in some cases the content they made was ENTIRELY devoid of the content the claim said they had, they were only TALKING about the content in question. This is an outdated law that has harmed far more than it has helped. It needs to be changed.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The DMCA absolutely needs to have a punishment for false offence claims.
This is my voice speaking up against copyright abuse. Innocent people around the internet are being censored by people who can't take criticism, being harassed for laughs, greedy corporations stealing ad revenue that doesn't belong to them, while the corrupted individuals that that do this get off scott free. If we can speak loud enough we can tell washinton that things aren't working anymore and there needs to be reform. This is Justin Lee Gautreaux, Speaking up against copyright bullies. #WTFU
In many ways notice-and-takedown process of DMCA violates fair use laws because corporate side has no responsibility to be actually correct in their accusations. When they are wrong takedown still happens even without due process required by law. Even State can not confiscate your property without due process and legal reason but somehow corporations do that every day with the content created by people under fair use laws
From what you see here, what these people have done in 1998, does not help fair use. We need to change this. Please.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I'm a daily Youtube user myself, and I can't tell you how many channels I've seen while browsing said site that have been unjustly effected by the misuse of the DMCA in some form or another. Content creators such as Team Four Star, Little Koriboh, Channel Awesome, I Hate Everything, Jananimations, etc. have been targeted by inhuman copyright systems for either mimicking an art style or using the clips of original copyrighted work despite the fact that they clearly are using said items for the use of parody and/or critique. These oppressive systems cannot be allowed to go any further. It violates the freedom of speech of everybody who ever wants to talk about media on the internet. Following this paragraph is a statement written by the non-profit organization "Fight for the Future" explaining the situation. Please take time to read it.
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Everyday it seems like I'm hearing of a brand new copyright strike or notice or something akin happening to a content creator I watch on YouTube. It hurts me to see that these people I've grown with, I've laughed with, I've appreciated every ounce of talent in their body, be struck down by the false claims and companies thinking THEY write the rules and laws when they DON'T. I want to see the content creators I watch and enjoy to prosper and grow as a channel and as a community. They shouldn't be growing by making news like this, they should be growing by being able to make and produce their content and please their audience.
Because Come on, Wheres The FAIR USE !!!!!!!
-The K was here.
Stop abusing your power
DMCA takedown requests impact people across the world, as America-based sites like Youtube have so often become the default global sharing platforms for content. These sites rightly have respect for the laws of their home country, and so they abide by the DMCA.
Unfortunately this means that anyone who wants any piece of content to be removed from one of these sites (from anywhere in the world) has a clear method for making this happen quickly and without significant and substantial evidence of their ownership of the content.
There is no obvious threat of penalty for malicious use of DMCA takedown requests. Therefore, there is every incentive for malicious parties to exploit the DMCA for the purposes of censorship and monetary gain, and there are many documented cases of both of these things happening.
There is also no incentive for ISPs to carefully consider whether claims may be fraudulent, since they are only ever likely to be sued by the DMCA claimants and rarely by the uploaders of works, and the volume of claims to a large content host also clearly makes it difficult to give sufficient attention to each individual case. Thus already many automated systems have sprung up in the online world to automatically remove content, in some cases with very minimal rights to reply for the uploader of that content. This is in clear need of additional regulation to ensure the USA's ideal of free speech extends into the online world.
Though I'm not a frequent uploader of content myself, I have seen the takedown process first-hand when uploading some fair use material to Youtube for my employer. More frequently, I hear the stories of others whose livelihoods and reputations have been adversely affected by the consequences of a law badly in need of updating.
This is completely messed up. Do something about fair use, PLEASE!!!!!
The DMCA is doing more harm than good. It used by companies to censor free speech and even take content to make money off of other people's work that they don't own. They censor reviews of their products as well, just because they don't like it. They bully and harass people that don't even use any copyrighted material from the company in question. They use sister companies as well to bully and harass. They are stealing money from people that rely on that money to live.
Even if someone proves that they aren't using copyrighted material and is cleared, they are immediately accused again and the company that claimed that copyrighted material was used gets more money from the original person with no questions asked. Copyright holders aren't able to get trouble for the false copyright claims and stealing money because the DMCA favors copyright holders too much.
Protect free speech and free expression! I agree with all the statements below. The DMCA does little to protect actual content creators and artists, and everything to protect corrupt groups and money interest. Videos that simply have people talking about a film or other media get taken down all the time. Copyright does not spread that far to infringe upon the right of self expression.
It's not hard to see that big companies like Nintendo abuse the system in place today, and it's not hard to see that fake companies abuse it too to take down any video they want or take the revenue from any video they want. Take the two seconds it takes and search for the stories about all of the unfair copyright claims on YouTube. People who do make legitiment content and pour their life into it can be screwed over in an instant by the abuse of the broken copyright laws. Honestly, you don't need these comments to see how broken it is. We implore you to take a look yourselves and see all of the corruption and violation of our rights on the Internet. OPEN YOUR EYES. Peoples LIVELY HOOD can be ripped away from them by false claims and take downs. While there are people who do need to be taken down for balantly infringing on other peoples copyrights, there are those who do everything right while still getting screwed. It's unbelievable how unheard we are when we've been trying for years to get this system fixed. For the sake of everyone on the Internet, fix this.
The DMCA, a law made in 1998, has unfortunately gone out of relevance in the last few years, and it has only harmed the internet since. It has been used to take down thousands of videos and posts, made by people in all walks of life, for no real benefit. While I have never been attacked by any sort of DMCA strike, I know people who have, and it is for them that I sign my name for this petition, so that they can work freely without fear of being taken down. I hope to live in an internet that has free speech, as the freedom of expressing one's self is the greatest right of them all.
Thank you for your time.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While I personally have not been subject to this, but this is possibly because I do not have a large viewer base and people who abuse this are not able to find me, or just don't care. However I know of much larger YouTubers, who are reviewing popular media, such as The Nostalgia Critic, who get targeted by this, and reviews are under fair use, so it should be okay, but according to this is isn't. An update is required.
As we all know there are people making a living on YouTube, as in Youtubers, but with this great thing that can help people get a job, there is a down side, people can easily flag a video and may take down a Youtuber's video, this is good if its violating YouTube's law(s) but when its only for one teeny weeny detail its ridiculous. We need to end the DMCA so we can stop the problem that this "idea" is making. If we want to do something that is offending to you then go to another video, there are more than a million videos on YouTube. Some are funny, sad, compelling and can make your day great. If you want to stop everything that offends you then think back to our amendments and remember "Freedom Of Speech" not "Freedom to take down one's speech because you find it offending to you".
I have made a video on the internet criticizing a company's cartoon with edited clips 5 seconds or less each. It was taken down by the SAME COMPANY 3 TIMES. It was an Australian company who said to me "Youtube is an international site, and doesn't abide to American laws only."
Yes. It. Does. When I said this to the company, they backed off. Then, the same company under a different name took it down AGAIN. I gave up. So this is the only way that I can help.
You can't let companies abuse DMCA takedowns it's wrong, and against the constitutional rights of every American. The United States isn't a Fascist or Communist nation, it's a Democratic one. A Democratic nation's job is to protect it's people and their rights.
As a non-United States citizen, the policies for the internet and copyright in your country still have an over-riding affect on the free-speech and fair use of other citizens of the world. Many of the largest and most influential companies are based in the US and are bound by its laws.
Like many laws before, the intention is good, but its specifics are being abused.
For example, YouTube's enforcement of the automatic suspension of content that is accused of copyright infringement, gives any intervening ad revenue being delivered to the accuser, promoting and rewarding misuse by claimants.
There are so many aspects to consider. I do not envy the people that may be asked to do so. But still I ask -
Will you please consider revising and updating the laws in the US to appropriately match current technological advancement and usage?
I won't change the form letter below, because it's important, but I just want to say that copyright law is ridiculous enough with how far the time it takes for a work to become public domain has been pushed back without a system as easily exploitable as the DMCA has been. When you can successfully put a copyright claim on a video of just two people sitting in a car talking, you know something is wrong.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgement to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I love project voicebend. Also, while the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The simple fact is that the DMCA is currently out dated is and not sufficient to meet contemporary needs. The fair use clause needs to be well defined, penalties for issuance of false claims needs to be established. Things that are clearly protected by either being well within fair use, having no. Copyright material at all, or simply being attacked maliciously, are being issued a DMCA take down.
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
we can't let corporations control our voices in the public space this is a unamerican and unethical practice
So why is copy right abused, wheres the fair use, these are many and I mean many thing people I know say. Countless of my favorite Youtube videos are being taken down, and my favorite Youtube category (Reactions) are being seen as, no lives, bad content, no skill in youtube, and more. Although thats other peoples personal thought, lets talk about how they play into copyright. No joke right now, 100% of the reaction channels I subscribed to, and I subscribed a lot, (20) they are all being copyrighted, weather it was once, or multiple times, all of these have been striked, and this needs to end now. This need to end, and if we can do it, than I will do anything I can to end it.
I'm going to make this short. Many youtubers who obey all fair use laws are constantly being harassed about breaking the law, and they aren't. This a problem and needs to be fixed.
I process DMCA requests for my website, and I have zero way to validate the validity of any DMCA we receive. Worse, for falsely filed DMCAs, I have no way to counter them. One false DMCA can cause massive issues for my team and our users, it wastes our time, money and resources, and leaves a bad taste in the mouths of our users. We have no way to stop, verify or prevent false takedowns. It costs us money, can be used to silence critics and doesn't stop actual theft.
This is not something that just affects the U.S. it's something that goes on a global scale, many countries can be affected by this or something even similar, so it must be taken care of, and as asoon as possible so we can truly enjoy of a more open internet
Okay so yeahp. That's great. Less for me to type. But in my words: Here's the thing. This law is being used to put people's livelihoods at stake. To harass people. It's not fit for the age we're living in, and cannot continue as is.
I have compiled a playlist of videos that you will probably see sent to you a lot. These videos help you get a really good idea of how the laws are abused, and how people's lives are affected when they are abused. As I stated you will probably see these sent a lot. I hope this is not found to redundant or long.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXo0lrf8fSHURImYOtU9u3HDwm1YKh70-
I belive in this
its not fair that creators like teamfourstar, who have been creating content for seven years now to have that content be taken down all of the sudden on Youtube. creators like them and nostalgia critic are some of the funniest and creative people on the web and shouldn't have to worry so much about a copyright strike destroying their lively hood. #WTFU
As a content creator on Youtube, I have lost monetization on some of my videos that were parodies and commentaries, so therefore under fair use (stated in this article:http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/). This does not effect me that much because I don't have Youtube as a full-time job, but other content creators (that have youtube as a full-time job) that I strongly support have had much more serious things happen to them. The You-tuber I Hate Everything had his channel taken down by a false claim from a spammer (it was then put back up). Even though Youtube has the resources to punish that spammer, nothing has happened yet. Earlier, I Hate Everything made a review of the movie "Cool Cat Saves the Kids". The director of the movie took his review down despite it being under fair use. It took around a month for the director to be convinced that the review was under fair use. Many videos have either been taken down by false spammers, or other content creators who can't handle criticism or want to take advantage of smaller content creators. None of the people who file false copyright strikes get punished, and the money they take from the content creators never goes back. This needs to change so that creators can make a living without having to worry about everything that they've worked for possibly going away.
This system has been used to abuse and steal the DMCA is vastly outdated there wasn't YouTube or video sites on the Internet in 1998 I love YouTube and my favorite creators are being abused and stolen from we need to change this #WTFU
People are losing their jobs from companies completely ignoring Fair Use.
The current DMCA is woefully out of date and MASSIVELY abused by those who should not be doing so.
Nowadays it is been used by companies/individuals (most of the time without actually owning the copyright) to try and stifle free-speech, threaten, harass and/or block fair use, The DMCA need's to be changed to help the creators of content and to better define fair use.
Both for there protection of those who use YouTube/Twitch/Other sites who use the web for a living.
DMCA is to protect fair use and content creators and needs to be updated to protect content creator especially against those attempting to abuse DMCA.
This is a very serious problem for many creators who are being exploited by this flawed system.
The current DMCA laws are a threat to independent content creators on the Internet. Not only are they abused by copyright holders to stifle and suppress critics and competitors, they can also be used by false claimants to literally steal the income of creators. The Internet is suffering at the hands of an outdated law, and action has to be taken immediately to protect those who create not only as a hobby, but as a full time job.
They also harm fair Use, a lot of youtuber are pissed off, The DMCA Takedown need to end once and for all. People and corporations need to be held accountable for their actions, YouTube also needs to fix their copyright system because their Bot is spaming anyone who's doing a review or a game review. This has happen so many times that it's pissed me off. The Copyright Bullshit needs to end now!
As of this year. Also Trolls should have a strike on their accounts for abusing the system, there should be conceciences for people who do that.
Thats all I have to say.
I have seen people who have had an amazing impact on my growth as a person have their whole livelihood be threaten just because someone did not like their YouTube review of something. Those people who wanted to censer reviewers' negative comments on their products misused the systems put in place by the company Google to comply with the DMCA. They outright abused it.
The reviewers are in the right, but day after day they are stuck fighting an uphill battle to defend themselves from the very real possibility their channels could end up being deleted because someone is spiteful and could make several false DMCA claims against them.
I beg you all to take this very serious, because this isn't just a serious issue, it is an issue that has grown seriously out of hand.
Listen up guys, because you need to read this clearly down bellow.
So come on guys, help to fix this problem were in and set it right
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw just watch this video and you'll know how bad the system is
Even videos with no footage at all and are just people talking in front of a camera are susceptible to this broken copyright system. Fair Use is being taken down by those who wish to skimp money off of others by using a process akin to fraud as they falsely claim a video is theirs just to take all revenue from that content creator's video to where they cannot obtain recover that revenue nor can they get anything for at least 6 months.
This is something that needs to be stopped, especially for those whose job is YouTube, to where their income is being stolen by those who take advantage of a broken system is such a way that they cause harm to all others who use the site. Fair Use is the most important thing on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and any other social media. You take away their free speech and income, you are also hurting so much more than just a few people on the internet. You are hurting an entire culture and the future of content creation.
Cut this shit out.
Companies are using this law to take down reviews that don't portray their product in the way they want it to be, or to try and squeeze money out of content creators. Creators will dispute claims and prove that their videos fall under fair use only to have the company turn around and file yet another claim costing them more time and effort that should be spent else where. That is not what it was intended for and is just another form of censorship. Companies who don't even own the copyrights are flagging videos to abuse and exploit the law.
There have been way too many instances where a low-budget filmmaker or game developer issues a takedown notice on a critical video - the most notable including Digital Homicide's takedown of Jim Sterling's highly critical video detailing "The Slaughtering Grounds", or FUNCreators taking down TotalBiscuit's critique of "Guise of the Wolf". In addition, even when videos aren't taken down, some companies can steal ad revenue from videos that clearly fall under Fair Use.
This needs to stop.
Also the fair use law was made in 1998. How different were you, the government, the world, not to mention the Internet in 1998?
YouTube channels have had to deal with stupid copyright claims for ridiculous reasons, such as just showing 30 second clips of TV show episodes with no audio for review purposes, and one of them, being IHE, even got taken down for no reason! This type of behaviour is unnaceptable, and needs to be stopped immediately. I mean come, it's clearly just a cheap way of corporations making a easy Buck, and is worldwidely considered unacceptable, but they do it anyway because of some stupid and outdated copyright protection system!
I know that this is a drop in the ocean, but I'm going to continue to emphasis the point.
I am a fan of film, television and anything to do with this subject. Some of these are reviews and commentary of pre-existing content. All based on the policy of Fair Use.
As a young person growing up in the UK, I want to develop my literature skills and critical skills to improve my qualities to make films. However this is important for education as well. However currently the Fair-Use policy is being heavily discarded, ignored and abused by a few Youtubers. The problems relate to how Youtube is built around the Fair Use law, but also relate to how users abuse them.
Some of my favourite review channels such as 'Channel Awesome' 'I Hate Everything' and 'GradeAUnderA' are all channels that use fair use law. And they have been wrongly prosecuted by Youtube and abused by content creators abusing the Fair-use policy because they are unaware of how it works, or youtube does;t enforce it enough, and they can only do so much because they're only a business and the policy effectively routes down to the law. These channels have been prosecuted illegally while other channels that spam content, re-upload content that isn't theirs, or simply don't do anything transformative are left up and running, and youtube hasn't the power to change it by themselves.
The reason this is so important is because like I mentioned earlier, it is a huge part of our education. And surprisingly these channels, though Hyperbolic and small, actually help their young audiences develop opinions and views on how we see the world. Surprisingly these types of videos are extremely educational and sometimes do more than our own UK Education system. I have learnt a lot of critical skills from watching these videos and have thusly improved my English skills. This type of content is extremely important in building our future generations.
Fair-Use needs to be focused on a lot more so that more Illegal actions don't happen. Copyright on the Internet in general is a problem, when people re-upload other peoples videos to social media such as Facebook and our effectively stealing monetisation from the original creator, and because their is no updated focus on this, it continues to happen everywhere. This needs to change now, in America, UK and everywhere else in the World.
Lets make YouTube great again!
The law is outdated and does not take into account for the current technological and social state of the internet.
Simply put, It's the an outdated law that leads to anti-competitive methods of removing criticism for someone else's product. You can say "I don't like this thing" without getting a strike or take-down.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works,
I know that I personally have had many content creators that I thoroughly enjoy be harassed and harmed through abuses of the current copyright laws. The way they operate now is antithetical to the growth and development of our culture. Rather than protecting artists, they're used to stifle them and censor criticism.
These laws DESPERATELY need to be revised to better suit the internet as it exists today, and the free exchange of ideas that it is trying to foster.
The Dmca has helped but is really, really outdated and needs to be updated or rewritten for todays technology, (E.G. Online video platforms like YouTube / Facebook.)
Side note: Fix the revenue system by putting the claimed contents money in a separate account until it's resolved
DMCA as we know it today is outdated and needs reform. It's used to censor creativity and restrict what artists who make their name on the internet are capable of doing today. It was originally made to protect content on the internet, but in the nearly two decades since its creation, the internet has changed so drastically that DMCA is now used to hurt the very things and people it was made for.
Automated systems can be used to scan for and take down content with potential copyright infringement without any person having to weigh on the matter. This leads to a great deal of potential error as seen in numerous takedowns of legitimate (legal) content which intended no infringement, and in some cases do not even feature copyrighted material.
I, as a derivative content creator, must be very careful of what content I produce. Something as simple as showing footage of me playing a video game or listening to music is susceptible to a false copyright claim which offers me no recourse. People who monetize such derivative work face much greater risks, as a false DMCA claim may lead to content they are paid for being taken down at a moment's notice. This adversely affects the livelihood of many creative individuals on the internet today and this must be stopped.
I strongly suggest that DMCA laws be reviewed and such automated takedowns be discouraged to help prevent the problems discussed above. Further, I suggest individuals who knowingly abuse the DMCA system be penalized by law for attempting to disrupt the livelihood of dozens of individuals and corporations affected by false DMCA strikes.
Fundamentally, the DMCA system is a "guilty until proven innocent" system, and a society which embraced such a philosophy is *not* one we would want to be a part of or benefit from as a whole. The internet is a very important part of our current society. It is integrated into our daily lives. It is growing in impact every day, as more individuals turn away from traditional media such as cable television and look more toward social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter for news and video streaming services such as YouTube for entertainment.
Because of this importance and shift in the media paradigm, allowing the current DMCA "guilty until proven innocent" system to remain as it is will only stifle our free speech and ultimately our progress as a society. The simple truth is that we as a people and the internet especially have changed since the DMCA was put into effect, and that's why the DMCA must now change so that it works *for* the greater good, not against it.
I have seen time and time again that my favorite videos and content creators on YouTube get taken down for unfair copyright takedowns. Its time that this finally changes to where we can all be free to make/watch the videos we all want to see. #WheresTheFairUse
The copyright laws right now have not affected me personally, but they affected what I can watch and see. I'm watching reviewers, artists, and other creators are having their works taken by big companies who feel they can bully others into not making their voices heard or their faces seen. (How Derek Savage was able to take down multiple reviews of his movie Cool Cat Saves the Kids.) Other companies are claiming YouTube videos over and over again after they have been cleared because they can. (look into YouTube user MysteriousMrEnter's debate with the company that owns the cartoon Pixel Pinkie). Even on platforms like twitter I have seen companies like Konami copyright a fans original artwork for a metal gear game. The worst part is I don't believe all companies are now doing this to censor others, but to steal ad revenue. Some companies are claiming YouTube videos when they don't even own the copyrighted footage that is used under fair use law. (The Damn Daniel video by YouTube user IHateEverything, the company Merlin CDLTD has claimed many videos) There is now a business in stealing ad revenue from people's critiques, reviews, parodies, and art. Some companies can now blackmail users into giving them money or else have their channels (their livelihood) taken away. (Youtube user NFKRZ recieved an email asking for $1000 or they would flag three of their videos, effectively taking down their YouTube channel.) I don't want people to feel like their work can be taken from them at any moment or their words can be censored at the click of a button. I am pleading with whomever reads this, the system needs to be fixed. I've attached all the videos I've talked about down below and the YouTube user Channel Awesome who sent me here. If my words mean nothing to you maybe theirs will.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkcWbvnN0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjW0zbBS7so
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ZmVheuxpo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw
http://mmgn.com/ps4/news--konami-filed-copyright-claim-against-mgs-fan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtwVOZ0Yc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDhcrnmFXjs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScJk9bagNXE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSCSRNR-MFo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
Please protect us
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While I can't say I've experience copyright claims or take-downs (at least not since high school,) I've seen a lot of great Youtubers that I follow having to deal with these issues, and it would be sad to see them gone.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and t oo commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
It's time for this sort of abuse to stop, otherwise there is no point in making content on the internet if the laws created to protect the people simply don't work.
DMCA is being abused and needs to be reworked to punish or deter would be abusers.
The DMCA is ill-suited for the modern Internet as it stands today. For the most part, it is up to hosting websites such as YouTube to apply the DMCA in a manner which they feel is in keeping with the law. The issue is the DMCA is very vague on what qualifies as a Copyright violation in an age of online content creation. In the case of YouTube, any content can be claimed to be violating the DMCA, even if it contains no copyrighted material at all! Worse, YouTube's moderators will not even see the claimed material until the content creator contests the claim. During this time, the claimed video is inaccessible and the content creator is gaining nothing from his/her material.
This is especially problematic for gaming channels and reviewers, which rely on the Fair Use principle to maintain the legality of their content. Often, copyrighted content which is used in accordance with Fair Use is claimed anyway to censor negative feedback. Other times, individuals claim copyright over material used to take advertising revenue from the content creator. This revenue is not returned to the creator even if the claim is proved false by a host site's moderators. This is essentially theft, but is legalised by the vagueness of the DMCA regarding how host sites should take action.
A large issue is in regards to the very nature of the Internet and the DMCA. YouTube is used by content creators all over the world, but is based in the United States. This means if a foreign content creator wishes to exercise his/her rights as a content creator to contest a false copyright claim under the DMCA, he/she has to do so in a US court. This isn't practical for many, and even if the claim is clearly false, the content creator has a large barrier to being able to contest the claim. This essentially means that for many, such as poorer individuals in less-developed parts of the world (or, say, even a student in the United Kingdom), it is near-impossible for them to seek justice or redress under the DMCA: they cannot afford the travel costs, accommodation or legal representation. The DMCA was created to protect the content creators of 1998 (Corporations) but, in 2016, content creators can easily be individuals with a webcam, mobile phone, or even just an nVidia graphics card and free software available online - and they can be from any corner of the world. These newer content creators are unable to exercise their legal rights with the same ease as corporations under current US copyright law. The DMCA needs to be replaced with legislation which either gives much more specific guidance to host websites such as YouTube to protect the rights of content creators, or makes it easier for international claimants to appeal to the US courts for redress in cases of abuse without needing to pay for travel to the United States (the US legal system could perhaps utilise Internet technology to this end, allowing a creator to communicate with a judge in the US via webcam). Finally, the practise where fraudsters can falsely claim content and steal revenue from the original creators must be stopped. Host companies should be required to hold revenue until a claim is resolved and only then release it to the winning party.
Content creators all over the internet are constantly harassed and bullied by big-name companies under the premise of this outdated law. In a bid for more and more money, these companies censor and remove anything they deem to be "threatening" to their goal of monetization, while ordinary internet users and content creators suffer for trying to make an honest living entertaining internet patrons, and offering legitimate opinions and critiques of whatever subject matter they host.
""
DMCAs are being heavily abused and work seriously needs to be carried out to prevent further harm coming to the creators and distributors the law is designed to protect. DMCA takedowns are routinely being used as threats, harassment and censorship - this is especially true on YouTube at present but isn't limited to just this platform.
A major issue here appears to be that there is no penalty at all for filing false claims, meaning corporate copyright holders can freely send these out in full knowledge they hold no ground. They frequently do this to remove content or take revenue from the content creators (even if temporarily) and can only gain from doing so. This deliberate abuse of the system goes unpunished and is widespread.
I'm a parody maker and YouTube personality. Throughout my time producing content for free for three years, copyright claims have been thrown against my content time and time again, without warning or any fair judgement. All of my content abides by the laws of fair use, in which it adds value and commentary to the original content and adds commentary to events. The abusive copyright claims on YouTube have limited my content creative process and even kept me at points where I've been unable to use my account, all because of people and exploiters of the law who do not know the law properly. We hope to be able to have the law updated for content creators like myself, so that terms of fair use can be established on the internet, so there is a firm judicial set of rules that may aid those who want to create content, but fear that their content may be taken down over abusive and exploited policies.
Considering that this will more than likely get lost in the countless emails or messages you guys are receiving, I'll keep this fairly short. While I personally have never had a video taken down as a result of DMCA abuse, I know of several people who have, and it seems like it is becoming somewhat of a problem. I won't pretend I have any understanding of the legal business behind all this, but I will say it's wrong for people to have a way to take down content just because they have money or whatever. Thanks for reading,
- Tim
I want Youtube to be a place where no-one will be falsely copyright striked, and only the people that deserve it will get it.
For instance, several YouTube channels that have begun types of reviews for shows, referred to as "reaction" videos, have been attacked, sometimes by those that reside in countries that can skip past fair use, even if the person making the video is in the United States jurisdiction. There must be safeguards in place in order to protect these content creators, as they sometimes have no means to defend themselves, and many companies' first act is to issue a "copyright strike" that severely cripples a channel's ability to produce content, before that content creator is even allowed to prove their innocence. They would then have to wait a full ten business days to know whether or not a company will sue them from a "counter notice" before their channel is reinstated to normal. There has yet to be a case in which any counter notice was answered with a law suit, and the reason why should be obvious: they know they are wrong in issuing a notice in the first place, and they can get away with it because sending YouTube a notice is not the same as filing a real DMCA. This needs to be changed.
There is also the concern of lost revenue from content creators when there are copyright strikes against their content. Even if the content creator wins against the strike, all the lost revenue still belongs to the one who put the strike on their content during the period in which said content gained views. It is only after the copyright strike is resolved will the gain revenue by newer views on content. This is unfair to the content creator and completely favors the company and/or person who put a strike on their channel. Revenue gained should be put in a neutral party bank until the issue is resolved and the one who wins will gain all the money the video earned.
Many of my favorite YouTube users have suffered this sort of abuse most notably channel awesome's Doug Walker, in fact he made a video about which explains it better than I ever could here at http://channelawesome.com/save-fair-use-now/
The normal tice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Even though I am not a citizen of the United States of America, I feel that is important to take action in this matter. Why? Because many, many of the content I watch online comes from the United States. I do not want the Internet to be a place where creators are treated unfairly unless they have money, and this is why I want to express the following concern:
Creators are having their videos taken down on YouTube for nothing more than petty reasons or money and even when theres no media in the video to possibly implicate a creator ot is still taken down because of this old, archaic, broken system. This needs to be changed according to our time, 1998 was more than a decade ago. This needs to change
As of last year, a claimant, 放送コンテンツ適正流通推進連絡会 (Broadcast content proper distribution Promotion Coordinating Committee), has filed false Copyright takedown notices on 29 of my videos over the course of 2 months which resulted in my channel being taken down for 2 months before my counter notifications could be in effect. Today this same claimant has filed notices on 9 more videos across 2 of my channels. Every video I've ever posted follows the community guidelines to the letter and conforms with the requirements stated under the fair use clause of the Copyright Law. Youtube have left it up to the claimant to consider whether the use of material is is fair and this claimant has failed to do so in 29 instances and now seems to add 9 more. Youtube has claimed there are consequences for filling false claims so I implore you to prove it. This claimant has shown total disregard for the system and is blatantly abusing it to harras and censure youtubers like myself. I demand you take action against this entity and protect uploaders like myself who rigidly follow the rules and guidelines but are constantly under attack.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had direct effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The DMCA was introduced to protect copyright online, but it was written in the internet's infancy. The people who wrote it had no idea how the internet would change media. Thus, it should be updated with current internet use in mind.
Currently, the DMCA is abused by everyone--not just big corporations, law firms, and studios. No, anyone can file a DMCA takedown--even if they don't own the material in question. People are using DMCA takedowns to censor criticism, falsely make money from stolen ad revenue, or to take down videos, messages, or pages without any copyrighted material in them at all.
The DMCA was drafted out of good intentions, I'm sure, but it's clearly being abused. What's worse is there is no negative repercussions for filing a false DMCA; however, the damage caused to the victim is all too tangible: loss of income, media, and content.
I'm sure copyright law is complicated and fixing this mess won't be easy, but that's no reason not to try. Without a doubt, copyright needs to be protected online. We shouldn't throw the DMCA out the window, but we should amend it to reflect what we've learned in the past 18 years and make filing a DMCA become significant to the one filing it. Add fraudulent charges and fees for wasting people's time.
That's what I think. I hope you'll agree. Thank you for your time.
I am not a content creator, but I am a person who enjoys online reviews, particularly those that illustrate their points with brief clips from the movies they're reviewing. It's saddening that those videos are attacked without regard to Fair Use, and have virtually no defense against the system that's heavily biased in favor of the person filing the claims... even to the point of not requiring the claimant provide any proof that they have any legal claim to the material at all. And I find it personally offensive that some companies are even able to use the system to steal revenue from the online reviewers that make their living providing entertaining reviews.
The DMCA is an outdated piece of legislation which does not take into account the advancements, innovations, and scumbags that have risen to prominence in the past decade+.
Currently, the DMCA is used by very large, rich corporations to combat a number of small time content producers, while themselves ignoring Copyright law. This can be seen over the past several years, with instances such as the MPAA, a massive copyright lobbyist who quite frequently ignores fair use, stealing software: https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-steals-code-violates-linkware-license/. A few months ago, Warner/Chappel lost their claim to the song "Happy Birthday," which evidence reveals, they probably never owned. This did not stop them using the DMCA and other laws to pursue any user of that song in any setting.
The DMCA is simply broken. It is not a law for the American People. It is a law for the American Corporation and Stockholder. It does not improve innovation, it strangles it.
In your review of the DMCA, I urge you to repeal this useless law, and implement copyright change which will benefit the citizens of this country. We need consequences for fraudulent use of DMCA takedowns and legal actions. We need solid definitions for the people of this country to be able to watch legally purchased content rather than be forced to buy it on every platform of device they own. We need protections for content reviewers.
We need a law that works.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down any competition and STEAL money from innocent victims.
Balance is DESPERATELY needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
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As any content creator should know, they are at risk from having a source of income taken away from them because of how unfair "claims" are. No penalties are given for false claims and impacts anyone who decides to put any type of content, copyrighted or not. Legitimate claims are never complained about because they wouldn't threaten to have a channel taken down or remove someone's income. Even if they did, they at least have some credibility.
One MAJOR problem is content creators having their content stripped from the internet entirely with absolutely NO WARNING. If this can happen to one person who has done nothing wrong, it can happen to anyone.
It is unbearable to watch some of our favorite content creators to be stripped of having any sort of opinion, especially those who have demonstrated in the past that they would never try to hurt anything or anyone, but rather try to improve on some of our favorite aspects of our life.
There's a reason why it's FAIR use. When we're unable to stop this kind of abuse, the power of the internet will band together and make a change. Whether it be one person or ten thousand, the abuse needs to stop.
End this
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse. Companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
This current system is broken and is based on a fossil of a law that is in no way up-to-date with the current state of the internet. Companies, studios and many other malicious people out there have used this law to harass and bully online creators. In spit of the laws made to protect content creators who incorporate fair use, these companies and other entities continue to send DMCA take-downs to these creators on the internet in order to bully, harass, threaten and silence. People are losing their videos, channels and even revenue thanks to these individuals who are determined to bully and silence anyone they please. Change needs to happen and fair use needs to be taken much more seriously. These entities who abuse DMCA need to be put in their place and understand what they're doing is wrong, and even illegal.
People have filed claims on content they don't even own. DMCA's are being used to inflict harm on individual creators and they are being used to stifle free speech. People just talking on camera without using any copyrighted content are being taken down. Some companies even believe that they create the law. DMCA's are being used without factoring fair use, something that is DEFINITELY illegal as this was addressed during the case of Lenz v. Universal Music. DMCA's are being sent by shell companies to shield the companies sending the take-downs. People have used DMCA's as threats. Videos and channels are being hit with multiple DMCA's even AFTER they've been cleared of other claims.
A lot needs to be changed and we need change NOW. Where's the fair use?
And here's a more formal explanation of these events provided by this movement:
""
I am a student studying Engineering at Lincoln University in England, and part of my studies is understanding the boundaries of Copyright infringement within papers and dissertations etc. Whilst looking at these laws I also looked at the section regarding fair use, and as I am sure you are aware by now there are many cases in which fair use is in effect, but due to the DMCA people are able to remove these cases without evidence or fear of repercussions. Whether these people own the copyrighted material or not is apparently inconsequential, and uninvolved third parties are able to take away another persons livelihood. In short, this law enables criminal activity more than it prevents it in this day and age.
Granted, copyright laws must still be protected, and although the situation regarding the length of the copyright effect is asinine, Disney has a lot of money and I don't expect the greed of those in charge to dissipate overnight. However, this current situation damages publishers as well as customers, as it stifles free speech and prevents potential consumers from being able to trust a publisher, and thus will increase the period between a product or service being released and the consumer purchasing, whilst lowering trust in a publisher.
I'll admit, I do not know how to create a system that would reliably police the internet to separate the fair use from the infringement. However it cannot be done this way anymore, your government has passed a law that has negatively effected a culture due to its inadequacy to cope with recent developments, and thus it must be removed. The face of the internet changes rapidly, and it cannot be controlled the same way that the physical world can, and allowing big companies to control the decisions of those that make the laws cannot be tolerated, (i.e.. SOPA, PIPA etc.).
The system that creates the laws at current times is incapable of performing to the standard of most ordinary citizens with an education. Consider, for example, the state of affairs regarding global warming and its importance as seen by U.S. politicians, that plus the fact that Trump is running essentially solely on the virtue of being honest in saying that politicians lie, cheat and take bribes, and I don't think I need to say anymore. Whilst dishonesty will not be eliminated in my lifetime, I would hope at least that those in charge see fit to relinquish their dated views in certain areas of politics to those that understand them, in this case, allowing people who understand the culture of the internet to pass laws regarding it. Don't worry, if the mess up we'll let you know.
Because as ridiculous as it may sound, the internet offers solidarity far beyond that of country borders. Because the internet belongs to no country or state, it belongs to the people that dwell in it, that shape it every day. There will always be filth, nothing can change that, because if you try, you infringe on the peoples rights in other areas, and as the world moves further into the digital age, the power of the people grows much faster than any single corporation or government. As with any separate culture, the two must work together, not against each other.
This act of asking for the publics thought may seem good as a first step, but viewing the end goal, it's sorely lacking. This type of bill that effects a changing medium should be open to critique and reimagining at all times, and I'm afraid to say that you're going to have to learn to honestly admit your failures when they are presented to you, and work to improve, rather than doubling down on something that spreads dissent.
The internet is nothing like anything the world has ever seen before, and cannot be controlled using logic prescribed to other areas. The inters exists within your country, yet supercdes it. It has no physical military power, but has the capability now to bring an organisation to its knees, or start up a new one from nothing. Please take all this into consideration in the future when passing your bills, because its not just your citizens you effect, it's the people of the world now, and if we don't like it, we'll let you know.
I have been following the YouTube critic, TheMysteriousMr.Enter for 3 years and recently he, along with the Nostalgia Critic, Brad Jones, joshscorcher, Dr. Wolf, Your Movie Sucks, Mad Munchkin, Anime American, I Hate Everything, Boogie2988, Grade A Under A and AlphaOmegaSin, have been having their videos unfairly taking down by companies, who are trying to silence their criticism possibly for profit. I am sickened to see this happen and I wish for you to help end this and give them free speech again. #WTFU
The DMCA law is being heavily abused right now to take down things that copyright holders don't like. Even if the content has fair use of product, it will still get taken down if they don't agree with it. This is especially prevalent on youtube, where sometimes channels can get their videos taken down for just talking about something copyrighted, without any pictures or usage of the actual copyrighted thing at all. This is ridiculous and needs to be stopped now.
stop bogus DMCA takedowns and protect free speech!
Fair use is not being fairly represented underneath the current DMCA regulations.
People who make parodies, reviews, and other content that is filed under fair use are being punished and abused by the current system by companies who would like to see these videos/content taken down. The system favors the companies over the people.
The government is supposed to represent the people, not the companies. Some of the content being taken down does violate DMCA regulations, but a good number of content being taken down is completely within fair use. Rather then using it for it's intended purpose, companies are using the current system for censorship rather than legitimate reports of infringement.
Please seek to fix this error.
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So many people, Including myself (not to mention, bigger names like Lost pause, Natewantstobattle, Markiplier, Pewdiepie, Jacksepticeye, and even more people around the world, have been under attack by unknown groups who, by repetition, have continuously come back to youtube and twitter to destroy everyones hard work and time, by using the "DMCA" law to threaten and bully our idols! TAKE THIS DAMN LAW AND SHOVE IT DEEP INTO THE FIREPLACE!
I'm not a creator, I don't make things. But I watch a lot of things online. I've watched entire channels being destroyed by this law, I've watched Parody, Review and even informational thing being brought down, because things like YouTube decided to automate things according to this antiquated law. The Law itself is older than even YouTube, and currently copyright holders are using it to abuse them. An example was the takedown of both Yu-gi-oh the abridged series, and Dragonball Z the abridged series. Both were parody, OBVIOUS parody. But both were removed by copyright strikes repeatedly. Recently I've seen review sites getting taken down because the original content, say a video game or a movie, didn't like their review, so he hit them with a copyright strike. There needs to be penalties for false claims by Copyright HOLDERS, not just those who may or may not have broken copyright law.
I agree with all of these points, and would also add that under DMCA, it is in the interest of the hosting sites to take the standpoint that content creators are guilty until proven innocent with no trial and they must jump through a billion hoops to prove they are in the right. Then, another company or abuser files another claim on the same content and they process just restarts.
THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to EXTREMELY significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet. (Amen!) (Preach it!)
PLEASE change your ways, Internet.
This is taking away our freedom of speech.
This NEEDS to stop.
We can't just sit by and let greedy companies steal from us.
That's just flat out ILLEGAL.
It's time our voices are heard.
TL;DR some of these copyright holders are assholes that make false claims.
Update this system to modern times, and leave 1998. Many innocent people are punished for no genuinely legal or legitimate reason. Allow people's voices to be heard and stop this unfair and punitive censorship.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor, threaten, exploit, or bully content creators without regard for fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Its a really big problem.
I live in Belgium and have been negatively affected by this system, it is important to me that US legislators and anyone involved realise that this decision influences more than just the USA. As I'm writing this, the site I'm using is lagging like crazy, and any video sending me here were lagging to a similar amount. This leads me to believe that there are corporate parties at work, trying to make me not say what needs to be said. This campaign has largely flown under the radar due to proven corporate influence aswell. I wish to state my abhorrence towards this unspoken policy that anyone with enough money is allowed to influence so much.
The inhibition of honest, hard-working content creators to release the content that they want to while following general laws of fair use in the current age of the internet is a terrible tale of abuse and mistreatment.
Those who release content to excited consumers are being punished for no good reason. It is terrible. Large companies and even some individuals are cheating the system and abusing the abilities that they have to cause adored content to be limited, de-monetized, or just taken down entirely, with no repercussion. It's sickening to see people doing good work, even making a living off of the good, honest work that they do, have to deal with constant legal difficulties just to have their content remain in existence for fans to see.
My own knowledge of the subject is mostly restricted to Youtube, but I could easily recall more than a few videos that I enjoyed watching, and even decided to watch repeatedly, be taken down due to copyright claims that were entirely false. Such acts are a violation of free speech. They keep voices from being heard, and keep those affected from being able to earn a living doing what they enjoy. It is horrible and devastating and it needs to stop.
I am writing as a Canadian, hoping that the words of all those affected by these rules may somehow be brought to attention in America, because I cannot stand to see the country continue to punish so many of its innocent people. Thank you.
Honestly, content creators that use material protected by fair use are being harassed by companies and third party companies to take down fair content and give up their livelihoods. These companies will even take advantage and flag content that is full of user created material. It is ruining creativity on the internet. Please, please update the DMCA to protect content creators and critics who should be protected by fair use.
There have been far too many abuses from the DMCA. Fair use is what is under constant attack, not the copyrights belonging to major corporations. It astonishes me how many times the DMCA is used to try to censor people who have an opinion that doesn't fall in line with what someone else thinks. Overall this law does more harm than good. It needs to be changed to account for the Internet of today and should be reviewed on a regular basis to make sure it is aging properly as the Internet continues to grow and change.
Bring the DMCA into the 21st century! Fix a broken thing, make it something that HELPS people not hurts them.
To Whom It May Concern:
In summary, the DMCA needs to be revised to truly protect peoples' right to free speech. It needs to be the foundation of a system that is structured around fairness, respect, and equal accountability on all parties involved, especially from the those that seek to abuse the it for objectively negative purposes. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Michael Green
YouTube as well as creativity on the internet as a whole is the future of our media and entertainment. The artistic greats of the 21st century MUST therefore have a legally fair and safe environment in which this new era of entertainment can grow. But that new era of media/entertainment will be all but an impossible ' what could've been' idea if we let the DCMA smother this new era in its crib.
Not only this, but as more and more creators increasingly depend on their livelihoods from YouTube, we must ensure that food is not snatched from their tables nor clothes off their backs because they lost monetization from a completely unfair strike on their channel.
As a very frequent watcher of YouTube and someone who is impressed DAILY by the incredible work and innovation I see from my favorite creators, it outright disgusts me that these brilliant people are essentially being PUNISHED for laying the groundwork for the future. Let's hope this doesn't continue.
It's not 1998 anymore. Stop this BS.
Content creators, who are following the law of fair use get taken down by big businesses because they talk about their movies. The system to take action against copyright infringementer is hugely in favor for the companies, and not the small creators. Please have a look at this on websites like youtube, so the freedom to express opinions and to make videos under the fair use law on the internet stays intact. #wtfu
Author's note:
Entities like Derek Savage and everyone who launches copyright strikes at creators like TheMysteriousMrEnter and Jim Sterling have cemented my anger towards this outdated law. Please do something about it.
There's very little, if any, human element in these copyright claims. No algorithm is perfect in judging whether something fits the "fair use" criteria, and as such, far too many content creators receive undeserved copyright "infringements."
Appealing the charge also lacks any human interaction, as again, the entire process is automated and doesn't include human representatives as a contact. Communication is impossible.
Furthermore, content creators who make videos for a living (I.e. get paid for doing this) get disproportionally penalized for a copyright strike. They can revive no monetization for *any* of their contributions so long as they have that copyright strike. Instead, the party who filed the strike gains all of the monetization that creator while have reduced in that time period - even if the conflict is resolved.
In short, these copyright "laws" are incredibly biased towards the corporate companies who created the source material and have to be rectified. These companies cannot accurately recognize fair use where implemented. When they file a claim, whether legitimate or not, the process to appeal the claim is unreliable and lacks any human contact, all while the affected party suffers too harsh of penalties.
This comment I fully support and believe in. Please make changes to the DMCA!
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Come on government listen to our pleas. Look around the internet and you'll see the consequences of fair use on Youtube. Channels like I Hate everything, Jim Sterling and many more are being affected by DMCA takedowns. Weather it being companies silencing critics or think that they own the so called, "fair use" law. I could rant forever, but I shouldn't have to. This should have been fixed from the start. So I ask you help fix the Fair Use law on the internet. ;(
The internet is quickly becoming a way for an individual to make a living, sometimes through fair use videos. For a corporate copyright holder to use the notice-and-takedown process to remove a video that is in fair use because of a comment that is negative or is unappealing to that corporate copyright holder is unfair and goes against the first amendment.
Why in this free country are people being robbed of their revenue without any action?!
I have known numerous channels that have been wrongfully removed that were within fair use. They made new channels and posted their old videos to the channel and are currently still receiving false claims on their videos and still haven't violated YouTube's privacy polices. This system is abused, and will continue to be done unless a change is made and needs to be dealt with or many YouTuber's will continue to suffer for false allegations that are Fair Use. Thank you.
This itself has affected me directly, and multiple times, so much so that I've stopped attempting to produce commentary and materials on my own for use on the internet because of this system. Nearly every video and creation I've had, which has fallen sternly within fair use, I've had to deal with automated and nonsensical claims. Claims on music within the video, by companies that are not even close to being the ones creating it, and in one instance, the same sections of music within a game I am commenting upon being claimed by two different entities, claiming that a five second section, as well as a one second section of music are enough to claim copyright violations by an automated system. Filing a DMCA is a legal document, and as such carries the heavy weight of law with it, and yet this very thing is tossed about without a single person looking at the results or taking responsibility for it.
It has effectively become a tool to silence more then it has been a tool to uphold the rights of the copyright holders, and unless clear change is made, and itself addressed, it will continue to be so. Right now, I could file a DMCA takedown on a video created by yourselves with nothing but a spokesman for yourselves speaking in front of a black screen, and you would have no recourse but to wait 30 days for me to respond, if I bothered, and I could continue to do this, indefinitely if I create more false accounts to do this on various forums of communication.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
YouTube is under assault by false copyright claims, and an outdated copyright system that needs revision. Virtually anyone can file a claim to steal monetization, and even if the claim is overthrown, there is no punishment for filing the claim. Companies use this to bully creators and reviewers alike, and to suppress freedom of speech. The whole system is automated, and it is nearly impossible to get ahold of a real person, meaning there is little to no verification to these claims. This needs to be revised.
Content is being blocked and peoples livelihoods are being impacted do to outdated laws and programs.
Claims are able to be filed with no proof and our freedom of speach is being threatened. Please take time to re think this bill. We need our freedom back in a way that is just and can not be abused but those who wish to steal add revenue.
Also THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED NOW.
The dmca takedown from my perspective has been beyond an affair ranging from taking down someone's video just because the fact of the matter that used game play of the game that they have bought in their video or something to his ridiculous as just being mentioned and the video or using music in the video claiming it was monetization off of their product. Me personally I'm not attacked by this system but a lot of my favorite content creators constantly have some of their videos taken down and unwatchable because of the dmca takedown. I understand the needs to be a system in place to prevent people from having their content and intellectual property abused but at the same time it creates a system and that allows for those very same content creators to abused it and make false claims that are held as true until seen as otherwise. In this day and age YouTube is filled with people who make their living, but even regardless of that it is selfish, and wrong to abuse such a system and to let it go on would be an even further betrayal to those its meant to protect.
I have seen many of my favorite Youtubers and content creators be held accountable for copyright violation when they have done nothing but follow the guidelines of fair use. This needs to stop so that everybody can live in a world of fair use.
I Have seen literally thousands of videos taken down that where in fair use. But were not treated as such. I have seen fan videos, reviews that voiced the people's thoughts, videos that showed the delight of of people, and in creative ways. And I have seen so many of them taken down I could not count. But the reason is usually the same. Company's that either abuse or ignore fair use altogether. THIS NEEDS TO STOP NOW. HEAR OUR VOICE REWRITE THIS OLD FOSSIL OF A BILL FOR OUR NEW AGE OF ADVANCEMENT. Please we implore you. Thank you for your time.
Many great youtubers and hard working YouTubers are affected by this everyday. Where The Fair Use?
stop bogus DMCA takedowns and protect free speech!
The process that is being used now is dated and easily abused the amount of ridiculous claims that I have seen is laughable there is a YouTube personality who's channel is called Chibi Reviews and about 2 - 3 months ago he had a video of his claimed where he was simply in his front yard with no music or anything it was just him speaking and even that video was claimed. There has also been many other issues on his channel where he has had other ridiculous claims on him but this was one of the most unbelievable. So in conclusion i encourage you to review the system as it currently is and look into making something more reasonable and suitable for the way the internet is now.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
In addition to all of this, there are people on the internet who make these videos for the sake of entertaining there followers. Having a video taken down because it includes something offensive towards a director or film producer is just wrong. There isn't a balance between the Youtubers and the Companies that own the merchandise the Youtubers are critiquing, and I can see why some of these videos can offend the owners of the merchandise, most of the time the people reviewing the stuff have valid points and state the facts which some directors/companies can't handle.
This needs to stop.
I watch the mysterious Mr enter and he was been a victim of the out dated law in most of his videos. But one is huge pixel pinkie review he is getting money stolen from him. Stop the abuse! Also if this is April fools joke I will be upset.
The curren't legislation/system allows for content owners to censor and potentially take/deny revenue from indeviduals/organisations without due prosses for the claim taking place. This allows claiments to censor negative or critical content of their product, organisation, ideas , ect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI please, #WTFU
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automatic mated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The internet is quickly becoming the dominant medium in entertainment. These outlandish DMCA takedown practices are simply companies struggling to resurrect their dying entertainment industries. I have no doubt that some copyright abuses occur; however, the process is heavily imbalanced in favor of the large entertainment companies, and abuses of the system are rampant. I am not a content creator, but I enjoy a wide variety of YouTube channels that deal with copyright struggles on a daily basis. These creators deal with the removal of videos, lost revenue, and some even have their channels shut down with no clear path towards restitution. This is a clear abuse of power, and it needs to stop. Update the DMCA to reflect the world of internet freedom in the 21st century.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
Because of this issue, my favorite entertainers on various media sites such as YouTube are being forced to change their content in order to keep their media channel from being taken down. Most of these entertainers struggle to keep their content within the Fair Use Act and are being falsely accused of Copyright Infringement by individuals who are looking to acquire the content creator's earnings from Monetizing their videos. Content Creators are being denied their rights for free speech and fair use due to YouTube having a Machine-run System that keeps track of copyright infringement as well as how many infringement notices, "Strikes," that the Content Creator is allowed before completely taking down His or Her channel. Again, the content creator strives to keep his or her work within the Right of fair use and they continue to be falsely accused by Copyright Holders, and individuals who claim to be from the company that owns the rights to the source material that the Content Creator is Satirizing. As an example, one famous Online Entertainer, The Cinema Snob, was involved with a Copyright Infringement situation to which he and another friend of his were in a car, after a cinematic premiere, and talked about their opinions of the film after just seeing it, he was accused by an individual who claimed to be a Copyright Holder for the studio and falsely accused them of copyright infringement and was issued a "Strike" by YouTube's Copyright System, no footage of any kind for the movie they were talking was shown, it was just the group sitting in a car, talking about a movie. Some companys that make Copyright Infringement Accusations on content creator's believe that they can create and enforce their own laws. There needs to be massive changes to the DMCA Act, it allows for almost any individual to Swindle Monetization Earnings from any content creator on any online media website. So I leave you with this one question that basically summarizes the issue, Where is the Fair Use?
The abuse of the DMCA by many more known inviduals against less known ones leads to great harm to the internets purpose: being a place of equality, allowing everyone to share their creations to anyone they want and express their opinios on a daily basis without getting restricted by abusers of the DMCA.
As it is right now the DMCA is way past criminal levels of abuse. I understand that companies are concerned about piracy and people making money off of their hard work. However, when someone can get their video taken down for little more than talking about a movie, when all they did was film themselves in the parking lot after the fact, things need to change. This similar to arresting Roger Ebert for what he did ALL THE TIME with no actual cause other than he gave a movie a bad score.
WHERE'S THE FAIR USE???
I want to protect our ability as fans to produce content that is not being used to monetize, in order to perpetuate healthy and lighthearted appreciation of our favorite shows, movies, or other media.
I make music, parody songs, and DMCA takedowns result in harassment and revenue that I should be able to accrue with my creative parodies, which fall under fair use.
There is no punishment for false claims of fair use.
It happens too much that people STIFLE free speech by claiming copyright for something that is legal for me to use as parody, which clearly falls under Fair Use.
There seems to be no punishment for persons who waste time by filing claims when they have no rights to do so, don't own the content, or are just offended by someone else's ability to be creative.
Companies nowadays abuse the loopholes in youtube's system in order to silence small youtubers and even larger ones such as Nostalgia Critic, Channel Awesome, and youtubers such as Lovelyti amongst others. For example, such youtubers can get a takedown notice just because the company does not agree with a review (totalbiscuit on youtube got his video taken down because he'd given a negative review on a famously horrible game). Instead of taking this to heart and trying to fix the game or try harder on the next one, the company in question decided to issue a takedown notice even though totalbiscuit's video was under fair use. Issues like this are not isolated and action should be taken to help and protect the content creator since for some this is their livelihood and just because it takes work and time to create content such as this. Please consider this issue as we the people have been complaining about companies abusing the system for years. Thank you.
Corporations are playing you and everyone else for chumps. They take down anything and everything cause they can, and steal revenue from creators. Don't let them make a mockery of you with impunity.
To whom it may concern,
Thank you for your time,
Miguel Arellano
I am a up coming YouTube content creator, and I have seen many a channel taken down for so-called "copy-right infringement" for no obvious reason other than an over-zealous company wanting to "protect" their intellectual property, even some critic channels have been hit because they had clips of certain scenes. In this type of climate I'm afraid to make content because of the outdated laws and how defenseless I am if I decide to post my reaction to a controversial movie and include clips for examples, or game-play, and my critique on any game I may be playing, these are dark times for content creators in the sense that simply saying a name involving with the intellectual property of any company can result in an unfair, and unjustified take-down. Where is the fair use if I can't share my ideas, beliefs, or stories on a creation meant to share just those things?
I've seen innocent YouTube channels hit with copyright claims and strikes that are more out of spite than copyright violations. This is being done by these companies with no punishment or oversight whatsoever. Controversies have been caused and even a lawsuit is underway by a company that doesn't understand that criticism and commentary is protected under Fair Use. And with each channel that gets hit with an unnecessary claim or strike that I find out about, it only depresses me further.
Please do something to protect these channels who are hit by these irresponsible companies and please establish penalties against those who use the law for their an useful purposes.
The current DMCA assumes guilt by default and hinders education, free expression, and legitimate use. Please take the thumb off the scales.
Michael Tyner, OD
704 Brookwood Village
Birmingham AL 35209
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The DMCA takedown process has not been updated to account for modern technology and today's internet. Instead, it's process is being used to destroy content creators who should be protected under fair use.
A few of the issues we have seen on YouTube, a video publishing platform:
- Too many false DMCA claims
- Being used to stifle free speech and hurt unique content creators
- Videos of people that are just talking on camera without any copyright footage or music are being taken down
- They are being used without factoring in fair use
- They are being used by shell companies to defend and shield the companies sending the takedowns
- DMCA takedowns have been used inappropriately when combined with illegal expectations and threats
- Videos are being hit multiple times with DMCA takedown requests even after they've been cleared
- DMCA takedown requests have resulted in lost revenue for creators when they should have been protected under fair use
The DMCA is a very important law that was implemented to stop any person from using content made by others unlawfully but is now quite outdated since it implementation and is being abused by huge companies who see the law as a way to manipulate people and silence content creates from their opinions that they did not like due to it being negative which is not fair.
I've seen a video containing public access music be taken down by people who used that public access music in their own songs.
Content they didn't create; but claim ownership of.
If this is allowed to continue; there will be no reason to respect copyright on the internet.
While I am not a creator of media, I do feel that the current DMCA practices should be reviewed so that creators can at least defend their position if they happen to be accused of copyright infringement. As it currently stands, it seems like anyone can make a copyright claim just because they do not like what the creator has said.
As an internet user from out United States, this affects me in a different way. As a citizen from another country, I am beign damaged from an another's country system, and I don't have the tools or rights to fight for a change. I feel that if a new system is created, it must have in consideration the international factor and the intarnational law.
Thank you very much.
A video I posted on my original YouTube page of me and my father fencing on my birthday was taken down because the description referenced the Highlander franchise,
I think that Hollywood should work together whit the Internet. There are so much hollywood can learn from the online media where pacenet movie lovers can learn film makers what they can do to be even greater film maker. Listen to others criticism on your movie so you know what you can improve on your next movie. There is a difference between pirating and fair use, pirating is wene a non copy right holder just use the copy righted material and makes money but fair use is freedom of speech, when people come from all over the world and share opinions whit etch other. And hollywood don't realize that they are making people jobless whene they take down YouTube channels and take the money from the content creators, becuse so many people do this for a living. I have been wanting to be a film reviewer like many YouTubers, but all this shit whit studios having no respect for fair use and taking down channels have made me afraid. But not any more, becuse everybody deserves freedom of speech. I am Ozoner and I ask "Where is the fair use". #wtfu
I am sick and tired of seeing youtubers who make high quality content have their channel hurt by companies with petty grudges. There are admittedly people who take advantage of fair use, but that does not mean that the system should be stacked against the content developers such as the Nostalgia Critic, Mr. Enter, Youtube Poopers, and many others. Stop this craziness now.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The notice-and-takedown process puts important types of content at risk such as political speech, legitimate criticism, and other forms of free speech. Such takedown measures can be catastrophic for small businesses, career politicians, and those who otherwise have legal and legitimate points of view to share.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One possible means of creating said balance is to implement a review board or task force to review potentially infringing content. This change can be funded by a small fee to take down the content aimed at the person or company which is claiming copyright which would be imposed after the review. If a potential copyright holder is posting many notices they could be charged said fee after a threshold of notices is reached. This fee system would be free to post, inexpensive for legitimate copyright holders, and would discourage those seeking to profit from the current system.
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The internet is the most important tool in the Human Hystory for people to get informed, share experiences, have fun, share world knowledge. DMCA is outdated, damaging to the new and fresh creators, ideas, and projects, not only in the US but the rest of the world.
I would like to add that Copyright abuse has effected me personally, as I've seen channels I love taken down for unfair reasons, and I'm afraid to post art projects I've done, music I've created, and animations I've spent hours and hours developing, just because someone might strike a false claim against me.
It is wrong that it is so easy to get a video taken down, but nearly impossible to get it put back up. This is un-American; we have a right to be innocent until proven guilty. This system is fully Guilty until proven Innocent, and is easily abused. People who don't have any sort of claim to the content can easily claim the monetization of creators, and this is absolutely wrong.
Thank you for your time.
I have personally seen many of my favourite content creators have their work falsely claimed by copyright holders tying to stifle criticism and even take money from wholly original works as well as those that should be protected by fair use. It is far too easy for copyright holders to issue a false DMCA takedown which are then far too difficult and time consuming to repeal for those content creators which affects their livelihood as well as my experience as a content consumer.
This needs to stop. Companies are abusing this and taking down people's content on the web without actually owning the content themselves. As a creator I know how hard it is to create content and would greatly appreciate this getting looked at.
False DMCA claims have impacted myself and other content creators immensely. False DMCA claims have resulted in loss of revenue that some of us live on, and this cannot keep happening. This can't happen just because studios can't take criticism. This can't happen to those who aren't infringing on using copyright when using copyrighted material, or even when it's not. These people cannot bully us just because they don't like what we say. This cannot keep happening because its taking away our first amendment.
The DMCA is being used to abuse, harass, destroy, and steal revenue from content creators. Time and again, content that falls well under fair use is stricken down or monetization stolen, because companies and people don't like what they have to say or simply want some free money with no effort required.
It's too easy for these people to make these false claims, and too little the creator can do to fight back. There's no punishment for abusing this system and there should be. Instead, as it stands only the content creator is harmed. The abuser always walks away clean. This needs to stop.
A few years ago I tried to make some videos on YouTube. It was nothing relevant, they were about games in general, but those who attained even a minor number of views they were immediately taken down by copyright claims from companies I've never heard of or I knew they weren't involved with the content in any way.
A friend of mine was also in a similar situation, his videos got blocked in some countries for unknown reasons, when we were absolutely sure that that kind of video was completely fine.
This caused both me and my friend to stop making attempts at videos on YouTube altogether, because fake copyright claims hit most of our videos and we could do nothing about it.
The DMCA infringes on the rights of content creators of the internet, as well as the average citizen of Earth. It shows that big corporations can overshadow what America was building its foundation upon: Freedom.
Obviously, there are limits to this, but not the limits that restrict entertainers in modern times. Even as a teenager writing this, I'm appalled at this fallacy America has proudly worn like our patriotic flag of democracy. The outdated DMCA needs to be revised for the sake of our working class.
Because despite what some may believe, people from all around the world are creating jobs not only as entertainers, but also as a necessity for other jobs in the work force. And if the wondrous internet can update the workforce, why can't the law that protects us from those that abuse it? This archaic law needs to go or to be updated from version 1.998 to version 2.016.
Please, American law is essential for the world, since we are the hub of several lawful practices that promises to strike down abusers of copyright laws. America is better than this.
I know it.
Not to mention. The fact of the the matter is that normal content creators are being robbed. They spend time and effort to make a career out of making entertainment for people. And the big name corporations have the money to push away the little guy...just prove the American dream isint dead please!!!!
Suggestions for laws to fix this disbalance are laws where companies can be penalized for false claims but not so big of a punishment that they are scared to take legimt claims. The dcma and fair use are good but out of date laws. We need a update that dose not hinder development
I find the current DMCA, as it is written, offers too much leeway to giant corporate entities with money to fight and censor those who disagree with them. No longer is it being used to protected strictly copyrighted content. I think the DMCA needs to be updated for what is fair to take down, and there needs to ways for those who are affected by the DMCA takedown notice to fight back and seek restitution. All those who file DMCA claims need to be able to be legally prosecuted and punished severely for filing false copyright claims.
As it is, videos can be taken down with little to no warning, even when it is clearly in fair use (such as critique or satire), this needs to be ramified so that even the 'little guys' are treated fairly, so the fair use law is followed, even by corporations who right now are often abusing their power. They need to be held liable for following fair use laws, and it should not be so easy to take down someone's content without some kind of neutral (human!) third party looking at the content before any content is allowed to be taken down.
As this is currently the case, it leaves too much room for abuse, and lowly content creators have very little recourse, and often lose revenue they should not be losing, while companies are profiting off of revenue that is not theirs.
My favorite online movie critics like Nostalgia Critic and YourMovieSucks are under attack from major movie studios. I think this is ridiculous because what the critics are doing falls under fair use and is perfectly legal. Also, some of these critics monetize off of the content they create, but 3rd parties are falsely filing copyright claims against them and the claimants get to keep the money made off the reviews and this is illegal because anyone can file copyright claims on their reviews and get their ad revenue no questions asked.
I would like the DMCA policies to include YouTube because this is starting to become harassment and I would like the critics to get their ad revenue and stop being attacked by movie studios for something that is legal.
As a consumer of entertainment I have seen dozens of stories, both from people I enjoy listening to and others in secondhand, of DMCA being horribly abused by both companies and individuals. These attackers have used the outdated rules and loopholes of the DMCA to both steal money from those who rightfully earned it as well as to silence criticism that they don't like. The dishonesty and frank disrespect these actions show to the content creators affected is completely disgusting, crossing both the moral line and the line that would be considered illegal in any other medium of business.
Beyond that are misuses and misunderstandings of the law by foreign companies and powers who apply their laws laws and interpretations to what is, in the end, an American company beholden to American laws. People both in America and abroad need to be informed of how this sort of thing truly works and that misuse harms everyone in the long term, not just content creators.
To whichever lawmaker or Congress person happens to read this, please take the feedback of people and advisers into account when acting upon this issue. Do not allow yourselves to be swayed by corporate lobbyists into serving their interests over those of the common person. That road leads only to further splitting of American into distinct social and economic classes, as well as trampling on the rights that people should reasonably expect from a business and utility they use so often.
The livelihoods of many people are put in jeopardy by this predation from unscrupulous sources, and that needs to come to an end.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely, A Concerned Citizen.
from my personal standpoint, the exploit(s) that are commonly used by corporate, and personal entities, have not greatly affected my ability to create youtube content, i have seen it affect a great many bigger youtube personalities, and channels. while these people(s) have been able to get these matters resolved, that fact that this system, put in place to ensure that the legitimate rite(S) holders, and the creators know what goes to whom, still renames in existence, in its exploitable form will only serve to be used as a tool by those who see no malice in exploiting the creative work of others, and will stifle what may be one of the most creative communities on the internet.
I've been a YouTube content creator for over 6 years, and I've had a lot of problems with false DMCA claims. Under the current system, lots of companies have abused copyright law to steal revenue dollars from my original videos. A few of my friends have had their channels taken down due to automated take downs, which has severely crippled their revenue stream and audience growth. This may seem trivial, but for the channel creators this can put their livelihood in extreme danger, and destroy the efforts of countless hours and resources.
So I implore you to make the DMCA take down process more fair for artists struggling to make a living using online ad-revenue. It's a difficult situation with lots of subtleties and grey area, but I think that giving negative consequences to those who post false claims would discourage the rampant abuse of the copyright system today, and help support creators and the tenets of free speech.
Thank you very much for your time.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Have you ever heard of #WTFU? It's a movement for fair use. People have been abusing fair use on sites like Youtube. It's lead to people losing their revenue for videos. Imagine if you worked for a month, and someone said that you stole their idea for work, (which you did not) and took all of your money. Or, if someone threatened to get you fired if you did not PUBLICLY SHAME YOURSELF FOR HAVING AN OPINION. Think about it. It's wrong, sickening, and disgusting. Stop this. It's horrible, and people are losing jobs and being harassed, sometimes to racial and sexual levels. This needs to end NOW.
All that this is going to do is hinder the creativity of everyday people and give more power to money hungry corporations. That simply isn't right.
People shouldn't be afraid to post videos just because some big company (or troll for that matter) wants to pick on the little guy.
Fair use was implemented for a reason.
What needs to be done is having those big, abusive corporations penalized for making a false takedown. Its only fair.
I just want to be able to produce content in a fair way and not be afraid my creativity will be limited and what not.
Youtube and places like it are bastions for free speech, ideas and expression of all kinds. These ill-conceived systems are in great need of an overhaul, and human intervention. They are too easily abused with little to no consequences for the abusers, and discourage content creators from expressing their ideas and making content. Please look into rectifying the DMCA act.
DMCAs are not just being used to take down content that falls under fair use, they are being used to take down completely original content, often by small creators. On January 6, 2016, mjd7999, a small YouTube creator with just over 3000 followers, received a copyright takedown notice for his Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 Tutorial. The video was a tutorial demonstrating how to set up Windows XP which he had recorded and narrated over himself. The copyright claim was filed by a so-called Kevin McAllister from DigitalRiver Distribution. The claim was submitted from a Share email address, meaning that the copyright takedown request was sent from a public school based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Furthermore, no such Kevin McAllister works at DigitalRiver Distribution - it was a fake name. Not only was the copyright takedown notice over a video that was completely original, but the person who sent the claim was an imposter who was pretending to work at DigitalRiver Distribution, one of Microsoft's affiliates. However, I knew someone who was an admin of the Share domain the email address was using, and they repealed the claim. YouTube did not take any action.
Also my personal opinion is that many of the people that are getting taken down by fair use are completely within it's realm, meaning that if the case was to go to court it would be another precious day wasted where you could be finding a real criminal, not someone who is just attempting to make a living off of making content for other peoples enjoyment. Doing so could end up saving everyones time and money because as mentioned some people make a living off of what they make, what would happen if your only job just kicked you out for a completely invalid reason? And then fire other people for other completely invalid reasons? Would you continue saying that you're the one at fault or would you begin to think that the company is the one at fault?
I'm using music in my videos that were previously available for fair use back in 2008, however now I'm getting copyright warnings, WTFU?
The copywrite system is being used to abuse,herrase,and threaten content creators.
USA legislation (the DCMA in particular) has enabled bogus copyright claims (i.e. copyright claims against original creations) as a tool to remove political commentary videos from Youtube and other such web sites that are made by people from outside of the USA about events and people from outside of the USA. Ironically some of these videos are concerning freedom of speech.
Because many of the key websites for the planet are run from the USA this is an issue that extends far beyond your legislative boundaries. I do not believe that protecting one nations "intellectual property" is worth shutting down global debate.
In recent years the DMCA has done more harm than good, it has been abused heavily by corrupt governments, corporations, and miscreants to censor free speech, punish fair use, and bully people who have done no wrong. The law needs to change to reflect the internet of today and to support both creators and consumers. I appreciate wanting to protect the intellectual property of artists and content creators, but this law is ill-defined for the modern era of social media.
Video release authorities must provide an investigation into DMCA takedown requests, and ensure the validity of the content holder's claim.
All content release authorities must follow the new DMCA regulations we have proposed for ensuring the security of user's content ownership and preventing abuse of sharing systems.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. At the same time, there is no consequence for abuse of this system, which creates a chilling effect.
Multiple small businesses have had revenue claimed through a flawed system, denying them the ability to express legitimate criticism and insight.
The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Videos on YouTube that do not show copyrighted content and only feature someone giving their own opinion on that content have been removed unlawfully. Other videos that actually feature the entire copy written content (with edited lighting) are still up on YouTube without repercussions. Copyright holders should focus on attacking those videos instead of videos that use the content fairly for reviews.
The DMCA is a 28 year old law policing copyright on the internet. In internet terms 28 years is centuries old. The issue with it in place today, is the internet is the engine for which free speech and free expression comes to birth in the mainstream, and it is being crushed by an outdated system.
I personally have not only had my revenue unjustly interrupted, and essentially stolen, but also had my free speech taken away by companies who are IRONICALLY, using a system that was intended to protect Fair Use, to actually railroad Fair Use. I really hope for the sake of the law, free speech and common sense this DMCA situation can be updated. Thank You.
Please excuse the mass emails you will be receiving that match the body of the following text below, but we as consumers all feel we need you to understand what we are facing and all of the points below are something we can stand behind.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Outside of the takedownabuse.org message, I'd like to add how even when the law states that those who abuse the DMCA takedown policy must also be held liable for false accusations, no DMCA abuser actually has been held liable for their actions. Instead, once the DMCA has been fought against by a content creator, that company can then reissue another DMCA from another company name (that may claim to either represent them) knowing full well they have just been proven wrong only to put the content creator through that mess all over again. If the content creator proved their content abides by the law, that video should not be susceptible to any more DMCA takedowns.
There have also been instances where corporates were able to mass takedown videos via DMCA solely because it uses tags in relation to the copyrighted content, which is ridiculous. Reviews showing no content of the movie or series at hand were silenced due to the fact that those reviews were critical of the art piece and the corporates didn't like that. SEGA are also known for mass deleting videos that shared tags with an up and coming title, so gameplay footage of the original games, discussion and generic internet entertainment were taken down using the DMCA for search ranking results. This was done so they could get better advertisement for searching for words related to the game.
This system is anti-consumer and pro-corporate. This needs to be fixed.
I for one would like to add that I run a small Youtube channel called Button Jam. I find it grossly unfair that companies can crush small channels like mine because of dissenting opinions we have had. I have encountered the automated strikes AND a copyright troll who has had no right to strike my channel. The internet is a free place. Please keep it that way.
The current law regarding public and fair use ia outdated and harms innocent content creators who do this for a living. It directly contradicts the 1st amendment and is used for threats, cheap income at the expense of others, and to shut down rivalries between creators. It is being abused by many large companies and THIS NEEDS TO STOP!!!!!!
This issue affects the world, as Youtube (as an American company) is bound by american laws and nothing else, yet Youtube has an effective global monopoly on video streaming! Your DMCA laws affect how Youtube works and how much it is held back globally.
Doug Walker (The Nostalgia Critic) has compiled a list of many Youtube content creators who have gone through a multitude of problems as a result of abuse of the DMCA on Youtube, the law needs to be updated:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI&ab_channel=ChannelAwesome
Doug Walker's original video on fair use (and how it's stifled on Youtube)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0Wpn1zmU&ab_channel=JimSterling
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (STILL going on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J03pUizE&ab_channel=TeamFourStar
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ9U8YLY&ab_channel=TeamFourStar
Team Four Star's issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkcWbvnN0&ab_channel=IHateEverything
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nULnD9OQ&ab_channel=ChibiReviews
Chibi Reviews gets a DMCA for talking about snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWysPctePw&ab_channel=CharismaonCommand
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company - MMA company thinks it makes the law!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw&ab_channel=TheMysteriousMrEnter
Mr Enter and the saga of DMCA after DMCA takedown on the SAME video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtwVOZ0Yc&ab_channel=NFKRZ
NFKRZ and how ransom is now on YouTube!
To whom it may concern;
Do you currently run any of your systems on Windows '98?
Stupid question, yes?
Then why exactly is the internet and fair use being governed by a law(s) that was(were) designed in that same year? The current abuse of the DMCA takedown system is so rampant due to one thing, so far as I can see; the law(s) designed to 'protect' people have not been updated for over a decade, and as such, in internet years, those very laws are fossils.
I don't watch cable, I'm an internet only type of person, and it pains me to see people being harassed and/or censored entirely for using clips from movies, reviewing videogames, making satire based on lyrics, or playing music for more than eight seconds. Can you imagine if that happened regularly off the internet? If you yourself made a bad joke to your significant other along the lines of 'baby, I'm never going to give you up. Never going to let you down. Never going to run around--' and all at once someone silenced you because you dared make a parody of a song?
Or if you saw the new Marvel movie and told your friends you didn't like it, only to have Disney file a gag order?
It sounds unrealistic, but in the online world, it's pretty bloody common. And the funny thing about the online world is that it wouldn't exist at all if not for real people.
Things need to change. We're having to watch good people be silenced by corporations that refuse to allow for competition, and therefore silence it as quickly as possible. We are watching people be silenced for reviewing things, for mentioning things, or simply so someone completely unrelated to whatever media is being referenced can make a quick cash grab with no consequences.
The internet has propelled entertainment forward. We must stop allowing people to hold it back for the sake of censorship and greed.
Essentially, stop the abuse. The internet is a brilliant thing full of amazing people and the things they create. So, so much of that comes under fair use and both companies and individuals have proven time and time again that they have no regard for morals or even the law really and will abuse this system to take down anything they see fit. It needs to change or this creativity that shows off some of the best humanity has to offer will just die off. Why be creative when anyone can shut your work down for any reason whether they have the right to or not at the press of a button with no proof or repercussions required? This needs to change.
Content creators that I follow have had their livelihood disrupted and threatened due to false DMCA claims. Companies that don't even own the copyright to a property can issue them and steal ad revenue from content creators with no repercussions.
Simply put, the DMCA is vastly behind the times and desperately needs to be redesigned for the current Internet, rather than the internet of 1998. The current version of the DMCA is being used as a tool of harassment, intimidation and censorship. Original content is being hit with DMCA notices, which forces the takedown of the work regardless of the legitimacy of the content. This has to change! Please fix this!
The DMCA was created in 1998. While that might have been effective back then, the Internet has been greatly upgraded and Improved over the last 18 years. But the DMCA has not. Companys that are using loopholes or otherwise abusing the system at the cost of Free Speech. It has even escalated to a point of harrasment. People such as Doug Walker (Who's job is posting videos on the Internet.) have had Monetization from their ad revenue taken by people abusing the DMCA on videos that would be considered Fair Use, and companys that put out false claims get no punishment. The DMCA needs to be updated, or possibly, Fair Use itself.
In many cases, copyright owners of intellectual properties have taken down video and article reviews despite falling under fair use. Noticeable examples include I Hate Everything's review of "Cool Cat Saves the Kids" which was wrongfully taken down by the film's owner Derek Savage who proceeded to threaten and harass and threaten IHE, at one point even impersonating a lawyer to pressure IHE into shutting down his entire channel.
Another similar case involved a video review of an unreleased B movie from 1988 called "Grizzly 2" by "The Cinema Snob". Despite his negative review he's acknowledged that the film was never completed and his review has even helped "Grizzly 2" achieve a cult status as the movie had been in circulation among conventions. Despite this the Film's producer Suzanne Nagy filed copyright infringement and even succeeded in removing the review despite fair use. The fact that "Grizzly 2" would most likely be public domain by this point and how she hasn't filed copyright infringement against re-uploads of the review or uploads of the full movie further proves how the DMCA is being abused by copyright owners to harass fair use and free speech.
These actions by the filmmakers are unjust and unfair to the video makers and to the process of fair use in general. it's be proven that Hollywood and the indie film circuit can benefit from the internet as filmmakers like Roger Corman and Lloyd Kaufman have openly embraced the internet by posting most of their film library onto YouTube for free allowing viewers to watch these films and find a wider audience. Not to mention that with the advent of the internet viewers have been exposed to older media that would have been lost had the internet not come around.
Not since the 1950s has America seen a media revolution like the internet and Hollywood is capable of expanding towards this new direction. But in order for this to be possible the DMCA needs to be updated to prevent these unjustified claims of copyright infringement and to hold those responsible for such claims. This is a matter of free speech and if these unjustified claims continue to occur then we would be no better than China or its internet security. So please take the time to consider updating the DMCA in order to protect the free speech of these video makers, thank you.
I live in Denmark. I, as so many young people I know, don't watch TV anymore. We find our entertainment on the internet, which youtube is a very big part of. It is savage, and almost corrupt how creators are taken away their rights, control and money by big filthy rich corporations, and insecure movie companies. The internet is supposed to be ''free'', except for stealing of course, however, free speech at least!. But as the saying goes ''Even bad commercial, is still commercial'' and as the 'Nostalgia Critic' has mentioned, many of the movies they review as 'bad', grows in sells.
I really don't care about the numbers, I care about freedom, and the internet should be the front runner in this. Rules for content on the internet that develops faster then anything, is not acceptable to abide under rules from 1998.
For once suits. Think about the little man, the american opportunity to make it, and speak his/her mind to the world. Instead of oppression, control and sponsor/company money in the pocket. #NostalgiaCritic
Dear U.S. Copyright Office,
I am writing you out of concern for a free Internet and Fair Use.
I am a member of a very active community on the Internet that creates a multitude of content for its entertainment and very often, I saw this community getting threatened by unfounded DMCA takedowns.
I saw channels of our reviewers getting taken down just for talking (!) about a TV show, saw their free speech rights getting terminated by the click on one button.
I saw their existences getting threatened because those reviewers were relying on money that they earned with their videos to survive.
I saw fanmade videos getting taken down because of two seconds of music that is earned by a company. Two seconds! An amount of time that doesn't hurt the income of ANY company.
I heard reports about movie producers threatening reviewers with the law who had made negative reviews about their movies, reviewers who only said their opinions!
And worse than that, I saw cultural artifacts getting destroyed by the current copyright laws to preserve money that couldn't even be earned with those anymore.
I saw clips and episodes of very old TV shows from the 80s and 90s getting taken down by their copyright holders.
Those shows were still owned by them, yet, due to their age, they didn't make any money off of them anymore, as these shows are literally so old that barely anyone knows them anymore.
In this case, the copyright holding companies prevented fans of these shows who do still know them to preserve them by uploading them to YouTube so that current and future generations can still enjoy them, where the companies don't distribute these TV shows anymore.
These companies can't earn money with these TV shows anymore..... And so they can't lose money by sharing them freely on the Internet anymore either.
But they are hogging these shows and file takedown notices, which ultimately destroys the legacy of such old TV shows from the 80s and 90s (and especially even older ones).
The current copyright laws were once created to PROTECT ART from getting claimed by artists as theirs who didn't even create it, but today, the copyright laws DESTROY ART and its LEGACY.
Classical TV shows from old times are just one example where this happens.
Content creators who make fan animations of their favourite TV shows and offer them for free on the Internet, without making money off of them and not hurting any companies with their passion are another one.
Companies like Disney, Funimation, Nippon Animation and many, many other companies who are overprotective of their copyrights destroy art and harass artists into giving up their passion, sometimes their livelihood and they destroy cultural artifacts that could be lost forever with any takedown that happens.
But it can be different, those companies don't need to act that way.
Hasbro is a company that enforces its copyright in a very commendable and responsible way.
It does allow the fandoms of its franchises to freely create fanwork based on its intellectual properties, be it animations, music, remixes or comics, anything.
Hasbro is a company that understands that it isn't hurt financially by such fanwork.
And yet, even Hasbro has to send out Cease & Desist orders in very rare cases, because the US trademark law forces Hasbro to ruin fanwork, by demanding from it to protect its trademark, no matter if it wants to ruin it or not, and threatens it with losing its trademarks otherwise.
The US trademark law is designed to destroy art, rather than protecting it and the current copyright laws do the same.
Were they once protected art from abuse, they are the ones who abuse art and artists now and this is something that needs to stop.
Pay attention to these glaring issues and create new and better copyright laws that truly protect art again and that don't threaten the creative freedom and income of content creators on the Internet anymore!
Sincerely
Peter Geissler
I have personally seen multiple creators that I follow struck with unfair claims. I am tired of it.
My YouTube reviews that are transformation in nature and most definitely fall under fair use have been claimed multiple times by corporation's who I believe know less about the nature of Fair Use than I have. Parody videos I've made have resulted in my livelihood being restricted and threatened even though the videos are most definitely Fair Use in nature.
Companies who have no affiliation with the copyrighted media AT ALL have abused the DMCA system to claim ad revenue on videos I've made that feature content that has nothing to do with their nature or practices.
I have seen YouTube reviewers be censored by copyright owners who don't like their negative reviews and some have even been bullied and threatened by copyright owners who have absolutely no idea how Fair Use works.
Copyright owners will remove and stop distribution of content that doesn't feature a single second of their copyrighted media, but simply had the name of said media in the title.
What's more there is no protection against these types of threats from companies abroad who have different laws and rules regarding copyright and there is no protection or middle ground on an international front.
The DMCA has been a long outdated piece of 21st Century Law that should have been updated years ago.
In addition in my personal experience several forms of content that I use have been unfairly taken down, effectively stealing money from the content creators, and unfairly censoring content that various creators that people like myself watch and use
My video regarding this: https://youtu.be/Lv4DgNUWIZk
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
This has effected how all of my entertainment, which is almost primarily from YouTube and Twitch. They have been effected (mostly YouTube) because people, content creators have had their videos removed and monetized by random companies that this they own it even though it come under free use. This is people lively hoods, how they spend their time and what is most important to us!
Many creators, both working for profit and non-profit, have been hit hard by the unfair copyright system, which in my opinion, is flawed internationally, not just in the USA. In particular, the way YouTube's copyright system is implicated is grossly unjust, taking the power away from those creators to fight back effectively if they think a claim is false. How it is that one user can upload an entire video of original content with perhaps a few seconds of copyrighted music or footage have their videos taken down, while other users upload entire unedited movies or other content and are ignored, demonstrates just how flawed the system is. It is optimised for large companies to leech money off of small independent producers, without worry of legal culpability. This means that a company can remove any criticism of their product (positive or negative), or even steal advertising revenue of popular videos from the actual producers. Considering entire companies have been founded which are solely dedicated to making copyright claims on behalf of other enterprises, it seems the abuse of the system has already gone too far. I have little more to say than anyone else has already said, except that it seems absurd to me that videos which use footage for educational, review, critical or other such purposes can be removed without question on YouTube, when the reality is that this type of content is very lucrative in other media, such as newspapers and television. Trying to suppress the free speech of independent creators for the benefit and profit of enormous multifaceted corporations can never reflect well on any institution. So the DMCA needs to change to reflect UN rules on free speech and fair use, and to prevent disillusioned users from abandoning these media completely, when there is so much potential in them to create communication and enrichment.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not 7 for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
People should be able to enjoy content that is under fair use. I watch many reviewers and they get slammed really hard with these claims. One YouTuber I watch (themysteriousmrenter) has hundreds of claims on his videos and some have been claimed up to three times. These claimants will keep abusing peoples rights under fair use if there isn't any penalty for their false claims. This abuse needs to stop.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I am appalled at the hassle it has been for me to upload or watch high-quality online content that relies on the protection of fair use. As a critic, I have had some of my best work removed from YouTube in spite of its accordance with the rules of fair use, which has made it immensely difficult to broadcast. As a fan of other critics, I cannot stand the way that their content is consistently being removed from where it has every reason to be, which forces me to go on a wild goose chase to find somewhere online where I can enjoy someone's work. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I have been a victim of such algorithmic systems myself, and it is shameful for any nation that claims to offer freedom of speech to be permitted to allow the unwarranted removal of perfectly legitimate creative expression. According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review. As Christopher Hitchens so eloquently stated, "It's not just the right of the person who speaks to be heard; it is the right of everyone in the audience to listen and to hear, and every time you silence somebody, you make yourself a prisoner of your own action because you deny yourself to hear something. In other words, your own write to hear and be exposed is as much involved in all these cases as is the right of the other to voice his or her view."
I believe every artist has a right to express how they feel.
The system needs to be fixed when a company can copyright a video for it's music when the video has no audio, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4iITttE_GU . The System should realize that there are people who got copyright claimed who have explained the person copyright claiming what fair use is, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ZmVheuxpo . The DMCA is old enough to get a driving license, without any refreshments. The DMCA scare people away from being creative and stating their opinion on anything corporate, because if they don't like it or want some of your money from a video that you worked on, they copyright claim it. The System is Broken,Exploitative, and is used for making money of someone else's hard work.
When youtube launched, I was excited to bring in, like my others, my passion for AMVs. I did it for fun, monetization didn't even exist back then. I had a small channel, but people loved what I did.
Until the DMCA came into play, and all my AMVs, which do fall under Fair Use, started to be flagged or taken down. I had to stop making videos for fear that my channel would be erased forever. I am an AMV lover who cannot keep creating videos out of passion anymore.
Not only that, (these are in my own words) this stuff is not okay! The Internet is all about sharing, making an idea better, making whole new ideas and watch those spread and create better! We can't do that if a buissness strikes us for making something new, something that they don't own.
I was effected by my own short YouTube clips. I was even claimed by a company that always Striked my videos, every single one. It said that it was against it, even though I said who the artist and song name was, in the title of the video.
The way things are now, and the fact that you tubers are being threatened every single day, makes me weary of posting videos on YouTube. I am not even sure that any test footage from things like using my capture card are safe from take downs by companies that abuse the DMCA. It's not fair, considering that I want to start a YouTube channel and potentially do it as a living. Something has got to change, or these companies will keep on being immoral with their business practices, refusing to accept online media as a way to make money. Fix the DMCA.
Okay, so the "Fair Use" law is extremely outdated and it's being used in ways originally unforeseen by the law's writers. This law is being used to harass and terrorize content creators like myself on sites like YouTube. And it's not just random trolls either. It's companies using "shell companies" to protect their own names so they don't get caught throwing a tantrum because they don't like that a video is up. It's honestly downright ridiculous how this law is being used these days and frankly, this law needs to be brought up to date to account for a platform like YouTube. Everyone that wants to create content for others to enjoy should be able to do so without fearing that some big company or some troll will use the law against them for no good reason other than they don't like it and think nobody else should be given the chance to enjoy it. I know for a fact that there have been creators like Joe Vargas, Angry Joe to his fans, who have had videos pulled down multiple times for silly. nonexistent infringements! Video game journalist and critic Jim Sterling has been hit with similar claims because a developer didn't like his criticism of a game! The manipulation of this law needs to stop for the good of the people. Today's entertainment is centered around the internet, like it or not this is the way of the future. It's time our laws reflected this.
Good day,
Julius W. Sachs.
The DMCA has hurt not just the internet but free speech as well. To often does takedown notices go after people under fair use. Corporations are using this to shut down any negative feedback on their work.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech NEED to be held responsible.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
Please, I watch a lot of wonderful people on YouTube who are protected with fair use but whose reviews and such is taken down. The big companies get to do anything they want to these people with no consequences and that needs to stop. They want to make a claim, stop the people who are protected from making money and can just take the money that the video is making for themselves(even if they don't have a valid claim!). That is money that is rightfully the video makers and it should be the video makers. Please, I know that the DMCA was made to try and help but right now all it is doing is being abused. Please help to make this right.
The DMCA is being abused by companies on youtube who are taking down videos that may portray them in a negative light. These companies are taking down reviews, tutorials and parody videos that should be protected by the DMCA. Companies are filing false DMCA take downs on videos that they don't even own and are also monetizing videos that they claim ownership of when they in fact do not own any of the martial used in the video.
I have personally experienced this with videos that I upload. For example I have uploaded tutorial videos for educational purposes that have been hit by false DMCA take down requests even though those videos did not contain any copyrighted martial what so ever. Some companies and even individuals are using the DMCA as a means of bullying content creators who are operating perfectly within the law.
There are also no penalties or repercussions for these companies sending false claims and take downs. So they are able to keep doing this to as many people as they want.
I feel that my right to free speech and freedom of expression is under threat from companies on youtube and that the DMCA needs to look into this issue to stop this abuse of the DMCA by companies and corporations and individuals.
To whomever it may concern,
As a content viewer of many internet videos and forms of entertainment, I find it very disturbing when content is removed unnecessarily. I do understand the need to follow the notice-and-takedown process when the content is in clear violation of the DMCA. However, I do not comprehend nor fathom how certain videos could be removed, even though there obviously no violations present in the content. Such videos include people sitting in a car, simply talking about a movie they had just seen with no music or visuals from the movie itself attached to it.
Such actions are likely on account of how outdated the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is. As one can clearly observe, the internet has evolved beyond what those in 1998 thought imaginable. It is a process that many of us have enjoyed witnessing. With this technological evolution, though, comes the responsibility to ensure that individuals and small businesses who utilize these new tools are protected. Unfortunately, the current notice-and-takedown process is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
As one could imagine, this heavily affects individuals and small businesses that are attempting to evolve with the internet and its potential for entertainment and business. However, copyright holders not only hold the power in our current situation, but inflict it to the point that it causes content creators' livelihoods to fall into jeopardy by not only removing their content that is not within violation of the DMCA, but still inflict charges upon them, after they had been cleared. Copyright holders have even lowered themselves into threatening these groups.
A balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Thank you for your time,
Jessica Baral
Yes, the following is a form post that undoubtedly is now flooding your database. Yet it's one I'm in total agreement with. If someone or some company makes a false claim on a posting simply because they disagree with the sentiment presented on their work, there should be an equivalent penalty as would have been suffered by the defendant. That would be justice, which I would hope our system would support.
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The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use--to the point where even fair use as a concept is being undermined by those who profit from the legal loopholes present in the law as it's currently set up. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down valid criticism of produced work and legitimate competition, as well as to extract money from innocent victims.
I am not a content creator, but i do not want my favorite youtubers be harassed for no reason at all
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrig
We as human beings have a right to free speech, whether that may be possessing a strong opinion on a heated topic at Congress or even protesting for a change in a corrupt system. This applies to the real world as much as it has a great impact upon the world wide web. As content creators or even viewers, we all should not have our opinions become silenced just because another party either takes a great offense to our words or use the system to benefit their own personal needs. Content creators deserve protection from malicious individuals who are willing to take away basic human rights in order to fuel their endless greed. DMCA should assume this role, but instead, it allows these individuals to constantly harass and torment any content creator whose only goal is to convey an opinion to the whole wide world. Thanks to DMCA, a plethora of content creators have seen their lives crumble before their eyes due to a lack of fair use. Any person among the internet can file a copyright claim without ever owning it in the first place, contributing to the fall of many hard-working human beings using websites such as Youtube as a main source of revenue. Even those who speak in front of a camera and discuss a particular piece of entertainment can be instantly taken down with nary a question to ponder. This horrid system also allows companies to bend the law to their own will, fabricating such details to further benefit their pockets and empty those of the content creators. DMCA has a multitude of problems that need to be addressed as soon as possible. Opinions are important in establishing the world we reside in today, as it gives us an opportunity to advance our meager civilization into something that will benefit each and every one of us living on this planet. If we allow the DMCA to continue their heinous acts, our right to speak our opinions without the threat of a severe punishment will be forever lost to us. We will dwell in a world where no such change occurs, possessing a civilization that will cease to ever evolve for the remaining years we have left on this beautiful Earth. So I, and and every other individual signing this petition, implore you to survey the damage wrought upon by the DMCA and provide brand new changes and limitations to give every single person the comfort of conveying an opinion across the internet without having their words fade away into nothingness.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Companies are using this to stifle negative feedback. Any company with money can and will use and abuse this system to revoke whatever they want, threatening with pretty much whatever they want. And if you defeat a claim they use shell corporations to just keep throwing more and more claims at people. It's reached the point where companies are filing claims on a video of a baby singing. That's how insane this has gotten. Fix the law. Stop big companies. #WTFU
The DMCA has been repeatedly use to abuse content creators who are acting within the rules of fair use. DMCA is used by large corporations to bully small independent content creators and does nothing to help creativity and freedom flourish on the internet. Copyright is meant to incentivize the creation of new intellectual property and help everyone but thanks to the DMCA large corporation abuse this to make profits off of others work. This does not drive the large corporations to make new intellectual properties when they can make money off of the smaller companies and individuals work and this scares those small companies and individuals from making new intellectual properties. The bottom line is the DMCA is outdated it is about 18 years old and in the internet age it should have been replaced several times over so keep pace with rapidly growing technology. Thanks to it being this outdated and inbalanced the DMCA has stifled the creation of new intellectual properties something that copyright law was made to encourage.
A small list of YouTube channels who have received false copyright strikes:
Channel Awesome
TheMysteriousMrEnter
I Hate Everything
Bobsheaux
Josiah Clark
YourMovieSuckDOTorg
Jim Sterling
Companies continue to abuse copyright LAWS with no punishment, all because they wanted a little more money in their pockets, or to censor free speech because someone didn't like their product. One channel even got a strike on a video that didn't use ANY clips at all. And the companies can do this just by SAYING that the online content infringes on their copyright. Even when the people fight the claim and get their work restored, the companies get little to no punishment for filing false claims. And even then, despite the video being cleared, it can get hit again by shell companies used to shield the companies sending the takedown. This needs to change. How do you fix this? The DMCA laws has not been changed to account to the Internet of today, but rather the Internet of 1998. There needs to be strict penalties for companies that file false DMCA claims, or else the laws will continue to be abused. Please, listen to the people and protect the Internet which we hold so dearly. Thank you.
From me: Please, bring free speech to YouTube, and whole Internet! Bring Freedom to World Wide Web!
P.S. Sorry, i don't know my "post code".
I am new to YouTube and I heard that hundreds of inicent YouTubers are getting copyright claimed and I Do not want that to happen to me
The system is being to bias to big corporation. As long as the content creators don't make the clips from the copyrighted materials their very own material, in another word, make the materials their own materials, to gain profits. But many channels like Channel Awesome and Anime America get wrongfully claimed even though all they did was recommending the movie/anime to the audience. This issue need to be fixed immediately.
I am a fan of this YouTube group called Walking Tacos Dubs. They had this very funny video called Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings completely screwed over which was them doing a redubbed parody of the the 1978 animated film, The Lord of the Rings by Ralph Bakshi. Warner Bros. blocked the video twice even though it feel under fair use. What Walking Tacos did was no different then what TeamFourStar does for their series and should have the video reenstated.
Overall, I just want to say that I've seen some content creators fall because of YouTube's poor practices. Please end it.
The DMCA is being abused and needs to be updated for the time we live in. Many people on the internet, especially on Youtube, cannot even review a song, movie, or tv show without getting flagged by the copyright holders.
At times, the creators of the material being reviewed believe that they make the laws so they abuse the system constantly just to avoid bad reviews such as Derek Savage and his "Cool Cat" movie. And sometimes they send out copyright strikes with no justifiable reason, case in point: Lenz v. Universal Music Corp. Stephanie Lenz posted a video of her children dancing to Prince's "Let's Go Crazy", the song itself didn't last through the whole video. Universal sent her a takedown notice claiming copyright violations. The fact that Universal can claim copyright violation for something as innocent as a dancing baby is frightening.
This law seriously needs to be updated.
DMCA (additionally, anyone with computer access) has corrupted the original video creators online (mainly youtube) by claiming their videos and (surprisingly) leeching off their currency if the claim succeeds, giving nothing to the creators.
Even with most creators understanding and following the fair use rules, that proves little to no benefits to those video producers.
This will breed much problems in the future to not only to the everyday people, but to newcomers and possibly big corporations that may also use video creations for their benefits.
In order for the survival of the video online industries, big or small, to continue their usage for years to come, rules for fair use must be updated and considered greatly. Support from the many people from the government is most appreciated for us billions of people, creators or viewers alike.
Ignorance of fair use leads to content creators facing impossible battles they are told to be protected from. Sometimes companies are uninformed about what is and isn't copyright infringement, such as Derek Savage or the company behind Pixel Pinkie, and target critics of their products. YouTube content creators are forced to face claims made by people who don't understand the law and aren't reprimanded for it, but rather given the upper hand. Some companies use the incompetence of YouTube's copyright system to take advantage of creators, issuing claims on content they don't even have the rights to. But the creators still suffer under a faulty system. Some videos are taken down even with no music in the background and no intellectual property on display.
The system of justice in America is sometimes complicated, but there is one thing even every five-year-old knows: Innocent until proven guilty. Thanks to the incompetence and even mean-spiritedness of this system, content creators are guilty until proven innocent, even when innocence should be unambiguously evident. This system is broken and abusive, and the consequences have been ugly. And even a bigger offence than the maliciousness and vengefulness of big companies is your laziness towards preventing it.
The policies of the DMCA are outdated and wrong. They were written for an Internet that now no longer exists, So many You-tubers are suffering because of these outdated and biased policies. There are people who have filed claims against content, which they do not even own. There are corporations who even once found guilty have faced no consequences whatsover and still continue to persecute innocent you-tubers. The DMCA's, are being used to inflict harm on indivual creators and surpress free speech, their are some you-tubers who do not even show any footage or music from any content in their videos and are still hit with false claims from copy-right holders and corporations and having their content taken down. There are corporations who claim they made these unjust laws, some corporations even have shell corporations send claims in order to shield themselves There are people who use DMCA's as threats against you-tubers and attempt to stop them from using their basic freedom of free speech in any way possible even if it is simply commenting on other social media sites about what is happening to them. There are videos that are getting hit multiple times even after they are cleared. There are many you-tubers who continue to loose money to the corporations even after they are proven false. The Internet has and is changing the world in the same way that Radio or television did, So many have refused to change with the times, but if they are going to continue to thrive they have to change with the times, this has gone on to long and must be fixed, we need to bring back Fair Use
Freedom of speech for everyone!
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
The DMCA is absolutely terrible when it comes to protecting content creators, giving large companies the ability to bully people who make parodies and reviews. People's opinions get shut down if they are negative or contrary to what the original creator believes. I get worried that my favorite YouTubers will get taken down because they get claimed on some of the most stupid levels.
"Oh, look they used 15 seconds of my content to add some comedy to a review, claim."
"Oh look, someone used my music in an animation they did, claim."
"Oh look, he has a different opinion than me and is refuting my arguments, claim."
"This dude is giving a bad review of my film! I don't care if none of the movie is in there! CLAIM!"
They even claim videos they have no right to! They need to add a penalty to this law. If the only way to get justice is to sue then in a way we are like we were so many years ago when only those with money had a voice, only they were cared about and protected. We are the U.S.A, we protect free speech, we protect the little guy and hive everyone a right to their opinion no matter how much power they have!
Look, I am 16. I don't want that to make you think less of me because people always think less of those younger than them, but the point I want to make here is that I will have to live in this world for a long time (hopefully), in this country for a long time, I am not leaving the U.S. anytime soon. This place is my home, my heart, and my future. If anything I create, or say, or believe can be shut down because of my format or because I decided to share it then why bother at all? Why should I have hope in something that doesn't even do what it was intended to do in the first place, protect content creators.
Youtube is my entertainment, it is what makes me smile after a really bad day in school, or when my social life is in ruins (and no I don't mean social media, I don't use Facebook or Twitter, never stuff like that), the videos I watch have kept me cheerful and have given me a better outlook on life. One day, tomorrow, or tomorrow, or maybe the day after that, all those people that helped me so much can be gone, their jobs ripped from them for no reason other than that big companies can without consequences. Help, I am asking you please, save our art and opinions.
I have had multiple internet videos I have created on YouTube taken down due to false claims and abuse of the copyright system. FIX IT!
Side-comment: I have noticed this problem all the way back in the old SOPA days. The new legislature was meant to protect creative freedom under "Fair Use", but DMCA has failed to keep up their end of the bargain.
In other words... The system is broken and needs fixing ASAP!
A pre-generated letter follows the asterisks. I agree with the statements within the letter. But, first I will speak from a more personal level.
I began using the internet in the mid-90s. There was no DMCA. The internet was a very different tool at the time. Our connections were very much slower. The content available was only published by people who knew how to code HTML and find a host, as well as professional companies. Our options were limited. When services like Napster started appearing, the internet started to change. I admit the DMCA was necessary to give peace of mind to content creators and distributors in the early days of publicly accessible internet.
Today, instead of having Napster download one entire song in half an hour, people can have torrents download one artist's entire repertoire of music in less than half that time. Additionally, we have services like iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, and dozens of other legitimate means of acquiring music. It is actually easier in the current climate to not pirate music.
This extends to other media as well. In 1998 when the DMCA was first formed, the internet could be used for very primitive video viewing. This was usually accomplished by loading RealPlayer or another program and spending the better part of a day fighting to get the file to download and play. There were also very primitive copies of some major motion pictures, but nothing to the extent as it is available today. Whereas torrents allowed for better piracy over faster internet connections, services like YouTube and iTunes are by far the more efficient and elegant method to consume media. Netflix is used by millions worldwide. I am one of these Netflix users. There are options such as Hulu and Crackle. Piracy is now more difficult than legitimately acquiring entertainment.
In addition to the change in distribution and ease of use for consumers, the content creators are changing. Currently, there is a YouTube user by the name of "PewDiePie". I do not watch his videos. However, he has over 36 million regular viewers for his videos. He's a celebrity. He's also one guy (or maybe a couple) with a camera. Long gone are the days when the media needed to be controlled by a large centralized conglomerate. Today, we have new creations being made by people like myself. I made a few videos in 2009 (all of which have been removed). I received a few hundred views. This is very minor. Still, it is an example of the ability for even the least skilled with media arts to use these new technologies and make something for others to enjoy. For a further example, one particular content creator by the name of "Feminist Frequency" was invited to speak with the UN. The topic is not important, nor are the politics. What is important is this is a small organization of very few people producing new content and making a large impact on the world.
Given all of these changes, I pose a question to you. This will be my one and only question before I let you read the form letter you will receive hundreds or thousands of times. Given the new state of the internet with its improved efficiency and decreased reliance on major media creators, why do the large media creators have the ability to prevent small creators with little or no reason and no repercussions? Note also that this suppression need not have any legitimate backing in order to make a large impact to small content creators.
The current state of the DMCA breeds a state of anti-free speech and a guilty until proven innocent atmosphere.
Thank you for your time.
**********
The idea of a copyright was to protect the innovators from the having their creations stolen, and it's just turned into the exact opposite. The DMCA is a cudgel used by large corporations to stifle innovation and the average person has no way to effectively fight back. Even on the rare occasions the creators do win, the organization that filed the false DMCA claim is only charged what amounts to a slap on the wrist, so there is no real incentive for them to stop.
You've created a broken system. You need to overhaul it before it does any more damage.
This is a serious problems for online content creators both large & small, I myself would one day love to create content online but many members of the youtube community who are not associated with larger corporations are terrified of such responses form corporations or even other individuals who would use it to censor people's opinions for their own financial gain.
This is an issue that must be dealt with lest online services like Youtube become so anti-creator & anti-competitor they cease to be free mediums for all.
How has this affected me personally? ID claims have been set up on many of my game reviews (http://youtube.com/kbmadhouse) which has meant the withholding of revenue. I have also had false DMCA claims which has meant the taking down of videos which didn't even include content from the companies which claimed for infringement.
Thank you, and I hope for everyone's best interest that the copyright system becomes fair for everybody.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I have seen this happen on the Internet multiple times affecting different creators. The law needs to be changed. When you can threaten an innocent person with the law and cause loss of revenue or damage without consequence or review that law needs to be changed.
notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The current system of copyright is old and antiquated, almost from another era given how fast technology moves now. Take YouTube as an example, as one of the largest media platforms on the internet. Content creators who follow Fair Use to the letter can still be attacked and abused with fake and false copyright claims from anyone, with absolutely no repercussions for those who filed the false claim. I've had an interest in creating my own content and adding my own voice to the internet, but I don't feel safe in doing so under the current system that is so easily abused, with larger corporations having all the power an the individual content creators having none.
The current system is literally stifling people's creativity and freedom of expression. Please fix it.
The fair use abuse system is being abused and if a corporation sees something on my small channel they don't like, I am screwed. I want to help stop this abuse over copyright strikes and claims and i will do anything that is necessary to help content creators feel safe over making content. And being a very small channel, I don't want to be afraid stating my opinions and feel threatened that a company may take down my video and make money off of my video. These corporations have been ignoring the youtube community for so long and i got one question for all of them. Where is the fair use?
Please do something about for not just me, but everyone.
My name is Phillip, I'm a Canadian Content Creator based on the YouTube Platform. I am a victim of elicit Copyright Claims and DMCA takedown abuse.
Several times since I started my professional career, my content has been attacked through the archaic fair use and DMCA laws that America and it's corporations parade under. While in my Country, the content I use would be legislatively protected under Fair Use, in America that isn't the case.
In the last two years I have been attacked and censored due to the DMCA, despite the fact that where I live and where the 'claimant' live would have seen my video protected. But because of the ABUSE that can be wielded unlawfully I have lost revenue, I have lost my ability to create content, and I have had the growth of my livelihood cut off at the knees. The DMCA is being abused and it's affecting people GLOBALLY.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
It is broke and thus being used to the advantage of the corrupt
WHERE IS THE FAIR USE?!
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I'm not a content creator, but I have been observing a 'lot' of bull going on on youtube. You don't get this many people up in arms over abuse of the system if there's not someone legitimately abusing the system.
Now, in the case of the case of the feminist craze going around it's these brainwashed lunatics abusing the system that caters to women to push their own agenda of getting more for themselves and silencing anyone who challenges them.
In 'this' case it is companies that already have an abundance of money, or people just being spiteful, abusing an exploitable system to hurt the lives of others who are just trying to have fun and entertain people.
Do something about it, before someone else is forced to.
The DMCA was brought in by the Government in 1998 in order to protect intellectual property at a time when the internet was taking its baby steps on the road to becoming what it is today.
This legislation has not been updated since, not once. With outdated material comes a massive chance for companies to censor and stamp out content that they don't like.
Fair Use is what underpins so much creative material on the internet. It allows creators to legally make limited use of copyrighted material for certain purposes such as critique or analysis without being in danger of actually infringing on copyright.
This is not a grey area, the boundaries of this are well known and yet, for years now, companies have been allowed to submit countless DMCA take-down notices on content which falls under Fair Use.
On a site like YouTube, this results in the video immediately being taken offline for a period of around two weeks. This is without any contact or explanation to the content creators. After two weeks, videos will often come back online as the companies claiming content must pursue further legal action within those 14 days in order to keep the content offline.
The biggest problem with this is that there is zero consequence to companies who blatantly claim perfectly legal content. The content creators are left powerless for two weeks to miss out on all revenue generated on their videos. Many online video creators make their full-time living off of this content and are therefore dependant on the revenue they make.
This constant abuse of the DMCA ultimately leads to a stifle of creativity. What incentive is there for content creators to put their heart and soul into an idea if some corporate suit is going to come along and cover it up.
The next time you have a free moment I invite you to simply type 'DMCA' into the YouTube search bar and take note of the countless videos which are all conveying the same message: their content is being unfairly taken down.
The internet can be a truly magical place where creativity flourishes. For too long, this harmony has been corrupted by groups that care for nothing other than themselves. So please, help bring the magic back.
I've seen great entertainers be hit by BS fair use claims...ones that are trying to make a living of doing what they love, and people abusing this "fair use" game to their advantage, costing them money, patience, and quality. The times are dated and it's time to change the fair use laws so no one can be robbed anymore, so no one has to be afraid to be creative on the internet, so entertainment..doesn't have to be a negative thought. Fair use has it's times to be claimed, when people ARE just copying a profited show without use of editing or no intention of parody, teaching or criticism, but for the rest, it's not meant for harm. When you look at numbers, people that watch the reviews, watch the LPs, watch the sketches and songs, it gets more and more curious on their works, as well as the works they potrayed, if anything it helps profit the original owners as well. The whole point of entertainment...is to share the word, help see what others can make of a dud or a shine, see what their creativity can inspire for others to be creative and so on. I've had a video be claimed on a spot...where it's nothing but standing and giving a conclusion. This does not seem right, and shows how outrageous these claims are becoming. Are we asking for this to completly stop...no. Fair Use has it's time and place...when it is showing pure stealing, but when it's just using the material for creative and actual fair use purposes...we shouldn't be afraid to use it. Use what we clearly had an idea from in the first place, SHOW what we loved or hated, Show that not only do we have ideas, we have opinions, and they shouldn't be punished if they're negative, that's just criticizm. #WTFU
-- Own comment:
The DMCA Copyright system is implemented poorly, allowing wide-spread abuse and takedown of content clearly falling under fair use. It is used to silence criticism, harass content creators and steal rightful revenue. There is no punishment for abusers of the system, one may issue claims and striked and will not have to live with any consequences whatsoever, even if the claim/strike has been found false. Furthermore, abusers get to keep any money gained by false claims, thus making abuse profitable.
I repeat. Abuse is profitable.
We should not have one of the largest sources of creative entertainment content under the control of such a poorly designed system.
- Alexander Dahmen.
-- Prefab Comment I agree with:
Please, something must be done, this is unjust and unbalanced, please listen to us.
"Dear Copyright Office. I am the above, and these words in the quotations are my words. I approve of all the words written above. Please make the necessary changes. Thank you very much. - Steven L. Schaefer."
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
I don't know if this is going to be helpful to this cause or matter in any way, but here I go. The DMCA takedown system which was established 18 years ago, is a very dated system and it needs to change. It used to be used to protect copyrighted material from being stolen, but it is now being used by corporations to abuse content creators and censor criticism. Parodies and reviews of various works across the Internet are being taken down by the copyright holders. This type of content, of course, is protected under fair use law, which the DMCA system ignores. There has been an outcry across the Internet by various content creators who have had their content removed and their revenue taken from them falsely to have the DMCA system updated to accommodate people who make a living from Internet content. Back in 1998, this was not as big of an issue, as making a living off of Internet content was not an option for people. There are now many creators who make their living through their content. I'm not saying that the DMCA system should be removed entirely, as it prevents people from stealing copyrighted content and uploading it as their own. There should, however, be a punishment for false claims and it should be made more convenient for creators who abide by fair use law within their content to defend it from the dated DMCA system. Please take any and all comments made on this issue seriously. Changes must be made to better protect Internet content creators.
To close on another subject, DMCA may also harm in that much material of our entertainment and digital history is at risk of being lost. Copyrights for computer programs may be helpful, but when interest in those programs wane to the point of obscurity, a copyright can only do so much. For example, the Apple II was a popular computer in the 1980s, yet we have left that computer behind because we have moved on to computers that are over 2000 times more powerful, with a corresponding increase in memory storage. DCMA, in proposition, should only protect in this case when enough interest in a particular medium is present, and the copyright holder is willing and able to uphold that protection.
Youtube is about 80% of the entertainment i watch. I dont watch TV. so this worries me deeply. Many of the Youtube creators i watch have been effected by unfair and unexplained DMCA Takedowns. These are good people trying to make content as a living. Many of them are very talented and could make more money doing something else but they love making content so they do. If somebody then takes down there video unfairly then they may think "Whats the point" and i dont blame them. The internet needs people like this to remain working to creating content. The internet and online media has become more relevant and popular in the last 10 years and i believe that online media will over take traditional TV as the main source of entertainment. i think this is starting to happen already. The system is being abused and it has to be fixed. There are people getting strikes for no reason and people doing reaction videos with the complete video they are reacting to in the bottom corner of the screen with full sound and nothing happens to them.
The current system dose not work.
Examples of horrific claims:
Brad Jones the Cinema Snob had a video of simply talking about a movie claimed because it was a bad review and he lost money from it.
Team four Star was forced to stop a satirical ABRIDGED series meant to parody Attack on Titan and had to stop cause they couldn't waste resources to fight back against the take downs, which is unfair.
Next to no one is able to review or comment on anything related to Nintendo games because the company is TERRIFIED of negative reviews.
An audition video for a play by a woman trying out for the job had to be posted on YouTube for the producers to see it. It was claimed and monotized by a claimant over a song that she did not even sing in the video and it hindered a real life in person job interview and hurt her economy.
Claimants use shielding companies to stop you from blaming the right people and hindering legal action.
Claims will be made during the height of your video exposures, stealing the height of your money until the claim goes away AFTER the video is getting less views.
People are constantly bullied and often times the claimants will only allow videos of positive reviews and no, they hardly ever watch the video they issue the notice for. Even videos with entirely self created content are flagged because of a single joke or appearance of something in the background. This system is broken and abused consistently every day.
Please Help
We need to stop false takedowns on the Internet. Period.
I have seen a lot of news on Youtube about critique and other videos being taken down for allegedly using content that belongs to other sources. This is supposed to be protected by fair use, but the problem persists. Channels have received strikes on videos, and for some, even if they fight the claim and get their video back (and the strike is removed), the same company came back under a different name and took the video down again. What's worse is that companies that DON'T EVEN OWN THE RIGHTS to the content in the video are claiming that they DO own said content, and there are no consequences for these false accusations. These problems need to be resolved.
I want to start Youtube, but to do that and staying creative we need Change.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
The system is often abused by copyright holders who can simply remove people's content simply for it containing a few seconds of media for the purpose of a joke or analysis even when the other ten minutes of the video are the creator's intellectual property. This clearly a violation of the law and it has the potential to put content creators jobs at risk if they're not able to show footage with their content.
Worse still, companies can use these claims as a form of harassment, continually attacking a creators videos and using bully tactics to have them removed. Some companies who don't even own any of the footage presented claim copyright on these videos and even further videos which may just contain people talking about a piece of media have been taken off of the internet.
Not only is that entirely illegal it's a denial of free speech, it's blatant censorship where there needs to be none. This has been seen by companies trying to cover up negative reviews of their products by claiming the videos under copyright.
The internet is meant to be a free place where freedom of expression isn't limited and this law is an archaic relic of the past which is limiting free speech on the internet. I want to be able to talk about media and fairly use it in my own content without fear of having a copyright threat sent to me and having the threat of a lawsuit hung over my head.
Please change this bill for the betterment of a more equal internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance CA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particul.ar, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
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As of today still, a content creator, even under the fair use law can see it's work taken down for days, and even months, just because the company, or a third party hired by said company to strike their channel down, decided to silence critics ( mainly on YouTube ), which has almost next to no human contact with it's creators. This puts the creators of the videos in a lose-lose situation, where the company, without needing ANY proof whatsoever, can swoop in and take the rights to the video, any monetarization they earn, and can even delete their whole channel, which is for some, their main revenue source.
I saw, personally, a video of a movie review get taken down, simply because the critic spoke about it in his own car. They never even showed any content from said movie, which shows how much this system is biased. Albeit ill will or simple ignorance of the law, this practice is so common on YouTube that many just expect their whole career to get wiped off the internet anytime they say something that would be deemed ''not fair use''. This DMCA was built around the times where we never expected the internet to become such a mammoth of a platform, and needs to be revised.
I may not be from the United States, but I WILL fight for those who have been wronged. For freedom!
I am beginning to run my own Youtube channel, but do not feel I can give it the attention I would like to give it due to the overwhelming claims I hear being made on other Youtube videos such as Nostagia Critic, Angry Joe, Total Biscuit, and many others.
The names I have listed, as well as myself, do not wish to replicate the origional creators of the media as they may claim. Reviews, lets plays, and sketches instead use the media in another way to create content, often to the benefit of the origional creator, as they recieve more attention because of it.
-- As a musician, I cannot record my OWN covers of music, and upload them to youtube, because some DMCA claim will be used to attack my channel before an argument can even be placed. The lost revenue for the time spent refuting empty claims will never be recovered, and the company filing counterfeit claims will receive no repercussions.
Please ensure that all content creators are protected from big businesses trying to claim our work as their own.
People have been abusing this system for years and destroying people who have been making a living with Youtube and have lost revenue by shell companies, trolls and cheaters abusing an outdated system that is ill-equipped to deal with the modern age of the internet.
Video's of mine have been blocked in countries due to me taking their audio and visual video and music, during reviews and simple reactions to them.
Also, it can jeopardize people's lively hood. Due to the three strike rule, if someone is given three unfair and wrong strike's they can lose access to their one source of income for their lives. YouTube isn't a hobby for some, it's a job and to them they live in constant worry if a strike is unfairly given to their channel.
Please look into changing this as it's becoming unfair when robots, trolls, shell companies and just general bad people are abusing a system that can have dire consequences on a person's lively hood, not just a simple online hobby. Thank you.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech, as well as both critical and creative expression, on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works. Instead, takedowns should require real people to investigate the supposed infringing material to judge whether it is used in a reasonably creative, critical, or otherwise expressive way as part of a larger original work, and thus should be protected under Fair Use.
The Internet Isn't the same as it was nearly 20 years ago. The acts used by people who use the DMCA to their advantage legitimately breaks common law as it violates freedom of speech and strongly affects the innocent not involved in such copyright claims.
I am a very big fan of some review based youtubers and it always makes me feel so angry whenever I see that they have to try and make a living while companies are abusing the DMCA laws and taking what isn't even rightfully theirs in the first place.
I heard an example of Brad Jones who was just talking in front of a camera and he still got a claim on his video. He didn't even use any video clips.
There are also companies that don't even relate to the video but the still want to claim it. There was also another story of CR (Youtuber) made a video about the green M&M character and it got a claim from the WWE (Wrestling). That is just insane. That is just showing how far the abuse of this law is really going.
The DMCA is being abused way to much and people are suffering because of it. Is there any way that you can get real people to actually look at the video's to see if they are abusing fair use or not? There is a clear difference between stealing someone work and using fair use and you can tell just by watching it.
I'm not even a Youtuber but I can see it effecting a lot of people I know personally. A friend who was using a clip under fair use got a claim and she got so scared of it she took down her entire account. Please make an update to these ridiculous laws and help make it better for old and new creativity to become part of a safer internet experience.
Many companies use this system to make false claims and receive money without any legal repercussions. It is illegal what they are doing but because of the DMCA being the way it is nobody can stop it. It makes these companies... and even random people scamming the system with false claims think they are above the law.
The DMCA has been used repeatedly for false claims, more often than for legitimate claims. DMCA claims are being abused to censor unfavorable opinions, to stop potential competition, to unfairly gain revenue from the work of individuals. And there are no penalties for issuing fraudulent claims under the current system.
The DMCA laws were enacted at a time when the internet was just starting, and have not changed at all to keep up with the advancements and changes that have happened since they were enacted.
This outdated DMCA treatment against internet content creators not only hinders their work when strikes go against fair use. But it drives fear onto future creators preventinf them from doing the thing they aspire. I'm one of said creators
(Aspie Anime Addict) wanting to evolve my channel with reviews and community debate on anime with a different judgement on the medium. But the guidelines being strangled and film creators/bots filing strikes or threaten lawsuits makes me worried on reaching the next level for my channel when in the past I got 2 strikes from Funimation Entertainment and Bent Pixels. Which are working together on 2 reviews of titles that are licensed by them. I'm advertising and giving commentary on the product. Meaning fair use. But I can't deal with them due to said threats and fear of a channel takedown. I'll stand by this movement to take away the unecessary power companies/bot sites like these have against current or future creators.
Please consider copyright reform which would protect individuals from harassment, censorship, and theft of revenue by companies too large to defend against. I have personally been affected by these issues in addition to knowing many friends and YouTube channels with the same problem. The following may be a form-letter, but I have read and agree with it wholeheartedly.
The notice-and-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
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I've seen over the past 10 years on youtube proiment youtubers who've made content get taken down unfairly on reviews, parodies, talkback about the movie and more that fall under fair use.
The issues of DMCA with the current internet is majorly outdated, and isn't adequate in a time where people can easily share content within the qualms of the law.
I have seen it been abused and misused, both by genuine copyright holders and non-copyright holding, fake holders. They've been people who've taken away revenue that rightly belongs to the content creator, threaten with taking down content-creator's channel over a negative review, parody, etc.
That and recently over the last month (February 2016-March 2016), I have seen prominent youtubers both big and small get hit with takedowns over a recent viral video that made the headlines/news and more.
I'm majorly on youtube, but I have seen it elsewhere as well on many different sites and it feels that the DMCA needs a revision for the current internet, that or a complete rehaul/new law to reflect the current internet that deals with all of these issues that have been happening.
Please, stop the abuse of the DMCA. I and many others have seen it over and over again, many cases not in the right. I hope this helps in bringing light to this outdated law.
Thanks and #SaveFairUse
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The current state of DMCA take downs has got monumentally out of hand.
Something needs to be done, to protect the rights of content creaters, viewers, and free speech itself. So please, make it happen.
I like the idea behind DMCA system.
However, I find it weird that there's no verification.
... baffling when two different companies claim to have valid DMCA to exact same content.
... concerning when need of verification and ease of automation makes it impossible to handle malicious spam of them by hand for start-ups.
... troubling when automatic verification enables businesses with income solely from DMCA requests.
As such, I believe checks to discourage artificial monopolies and income aided by false claims are necessary.
As a small youtuber my channel was struck with strike and my video was monetized for using piano cover music that was another youtubers original content however the company's was willing to take credit for his work and mine when my video was not monetized. To think that someone can make profit off of 2 peoples work without us having any say in the matter is truly appaling, but imagine if that happens to hundreds of people everydaybut stop imagining because it is real people have had channels and their livelihood's and their freedom of speech and expression affected by this law and abusers of it. it is time for a change.
Fair use has not been taken under consideration by companies since reviewers such as the mysterious mr.enter and others have been unfairly been copyrighted claimed by a law that clearly states what they are doing is legal . Fix this for justice as companies can steal money from YouTubers which is their only source of income
"#WTFU?"
The current DMCA system is a relic of a less-developed and less-matured internet that was not yet able to provide video-content-makers a living off of their work through the monetization of their videos. Now that YouTube is home to so many people who are self-employed content-makers whose only occupation is that of making YouTube videos, they must be allowed the peace of mind that they will have a steady income, and that their videos and channels will not be taken down through unwarranted copyright strikes from corporations that exploit the antiquated law, leftover from a fledgling Internet. Amending the DMCA now will be decisive in legitimizing the Internet as a viable means of income, since its current version is discouraging those who would otherwise pioneer this inevitable new way of entertainment.
Please fix this stinky poop system.
Please watch this for some issues:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
I'm not sure who's going to read this, but whoever it is, please take into account that I'm human, and I'm just trying to understand the injustice in this world. I'm not a lawyer, nor am I an expert on these matters by any means. However, I do know corruption when I see it. I'm not a content creator and I don't post videos on YouTube, but I faithfully follow many channels and I've seen how these takedowns have effected them. Like I said, I don't pretend to know all the ins and outs of this situation but I do know this: People out there are being wrongfully penalized and attacked, when they are completely in the right. More often than not, everything they use, whether for a reaction or a review, is fair use. And most times, it's not even a real person making these false claims. It's a computer. An algorithm used to search out specific keywords and act upon it. There is an injustice going on here and for some, this affects their very livelihood. So please, whoever you may be, stop this. I beg of you. Help to stop this and right what was so wrongfully wronged.
Thank you,
~A concerned citizen
Hi, I'm an aspiring content creator of webcomics and videos on the internet. I have a ton of influences and inspiration from various online shows including the Nostalgia Critic, Atop the Fourth Wall, The Webcomic Relief, I Hate Everything, Bobsheaux, Jim Sterling, TheMysteriousMrEnter and a slew of others and I want to be like them doing reviews and skits and online videos. But recently I've seen them get harassed by the YouTube Copyright system and various overzealous, unprofessional commentors and have their hard work taken down over the most flimsiest of reasons. I don't know too much about "Fair Use" but I do want to start a YouTube channel and I do NOT want the same thing happening to me when I get my bearings, so I as well as many, many, MANY people on the internet ask our wonderful country to stop those who would defy the law they created on their own soul. I hope I make some sort of difference. Have a good rest of the week.
~ Mohsen
I've seen so many of my favorite youtubers get taken down, get copyright strikes, or have money stolen from them because of this shit copyright system. Not to mention there is no repercussion for the people who issue these false claims. This system needs to change.
I am a student digital filmmaker and a future content creator. It is deeply troubling to me how outdated and heavily abused the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is towards content creators instead of protecting the right of fair use against corporate censorship. This act in this modern age serves as tools for corporate and individuals to enforce biased claims in the form of copyright strikes and lawsuits. While content creators have to spend weeks - months even - climbing a skyscraper and back to clear it off their accounts such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter before steeper charges are slapped on in a matter of seconds.
There is no balance. A recent copyright strike placed on a YouTube video I uploaded back in 2013 told me that no amount of statements disowning of borrowed content and original with no monetary gain still couldn't save me from a strike and rob me of some control over my channel. Luckily for me, I haven't started transferring majority of my content on but I can't even begin to imagine what it's like for content creators making a living on these sort of websites. Having their hard earned revenue taken from them under false claim and their channels shutdown in the blink of an eye after years of nurturing it - at least not yet!
The DMCA needs to start protecting not just content creators - but artists of all kind - like it was suppose to and not like a crutch in favor of bogus claims with little questioning behind it.
#Where's the Fair Use?
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I have had claims on some of my videos. Some were justified but one a company claimed that my audio matched something in their database. This felt extremely weird to me as I singlehandly and painstakingly created that audio myself, but I've been afraid to fight it because I'm such a small channel on Youtube. If your system is making people like me afraid, imagine the bigger channels who rely on making content to live getting flagged while falling under 'fair use'. This system needs a dramatic overhaul.
I'm a consumer of youtube countless youtube channels and all or almost all of them have had big problems with youtube's sistem of notice-and-takedown, mostly because they are considered culprit until proven innocent in a sistem that, mostly, doesn't listem to them when they try to prove theyr case. Videos get arbitrarily taken down because the NAME of a movie is in the title (of a video of a critic - even a positive one - of the movie), even when no footage or sound from the movie is used and even with the legal protections that the law gives to content creators such as fair use.
I've seen a youtuber lose his rights to the money of a 1h video because of 10 seconds of soundtrack taken from the HBO show "Rome", however wasn't HBO who had striked him, but a studio who had the rights to a song from a band wich happened to use the same bit of soundtrack at the beggining of the song.
I've seen this sistem be abused so many times i can barely count. And heard some of the content creators i like talk about how their livinghood is being thretened because he can barely post a video without having it taken down or all the money the video produces taken from the person who created that content. Most youtuber's are creating accounts in sites like Patreon because the money that should be theirs is being taken from them. In my country, we call that "Theft".
Why isn't there a real person judging the acusations? Why aren't the content creators being considered innocent until guilty?
And if someone takes your money and you later prove them wrong, you should at least have your money back, but the DMCA sistem does not predict that, nor does it predict any penalties for the abuse of the sistem. Imagine living in a world where you can be stolen, prove someone stolenyou and... Nothing happens.
Funny enought this sistem was created to prevent these things from happening to the great companies, to avoid them to lose money for piracy... But then... The great companies earn millions per year, right?
But the victims here are day-to-day people, who earn at best the enought to live a normal life. When you just take their money they have their livinghood thretened.
They need to be protected by the Law.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and com
Not only that international companies also use this law to say that their things are copyrighted under their laws. Although if it is used in review parody or criticism it is also not okay. Sounds like the companies of other countries do not like criticism so much they will try to censor the criticism any chance they get. That is illegal censorship and that is wrong.
People should be able to freely post under fair-use without the fear of it being taken down. It stifles the creativity of others, as well as their freedom. There are various instances of this happening, but one that I'll mention are people who make comedic videos about anime and other animation. They are parodies, and should be covered by fair use. People like Team Four Star and Project Voicebend make parodies that people love. All of this copyright bullying is unnecessary. Where's the fair use?
I also believe that it is important to note how outdated the DMCA is heavily outdated. Back when this was created, in 1998, the internet was basically in a primal state; a shell of what the internet is now. The law was made for the way the internet was back in 1998 and does not take into account how the internet and how social media works today. Things like Youtube, Facebook and Twitter were more fantasy than reality at that time and now that they exist, the law is too outdated to take them into account correctly.
This law is 18 years old. In that timeframe, so much has happened to how people interact with the internet and how the internet works as a whole. This law needs to be updated to reflect those changes and to protect those should be protected under it but are harshly and unfairly being attacked because of it.
This is about protection of free speech, as well as preventing large corporations from bullying their way around the law.
Please stop the DMCA of being abused on innocent talented people that have created great content later to be taken down by a false accusation.
Every other day I hear about a new YouTube video being taken down for copyright infringement. Often I've seen these videos and know them to be critique (reviews) or used for educational purposes (analysis), not in any way intended to steal revenue from copyright holders (often it's the other way around, with content creators giving focus to IPs that might otherwise go unnoticed). Yes, the internet does provide an avenue for illegal uploads but for too long now, this has been an excuse to stifle and even bully countless content creators who are within the law. These are hard-working and passionate people, some rely on their content to make a living. It's time to take another look at the system and start protecting the new generation of content creators.
you know how much bullshit DMCA abuse is? Basically, everyone's exploiting it to eradicate free speech in reviews and silence content producers. using DMCA takedowns to silence those who give your product a negative review is a BLATANT violation of free speech, manipulating a law's context for your own benefit.
as for the trolls abusing DMCA, it is wrong, and should be a criminal offense. it's similar to impersonation, and i'm surprised that it ISN'T a crime to use DMCA strikes as a way to harm those you don't like. i've seen cases where someone's VOICE got a channel taken down. there needs to be a way for the person issuing the strike to verify they own the material instead of just a click of the mouse. it would be much harder to issue a random strike "for fun". a legitimate copyright owner can easily verify with methods that trolls would not have access to.
bottom line, there needs to be some form of control over DMCA that makes it impossible to push a button and wipe a youtube channel or videos from existence.
as it stands at the moment, free speech is dead. fair use is dead. DMCA takedowns NEED to stop. if it doesn't, i can guarantee that entire lives will be destroyed because of selfish corporate bigots who don;t give a damn about anyone but themselves.
The DMCA has become an outdated fossil of a preventative method, which has become a tool for abuse and some perverted enjpyment at the expense of content creators.
Above is a prewritten statement, so I would like to speak personally about this. This law is heavily outdated and needs to be looked at once more. This comment system is a fantastic idea to see what the people want and I would like a more fair system. Content creators are being harassed by other, bigger content creators for no other reason than to try and make money off the backs of others. Please change this law to have some kind of false claim penalty or else the problem will only fester even more. #WTFU
I've witnessed several youtuber's in the past have their content removed and even their channels sometimes. And all of this happened for no real reason. No fair or actual reason. Nothing was stolen from them. THeir content was used in a way that was passable. They didn't upload full movies or steal content from anyone. It's getting ridiculous. And the way youtube works is unfair enough to begin with and the system already weighs in favour of those who flag these Youtubers. Things have to change and something has to be done.
As little as I can add to the issue, I'd like to stress how many international platforms exist under American jurisdiction. DMCA in its current form is too easy to abuse, which is not only troublesome for US citizens, but it distracts content creators of all kinds world-wide from their craft. At the same time, actual criminals have plenty of ways to get away with what they do. Thus, DMCA doesn't add much to pre-existing copyright law when it comes to law-abiding Internet users, is ultimately pointless against pirates, but gives a weapon against people who cannot afford/unable/don't want to protect their creations through a law-suit. Why does it exist then?
I was one of those whose youtube video was hit with a copyrighr strike, and all I did was sing along to my favorite song, which should be all the more flattering to the artist i was covering. Instead, i got some greedy record label overseas claiming that my FAIR USE VIDEO was infringing upon their copyright. This has to stop!
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The current DMCA system is a huge problem on popular media sites like YouTube. Copyright holders are abusing the system to censor and bully content creators using their content fairly under the law. The DMCA needs a major restructuring to fit the modern form of the internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
So many content creators have been hit with unfair strikes, leading to loss of their revenue and videos. Some instances they lose their entire channel, this has to stop. The internet isn't the same as it was 10 years ago, so much has changed and the rules/regulations/guidelines have to be updated or companies will continue to take advantage of this flawed, outdated system.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Although I am only a viewer and not a content creator, I have noticed all sorts of unfair copyright claims on the channels that I tend to watch and enjoy on YouTube. I have seen that many of them are only doing reviews and speaking their opinions of movies and or media, which is all in fair use. They are criticizing and reviewing content which should be fair in the terms of copyright law. Anyone can just come along and abuse the copyright system on YouTube and butcher a creator's content, which is abiding by copyright laws, in the name of "fair use". This has gone too far and needs to be stopped so that content creators can speak their opinion freely without the fear of their work, as well as their voice, being taken down. If you could take this all in consideration, it would be greatly appreciated.
I would all so like to make it harder for foreign companies to abuse the DMCA system
Please update the laws or regulations to protect cont ent creators.
Dear the U.S Copyright Office,
I come to you, pleading that you to update the current system for Copyrighting content online. As someone who is increasingly reliant on the internet and the content created for it; seeing how honest content creators are being taken advantage of through legal loopholes and unfair business practices, it is a great injustice upon our first amendment rights the spirit of creativity our copyright laws were created to protect.
So for the sake of creative expression and the , please help these content creators maintain their livelihoods and help our freedom of speech.
Thank you for your time,
Henry Kathman
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8&feature=youtu.be
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. Additionally, it does not sufficiently punish false takedown requests. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Another step to take would be incentives or legislation that ensures vigorous enforcement of false take-downs, such as when single-word matches or obvious fair use such as reviews, are erroneously targeted.
Dear Whomever may be reading this,
Sincerely, Ryan
I've witnessed the DMCA system abused on YouTube. Many of my favored Content Creators were struck down from it.
I myself believe it could use a major change, many others do as well. Please truly consider on taking action on this and stop the abuse.
Also, you keep taking down my favorite YouTubers. And when you take away a man's entertainment, you take away his culture. That is UNACCEPTABLEEEEEEEE!
Make a change
We need it
Not want
Need
And in general this process is just trash and the government need to ensure this constitutional law is used in the right way for its age.
The DMCA is behind the times and it desperately needs an update. Copyright holders abuse the act to take down criticism and other legitimate forms of fair use, simply because they don't like what was being said about their product or they feel they can make a quick buck (or both).
Copyright holders seem to have all the power once they take down content. They can give you no reason as to why they're taking it down, leaving you in the complete dark. If they've chosen to seize revenue, they get to keep all the money they earn of others' work, even if their takedown is false. They can also receive no consequences for their false takedown, so they can steal your money and get off scot-free.
I also feel like the act doesn't define what is fair use accurately enough. For example parody. What is really parody and not parody? The lines are definitely blurred. I once made what I felt was a parody on YouTube, and it was taken down without a given reason. I tried to fight it but I had no power in the situation.
I think that copyrighted material should also be able to be used more freely, as long as it isn't hurting the creator. For example, a full upload of a movie should be taken down immediately, but if someone just has a copyrighted song on in the background while they're talking over it and doing something unrelated, and they give credit in the description, how is it hurting the artist? How is it damaging their bottom line? If anything, people will hear the song and want to know more about it, and possibly buy it. Copyrighted work should definitely have more freedom for the public.
The DMCA process also needs a human element to it. Computers are smart, but right now they're having trouble knowing what is fair use and what isn't, so they take down anything that has a hint of copyrighted material indiscriminantly. Automated processes can speed things up a lot for copyright holders which is fantastic, but it screws creators who are using their work in compliance with fair use. I'm not sure how this could be done for large companies, but at some point there definitely needs to be a human that will be able to tell whether something is fair use or not.
The DMCA needs to change. Even people that talk about a movie on camera, with no footage of the movie in sight, are being taken down by the movie owners. The internet has evolved since 1998 and people's livelihoods are being ruined now due to the DMCA.
When the DMCA was formed, the internet was a niche media source. Today, millions of people rely on it to make a living. The DMCA of today allows these people to be unfairly bullied, robbed, and destroyed by more powerful competitors. This is absolutely unacceptable, and has gone on for long enough.
Imagine if another company could acquisition all of your profits simply by claiming that you violated their copyright. Imagine they could do this without even going to trial. Imagine that even if later down the road it was proven that you never violated copyright, that company still got to keep all of your profits that they acquisitioned and never got so much as a slap on the wrist.
Imagine if Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel had had "At The Movies" shut down every time they gave an unfavorable review of a movie. Imagine that the movie producers had that kind of power, the access to those loopholes. Where they could stifle Fair Use simply because they wanted to control social perception of their movies, only allowing positive views to remain available.
These might seem like ridiculous examples, but they are the every day reality for internet content creators. The current model of the DMCA heavily favors the companies and copyright owners, to the point where Fair Use creators are stiffed and robbed on a daily basis. I have watched creators being shut down and banned for giving negative reviews. I have watched monetization, the literal profits for a creator's job, given to any company who claims a copyright infringement, with no avenue for the creator to fight back. I have watched the most powerful media companies in this country abuse the DMCA in order to keep internet creators small and themselves big.
We cannot sit by and allow this to continue, it goes against everything that the free market stands for. It's time to move America out of 1998, and into the age of the internet. It's time to revise the DMCA regulations to fit a market that employs millions of Americans a year.
I began doing youtube videos to shine light on lesser known pieces of media that I love. Encouraging people to seek out, and purchase those products. There have been many times, I couldn't properly highlight the product due to illogical or unfair DMCA concerns.
I can assure you, many film, video game, and music sales were hindered by the stifling caused by the current DMCA standards.
Thank you for your consideration. I hope to have reason to thank you again in the future.
Johnny Burnes.
Below are words written by another, but ones that I agree with:
#WTFU
I just want to say that my favorite youtuber is losing his heroic actions because of the terrible system in place. He makes gaming videos that don't infringe on fair use and takes all of the money he earns from YouTube to donate for various charities. But in more recent years, he hasn't been able to do that because of the faulty system and a few personal issues but mostly because of the lousy system in place.
On top of all this, creators are getting false claims for just talking with a camera and zero footage. Many people have their main source of income destroyed when a claim can take away their money made on that video and reduce the length of videos to 15 min. This is not fair. We need to do something about this right now.
With no balance, even something as simple as two people talking with no copyrighted content at all get hit with strikes, creators face threats of legal action even under fair use, vital financial resources are taken down or siphoned from content creators and it doesn't get fixed for days on end. And even if they fight it back and win by calling the bluff of the strike, the content still isn't safe as it can get hit again despite the victory.
We need an internet where fair use actually does mean what's on the tag. Not a bait and switch that can cost content creators their necessary finances where they can thrive. Please think about the people who don't want to make illegal content, not the bullies who try to stifle them and push them out of their entertainment niche.
TLDR: The DMCA Take-down laws are extremely outdated and are harming the internet and the idea of free speech as a whole. It has gotten so bad to the point that it is almost become the norm of content online being taken down or censored on a daily basis. I may not be big or famous, but I am fully aware of this is issue and I want to help end this abuse before it gets worse.
As a content creator and film reviewer, this hits me immensely hard. I have been on YouTube for THREE YEARS now and not one day has gone past without me having to fight off false copyright strikes on my channel and videos. With the recent rise in this system's abuse, I have even had to shut down my channel due to too many of these strikes piling up.
This is the EXACT SAME SITUATION other well respected, and far more influential content creators have had to deal with for even longer than myself. While this system continues to be abused by big name corporations that knowingly file these fraudulent and false claims against reviewers and analysts, the Internet (let alone YouTube) becomes more and more restrictive every day. Which is the exact OPPOSITE of what it should be and continues to try and stand for.
With the art of viewing a television dwindles into smaller numbers day by day, and more and more people turn to the Internet for their daily entertainment, its no wonder bigger companies are trying to silence critics. It's not so much about the film clips used, it's about what the speakers can say. It's what they, the analysts, are voicing their opinion on. This is made apparent when talk sessions and live streams have been hit with copyright strikes after simply discussing the chosen film / media, WITHOUT ANY CLIPS OR PICTURES SHOWN ON OR OFF SCREEN, let alone whether or not it is a positive view on the chosen subject. Opinions can be, and essentially ARE one of the most powerful forces on the planet, causing one to become disenchanted by the idea of seeing a new upcoming film or listening to someone's new album if it receives a multitude of bad reviews.
This only makes the situation bad for the companies, who don't care what we say about their products unless it benefits them. And sometimes, even POSITIVE reviews can be taken down, with no rhyme or reason as to why. THIS is the exact reason why the law simply MUST be changed. The art of free speech must be preserved, and especially on the Internet, where free speech and ingenious human ideas / originality thrive. This is not just for content creators such as myself, or even the more well known reviewers.
While it is personal, this movement is mostly important due to the fact that we could lose the internet that we know and love, and may not even have access to it at all in the near future unless something changes NOW.
And if you have not yet been convinced by the magnitude of the situation, and how much blood, sweat and tears has gone into fighting for this cause by the public, then I URGE YOU, and I mean URGE you to type '#WTFU' or 'Where's The Fair Use' into either Google or YouTube. Trust me, this is worth the time.
NC
The original DMCA act has not changed since it was first introduced over a decade and a half ago, and that fact is beginning to show in possibly the worst way. This is something that needs to be fixed.
I have witnessed many cases of content creators being falsely accused of violating fair use laws in my time on the internet. Every time they challenged the accusation they were found to be innocent in their appeal and or review. Modern fair use laws are out of date and need to be reexamined and updated to protect all content creators operating within the boundaries of the law, even if they're online creators.
Hello, my name is Stefan Byerley, and I'm a YouTube content creator.
I've had DMCA takedown notices used against me in the past for content that I created. After arranging a jazz version of a classical song, Gymnopedie no. 1 by Erik Satie in 1888, I received DMCA takedown notice for the original arrangement by Sony. This happened a total of 2 times before I was able to shake off the false copyright infringement accusations made by Sony. It's in this light that I can no longer stand for the DMCA laws.
So I'm not going to just sit back and say that the DMCA is perfectly fair. In fact, it's biased as hell against the creators. So get off your ass and fix this shit system.
please wtfu
We need an update in the system that can give the little people a shot at success. As it is, users that are legitimately creating content under fair use are getting their videos pulled with no explanation or evidence. This has an effect on many people's living. It's illegal to fire somebody without evidence that they did something wrong; this is pretty similar when users whole accounts are pulled and monetization withdrawn with no explanation. Corporations and even trolls are using the system now to threaten and bully the fair use content creators. They have even flagged videos with no content in them at all; in one instance, a video was taken down for copyright violation that only had people hanging out in a car talking about a movie they saw in the theater. Because the system is automated, users have no way to communicate that they are being unfairly persecuted, and no way to properly defend their content against the trolls and corporations that flag their videos. Please check out the tag #WTFU for more stories and articles.
*********************
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims. Take-downs are even used as threats against content creators. Some are filed by people who don't even own the content.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
It's unbelievable how far some of these companies/people can and will go to silence critisism. Critisism is a part of our consciousness mind to help protect us from bad descisions, and its uses have helped us steer clear of dangerous deals (like buying a bad movie), and trying to silence it not only harms and represses our (frankly, very useful) instinct, but also represses freedom of speech and creates uninformed consumers (which is a very erratic source of income, so it's bad for the consumer and business as a whole!).
Let it also be known that the abuse of fair use goes against many of the ideals any american holds dear. Unfortunately due to the nature of the law itself, it has put a stranglehold on anyone who wishes to create content on the internet. Inadvertently one of the unalienable rights given to us by the constitution has been systematically been trampled on by private and corporate entities and it is definitely time to reevaluate these laws to prevent this abuse. This freedom of speech is important to me and many others on the Internet, and if this freedom of speech is truly unalienable, we must take action to wnsure that no party has the ability to stifle anothers opinion for their own nefarious reasons.
The system it´s out of date and beneffits the corporations by giving them the easy tool of censorship without explenation or justification.
It ins´t Fair use.
my videos have not been taken down but i know many friends and other tubers who had their videos taken down for no reason.
i do not do money of my videos but its annoying to deal with copyright claims for no reason even in videos where you are just playing game or talking with friend and nothing copyrighted is seen in video that is no under fair use.
Youtube should not give everyone premissions to make claims and strikes and only company who owns copyrights should be able to make them and noone else.
money from video under strike should not go to company before it has been decidet that its not under fair use.
clean videos should not be able to be striked again.
i would like to be in contact with peoples in my copyright proplems and not with youtube automatic reply system.
and lastly that 3 srtike rule is laughable stupid and the whole system is in my opinion too outdated to work without repair.
please stop this madness
thank you.
The rules has been unfair, there's no joke to that, punch line or anything, the current laws are being abused by companies, filled claim against a video twice after its already been cleared, used as threats, unfairly copyright striked even though there was no sound, no audio from the original content can be copyright striked, even if it's a review. I think that change should be done, this is something that effects everyone
I just want to be able to post videos without it being deleted or took down because of the song I use when its only a fan made parody of something I love. I hate seeing good productions and animations and videos being taken down due to false claims and over ridiculous things. I just want the use to be fair and more lenient on some things and what not. Its just not right and i want something to be done about it seeing videos i can't even find anymore due to them being deleted. When they might help whatever they parody.
If you put something out, people will take it, spoof it, make fun of it, yell at it, and destroy it. That's just how life works.
The current notice and takedown process under the DMCA is regularly used to bully YouTube content creators. As a creator with over 100k subs and 12 million+ views, I have lost months worth of revenue due to false takedowns with no repercussions to the claimants for their false claims. I have nearly lost my entire livelihood due to 2 false claims in 1 night and have never felt safe in my job. I implore you to look at this outdated system and update it for the modern internet.
The system is being heavily abused by copyright owners to destroy competition, and it will continue to occur if changes are not made.
This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I've always liked drawing and like to do fan works and would like to do some original cartoons but I don't feel safe enough to put anything out do to the fact of companies claiming stuff they don't own because some one referenced something in their video and most of the time it's done by companies that don't even own the rights.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. The law was made in 1998, but the internet has changed drastically since then, and these laws are no longer helpful to content creators on today's internet. Company's are able to claim and take down channels on YouTube for using music in their video, even if there wasn't any music playing at all. This is incredibly unfair to the content creator, as it takes away their ability to make money from the video, with all profit going to the company with a false claim. YouTube is a site in which people can make money. For many people on that site, YouTube is their job, their source of income, and they can spend years building it up to the best it can be. These outdated and biased copyright laws have caused YouTube channels to be taken down, leaving them without a job, all because someone claimed the video was against fair use (even though it wasnt) or just because they felt the video was attacking them in some way. Unfortunately, this is an automated system. The video is not reviewed for its reasons of strike and is automatically taken down, or in other cases resulting in the deletion of someones channel. This is incredibly biased to those who make the claim. While it's important to have laws like these on the internet, they need to be fixed and modernised to create a well working and fair system to all those involved.
Not being an American citizen, I do not know the ins and outs of the political system or the exact contents of its constitution. I do, however, know that the right of free speech is a right every civilised commumity needs, and it is not one portrayed on Youtube, where companies are able to censor unfavourable criticism without repurcusions. This is wrong on every level, and I can do nothing more than plead for more sanctions, so that the artists whose work I enjoy do not fear the threat of oppressive business censorship to an almost dictatorial degree. Please bring back fair use for all our sakes, maker and viewer alike.
Copyright law and the DMCA are in dire need of reform. People doing their best to make a living on websites like YouTube are being harassed by large corporations that make false copyright claims. The copyright claim process needs to be completely redone. Penalties need to be put in place for any groups guilty of making false claims. People should be able to discuss media and intellectual properties without fear of being punished for it.
I'm a content creator on YouTube and I like doing it but I fear every time I upload a video about batman or X-men among other subjects related to the entertainment industry, that I'm gonna get a copyright strike. I'm a small channel. I get usually under 100 views a video and I'm being targeted. Others are being targeted. People are calling claims on other people's videos that DONT OWN the original content. It's a mess. Please look at the law. It gives the creators no power.
This is an outdated law. The majority of my online interaction takes place in formats thought of when the DMCA was created. Fair Use allows for amazing things to be created, often in celebration of the culture that springs up around entertainment content. But fair use also protects criticism and satire, and some companies see the DMCA as a way to censor and silence negative press. This is anti-consumerist, and goes against the tenets of free speech.
Fair use used to be a way for people to say their honest opinions on topics that meant something to them. Now corporations seem bent on silencing those who are "in the way" of profit. This includes all form of criticism and fair use of footage. Put an end to those who abuse their power and allow fair use to be just that. #WTFU
DMCA's are used to censor opposing views on games. Opposing views on pretty much everytihng. There are even creators who's videos are claimed by automated content crawlers or manual claims all because they think they copywrited snow or trees or a 2 second sound clip that they created because a bot thinks it's part of a song. That's how outdated the DMCA has become. I'll admit that yes parts of the law are good but in today's internet it has to be updated.
Thank you for actually doing your part in making this law updated.
The below is obviously a form letter, but I agree with it 100%. I currently draw more of my visual entertainment from sites like YouTube than anywhere else. It seems like everyday content creators are unfairly punished by these outdated laws. The mental and physical cost is extremely visible and it troubles me greatly. Please, we need to update this law to stop the abuse being perpetrated against all of these good people.
*cough* youtube *cough* google plus *cough*
Youtube's copyright protection system is extremely biased in favor of large-scale corporations, providing a financial incentive to file false infringement claims without any consequences. And yet, creators are penalized on a three-strike system, regardless of whether the claims turn out to be true or not. Revenue streams are taken from creators and turned to those making the false claims, potential revenue is lost as more timely videos are made unavailable until well after their relevance is lost, and in extreme cases, professional content creators can lose their channels, and by extension, their livelihoods without ever having broken a law. Such a system has a direct effect of discouraging the production of new creative content, especially in the field of satires and critical analysis, both of which often depend on samples and excerpts to be presented effectively. Creations that utilize copyrighted material for the purpose of satire, parody, and critical analysis are supposed to be protected under fair use, and yet the current system does absolutely nothing to protect creators and everything to jeopardize their well-being whenever it proves inconvenient for wealthier and more powerful organizations. This is a clear abuse of power, it is illegal, and if we pretend to exist in a society that values creativity and intellectualism, we must reevaluate our current methods of copyright protection and find new ways to ensure our creators and artists are allowed to exercise their rights under fair use.
I'm a Youtuber. I use clips of Gravity Falls to make retrospective music videos. If I'm paying homage to a show without monotization, why can't I use the clips? How does it harm Disney? Are they losing money from me NOT making any money? The rules need to be transparent, and reformed
On a personal note, i've been watching internet reviews for at least nearly the last ten years or so and i've seen these channels and content creators get punished no apparent reason, especially shows associated with the YouTube as their copyright systems seems the most corrupt and messed up.
The internet should remain an environment that which content creators shouldn't fear what they post, in the risk of false claims. The last thing that anyone should think about when posting original works is to fear content thieves claiming their works, or having bigger men claiming works of fair use.
The current stance of the DMCA is horridly outdated, or altered in ways that support the people that would otherwise abuse their powers. These powers need revision in order to fix the current day problems that of which the inception of the DMCA wasn't made for.
Fair Use on the internet (especially YouTube) is absurdly messed up The DMCA does practically nothing on the internet and sadly, nobody who has any real power does absolutely nothing. Seriously, you could file a copyright claim on YouTube for someone who disliked one of your videos and they would be only able to upload 15 minute videos and many other penalties which YouTube does absolutely nothing about! Major companies like to file copyright claims on bad reviews of their content taking the video down. But worst of all, there are companies that goes to random videos and file copyright claims because they get the advertising money from it. Imagine you own a bank and someone robs it and starts stealing money from the bank. You call the police and arrest the robber; but the robber doesn't have to give the money they stole back to you. It is practically the same thing. This needs to change now. People who don't deserve to get punished do and same with the other way around. They are breaking the law and nobody is stopping it. So please, this needs to change immediately.
This is too true not to be ignored.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I am no legal expert, and I will not claim to be. I am, like so many others, simply someone watching YouTubers and online faces for entertainment. In fact, I think it's the only media that I am continuously consuming, and certainly the one I am most passionate about. I have observed a great many who are just as passionate about their livelihood as I and many more others are. There are so many more besides me who have become inspired enough to chase their own dreams or who have found comfort, laughter and hope in what is provided by content creators. I believe that YouTube and its major members ARE the future faces of entertainment, as they can reach out to fans and do so more often than actors on television or in film.
So it pains me to see so many creators wrongly mistreated for filings on copyright and threats of lawsuit by major companies. These companies lord so much power over each and every critic and performer, with the resources to threaten destroying their livelihood and being able to do so with virtually a snap of the fingers. The creator(s) is forced to sit back and watch as everything they have built - likely over the period of several years - crumbles around them and wait until they find themselves flat on their rears with their livelihood swept out from under them as easily as a rug from under a foot. All because a corporation possessing millions upon millions of dollars wants to milk a little extra dough from someone who has "stolen" their work. Even if these people followed through with the required copyright system required on their site, they automatically end up on the losing side and must fight tooth and nail to get their channel or account back. This is an injustice that must stop, and one that must have consequences.
The DMCA must be updated, or if not updated, a newer, more current law put in its place. The next stage of media entertainment will be kneecapped and the potential of financial damage on these people who only want to follow their passions is frightening to think about. For these people, the little guys, who should have had this right from the very beginning:
Where's the fair use?
I have two examples of why the DMC needs to be changed. First of all, YouTube channel TeamFourStar has a long running series that uses clips from the Dragon Ball series but they always say that the video is a none profit fan-based parody and to support the initial release. Despite this, many of their videos have been taken down due to copyright even though it is none profit and they only use edited clips. Another example of this is YouTube channel Channel Awesome who has a series of reviews that are meant for critic and parody. Despite them only using very short clips and still images, the channel got a copyright claim that not only hindered their progress in making videos, but the company that filed the claim got all profit from the vidoes for a few weeks. What makes this worse is that other YouTube channels steel their reviews and reupload them and they don't get punished but Channel Awesome does even though they were the ones that put the time and effort making the videos.
Under copyright law a notification must include a statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed. Yet the DMCA allows this to be ignored. False claims are frequently made with no repercussions.
A problem is exemplified with YouTube in that no human being actually looks at the claims to determine if they are valid. Not only is fair use ignored but so is actual ownership. No one checks to determine if copyrighted material is used, who owns a copyright to the material, or if said owner is the same party making the claim.
Claims are made against content that includes no copywriten material. Just a person talking on camera without music or video clips. Claims are made against content that any moment of consideration would determine is fair use. Claims are made by shell companies. Claims are made as threats and to silence criticism. Claims are made repeatedly, even after shown to be false.
This implementation of the DMCA welcomes abuse of the system. Abuse that prevents a new media from evolving. Television didn't kill the cinema and VCRs didn't kill television. New markets emerged with each advancement of technology and old markets adapted. But old markets don't want to adapt. They don't want the competition that advancement brings. They want a monopoly on communication and entertainment. They want to prevent the dissenting voice from being heard. The DMCA is their tool to do that. As a result it will stifle the growth that should be encourage.
In other words, fix this shit.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, (As in NO human interaction whatsoever) therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate.(i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
DMCA takedowns are being used by companies unfairly in ways which don't factor in fair use so companies can protect themselves from bad reviews, also people file claims on content they don't even own sometimes to even cause harm on indevidual creators by blocking revenue income using takedowns, getting content deleated and using takedowns as threats/harrasment; videos/content can be hit multiple times even after being cleared. After this it can be very hard for creators to recover as it's hard to appeal against takedowns and also they don't get compensation for the effects of takedowns afterwards. Some companies or indeviduals even use shell companies to perform takedowns for them to avoid consequences.
While I'm sure you are receiving tons of emails with the message below, please know that I've read through and agree with all of it and I'm not sending this blindly.
I would like and appreciate you referencing and watching all the following (which are just a few examples of the whole great big issue at hand, who may I add are completely in the legal realm of fair use and can explain this issue way better than I can):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC3NIdiZF_E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFlgx2LTdeY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH-8PqS84qA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ9U8YLY
In conclusion, I would love if this new form of self expression and creativity was not destroyed by a greatly flawed system that is currently in place. There is even rumor of many (big and small names) considering a new means to get their stuff out there and logging in somewhere else from now on. A lot of people now make a living off these means now and I would hate for youtube to fall from such a great height. So please ... do not screw the creators over.
There definitely needs to be a change, I was impacted by these copyright claims as one of my videos got taken down because of it. If Im not monetizing it theres no reason why I shouldnt be able to use this content. Fair Use needs to come back.
I'm sure you guys already got dozens of messages talking about the Fair Use infrigement, especially on YouTube, although it has been broken in multiple platforms as well, such as Twitter.
Youtubers in these past few weeks have been under attack by various companies and/or entities that have been claiming contente that's under Fair Use.
The best example is a case that happened with I Hate Everything. After making a video about the "Damn Daniel" viral video, his video was taken down by an "company" called "Merlin". People then discovered that they have been taking down videos that contains the name " Damn Daniel" on the title, even though they apparently don't even hold the rights to such video.
I can take any video down on YouTube just because I didn't like it, that's how simples it is for the Fair Use to be broken.
But YouTube can't make such big changes. Not alone.
YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, all these websites can't make significativa changes because they are attached to a law that is very outdated.
The government needs to change the Fair Use law, and fast, or else, no one in the internet will be safe. No videos will have defenses against the false copyright claim.
Please help.
Help.
We need to fix the abuse of copywriting, this has gone too far.
Also, WHERE'S THE FAIR USE Youtube?
This seriously needs to stop. I remember so many YouTube channels out there that I loved but no longer exist due to copyright claims. Please stop these takedowns!
I have a Facebook page that got notice and a lot of followers and likes and now YouTube videos I post of games or songs from games are being taken down after I link them with the link in the deception at the top
My favorite created on YouTube is Doug Walker, aka the Nostalgia Critic. His work is incredible, ORIGINAL work requiring tons of time and effort. He uses short film clips, legal under fair use, to support his incredibly creative and imaginative commentary and criticism. He is not violating copyright; indeed, he is actually one of the most original and unique voices on YouTube. I love his work and hate to think that it might someday soon come to an end. But I fear it will…these days, he can't create his brilliant and hilarious commentary about TV shows and films without his videos being challenged for copyright violation. Walker is a brilliant writer and performer. He is not in any way stealing work from others, and is indeed just using clips to bolster part of his own written scripts.
According to Stanford University, "a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner." There is no question that Mr. Walker's work is transformative and limited. Anybody viewing his videos would see that. Why, then, is his work being unfairly flagged for copywrite violations on YouTube, and worse, why does YouTube take punitive actions without any investigation and without providing any recourse? Right now, I could go flag any of his videos for copyright. I'm a schoolteacher in Florida, and I promise I own NO copyrights. So why, then, would YouTube punish Mr. Walker if I flagged his videos, especially since he is NOT violating copyright laws? Mr. Walker puts a tremendous amount of time, effort, and money into his videos, and he is in no way violating any laws. Yet if I, just a non-copyright owning teacher flagged his video, YouTube might remove it, costing him significant amounts of income and depriving all of his fans of his work.
You might not have guessed this, but believe it or not, I am a major proponent of intellectual property. It is just as real in my brain as actual, physical property. But Doug Walker and YouTubers like him are not stealing intellectual property. They are commenting on it, as the law allows. They should be allowed to continue their LEGAL use of copyrighted material, and if they are accused of a copyright violation, they should be able to easily plead their case and defend themselves before any punitive action is taken.
Fair Use is supposed to be FAIR. It's in the name. The actions being taken against YouTubers like Mr. Walker is the exact opposite of fair.
Bring back fair use!
This has lead to a large amount of false copyright claims throughout the internet.
Many creators throughout the internet are being targeted because of this error in the DMCA. Creators are being given strikes on their videos that should be protected under fair use. Even those that upload videos that show no copyrighted content are getting copyright strikes against them. Even sometimes the same video gets multiple strikes after it has been cleared for fair use. Strikes are being given without fair use even being taken into consideration. Some shell companies have even been created to protect the main company from any responsibility.
Dear Washington,
Please do not take down the fair use act. This will effect so many content creators, Twitter and Facebook users, and so much more. The DMCA was created to protect web users from BS copyright strikes! Please stop this tIme down now!
1) The whole thing is biased in favor of rights holders. There is no penalty for filing a false claim even if it results in financial damage to the party issued against.
2) The automated systems many rights holders use to blanket-issue DCMA notices do not have a counterpoint because of #1. This feeds into the gross-unfairness inherent in the current system.
In short, if Fair Use is going to survive, filing a false claim must have a penalty associated with it. Using the DCMA to censor your critics, to harm people operating under Fair Use, or to step on individuals' rights of expression just because "it might be a violation of our copyright" need to have consequences. A DCMA takedown notice needs to be a BIG thing. Not the fire-and-forget consequence-less process it currently is.
Please help make youtube great again I'm no longer asking I'm BEGGING you... the DMCA is being abused and rotten people are taking down videos when they have done nothing wrong. Corporations think they make the laws to what they see fit I ask you to tell them what they are doing is wrong...thank you for reading this please help fix youtube please.
The DMCA needs to be updated to take into account the new content streaming websites that allows people to create vast amounts of creative content. The Internet is heavily based off of user-created content which was not the case back in the 1990s when bandwidth and space were a premium. Any kind of simple update that will help stop legal content from being falsely flagged or taken down will be lightyears ahead from what laws we have now.
Dear Ms. Charlesworth,
I'd like to offer a short comment on the state of one of our countries latest boom that has transformed not only entertainment, but education, government, healthcare, and created new industries to flourish. I am of course talking about the Internet.
However, like most new technologies, technology often advances faster than what current and previous generations to the point where they can no longer understand how technology is used and how it affects them on a day to day basis.
In regards to content that is published online, the law that used to protect content creators from people improperly sharing their content has gone awry. Today, the DMCA legislation is now being abused by companies not only against other companies but your average citizen trying to build a career. Websites such as Youtube for example has become a leader in new interactive content for the next generation but is being ruined by the abuse of the DMCA legislation.
Videos that demonstrate fair use, videos that give proper credit, and videos that don't even use any copyrighted or trademarked content are all being taken down by companies that abuse the legislation. Often for their own financial gains as people who have a career creating content online lose any revenue they would have generated to the company that does nothing but issue DMCA claims.
In order to truly preserve and archive our history of literature, media, and entertainment, the DMCA legislation needs to be overhauled. Companies that exist by not producing of anything of value need to held to account for abusing the DMCA legislation that is meant to protect artists and their content from being claimed.
As being an amateur animator myself, I have been very intimidated by companies and third-party claims that I have not even put out a single animation because I am scared of it being taken down. I want to share my art with whomever would like to see it, and I aspire to be an animator. But with such tight copyright, it's hard even being able to find the courage to do it. I hope that this gets passed, and I really support the cause.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily abused and often used improperly. At the very least the law needs a major reworking to at least protect things like fair use and/or critique.
To many companies on the internet use this law to shut down things that either threaten their profits or insult their works, and with no consequences on many of the platforms this law is used its run rampant and almost become its own separate industry of falsely claiming content to then extort funds out of the owners of that content.
There needs to be some drastic changes to the DMCA law. Fair Use is being completely ignored and abuse of DMCA by copyright holders has escalated to the point where it has become a common form of organized crime. Reviews, critiques, and other productions created by independent developers, all abiding by fair use, are being taken down from public websites for the purpose of silencing unfavorable opinions about the intellectual properties or just for the crude purpose of stealing the monetization earned by the independent developers for their hard work in creating content that does little more than analyse the copyright material. Copyright holders are literally outsourcing the production of their own legal claims to other companies that exist for the sole purpose of stealing money from other content creators. The automated systems used to take down the content that can be an effective tool for ensuring that outright theft of copyright content does not occur are being misused by the companies holding the rights to take money that is supposed to go to the people making the independent content that should be protected by fair use. Copyright holders are suppressing free speech, claiming that they make the laws regarding their copyright material and threatening the livelihood of critics that merely want to express their opinions about the material without being stripped of the means to continue doing so.
Please do the right thing and work toward preventing these unjust copyright claims from reducing the internet to a place where freedom of expression is considered a criminal offense. Ensure that the FAIR USE act cannot be circumvented by companies that wish to abuse the DMCA at the expense of personal liberties. Myself, along with the rest of the supporters of free speech, will thank you for doing so.
People are being unfairly taken down and it needs to stop.
I am an abridger, and a voice actor who is being affected by this. I do believe that there is a clear difference between parodies, which is all we do, and outright stealing. Parodies are just an interpretation of something from an individual or a group, using satire and humor to demonstrate it. I do not believe it is stealing, as it is not being displayed or made to believe that the parody makers are the original creators. We do not want to claim ownership of the original material, we just want to make jokes, have fun and make people laugh. We're comedians not criminals.
I believe that Fair Use should be protected. Many content creators have been affected by larger companies that overpower and disrespect their word.
^I could not agree more with the above statement.
People have almost lost their jobs because of these false claims.
The law is written in such a way that companies can claim Fair Use videos, make monetization off of them, and then suffer no ill consequences once it's found to be fake. Please fix this broken, outdated law.
DMCA takedowns are putting the livelihood of people that have their income relying on Youtube at risk. It's so frustrating seeing some of my favourite content creators lose time and money on something anyone could tell you is blatantly conflicting against Fair Use.
It's thievery, it's disgusting and it's no longer a tool to protect copyright, but a tool to bully people.
This law is outdated and abused and needs serious review.
Don't kill free speech and dance on its grave and don't murder fair use and stomp on its grave
Do consider the following
As an internet user for nearly 20 years, I have seen the amazing force that it has become in politics, society and entertainment. It has created new industries and new technologies that we are still scratching the surface of... and that's why we NEED the DMCA to be amended to better protect these new avenues and nurture a better future for the new, fledgling industries that use it.
Because right now, The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has already had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet... the stuff we should be cultivating. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse, and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright abusers who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of legitimate small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
While my own understanding of copyright law is limited in scope, and there are definitely cases of infringement online, the current system is flawed and in need of review and revision.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
youtube is abusing content creators
I am not a content creator, but I have seen false takedowns and abuse of power by copyright holders many times. I am signing this to help protect the content creators I enjoy.
Hello.
I want to make a small comment on this whole copyright issue. I'm a history student and I understand how serious plagiarism is. But, the companies are abusing their powers concerning copyrighted material. I feel that as long as the person making the video makes it clear he does not own the material and does not make money off it then it is fine. I feel their should be balance between the companies and the makers of internet content. I would strongly ask the Copyright Office to update their rules to deal with the new problems facing the public in this new digital age.
Thank you.
And frankly it is completely unjust to harm the work lives of creators on YouTube simply because they might have shown a clip of a film or used a small amount of music in conjunction with their works on YouTube. However the truely sad aspect of this is that whenever they do manage to prove that they were indeed following fair use rules and such, no action is taken against the one who made the claim, and no penalty, no repercussions, nothing. It's truely sickening and it leaves us completely shattered because once again this is someone's livelihood, the money we could have earned has just been dipped into by some greedy corporation, or a bot! A friggen bot mind you!!!! And I for one don't want my creative freedom stricken by a troll or by a company's greed. And I know the rest of you completely concur with this.
People like me have been affected by this broken law. A lot of people have suffered more than I have with "fair use." People who make a living off of YouTube have been taken down by companies and people who are greedy or don't understand what they're doing. Videos have been monetized by companies or people stealing the money by simply making a claim. If that person sorts out the problem, they never get their money back. This is one of the most scumbag moves I've ever seen anyone do on the internet. Let me share an experience I've had with Nickolodeon. I did a review on a show, and used their material without abusing the Fair Use, and they took me down immediately. These corporate money-grabbers are so greedy that they won't even allow one second of footage from their channel to be uploaded, even if it falls under Fair Use. It took them about a month to finally let me off the hook. I was one of the lucky ones that didn't get into big trouble, so that's why I'm here to fight for the rights of others so that they don't get treated as badly as me or worse.
Please, PLEASE, make the appropriate changes to even out the application of DMCA systems, and the favoritism and abuse that currently runs rampant through the system.
The DMCA is being used to outright steal revenue from content creators. Every false claim removes the ability to make money from the creator and gives any money made by the content to the people who made the false claim. When their claim is shown to be false they are not penalized... don't have to give back the money they stole... and can just claim it again and steal again.
In this day and age, with technology constantly evolving, even national laws affect the international community on the internet. Therefore I am signing this petition to ensure that the USA and the Western World along with her can stand the test of time... and don't make the internet a space where corruption and seedy business can endure.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
I have kept the above text because it makes a fair, reasoned argument. Now, allow me to share my own views.
I am not a U.S citizen. Note that this does not lessen the impact the current system and the DMCA have upon me, or any non-U.S citizen.
As an outsider looking in, however, I am frankly appalled that the U.S, a country which prides itself upon the virtues of liberty and freedom would continue to allow such an outdated system to exist.
Every man and woman in the White House currently owes it to their countrymen, as well as the rest of the free world to either refine, or utterly demolish the current copyright system.
It is my sincere hope that by 2020, we the people of the internet, can speak freely about any subject we wish, without fear of retribution from any party.
Put the power back to the creators; stop helping those who refuse to improve innovation.
And on a personal note: I believe a specific change that needs to be made is that the money seized during these false claims should be stored in a side account until it is, for a fact, determined whether or not the claim is valid. This way, upon a claim being determined as false, the claim can be returned to the copyright owner, likewise it can be given to the claimant should the claim stand.
This comment forgets to mention too the fake companies like Merlin that copyright strike things they don't even own. And there needs to be serious punishments for abuse too; maybe like the owner can't strike anything for a period of time and it just gets worse until they might be forced to take their idea to public domain. We can discourage all we want but unless some serious change happens these companies will keep abusing this system.
Some people just take videos that they had nothing to do with. Leaving the maker with out any money or content. People need to fix the system that has been set up.
This nation was built upon a living, breathing, evolving set of documents known as the constitution. Our founding fathers knew that when writing the constitution, this country would under go immense changes as a society. Despite all these changes, the constitution still stays relevant. So it is the duty of the federal government to make the same wise decisions as did our founding fathers, in by making laws that stand the test of time and protect the people. The DMCA is an example as to how our country has failed to retain the same insight from when it was founded. Too many companies find a plethora of exploits that the DMCA opens itself up to, and most companies caught abusing this system are hardly punished or made an example of. Many revisions are being demanded by the public. For the sake of freedom of speech and fair use, the DMCA must be revised and reviewed by the congress and senate.
Many people who are content creators on Youtube always get bullied by false-claims and it always beats them in a way no matter how hard they try. I want to start making videos with fair use of copyright but no matter how safe it seems someone will try to strike my videos and other Youtubers they don't deserve this they lose money, get videos taken down from false claims, and nothing ever happens to the people who do them wrong in the first place. The content creator always loses in some way and we are sick of it, so yes I'm in.
Tons of content creators are blasted by corporations flagging and taking down their content, almost always when their content is within the grounds of Fair Use. These companies go to the point of harassment, intimidation, and passive aggressive scare tactics to get what they want and steal revenue from videos, effectively stealing money straight from content creators who can only protest their claims and try and wait things out.
Not only that, many people will soon be actual hell of not seeing those creators ever again. The abuse have given so many people to litterally getting into a dead end job. No one stopping, Youtube and many other big money companies will take down any content without the cost. I'm scared of starting a video and get striked by a company like Nintendo or Sony. If this doesn't stop, well both the internet and America is screwed.
The DMCA is ostensibly a way for pretty much anyone to strike down anyone who dissents from their opinion. This is evident in quite a few ways, Disney and Viacom striking videos down that use audio and video (even down to single frames and second long audio clips), from video game developers censoring negative reviews of their games (see the popular YouTube icon TotalBiscuit and his bout with the developers of the game Day One: Garry's Incident), to even low-level personalities of YouTube using the DMCA to take down others who have less clout then them.
Yes, as a creator you should be able to say that a work is yours and you should be able to profit off of it, no one is arguing for that to go away. In fact, boiled down to the core, the DMCA is nobly protecting that right. However, it creates a system that can be easily perverted from that noble intention into a weapon of great harm against those whom are deemed a nuisance or threat. The DMCA as it stands today does not actually work for anyone but the guys at the top of the pile. For fear of litigation from a large media producer, most sites (notably YouTube) put the burden of proof on the accused and the legal system is supposed to be one that functions off of the premised innocence of the accused, not of the accuser.
Certainly, there are hundreds of examples of justified DMCA takedowns, people will always try their hardest to make an easy buck off of someone else's work, but the legislation is too easily abused either by intentional malice, or by just reckless indifference. A fair few of the people who are affected by this rampant abuse of the system are honest people sharing their opinion of the work using clips and audio for demonstration and that falls under the "Fair Use" clause of the law in accordance with the new work being trans-formative in nature. Unfortunately, with the presumed guilt of the accused and the blatant ambiguity of the Fair Use clause it is nigh impossible to fight a DMCA strike unless you are a reasonably large personality with a corporation backing you.
I know that you guys are probably swamped by people sending you cookie cutter comments that the website I'm using to send this to you pre-types, but I really wish you would re-examine the DMCA and in particular the Fair Use clause. The Internet as a whole would be better off if the DMCA was reconstructed in a way that could stay true to it's noble roots as a protector of creators, but also accommodate for the freedoms of those who wish to use the Fair Use clause to protect their own creation.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is completely outdated and needs to change.
The notice-and-takedown process under DMCA is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
There are even instances of content getting getting taken down under the notice-and-takedown process from claims filed by people who are not even the copyright holders. This system gives too little protection to content creators and can create a large chilling effect on any material put on the internet. Under this system a movie producer could file a spurious claim on all negative reviews and then enjoy two weeks of only positive reviews, or even just bully reviewers into taking down their own reviews with threats of a copyright claim. This is being done, and it is unethical and dishonest and should carry legal repercussions.
What if any gallery or movie or theatrical performance could be shut down for two whole weeks biased on simply someone claiming it infringes their work with the claimant having no intention to back up the claim, and without having to show ownership of the material they claim is being infringed or even provide verifiable identification. This system is ripe for abuse and this is the reality for creators on YouTube. Videos of just the person who made the video talking to a camera with no other content are being taken down. Videos can even get taken down a second time by the automated claiming process even after they have been cleared as not infringing.
This law needs to change, it is doing more harm than good as it stands.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
#Wheresthefairuse?
Also, fuck off.
In order to make the internet as a whole better the DMCA needs to be fixed. I have heard and seen many workings that are CLEARLY original and then get taken down for a stupid reason. The DMCA is protecting the wrongdoers in these settlements that are in no way infringing them PLEASE fix this.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use
computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
(Commentors comment)
Hello there! I am known as AnimalCreation on youtube! And for the last 5 years, I have had many troubles recently with my content, people who don't even own the clips or music in my videos, claiming them on other peoples behalf. I've had music that wasn't even in my videos be claimed, and the video blocked world wide. We need change.
DMCA is used without any use of copyright material or fair use.
The warnings are used as threats from major corporations, violating fair use. It creates a terrible, fearful, and stressful situation for creators who get copyright strikes. The DMCA does not help free speech, it destroys it.
Below is the letter that lets you know the audience and citizens who are paying attention. I have not been affected by this however I have prepared videos scrambling to see if I have anything that can result in a takedown. I'm afraid of uploading videos because I know that my audience can be taken away from me because of those who hire companies who don't know or care about copyright law, just armed with an objective to attack targets. It's not Fair use when there is no room for fairness. I take it whoever is reading this has NOT been affected by the very problems that persist among YouTube content CREATORS for example who do a lot of good to promote media that is worthwhile to them. If a company doesn't like the idea of word-of-mouth advertising they might have to reconsider partaking in a free market.
It's not that it's just inconvenient to deal with takedowns. It's detrimental to the platform founded on sharing sites - not to share full videos. Not piracy. Not intellectual property theft. But Fair Use. It is a relationship between content creators and their audience what happens to any intellectual property. The fans of many large brands and corporations have had their voices heard and have been respected. Still, lawyers and representing parties have been using antiquated laws to make it impossible for fans to explore, discuss, or share anything remotely related to the idea of their products.
Imagine if Yelp reviews couldn't specify the food, flavors, colors, open and close times, similar items at other restaurants, decor or location of the restaurant? You would not choose a restaurant that has no time or place and should practically not exist. That's what Fair Use protects: the Education of the audience that likely already participates in the sales of products. What more do you expect? I expect interest to create revenue. And some companies do not agree. My paychecks agree. And many of my friends' do, too. I hope you understand the individuals who are affected by this, as they only help in securing the audience for these companies these laws are meant to protect.
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the DMCA is being used as a tool of harassment, abuse and bullying. Videos are being taken down NOT for copyright but because a company doesn't like the message, or someone is trolling, or someone is offended. The system punishes US for knowing the law, not those who abuse it.
Please, repeal this dated system.
This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I feel that it is very important to note that Youtube is one of the biggest grounds that people have taken to make their livings off of. Thus, it's important to factor in that movie reviewers online are like journalists who use other footage to support whatever their reporting and for reviewers it supports their critique and their opinion on a material.
We cannot allow people to simply take down videos, when there is already a disclaimer. And that should not be the case to force users to use a disclaimer as it is common that a review is most likely using some clips and audio, again, to further solidify their arguments.
But despite this, content creators are being attacked by companies who are twisting copyright law and are using it for their own personal gain. One user by the name of IHateEverything (with Alex being his actual name)made a review of the movie Cool Cat saves the kids. He followed fair use by commentating on the clips and transforming it. Despite this, the creator of the movie Derek Savage filed a copyright claim and took down his video. He then proceeded to threaten him to take down the video because he did'nt like his criticism rather then there actually being a violation of Copyright. Then, just a few weeks after it happened, I Hate Everything made a video called 'I Hate Damm Daniel' where he criticizes the damn Daniel meme with complete commentary, cutaways and no audio with the exception of a few lines of the video. A company called Merlen decided to send a copyright claim in behalf of him supposedly using a young man's song in the video. Alex decided to talk to talk to the musician only to find that he had no idea what was going on or that Merlen did it on his behalf.
It is also harmful that even when these companies make false claims, they don't any punishments for their actions and either keep the content creators money or give them a strike on their account.
Its also apparent that the automated system is automated and that no human staff are actually analyzing the claims as even reviews that show zero copyrighted material have false copyright strikes.
This has never been more real or more relevant. We the people have rights, and we will not see ourselves exploited any longer.
Ignoring this is further proof that we no longer have a government for the people, but for the rich. Many of these pieces of media have brought me a great deal of cheer in spite of constant bland, corporate dreck now infesting the airways. If America is actually a land for the people, let people judge the law, not machines.
My name is Lindsey, and I agree and endorse the above statement.
DMCA forces websites like youtube to automate claims in order to keep up with the law. This automation allows, nay encourages abuse. This forces creators into a guilty-until-proven-innocent scenario. I've seen this law used to silence critics by taking down their videos. I've seen this law wielded as such a blunt object that copyright holders claim their own videos, as when Sony Pictures claimed their own trailer for Pixels on their official vimeo channel. This law, even if considered good, requires such manpower to police and enforce correctly that it becomes impossible. Please reconsider this piece of legislation. The world is a much different place now than when this law was written. It's time for an update. Now, please read the following; it explains things in far better detail than I could myself.
This issue is of critical importance in our modern era, and we need to update our laws to reflect this.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls (a troll is a person who writes or says a deliberately provocative message to with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument), who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
i'm going to make this short. The copyright affecting the internet (mainly YouTube) is outdated and is affecting many people negatively. I don't know much about law, but it's hurting people's jobs, and it needs to be changed. (my little brother showed me this, so this is kind of his words too)
Freedom of speech is very important to me people have actually told me to shut up and say that I can't talk because they don't want to hear me
Hello. I am a young woman is has some concerns about how YouTube and corporations are using and treating fair use. I have seen cases with the channel known as "Channel Awesome" where major companies take down their videos and say it is a violation of copyright and fair use when clearly they have followed the guidelines.
There as been another case where a channel "I Hate Everything" has had a video taken down for the similar reasons as the last. This case is different because he has been first ignored and then harrassed. This channel took the matter publicly. This may have been taken out of proportion, but as he says it "I was backed into a corner." He also stated "I never wanted this." The director of the movie this channel reviewed does not even understand the laws of copyright and fair use. This is quite the concern, because all of this was because of a simple misunderstanding of fair use laws.
While both of these cases have somewhat been sorted out, there is still the imposing threat of another video being taken down. This may appear petty to anyone else, but this is their livelihood, their source of income. Their money is being taken from them because of the petty matter of misuse of fair use.
YouTube has system to where you can report this. However, this system is very flawed and outdated.
The channel "Channel Awesome" had an instance where a link YouTube had, had some sort of glitch. When you file your report, you get no response from any human being. I could go on about how flawed this system of contact is, but I do not want to give such a lengthy reply.
When someone's life and money is threatened over some misinterpretation of copyright or downright harrassment, it becomes unlawful, illegal. This matter must change for the benefit of these people who simply want to post a simple video. This affects not only these channels, but your home videos of your family. Anyone can do this. This scares me to think any innocent person could have a video of their child taken down for mistreatment and misinterpretation of copyright and fair use laws. I wish for this system to be corrected in the modern use of the Internet.
The above sums up perfectly what I need to say about copyright law. Also, as someone who would love to try my hand at Youtubing by posting reviews and gameplay footage, I haven't done so in fear of legal reprucussions that I can't afford to go to court over. I'm not even a content creator, and can't become one because I could become the victim of abused copyright law. I'm begging you, for the future creators like me, fix the law and bring it into the new millennium!
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. Just speaking of something that the company does not like will lead to a takedown notice. This kind of damage can not be undone.
This law has allowed companies to STEAL money from some of my favorite content creators under the guise of 'protecting' copyright claims. They also make it a race to view many of them as videos that are protected under fair use are taken down literally hours after being put up to begin with. It also limits creators and makes getting into that field a treacherous minefield where nothing you do can keep you safe. This law cannot stand as is and be considered just.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
While all of this has not personally affected me (yet), there needs to be change. A few of my favorite Youtube personalities have almost been ruined/destroyed because of this. So please, this is needed. #WTFU
THE DMCA IS THE BIGGEST ANTI-TECHNOLOGY AND ANTI-INNOVATION LAW IN EXISTANCE. PLEASE REPEAL THIS HARMFUL LAW.
As a content creator my self I have been affected negatively by the DMCA's outdated laws and have had my videos monetization taken because of it. I hope you will change this to protect content creators big or small
The unfair DMCA takedown practices are disrupting competition in content production. This is the exact opposite of what makes the free market the powerhouse of competition that brings us all the best experiences the world can offer. Fair use doesn't infringe on copyright, it only enhances the used material.
Please see that the DMCA hurts the entertainment industry, and that if we as a nation are to maintain an American tradition it needs to be criticized by everyone affected.
Thank you for listening to me plea.
I love watching videos on YouTube and it's where I usually go to watch reviews or opinions on movies or television shows from other people so I can know exactly how good a movie/show is and whether or not I like it.
So I became very surprised when I tried watching a few videos on some of my favorite channels, only to see they were taken down for copyright use, even though they've been up for a very long time, I knew immediately that something must've been wrong because none of these channels were abusing their content or mistreating them in anyway.
All they were doing is giving their opinion on a certain topic, whether it be a television series or single episode of a show to an entire movie. Sometimes these channels are created just for the fun of it, but other times, the people who post these videos depend on their viewership for their income if they can't make enough money somewhere else. So it isn't just for fun anymore for some people, this is a legitimate business that people are working in and I would hate to see any of these videos or channels go away so please keep up what I love to see from the people who love making all these wonderful videos, because they put a whole lot of time and effort into it and you should respect them for it.
We need to show people like Derek Savage that you can't just break the law and destroy other people's careers without penalty
We need you to make that happen
I'd also like to add that 100x more people would voice their opinion had you given this motion the time and attention it deserves and requires
Creators all over YouTube need help, this needs to be fixed with people taking down things with people just talking in them, no music just two people talking now how the f*ck is the fair but you guys can fix this DMCAS are not working anymore and haven't for a long time. Thank you and goodnight.
It is unbelievable that companies can file a false 3rd party claim and receive no punishment for their actions as well as receive all the revenue that the video makes.
Hundreds of YouTube videos have been taken down and have had ad revenue taken from them even though they fall within fair use. This is a wide spread issue that YouTube has seemed to have ignored for the longest time, and it needs to stop.
whilst it might seem advantageous to try and bring control to the internet you cannot ignore the fact that people are entitled to freedom of speech. On multiple occasions content creators who include small clips from films and television to add context or to give their opinions are being unfairly claimed for copyright infringement. This has happened numerous times even to those who simply mention the name of a piece of media. There are numerous examples of this and so far not much progress has been made. It has been eighteen years since the DMCA was signed into law however it is now 2016 and the changes in technology and the internet call for a change in the rules concerning what's "fair" and what isn't. Peoples very livelihoods are at stake as they receive ad revenue from their content. When this content is claimed they loose out on money and have no way of fighting back as the system is skewed in favour of large corporations. What makes this worse is the fact that anyone can make a claim and if it is revealed to be a false accusation there is no consequence to the group who filed it in the first place. This "guilty until proven innocent" way of thinking needs to change as the internet has changed so much in those eighteen years. If we are unable to abolish this way of thinking at least make it easier to fight back against these unfair accusations that depict us to be "criminals stealing from poor defenceless Hollywood" so that we might actually stand a chance.
There seems to be no First and Fifth Amendment protections for much Internet content...
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damaeges for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I've seen creators be forced to fight just for the right to remain on YouTube. Imagine if a person had to fight for the right to have a job and be paid! For many, that's what it's like when they can actually fight a claim, because it quite simple for a creator to be flooded by claims on a video, sometimes even multiple times for the same exact section! Please fix this issue to protect Fair Use because, if it doesn't apply online, it can be crippled offline.
Dear Sir/Madam
The DMCA is an abused tool used by copy writer holders to silence criticism. It's tool for threatening other content creators and It's tool that damages the lives and earnings of small content creators.
I'm all for the defence of copywrite holders not allowing their media to be copied and abused, however should something be fair use a small content creator needs the ability to defend themselves. The current system is not adequate. Small creators bare the brunt of oppression from the more powerful organisations. As it currently stands this is a tool for the powerful to oppress the weak.
I hope the US goverment can look into reforming this law/scrapping and re-writing a new law for the 21st century. DMCA's are making most fair use projects EXTREMELY difficult. Please discuss the rules with the YouTube community as they're on the front line.
Many Thanks,
Alex Eldridge
I have a YouTube channel, and I do movie reviews. Every time I post a new review, the company that owns said movie puts a copyright claim on my video, and takes whatever revenue I could make. Not only is this unfair seeing as how I'm critiquing copyrighted material, which IS fair use, but that means that studios like Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, and Mirimax are breaking the law & getting away with it. There needs to be something done because numerous channels like myself, Channel Awesome, I Hate Everything, Chris Stuckmann, etc. are being harassed and bullied by this outdated system. There needs to be three things done: one, have someone who's NOT part of a studio look over the video to judge whether or not it's within fair use. Two, the studios should not be able to take your adsense revenue, it's used to milk money off of those who are lawfully trying to make a living. Three, there needs to be repercussions for false claims/strikes. If the studios get away with taking adsense revenue & even after the claim is released, get to KEEP said money without punishment, it'd be like a robber getting away with robbing a bank yet everybody's seen him do it. I'm going to put a link to a video showing the exact problems with the DMCA abuse, it's very insightful & you need to take this under consideration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
I would've written my own words, but the following statement you've probably seen a lot fully explains my opinion on this better than I could:
As someone who has seen many good, creative and entertaining projects get crushed by the DMCA's incredibly backwards systems I feel I need to chime in.
Seriously, if we keep treating content on the Internet like its the 90's we will never get anywhere. Fair Use is needed. And the DMCA needs a full overhaul or even a complete termination for new rules that better work with the modern Internet.
* Personal statement
Copyright holders that abuse the DMCA sometimes do it to inflict harm onto the content creator just out of spite. Especially when one of the works of the copyright holder is being negatively criticized. Some send threats of issuing a copyright claim to a content creator whilst others harass the creator's account by infringing multiple copyright claims where there are is no legal ground to do so. (Let me clarify, Some companies issue claims on other videos from the Creator's channel from YouTube when said videos aren't even related to them.) They continue to do these actions since it is very easy to do so and that there is no consequence from the companies side when they make a claim.
Thank you for reading.
People are filing claims on content they don't own. DMCA's are being used to inflict harm on individuals creators and are being used to stifle free speech. People just talking on camera with no copyrighted footage or music are being taken down. Some companies believe that they create the law. DMCA's are being used without factoring in fair use and are being sent by shell companies to shield the real companies who are actually sending the take down . DMCA's are being used as threats and videos are being taken down multiple times even when they have already been cleared. The false DMCA's take downs have resulted in lost revenue and harassment. Please we need help the fair use laws need to be updated for the modern internet and enforced heavily, people are getting away with committing felonies and no has the power to stop them.
I will not let this happen, I have a right to speak, view and post freely!
This law needs to be updated.
Desperately.
As technology evolves, so should the laws. The current copyright laws and various site systems do NOT take into account Fair Use and are beyond flawed. I have found great entertainment in sites like YouTube, but creators content have been vastly limited and gimped because of Takedown Notices and copyright claims that have no validity due to Fair Use and Free Speech.
I have personally been threatened with abuse of DCMA as a bullying tactic and the sad fact is, this is an effective threat because the standard is SO LOW literally anyone - including, as in my case, someone with ZERO claim on the copyright of the content in question- can create considerable trouble for legitimate, law-abiding creators. In most cases, it's a few mouse clicks to get content taken down with no downside for the false claimant. I've also seen this abused as in the case of my friend, who was turned in for sharing his OWN content, with his OWN pictures, on his OWN Facebook page, by a third party who had zero connection to the creative process. It's become a way individuals or corporations can object to anything (or anyone) they don't like and is constantly abused. Fix this!!
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To whom it may concern, I am one of the least qualified people to speak about this topic, but if you wish to learn more, go to Channel Awesome and check out their #WTFU videos. This is a problem that needs to be fixed so new and old content creators can fell safe.
Among all the Internet viewers of the world, let fair use give way to a new Internet age where putting copyrighted works in fair use seems FAIR use.
Also, fair use:
Excerpts of copyrighted material may, under certain circumstances, be quoted verbatim for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research, without the need for permission from or payment to the copyright holder.
#WTFU
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in
favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The fair use system is highly unfair, as it takes down videos, and other sources of internet entertainment without proof of real copyright infringement. Very few of the claims made by directors and other people are false. They use them threats towards entertainers careers and even their lives. In some cases, people lose money because internet entertainment is their main source of income. People who have no authority or right to be taking down videos are capable of ruining careers. On most cases, they have infringed no copyrights, sometimes even a picture has gotten things taken down. YouTube in specific is badly suffering from this, and there is no system to filter out false claims. This needs to be taken care of!!!!
The system currently in place makes it easy for it to be abused by anyone who may have an issue with the content creators. It is being used on may fronts as a way to bully and harass the creators; driving many from media and from the web. As a support to many content creators across the internet I ask that you look into help protecting them and better balancing the law.
It's completely ridiculous we as the people don't own the songs that have been playing on repeat our whole lives. Why the fuck should a garage band playing in a dive bar need a fucking license to cover a Beatles song, let alone a contemporary hit.
Ffs, it takes 10,000 bucks to sing happy birthday in public. It's this kind of shit that degrades our culture and our people from the inside. Music is pretty fucking basic.
As a big fan of movies and similar media I greatly enjoy watching reviews and analysis of films good and bad. I feel so close to these talented people so you can imagine how it must feel to be put through such a struggle for something they've done that is completely in the law. The fact that companies and other people abuse this system to bully others who didn't like their content or even just people talking about it regardless of what they say about it. It pains me greatly to see these people nearly losing their lively hood over a false claim and scares me that the internet I love so much is being reigned over by these tycoons who don't want anyone to express their opinions good or bad because if they do they'll lose a grip on what little business there is in tv still.
I'm scared that this is what the beautiful and free internet has become and as someone who is interested in creating content about my passions I'm worried that I won't even get a chance to try and I'll be pushed around by people with more power and money than me. It's messed up that nearly every Youtuber I really enjoy has had AT LEAST one copyright strike for something perfectly within fairuse and some of these strikes aren't even from people who own the original content!
Please update these laws because I'm petrified this is another ways corporations can abuse the underdogs.
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Personal comment along side legal jargon:
This is a process that needs to be fixed. The abuse of such a system is not only plain wrong it is also immoral. With many making a living off of fair use it endangers their way of life, and puts money in the pocket of those who file a claim. Regardless of whether or not they have a right to file that claim.
Some have suggested that claim money be put in a kind of middle man account and to the spoils go the victor. This is a simple concept that should be implemented.
Current laws need to be updated to reflect the internet of today.
Some companies make shell companies to make DMCA claims to hide the fact they themselves are making the claim.
The DMCA is outdated and either needs to be either repealed or revised.
Gosh!
These laws NEED to be updated, as it give a corporation more rights than it gives an actual human beings, who's livelyhoods can legitimately be hurt over spurious takedowns of criticism in order silence it. It may be a bit of a stretch, but the British allowing that to happen to John Peter Zenger was one of the things that led us into revolution, and which signified a corrupt government. In allowing this to continue, America has become the exact thing that forced our forefathers to rebel. These laws are limiting the first amendment. I understand that uploading a full copyrighted movie, song, or piece of software or hardware for others to download freely should not be allowed, but under no circumstance will a picture of Mickey Mouse posted online affect the sales of any Disney product, and they should have no right to take it down. Automatic takedown are wildly inaccurate, and shouldn't be autonomous when they have been shown to be so inaccurate. Thank you for your time.
I make videos just for fun with my friends playing video games. Every few weeks we gather, record games, upload, and just have fun looking back on our memories. We're not for popularity, we're in it for ourselves.
I can't count how many times me and my friends are afraid of uploading a video of our memories together and have to risk it being taken down because:
a) The game we play had copyrighted music that we didn't add.
b) We clipped a video of a game that had copyrighted music that we didn't add.
c) There's a song that perfectly fits a moment that we can't pass up.
Everyone in the world of the internet and Youtube complains about reviewers and those uploading/posting momentary clips of movies or TV shows but the reality is that those playing video games get hit by the DMCA negatively as well.
I don't want to make videos for a living or even for $5 a video. I want to save memories with my friends that we can all find easily WITHOUT the risk of some pretentious corporation breathing down out necks about violating a copyrighted song that millions know and thousands have uploaded before.
I may be "abusing" their owned songs without their consent, but THEY'RE abusing their money and power against me and my friends trying to have fun.
If that's really the case then and governments won't step in and stop this compulsive abuse of big man vs little man, then I've given up on the thought that governments simply lie their way into power to get the highest position of the country and just think that government bureaucrats are the lowest scum of the Earth.
Sorry for the hatred, but this really has to stop.
As a GMV maker (Game music video) I'm always being constantly told that a video of mines has been deleted by Youtube or someone has claimed the song or clip that I'm using. Every time I get a claim on a song or clip, it's always by someone that doesn't even own the content within it. I've had to file three claims against this just to keep the videos up and even email the claimer to stop trying to take something that is not theirs. They were constantly trying to claim songs from a Vocaloid producer named Circus-P, who I've gotten permission from in the pass to use his songs before hand. Since then the claims have stopped, but that still doesn't stop Youtube from deleting my videos, even after saying that I own nothing in the description.
A few other channels that have been effected by this type of thing is Team Four Star, Channel Awesome, even just people who put up reaction videos or just giving critique are effected.
This needs to stop now! #WTFU
Over the course of the past two years I've seen content created by fans interested in certain genres taken down due to copyright claims, when such fans would not even consider piracy in the first place. Most, if not all, of the content created by these fans were made in inspiration of their interest, and were meant to uplift and praise what it was they experienced. Some even made their content without even the ability to gain income for their work, freely presenting their work to others so that they can enjoy their creation fully.
Hasbro has been notorious for claiming copyright laws on many members of the fan based community of one of their most popular genres to date; My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Many fans have taken time and effort to create videos, web games, stories, and even artwork of the series that inspired them, only to have Hasbro present a copyright claim for using their characters and product.
This is but one of many examples of the DMCA law being broken, and abusive. Corporate copyright holders have too much advantage, power, and is abusing that power to strike down on content shared across the internet.
This has to stop.
On a non-autofilled in note: I've watched some of my favorite creators, and even some of my closest friends, become victim to DMCA abuses. Something needs to change. Stop the stifling of free speech. This is 2016... not 1998. It's time to get with the times.
I'm just gonna get to the point: People are flat-out abusing the copyright system. There are people who look at cases of fair-use (i.e. reviews), and say "F*k it! You can't do that!" There are people that take things down despite it not even having anything copyrighted within them. There are people who make threats. There are people who abuse the copyright system that aren't even connected to the company they say they represent. There are people who just constantly make false claims simply because there's no penalty. There are people that keep sending out the claims even though the victim was already given the A-OK. There are people that use it just because a reviewer didn't like their product. And of course, there are people who just make lies. This needs to stop.
I am concerned that because there are no consequences for filling false claims on major websites, many parody works which do fall fairly in fair use, and many videos that just have people even talking about a movie they saw without any actual material being used, are frequently taken down from Youtube and other major websites.
I've watched several of my favorite channels which DO follow the law on copyrights and fair use get taken down by false claims. While they were eventually restored due to large outrage on the internet caused Youtube to manually check on them, smaller channels and users do not get that kind of support. These sites use automated systems that take forever to go through disputes, and while disputed even give the revenue over to the one disputing. So, even when the video up loader is shown to be in the right, he still loses out on ad revenue he should have gotten.
This has encouraged a new form of stealing on the internet- Stealing ad revenue by making false claims against other peoples videos on Youtube and other similar tactics on other websites.
Often small overseas companies with serial numbers for names put out a lot of false claims of "copyright infringement" against random videos on youtube, and then select the option to run ads against the video, taking the ad revenue that the original creator would have gotten.
By the time youtube clears the video through its system and returns it back to normal status and takes off the false claim, a large chunk of revenue for the creator is already gone and is not given back to them.
I am starting up my own channel soon, and I have many friends who make videos, art and various creative mediums online, and we dont want to be taken advantage of like so many other people have with FALSE dmca takedown notices.
Please implement stiff penalties and requirements for DMCA takedown notices so that this modern form of fraud that is growing can be clamped down on.
thank you for your time,
-Daniel Ludwig
Hello. I am a young woman is has some concerns about how YouTube and corporations are using and treating fair use. I have seen cases with the channel known as "Channel Awesome" where major companies take down their videos and say it is a violation of copyright and fair use when clearly they have followed the guidelines.
There as been another case where a channel "I Hate Everything" has had a video taken down for the similar reasons as the last. This case is different because he has been first ignored and then harrassed. This channel took the matter publicly. This may have been taken out of proportion, but as he says it "I was backed into a corner." He also stated "I never wanted this." The director of the movie this channel reviewed does not even understand the laws of copyright and fair use. This is quite the concern, because all of this was because of a simple misunderstanding of fair use laws.
While both of these cases have somewhat been sorted out, there is still the imposing threat of another video being taken down. This may appear petty to anyone else, but this is their livelihood, their source of income. Their money is being taken from them because of the petty matter of misuse of fair use.
YouTube has system to where you can report this. However, this system is very flawed and outdated.
The channel "Channel Awesome" had an instance where a link YouTube had, had some sort of glitch. When you file your report, you get no response from any human being. I could go on about how flawed this system of contact is, but I do not want to give such a lengthy reply.
When someone's life and money is threatened over some misinterpretation of copyright or downright harrassment, it becomes unlawful, illegal. This matter must change for the benefit of these people who simply want to post a simple video. This affects not only these channels, but your home videos of your family. Anyone can do this. This scares me to think any innocent person could have a video of their child taken down for mistreatment and misinterpretation of copyright and fair use laws. I wish for this system to be corrected in the modern use of the Internet.
I have seen many a YouTuber be harassed by false DMCA takedowns and have hurt their lives in the process it is time to fix and stop this nonsense!
To add to all of this I use youtube as my current source of entertainment and I sit there watching the channels and individuals whom I've subscribed to for years have their lively hoods taken from them because a director didn't like what the critique coming from the personality's. Indy game company's going after independent reviewers for being honest with the customers about unfinished games that were designed to cheat consumers out of their money.
I've even watched as proxy companies DMCA and steal revenue from reviews because they used a 30 second clip of song.
Honestly my biggest issue right now is that I myself have had video's I've put up that I was sharing with my friends of my wife and I playing games together get claimed for their revenue because the 30 seconds that the victory song played was licensed 30 second sound bits are illegal to use now? since when after 1998?
It's very disheartening and undesirable to want to continue using youtube as a customer with just rampant abuse of power from various companies using DMCA's as threats to silence anyone and everyone who don't agree with their point of view or even worst pulling a Nintendo and holding money ransom by forcing content creators to sign on with them and only allowing those who go through their money stealing 3 week approval process. But what can content creators and viewers do to protect themselves when its comply with companies and individuals who willingly silencing the voices of those who don't agree with them?
Various content creator are being harassed, bullied, censored, and unfairly treated by many Companies and people oblivious of how copyright works and falsely claiming copyright claims.
The many people that are being treated unfairly have little to no way to defend themselves, even when it's obviously fair use their content will still be taken down.
We need to implement punishments and penalties for claiming a flase copyright claim. We need to give more methods for content creators to defend themselves against this false copyright claims when their obviously in fair use.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet, sometimes if the person filing the DMCA against a video has no claim to any of it's content to either remove criticism, competition, or to steal ad revenue.
I myself have seen many damages caused to online content over the years, with people having their entire online channel removed despite being well within fair use, or only having original content, and there have been people who have been scared to open their videos to receive ad revenue or even posting videos online at all because someone could, at any time, file a DMCA on their content, valid or not, and possibly take away their hard work. In fact, some even suspect that there are those who use DMCA claims as scare tactics to keep people from posting content at all.
This is more so true for people who make a living posting content on the internet, and this trend has been increasing, as well as people abusing the DMCA trying to ruin their lives and take away their income. There have even been reports of fake companies falsely representing other organizations for the sole purpose of filing false DMCA claims to take ad revenue money away from content creators, and line their own pockets. As of now, any ad revenue taken by a DMCA, false or not, is immediately taken, and given to the person(s) who filed the DMCA, with no way of the money being given back should the claim expire or being proven false.
Probably the most famous case of false DMCA claims to censor criticism is on the Youtube channel of Jim Sterling, who has been in a feud with game studio Digital Homicide, who, after trying to discredit him, filed a DMCA on his first impressions video of their game "The Slaughtering Grounds", saying that his video was not under fair use because Jim Sterling claimed the game was a "total failure", despite only playing the game for 10 minutes, and this somehow violated fair use (In an unrelated note, this has now escalated to the company filing a lawsuit against Jim Sterling for $10 million under defamation and slander claims, although it is suspected this is just another attempt at trying to censor his criticism).
There is also the case of the Fine Brothers, who tried to copyright the term "react" in reference to "reactionary videos" content, and then filed DMCA claims against such videos online, despite such videos existing long before their online channel, and this caused a huge backlash in the online community.
As you can see, the current notice-and-takedown process is highly flawed, and has been abused far too much. In fact, false DMCA claims have been on the rise in the past year, starting the "Where's the Fair Use" movement online in February of this year. The online community is now getting sick and tired of this, and there must be a change.
Thank you for your time, and I hope you can see the damage this is causing.
i will make this short and sweet i make my video for free i enjoy bringing internment to people with out adds or making money off them. so when some one who dos not even own the rights to something i put in a video that is me using fair use and they monitise my video not only are they putting something on my video that i put time and energy in to making but they can make money off my work and take it away from the people who might actually own that property, and of cores make money off me.
We don't deserve to be pushed around by trolls and copyright holders and get attacked or sued or something like that so please don't let them virtually abuse us like this.
This defies everything the 1st Amendment stood for. Not only does it disrupt the freedom of communication, but also limits ways businesses and schools work and contact. The internet is a very important gate for many things whether it'd be communication, working, creating, or saving lives. The internet needs no changes, especially ones that'd destroy the very purpose of it. Stop the DMCA.
The DMCA has been exploited so much by the copyright holders to the point that it has become a tool for extortion to content creators. I have seen this all over the internet and frankly, it is sickening on how easy it is to exploit the DMCA. All they have to do is use a copyright claim and it can have the content creator's work be put on hold. Although that I do not know much about, the DMCA since I'm not from the US but I have seen the exploitation by huge companies against people who just want to make good content on the internet. The internet has flourished because of these kinds of content creators but with companies exploiting and extorting them. For the internet to flourish even more, the DMCA needs to be changed.
Why should our freedom of speech and freedom of expression be so limited? The DMCA has heavily limited the output and creativity of those who wish to spread their humor and/or embrace their hobbies. It is heavily something that is outdated and limits us because of that. Why should people be chained to the past in such a straining way? I've had one YouTube channel taken down because of making an anime music video, but yet, I've stated time and time again, fair use and it's still taken down. I can't show my video editing skills. I can't share my love of a series with others? Why, cause I'm not popular enough? Well, that makes one feel crappy and I'm not the only one who has had to deal with such frustration. My friends and I want to start a review channel and talk about the things we like and don't like in anime, but due to the DMCA, we're hesitant. Once again I ask this: why should our freedom of speech and freedom of expression be limited? At this rate, the more the DMCA keeps limiting creativity like this, the more communist America looks; wanting no one to be themselves and everyone the same. 1984 anyone?
There are instances where corporations have made false claims deliberate and knowingly for the sole purpose of taking revenue from content creators. They are able to get away with stealing revenue because of the lack of penalties for false content claims.
Copyright is a very important concept, and it must be protected. But unfortunately, we currently have largely the same copyright policies in place as we did before the internet even existed, and the system has been showing its age for a long time now. What's worse, it's only causing more and more problems.
Fair Use has been utterly ignored in favor of allowing corporations to deal crippling blows to legitimate educators, entertainers, and critics on the internet (and especially with Youtube's extremely abuse-prone policies), and the simple fact is that the current setup is wildly biased toward the whims of large corporations rather than the actual, legitimate rights of online content creators.
The simple fact is that the copyright laws are outdated. They're ineffective. They don't account for modern realities. We must protect the intellectual property of creators, but such a bloated, outdated system is frankly doing more harm than good. I'm one of millions who says these policies are in need of a serious update, if not a full-on remaking. Protect the rights of content creators and don't let the abuse continue.
We are in the year 2016 not 1998 in just this short space of time (18 years) the internet has grown and evolved from a curiosity a novelty to a powerful platform ware anyone and everyone can have there voice heard from thinkers, to entertainers, gamers, any one from any and all walks of life can come together and talk spread ideas. the internet has ended dictatorships exposed corruption and brought then to justice.
but even as i tell you this a snake seeks to poison the furtal ground we stand on
DMCA's are being abused. With channels such as YouTube people often file DMCA complaints - even when they are not related or associated to the copyrighted content! - and it seems creative content creators are the one's who get in trouble.
How can someone make a copyright claim for a video they don't own, get the funds from the adverts from it and then keep it when YouTube realise that the claim is illegitimate? Or even that they don't get punished for the time wasted when the claim turns out to be false! This stuff happens and we need you to investigate and update DCMA for it to be more fair to everyone - copyright holders AND content creators who these claims are wrongly filed against - where is the fair use?
Thanks for your time in reading this,
Charlie
As a content creator, I implore you to please revise this your copyright laws and this issue with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). This has not only stifled my ability to not create new tools and idea, but it has also made it financially burdening to me due to harassment via shell-company and also stopped me from continuing providing and disseminating information which should be above all a free speech right.
As an online video creator, this problem severely stifles my ability to grow my channel as a business.
Youtube is a way in which many people make their livings, but there is no assumption of innocence, with massive disadvantages for creators who are attacked, but no disadvantage for the companies which are making inappropriate claims.
I know I am not American, but when it comes to the internet, THESE LAWS ARE STIFLING SPEECH IN THE ENTIRE FREE WORLD!!!!! You cannot continue to allow the mistreatment of new media, and the suffocation of creative talent. Much like patent trolls are killing the scientific community, so is the DMCA destroying the online arts community.
Even if the medium is new, those who use it are still entitled to fair treatment under the law, to be tried before they are fined. At this point, and for as long as the DMCA is in effect, the American Government is telling the world that there is no due process on the internet.
edown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biascopyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Please fix this horribly unbalanced law.
Please understand that these content creators impact our lives in multiple ways. These creators have helped me to get motivated and stay motivated to change my life for the better. They are able to raise thousands of dollars through charity live stream, Markiplier is just one example. Please let them continue to have a global impact by updating a severely out dated law.
The DMCA practices are out of hand. Companies and individuals are abusing the system to a fault. It no longer protects the copyright holders best interests, but rather is being used a weapon against creators. It's an extortion tool, a threat, and a danger to anyone making a living off on content creation.
Creators have been forced to resort to having backups of their content in mutliple places on the internet should they be hit or even threatened with a DMCA takedown. Entire channels have gone down when they are within the bounds of fair use, let alone individual videos created by them.
Not only is the system broken, but it's being used to take down videos that don't even have any copywriten material at all, a few examples of these videos that have been taken down are: vlogs containing nothing exept people talking to their camera, reviews of products that contain copywritten footage that falls within fair use, parodies of content that have been heavily edited and changed to the point where it also falls under fair use, content that fully falls within fair use but has opinions or ideas promoted that the copyright holder disagrees with, content that is the exact same as other content but insults the original work in some way, content that has already been hit with a DMCA takedown and proved that they are within fair use previously.
The DMCA takedown system has robbed me, and hundreds of thousands of people of entertainment for no reason other than large companies want to stifle and kill our favourite internet personalities. It is a system that is so old it cannot stand anymore. It needs to be modernized for today's internet with harsh penalites for those who file DMCA claims on content that falls within fair use. Until that happens it will continue to be a blight on the internet as a whole and harshly encumber those who make their living on this content, stifling creativity and forcing people who do make content to always live in feat of being punish for doing nothing wrong.
The bulk of this comment may be a pre-written "standard comment", but I have read though it and agree with it. The DMCA is woefully out of date in it's current form and needs to be updated/replaced with legislation that is actually up to the task. The status quo of the DMCA being used to extort and harass content creators, and get off scot-free in the process, can not stand.
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People can literally claim copyright on youtube, and due to the bot system... Use the system to gain profits off of videos. Even if they do not hold copyright on the content claimed.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the dInternet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making n open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
In addition to the above, I've personally had companies who don't even have a legitimate claim to any of the content featured in videos I've produced nonetheless file claims that have worked against my videos in the past, helpless to do anything about it. It's happened to others, and even happened to people who have featured no copyrighted material at all -- just people talking on camera.
If the First Amendment and fair use is going to be trampled in such a way, then what good is everything that follows?
The process is bullshit. It doesn't work. I've seen some of my favorite Youtubers who have clearly been under fair use. Please stop it. Put penalties in place for false DMCA takedowns. Please help.
This is bs.
Welp, this was bound to happen.
This change NEEDS to happen. Too long have I watched people be silenced and censored for something as simple as criticism. Youtube's system is so infamously broken, it's a running joke: but lately, it hasn't been funny, it's been depressing. The amount of abuse that is not only possible, but is exploitable is inexcusable. Videos taken down, channels deleted, ad revenue stolen, and lives ruined. Many people dream of making a living on Youtube, and Youtube never defends them. In the court of law as I'm familiar with it, it's innocent until proven guilty, on Youtube, it's the other way around.
Almost every time I hear about someone getting a claim or strike on their videos or channel, it's usually unjust, they hold it for 30 days, taking in what ever money the video would earn, and even if they back down, don't follow through, or are proven in the wrong, these companies still keep all the money the video earned, WHY?
I distinctively remember 1 youtuber so fed up with this, that he left a serious ultimatum: "Sue me or leave me alone!" This is not a statement to be made lightly, he knows this, and I doubt the people attacking him will do either; they have no need or reason to. The critics, reviewers, and gamers only ever have enough power if they can be loud enough about it; and while a few can do this, most others don't have such a voice, they die off like snowflakes. It's gotten to the point where many of these scenarios are not only wrong, but also illegal. Crack down on this and Fix a broken system that has been broken for way too long.
This whole thing is really stupid. People should not have to write a comment to the government just so they can continue watching the content they like. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is incredibly outdated and unfair. It may have been helpful back when people used sites like AOL, but we have a very different internet now. People like I Hate Everything are being unfairly harassed by corporations like Viacom and Derek Savage. This can make people who use YouTube (and possibly some other sites) as their career literally lose their job. That is not acceptable. While Copyright is important, we need exceptions like the fair use that we already have. Only you can fix this. Please.
IF YOU SUPPORT CENSORSHIP imagine yourself or selves on the other side of the letter writing me about how you feel strongly about ending a oppressive system.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works, beside endangering the creators livelihoods.
The false DMCA claims happens more and more often.
- People file claims while they do not own YouTube videos.
- Other abuse the system to silence and harm content creators mostly basing on their wounded pride and ego. In this way they are able to cut away monetization on videos pays bill of many youtubers, in some cases even the claim maker can, by making those unfounded claims, restrict the amount of the content the creators can use or even delete their entire channels. This are just couple channels that have been affected by people abusing the system:
Jim Sterling Themysteriousmrenter Channel Awesome Anime America Lost Pause The Anime Man Your Movie Sucks I Hate Everything Drwolf Joshscorcher TeamFourStar CinemaSnob Potatobombkyle Lego Productions CinemaSins AlternateHistoryHub Jontron BadComedian Sargon of Akkad Chris Stuckman Bobsheaux Sheeleシェーレ BrainScratch Commentaries NFKRZ Pyrocynical The Gaming Czar Games Repainted AdoseofBuckley Totalbiscuit Matthias ToddintheShadows Angry Joe ElectricDragon505 CentralDerp Krimson Rogue EyeOfSOl Dragon Mage CreepyMcPasta
- Some channels get deleted without any kind of notice and, moreover, the affected creators cannot event resolve the issue because they cannot contact directly with YouTube unless they are part of a big studio or they make enough noise about the issue, so that the community backs them up.
- There are ZERO reciprocation for the claimants for making fake claims, despite the fact it's illegal in the court of law.
- The monetization on videos is automatically given to the claim maker and even when the claim is proven to be false, this money, they do not rightfully have right to, stays within their pockets.
- It comes the to the points where the movie reviewer do not even use snippets of footage in their videos (which by all means falls under the fair use) and still get taken down.
- Videos can be have multiple claims put on them, even when the first one has been proven to be false.
- The claimants can ignore counter claims for 3 weeks and keep money made by monetization on the claimed video during the entire duration of that time.
- Many Reaction Videos outright violate YouTube rules. Often enough the video that is "reacted to" is shows in its entirety (without asking the original creator for permission) and add nothing to transform the work. The reactions are silent or have little to no comments. Good examples are: RashadTheReactor and Tyrone Magnus. The latter even deleted his reaction video as soon as the original creator won the copyright dispute, because he no longer made any money out of it. In other words, Tyrone made money until the creator realize that his video was stolen, keep the money and doesn't even allow the original creator to make something out of the video he originally made. Other channels make misleading names on videos, thumbnails, reupload old video to generate fresh views (all falling under SPAM rule). The is also sexual content on YouTube (nudity rule) such as full-on heterosexual intercourse, Nigerian movie with a rape scene, scene from R18+ games such as footage from Lucky Dog 1 or Togainu no Chi. Prank videos that goes around harassing people to get reaction (such as JosephCastello) goes unpunished, even if they are considered big channels. In all honesty it's the small channels that actually follow rules ends up being punished.
All those things can affect honest content makers, some to the point that they are too afraid to post videos since 3 strikes results in the channel deletion or quit YouTube all together. In other cases the studios the creators are working under are restriction the freedom of content creator not to have to deal with the mess (e.g. Cryaotic's studio privated all of his video for over a month until he was allowed to post them publicly).
I hope my observation will contribute to improvement of the DCMA.
I've seen many entertainers and content creators have their content removed or their revenue taken under false pretenses. I've seen this happen as a result of a producer who remixed a song who claimed that a YouTube video featuring the original had appropriated his work without crediting him. All of the revenue from the tens of thousands of views that video had (and the hours and days of work that went in to making the video) went to the producer as the content creator did not have the resources to challenge the claims of misappropriation. The system in its current state is quite unfair to content creators and serves largely to discourage individuals with less economic power to create any entertainment at all.
I am a not currently someone who makes any kind of creative content on the internet. I am interested in the prospects of it, I have so many creative ideas I want to express. However, I haven't yet, partially because of the broken DMCA laws and systems that are currently in place.
If I could, I would gladly make a living on youtube, sharing my thoughts and mind, but the current state of the DMCA promises nothing but stress and the constant fear that any content I put online could be claimed and deleted without question.
There are many, many cases of people who have made videos of themselves talking in their own backyard because some DMCA bot mistook a bird chirping in the background, or an unsavory person made a false claim to steal away the video's ad revenue. Others have used the system to silence criticism of their films/games/products, even though that criticism is completely covered by fair use.
Dismantle the current DMCA system. Give the people targeted by such claims have some defense before the system just automatically takes it down. Whatever system you replace it with, give people a recourse to effectively punish false DMCA claimers besides a protracted legal battle.
All we're doing is showing how much we love and are fans of shows, video games, etc! and for no profit too! so they have no right to take that away from us!
In 1998 the internet was in its infancy, many people were just starting to see what a world wide web could be like. We loaded programs off floppy disks, a.k.a. the physical save icon, and connected through the phone line. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998 Look at the births in the year, look at those kids they are young adults. Google was founded that year and on a worse note we got DMCA courtesy of people that barely understood where the internet was at the time let alone where it was going. Now I am no creator on the internet, I go on not to show off what I do but to enjoy the works of many people. I enjoy this time when I don't need to have a cable subscription to find a show or series that I enjoy and can support. I can watch it almost anywhere and anytime... as long as it hasn't been taken down by bogus take downs. Now a few of my favorite creators on the internet have been recently victim to fake take downs. You can see the signs almost everywhere on youtube. Anytime a show has an add in the video like "todays episode brought to you by Audible.com" that isn't because they want to make more money, it is because they want to make sure that they make any money at all. Due to how the DMCA is used there are many people that issue take downs and just request to monetize to them instead of taking the video down. Now many of these creators don't even bother trying to monetize their hard work as it is a constant risk that someone(who sometimes doesn't even own a copyright) will steal that money.(Legally right now Good Job) They ask for help through things like Patreon. I get that there needs to be protection for copyrights but the little guys need your help. So give them a hand as fair use is always under attack and I get its hard to define what is parody or what is a review(in this world where any opinion can be put in front of a camera) but give them a chance with some protection against false claims.
As someone who watches alotta YouTube I've seen many channels get taken down or lose there ability to make money due to greed or an attempt to suppress negative options on their work
The DMCA was written in 1998 and it's extremely out-of-date. Some people frequently use the DMCA to command websites to remove content, even if that content was not infringing on anyone's rights. The DMCA is being abused on a daily basis. It's an old, outdated fossil, and it needs to be updated so that it is compatible with the modern Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose mandatory statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I have been affected by this twice now. Thankfully, I haven't been as drastically affected as many others have. But I sure as hell don't want to be in the future.
Long story short, this law is outdated and hurts content creators and users alike. It has become a system of abuse and exploitation, and it needs to be fixed.
As a frequent viewer of YouTube videos, I find it to be very frustrating when some of my favorite video reviews, that clearly fall under the fair use category, are taken down even when there's not even any footage of said movie used. Equally frustrating is the fact that content is taken down even when the creator is giving a positive opinion on it. On the flip side, videos that give a negative opinion on a certain movie will often lead to an increase in viewers of said movie who are curious about it. I believe that this system must be updated and changed to fit with today's standards and not punish some of my favorite content creators over fraudulent claims. Additionally, those who make said claims must face consequences for wasting content creators' time and money by having their video taken down or even causing a loss of finances for those who make a living out of this. Change must be made and I refuse to let content creators be silenced. #WTFU
every DMCA is harming the livelihood of many people shells even people who have not even strikes any sort for copyright items, and companies HAVE ABUSED THIS SYSTEM UPDATE IT
Lets do this.
Th Please dont abuse from our rights to see the content we want, is our freedom to chose the material of entertaiment we want. We all have been affected by this issue, please stop this abuse right now.
Freedom of speech and defend fair use, STOP TAKING DOWN THE VIDEOS WE LOVE IN YOU TUBE NOW
I am a YouTube creator with a very small following. I am trying different ways of making content for the audience I have. Recently I was hit with a copyright strike for a song I literally created myself. He hit my account with a manual strike meaning he watched it THEN claimed it was his work somehow. This person who claimed it was his song. After looking for the song he claimed I stole, I found nothing or anything related to him. After a few Emails back and forth he dropped the strike but the fact that he could easily claim my video without any cost to him is terrible! Please have a system in place for those who clearly falsify claim videos without punishment for their actions.
My Friend Kadajshm who is a youtuber has been abused by copyright strikes. All he does are remixes which are in fair use and he enjoys what he does it is amazing work that. He was abuses in 2014 and decided to stop. But he decided to start again and after putting the first video up he received strikes and was bummed out. This right here is unfair and needs to stop. Kadajshm is in the right he doesnt deserve this the guy has more talent then I could ever have. I want change he has made my life better then I thought it could ever be please save him and the thousands of youtubers that have lost their accounts.
The current state of YouTube is atrocious. The copyright system has not only harmed content creators greatly and unfairly, but many people actively steal content, get all of the revenue from the stolen content, and then cover it all up with some excuses. Along with that, some companies attempt to claim non-copyright infringing videos (That sometimes have nothing to do with the "claim") and steal the revenue of it. The worst part is: they win. A lot of big bad things have happened to the YouTube community recently, and I feel that this particular move will help in some way to fix this mess.
What needs to change is the vague definition of fair use. What specifically defines educational purposes or parody? Specifically what percent of a piece of media falls under fair use?
Also, companies who file false DMCA takedowns need some punishment. Why is there no penalty for that? Everything is geared in favor of the company filing the claim.
The DMCA is vastly outdated and is being used to incorrectly claim copyright issues, threaten creators, take down channels clearly following Fair Use, make multiple claims on an already cleared issue, and on people just discussing media. When a third party company can make a claim on a video of just two people talking about a movie they just watched, sitting in their car with no audio or video of said movie, but still have their video claimed and taking down, that's wrong. When that third party has no connection or right to the claim but can still make it and keep the money made from views and ads -- which is theft -- is wrong and the false claims should be held accountable. When a claim and take down is made because they didn't like the negative comments, that's wrong. The DMCA needs to update and help protect today's internet and not the internet of 1998 when it was created. Content creators should not feel they have to look over their backs when they are clearly within Fair Use. This affects everyone who posts anything onto social media or the internet. Check any #WTFU videos created due to the misuse and abuse of the Fair Use system. This needs to change.
A list of just SOME channels affected by abuse of false Fair Use and Copyright claims:
Jim Sterling
Themysteriousmrenter
Channel Awesome
Anime America
Lost Pause
The Anime Man
Your Movie Sucks
I Hate Everything
Drwolf
Joshscorcher
TeamFourStar
CinemaSnob
Potatobombkyle Lego Productions
CinemaSins
AlternateHistoryHub
Jontron
BadComedian
Sargon of Akkad
Chris Stuckman
Bobsheaux
Sheeleシェーレ
BrainScratch Commentaries
NFKRZ
Pyrocynical
The Gaming Czar
Games Repainted
AdoseofBuckley
Totalbiscuit
Matthias
ToddintheShadows
Angry Joe
ElectricDragon505
CentralDerp
Krimson Rogue
EyeOfSOl
Dragon Mage
CreepyMcPasta
Iam not gonna pretends I understand every piece of this law and maybe I have been fed wrong information but as much as you want to protect big business you also have to think the small ones they step on. I don't think you should do away with copyright but at least give those who are attacked a way to fight back. From what I hear there is no consequences for claiming copy right only to be proven wrong. That needsaid to stop because if you can't enforce thelse simple laws no big business will abide by any law that won't be easily noticed. Thank you for giving people a chance to speak their mind on this subject but next time please make it more well known that your doing so otherwise your only proving that you have little interest in learning if your laws are upsetting your own people.
The DMCA abuse is out of control. Change needs to be made NOW!
"The youtube I love is changing for the worse. Things have to change or many people are going to leave. I'm on my second account, merely for using music I made clear was not mine. Several pieces of work I made have been taken down on my current channel as well. I have seen popular and well loved channels destroyed by this. Most of the time, people aren't trying to be malicious or claim money on other peoples work. Their trying to have fun and find their voice. Its how I figured out I wanted to go into film work. Free speech is integral for america and fair use is a legitimate practice that I have seen few exploit. Please do something about this before we lose so much of the entertainment we love."
This statement is entirely too true. I have known many people who have had their works taken down without reason and could be argued as fair and legal use in court. Listen government - this is, at the heart, an issue about freedom of speech. It could be argued very strongly that the DMCA and the actions taken through it by certain individuals are a violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution, as it infringes on free speech and free press. (I guarantee that many of the user of the internet (The associated geeks, nerds, techies, etc) will agree that not only is the net a place of free speech, but it is also used as a medium for free press and for fast news.
This issue has been flying under the radar for far too long, and that has led to thousands of unwarranted DMCA takedowns. This needs to be fixed. Right Now.
I'm a small Youtuber. 2 subscribers. I get called for claims against copyright, where people with 100000 subscribers plus aren't targeted. And these claims only hurt. I have music videos without monotization using clips from cartoons, and they get striked down. Why should I be kept from paying homage to a part of my childhood as well as be kept from giving these shows basically free advertising? Why can I get strikes that are bogus from some fake group? Why can't a major company like Youtube or Disney have an email link that works leading to a human? The law is confusing, abused, and not fair. Even if the law is not changes, why can't we get some clarification on what the laws in full says. Why can't we have someone to clarify and watch our backs? Why can Hollywood control our videos by giving bogus flags because it i done by a computer without thought process, or just for bashing a bad movie to the dislike of a studio? This needs to be fixed.
I'd like to say that vague laws shouldn't be available for companies (and virtually anyone who'd like to do so) to abuse. As long as content is TRULY within fair use, content creators should be allowed to do what they love without fear of unfair harassment. It's so easy for the current system to be misused and that isn't right. It would be so easy for it to turn into censorship and that is quite contrary to what our country is supposed to believe in.
Hello, I'm a 31 year old college graduate who runs my own business. I am what is currently being called a "Content Creator," I made entertainment and educational content and post it on websites like YouTube and Soundcloud. My videos have been viewed millions of times, and with that commercial success comes my livelihood (literally, i get paid from the commercials that play before my work). I'm part of a rapidly growing industry that has all but revolutionized the way we learn and entertain ourselves.
The DMCA was created with the right spirit, protecting the people who create our content, but it needs to be revisited. YouTube, for example, is an ecosystem that can create revenue for anyone, individuals such as myself, entertainment companies, or global media conglomerates. It's great, if I use someone else's copyright in my content, they receive earnings for my work. But the DMCA has been used by many misguided citizens to stamp out content (and revenue) with no benefit. Well, I suppose the person submitting the DMCA claim could bill for their time, but that's about where it ends.
How about using that DMCA thing for something good and not the joke it has become. The backlash will be insane if that bills goes through, more insane than you can even imagine
I have been affected by the DMCA act as a very small youtuber who worked with some other people to make a fair use review of the movie "Red dawn" the video was monetised by a company claiming to own part of a clip (we don't even monetise videos) and as a result the video was blocked almost world wide. We have put the video on private as we don't believe it's fair that someone else should claim money on a piece of content we made, especially since this is not a job for us so we had to do this while balancing other things in our life which meant this took a long time to make.
Woo woo woo, you know it.
Bring the DMCA out of the 20th century!
Seeing content creators that I admire be abused by an unfair system is disgusting. As someone who's goal I'm life is to be an author I would actually point to more youtubers and other online content creators as my main source of inspiration than anyone on TV or film. Rooster teeth content in particular has influenced me heavily and one of their directors who unfortunately passed away, Monty Oum inspired me to keep pushing forward when all I wanted to do was give up. I even considered suicide at one point and it was Tyler Oakley who made me aware of the Trevor project and saved my life. In return, I suppose the most I can do is say thank u and try to support them in their endeavors. This system needs to be changed so that content creators can defend themselves against false claims without losing money on content that they produced.
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We love the internet, but not only is it starting to become a corprate powerhouse thanks to Hollywood's ignorant standard to get used to new technology, and not only is it destroying the lives of great new content creators who just want their voices heard, but it's causing the internet as a whole to start rebeling against itself.
We were on one mission to save the internet.... But this is our next big step to getting YOU, Washington D.C., to notice the biggest problem with the internet today....
Thanks for taking the time to read this extra input from me. Thank you.
~ Broc D'Albor (J3ffery)
Stop the hypocrisy.
It's not right that hard working small time content creators get to get bullied by coporations that wish nothing more than to hurt those who they wrongly see as competion.
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This needs to stop this is not freedom this is dictatorship let people review movie with movie clips and make people have the freedom to do whatever they want with other content free the Internet
Several months ago, I created a film review of The Taking of Deborah Logan, a horror indie film, on my YouTube channel. After noticing the video was gone after a week of it being up, I found there was a fraudulent copyright claim on my film review, a critique, which falls under The Fair Use Act found in The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. My review was blocked worldwide. After disputing the claim, I was told two days later than since it had been thirty days since I filed a dispute, the dispute was won in my favor. This is a blatant lie. This has happened to many people, claiming that 10 days had passed instead of the company themselves making some sort of apology, making it seem as if the only reason I won the dispute was due to a lack of interest on their part, not an acknowledgement of illegal fraudulent copyright claims on something that very obviously falls under Fair Use.
Here's the exact scenario I described happening to a much larger film reviewer. He uploaded a Google Hangout session he recorded himself. There was not a single second of copyrighted material in his video. However, he was given an illegal false copyright claim, had his video monetized for several hours, then he was told that somehow thirty days passed in three hours, and his claim was removed. The company, like every single other company that makes these copyright claims, received no punishment and kept every dollar in revenue they made off of the blatantly illegal monetization of someone else's work.
https://twitter.com/2gay2lift/status/711340001913491456
https://twitter.com/2gay2lift/status/711375401629536256
This is inexcusable.
YouTube needs to retool their DMCA system. Right now, they reward those who abuse it and unfairly punish those who do nothing wrong.
"The way the DMCA is enacted in current times blatantly ignores that we live in an era where literal thousands of people rely on the internet and media to earn their living the fact that companies can use the fact that they have more money as a way to abuse and steal money from creators is a vile ability that needs to be corrected. "
IT is shamefull what the law have been used for. Big corporation are abusing, this law to straight up STEAL form content creators on youtube and other sites.
This law allows corporation to even take away peoples livelihoods please you cant allow this to keep happening
I am a simple YouTuber trying to do my thing without the stress of someone removing my legal video. Please do something.
To whomever it may concern,
I'm a content creator on YouTube, and this ordeal personally affects me. Though I'm no triple-A list channel, I still do my part to create content, and have, on multiple occasions, had to deal with false and/or unfounded DMCA claims on my content, even for things I had person permission to utilize, I've had my counter-claims denied, even when I provided full and absolute proof from the owner of any used content that I had their permission to use said content.
I have had foreign companies that have no relation to the original copyright holder claim content that they have no say to in any way, shape, or form, on multiple occasions.
All of my content falls under fair use standards, since I'm always in some way reviewing, commenting, discussing, criticizing, or analyzing it, which in all forms, is fair under fair use.
I've had videos where I don't even use any form of copyrighted content whatsoever, and it's me sitting in my living room and talking to the camera being claimed for my use of copyrighted audio, despite the fact that no such audio was present in any way, shape, or form.
I, like many of my fellow content creators and channel owners, have dealt with this for years, and have felt unfairly victimized by companies that are allowed to just overrule fair use through DMCA just "because they can", even when ample proof that I am protected under fair use laws is provided, we are still often steamrolled.
This is an important issue, given that DMCA is a practically ancient set of laws and rules in regards to the nature of the internet and its content in today's day and age. It's a different world today, and standards must be changed in order to allow for fairness to all parties involved.
This is extremely relevant to me, as my YouTube channel is my livelihood, it is my primary source of income, and unfair and/or false DMCA claims and lack of fair use protection jeopardizes that livelihood with every video I make.
For reference, this is my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/GothTatsumaki
Thank you for your time.
Companies and bullies are causing millions of content creators on sites such as Youtube to lose money or feel threatened for creating content that is classed as "fair use". People who create movie reviews who use clips from the movie or even sometimes no clips at all are getting flagged by the auto scan system or by companies who do not agree the reviewer's opinion. When this happens, the company or "3rd party" that claims to be protecting the copyright of the movie in question will get the ad revenue during the 30 day period for which they do not have to respond to disputes. With content on the internet, the first few weeks are the most important for ad revenue which some rely on as this is their way of making their living.
Not only is it used to claim money that does not belong to them, it is also blocking free speech as some companies or "3rd parties" will have the video blocked in several countries around the world, have the content muted or request to have the content removed altogether, this has happened to many people, not just creators in the U.S.A., but also around the world by companies or people from around the world who sometimes have nothing to do with the content in question.
Even people who create entirely original content are harassed such as musicians who upload their own original song and having others claim it's their work and causing false flagging in the system.
A lot of the time, fair use is not considered at all by some of these companies and just use the ability to remove a video or to claim the revenue from the video. When some of the claims are disputed by the content creator, people from the companies or shell companies will respond with threats and be unprofessional about the situation.
The DMCA was created to help curb piracy, but all too often it is abused to censor content with valid free speech or fair use rights. Video and music creators are having their work taken down and their income stolen by big corporations who bet that nobody has the legal resources to challenge them. And even when people successfully challenge a takedown and get their work restored, oftentimes there is lasting harm done to their reputation or income.
All of this affects everyone on websites such as Youtube no matter how big and well known a content creator is or how small and new is. The rules in place are outdated and are being manipulated to take advantage of a new age of media and the creators who sometimes don't have the ability or the resources to represent themselves if one of these claims were disputed and taken to a court of law. Penalties need to be put into place to prevent companies from making false claims, ignoring fair use or censoring free speech on the internet.
I have been on Youtube for a while and have met many friends through it. But lately, it's become a very scary place. Thankfully, I have not been targeted or affected by these issues yet, but my friends have had strikes issued and some videos removed based on false claims. And this is a shockingly common thing. That is a problem. Why? Well, while my friends do not make money from their videos, imagine the numerous people who do. Who rely on that kind of revenue as a way of living. The way things are now, companies can issue strikes and even take down entire channels and take away all of that money, even though the channels in question were completely within fair use. And if that can happen to big name online personalities, who's to say that the mom uploading a video of her baby dancing to Michael Jackson is safe? That is not okay. Penalties NEED to be set in place for these false claims, so that justice is served for the content creator. Don't get me wrong, if one has an intellectual property, they have the right to defend it and enforce it, but never at the cost of the freedom of speech. Fair Use needs to be taken into consideration, but most of the time, it's not. The system is broken and it needs fixing.
This does nothing but HARM the internet and creative freedoms.
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I agree with what's said here.
The (DMCA) is being used to stifle free speech and fair use on the internet. The DMCA in its current form is a undue burden on content creators on the internet.
I am a content creator who has avoided putting my stuff on the internet because I don't trust that it will be protected. I also can't trust that people who use my work under fair use won't be badgered for simply using it. The copyright system is inherently flawed and stacked against the small time creators who are being abused by larger companies. There is also no way to stop legitimate criminals from abusing people using a system meant to stop criminals. I am not qualified to come up with a better way. You are! hundreds of people have spoken up and you need to listen. this isn't protecting property, it's damaging free speech.
Not only is this practice infringing on livelihoods and damaging reputations but it is done without limits. A claim against these types of media can be put through the paces and pass the standards of fair use and INSTANTLY be put back under claim the second it comes back up to be viewed.
It is such an ingrained loophole that corporations contract other companies to create claims against individuals for the corporations profit, regardless of whether or not someone is innocent and operating under the principles of Fair Use.
Let's update this and protect free speech!
Because i'm not a content creator i have never been directly touch by the laws of fair use, yet i do belive that an update is mandatory in this day and age. We must expand the freedom not take it down, using others work to go beyond is encensial to grow as a medium just like philosophy grows with previous works.
Seems foolish, I know that mentioning you don't own the original content is required, so why change that?
So US Law Holders if you don't change this I WILL FIND YOUR FAMILY'S AND KILL THEM YOU FUCKING NIGGERS!
Also help NFKRZ he is about to have his entire channel taken down
The cornerstone of our legal system is the principal that an individual is considered innocent of a charge until proven guilty. Sadly under the DMCA this principal is regularly violated. Any party accused of wrong-doing must prove their innocence before their rights are restored to them.
As a writer, academic, and advocate of the arts, I fully support the enforcement of copyright law –– we must defend intellectual property. However, the DMCA is not being used to support the spirit artistic ownership, and rather has been used to suppress expression. It is exactly because I believe in defending artists that I must speak against the unlawful practices of the DMCA under the auspices of legality.
Let us focus our attention on actual wrong-doing, rather than allowing for massive corporations to dictate the law in defense of their best interest. Let us behave congruently so when we challenge actual copyright infringement we aren't left with the label of hypocrite. Let us defend the impulse to create art –– something that makes us more human than the impulse to make profit.
I have not been personally affected by DMCA policing; however, I believe that we need to defend the rights of those from whom we have no way of benefitting. This is a philosophical appeal to do what is right even when it isn't profitable. I believe that you want the same thing –– I believe that you want good to be done instead of ill, and so I implore you to defend the artist's pursuit of beauty and truth.
Thank you.
Time and time again I have seen videos being taken down from Youtube via abuse of the DMCA system. These videos are, 99% of the time, videos that should fall under Fair Use. I have seen videos that were parody's of songs be taken down/threatened with lawsuits even though parody is 100% legal and protected under Fair Use. But the companies that hold the copyrights are using a system that was designed to PROTECT creators against them. I have even seen videos of independently developed video games be taken down by DMCA claims by random third parties, despite the fact that the person who posted said video was the person who CREATED THE ENTIRE GAME that was being posted. The system is broken, and is nothing but a hindrance to creativity.
The DMCA system needs to either be overhauled...or scrapped entirely.
I am just a user of the internet; Nothing more and nothing less, but in the last 8 months, I've seen more of a lack of fair use than ever before, Youtube seeming to be the biggest culprit.
On Youtube, there has always been falsely accused users. I have seen over 80 cases of people being falsely accused of copyright when they have done nothing wrong; sometimes they haven't even given a possibility or suggestion of wrong-doing in their video, yet still, the video can be attacked.
The first case of this was all the way back when Youtube began, when "Smosh" (one of the first big Youtube channels,) released a parody of the Pokemon Theme, which was taken down for having copyrighted music, which is unfair considering that only the music should have been removed as the video had no copyrighted imagery. Not only that, but the internet has an awful lot of copyrighted music that never gets removed. The only time that copyright claims are made are when big companies claim so they can make money off of the internet when they had no association with the video, choosing when they feel like they are missing out.
This is an example of criminal activity. It is abuse of the system and it is completely unjustified. Organisations target channels, who have no chance when competing and having to confront these big companies. This is especially difficult when using the Youtube system as it has never been updated, as complained about by Doug Walker in his video that started the "Where's The Fair Use" campaign. His channel is his source of income, yet he received nothing for weeks when he was falsely accused of infringing copyright law. He tried to appeal and could not understand when nothing changed. They tried four more attempts to make an appeal, with every new claim showing a new questionnaire and form to fill, with no clues as to which form was the correct one to fill. He spent weeks with no income just because Youtube had not updated it's servers.
This same problem has happened to thousands of Youtubers, but I have heard more complaints than ever within the last 8 months. It is a huge issue with the system and needs to be sorted, but the Youtube staff have done nothing but give an apology email, failing to sort of their failing system which is causing many to completely distrust and abandon the site that they would have once used daily.
More criminals are getting away with their unjust, immoral felony against a system that seems to be crumbling with no authority to prevent the impending failure of the entire site. With no sign of help for the public who want nothing but justice, I fear it is only a matter of time before the internet site collapses.
The people need action to happen and have been appealing for months. As mentioned prior, acts like "#WTFU", "#Where'sTheFairUse", "#SaveFairUse" have started cycling the internet, desperate for someone to meet the demands of the public.
Even with thousands spreading the message, there are those still suffering; losing income and their livelihoods to a bastardisation of a system that is corrupt and outdated. You only need to type "WTFU" into Youtube to find recent examples, which will only present you with the system failures of the last two months. Something needs to happen. Please, help us.
The system needs to be updated more often and needs governing and policing so that individuals have a chance at fighting amoral organisations. #MakeYoutubeGreatAgain
I agree with what this is trying to do a system that's been but in place in the late 90s shouldn't be acceptable today the whole thing has changed since those time and even know this stuff has become a livelihood for many and I don't whant to see these awsome people or my friends have to get shut down because some corporate guy at his computer can just tell some automated robot thing to flag delete and take the profits of some persons stuff that they've been working on for weeks or days or what ever in all honesty this could be an idea but I think a lot of stuff would benefit from human interactions with the system and as well as a bigger process for the people who want to take you stuff wether it's a video a picture or some fan art or music cover people have the right to do these thing and shouldn't be limited to this just because some person can pass through a broken system and there also shouldn't be a small amount of claims you can do against a video your trying to get back it's really important that we make this whole system up to date so we can protect free speach and people's jobs because nothing about letting those go away is right so with all this and what not I hope we can make this better
#wtfu
The DMCA is being used in extremely abusive ways. Many content creators have had their original content taken down due to fake copyright claims, even though their content clearly falls under fair use. There have been numerous cases of online videos that were taken down under accusations of copyright infringement, although said videos are clearly not infringing the law in any way. The DMCA is extremely outdated, and this harms honest, hardworking content creators. Please fix this system, because, as long as it is broken, liars will always exploit it for personal benefit or profit.
Whether you are starting out or on some of the highest ranked YouTube channels, takedowns are always going to be a problem. But, the fact that the item enforcing against it is almost as old as a child's legal parent is something that can really detriment the Internet's growth as well as the welfare of various people. Name any of the following: Chris Stuckmann, Nostalgia Critic, Angry Joe, I hate everything and even pure informing channels like cold fusion have all suffered the same fate. This issue has to stop.
Hello, my name is Stefan Byerley, and I am a content creator on YouTube.
I am writing this because of the the abuse of the DMCA laws I have experienced as a content creator, arranging and composing new music and videos for the internet. Just last year I had arranged a jazz version of classical music, Gymnopédies No 1 written in 1888 written by French composer and pianist Erik Satie. The classical music as it stood was not only well within the realm of Fair Use, but was also completely within Public Domain. Yet, despite this fact, I had received two DMCA take-down notices on YouTube from Sony, a company that hadn't even been established during the time of Erik Satie's composition. They claimed that they owned the copyrights to this Public Domain piece of music, which I had utilized for the jazz arrangement for my music, and demanded it be taken down, or the monetary revenue go directly to them. This would literally be stealing money that I had earned in arranging the music from public domain materials, which Sony had no right to profit from.
It is in this light, and for these reasons, that I cannot support the DMCA laws in our country.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The DMCA copyright system is, frankly, a mess. It was created with the good intentions of protecting copyright holders from the perils of the new internet. However, 18 years later, this law is being used to harm, harass, and destroy the careers of copyright holders. Many quality content creators, such as Doug Walker and Jim Sterling, who obey fair use and use content only to emphasize points, have had their content taken down by the DMCA, with extremely little power to fight back, and their careers on the line.
Companies such as Konami, Studio Ghibli, and even small independent companies like Digital Homicide, have seen criticism, commentary, or even promotion of their products, and decided to abuse the system, ignore fair use, and strike the content these people put up. In some cases, such as YouTube content creator Jim Sterling and his ongoing battle with the indie game studio Digital Homicide, these things can escalate into legal cases, wasting the time, money, and willpower of the accused.
The DMCA system needs to be looked at, and adjusted for today's free, open internet. This beautiful place for people of all walks of life to make their living, entertain others, and socialize, needs to stop being a minefield, where if you take one step your whole career gets destroyed.
Please, update this tired old system, and create a safe, happy, and free internet, where both content creators and copyright holders can create work, without the fear of it being destroyed.
Sincerely,
Ethan Brown.
The DMCA operates entirely against free speech in all formats and is a tool for censorship alone. It has entirely failed to maintain with the times as the internet has progressed. It is being used as a tool to harass individuals and destroy lives and livelihoods. DMCA is used with ignorance to fair use. This is not a tool that protects anyone, it is a weapon against those who disagree with companies. It has to stop now.
The DMCA is outdated and is abused by corrupt companies and is used to silence opinions that they don't like. Such as directors filing false claims against videos stating they didn't like a director's movies. Smaller content creators are being suppressed by a broken and out of date system. They are being censored.
The world wide web is a global phenomenon. This law does not only affect US citizens, but people all over the world. I'm am from the UK. This affects me... Content I love to watch and keeps me sane in the depths of depression is being removed because an unmoderated and automated program falsely picks up copyrighted material that is not actually there.
More importantly, people are losing their income.
The DMCA needs to be looked at again to protect the new form of expression that is gracing the 21st century. Please do this not just for the US, but the world.
Thank you.
Now my addition to this. Many youtubers and generally everyone who has created some sort of parody might be attacked from people who can get away with claming their videos. This needs to be stopped.
I realize that protecting against copyright infringement is an issue to be tackled, as there are STILL people who upload full movies for free view by trying to beat the algorithm. But the way the current system is now is not working and is doing more harm than good to content creators. There have been multiple reviewers of movies and video games that have had content removed and for no real reason other than the company that made the video game or movie didn't like the bad review. That is an infringement on a person's right to free speech and fair use laws even state that content can be used for criticizing.
What's worse is that people who make revenue on content creation have had their funds, their way to make ends meat, taken away due to abuse of the system. The company that files the claim gets the revenue that the video would have made to the ORIGINAL content creator. Even if the content creator is able to win the counter claim, they are NOT reimbursed for the money that they lost from the copyright claim. This is just plain THIEVERY from content creators and is not acceptable.
Protecting against piracy and copyright infringement is important, but the current method is broken and needs fixing, especially as more and more people create content on the internet.
I am a firm believer in fair use. So many of my favorite YouTube creators rely on it to make videos as well as a living. These channels such as my favorite "Channel Awesome" bring such joy into my everyday life and it both pains and angers me to see them constantly under attack. For a while I have been hearing about this problem and have felt so helpless because I'm just a seventeen year old girl with virtually no world access. I'm still not sure how effective this one comment will be in the grand scheme of things, but I will do whatever I can to help. One thing I just learned that I found funny is that the law currently in place was made in 1998, the same year I was born. I know I've gone through a lot of changes in that time and so has the Internet. It is time we start tackling this very much abused system and update it for the modern age. I am one hundred percent in to protect the onlime content creators I love so much and make the Internet a fair place to create in.
It's unfair to those who put their heart and soul into work on a well edited video only to be removed because a company doesn't agree with their opinions.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down both criticism of their products and legitimate competition, and extract money from innocent victims.
Content is creating and you need a base line to create off of but that doesn't make reaction channels on the YouTube website like Jinx ok they steal and as soon as someone else uses something like a still image copyright strike sometimes not even by someone who owns it. It needs to stop
The freedom of fair use and selfe expression is being steppd on. We need to fight for our fair use.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
In other words, FAIR USE IS NOT AGAINST THE LAW!!!
C'mon, don't inhibit free speech. That's not groovy
The internet is a global phenomenom and this law affect the entire world. Copyright are made to incite creation, not to stiffle it. The DMCA is not up to par to this day and age. It must be revised and reviewed.
Fix this government things are messed up right now(Noah)
WTFU?
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
At the moment, DMCAs are far too biased in favour of corporations and copyright holders. There are virtually no repercussions for companies, individuals and/or entities that frequently and maliciously abuse this system while those unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of this abuse have very few options that will often make very little to no difference in the end.
There are plenty of examples of YouTubers/content creators that have made and released perfectly legal videos that are well within the confines of what constitutes fair use and/or similar laws and yet they are afflicted with notices and/or take-downs simply because someone, who doesn't even necessarily have anything to do with the material in question, had an issue with the views, opinions and/or statements made in said video.
The problem with this should be self-evident: Content creators can and are being systematically censored, silenced and creatively stifled while misinformed, ill-intentioned and/or abusive individuals and corporations can do as they please without any penalties whatsoever. It is not right that hard working, creative and well-intentioned content creators have to suffer severe monetary losses, not to mention emotional and mental stress, simply because they dare to have an opinion.
Our current DMCA/copyright system simply isn't good enough. It puts far too much emphasis on protecting the rights of copyright holders without giving enough consideration to fair use, who actually owns the material in question, how the material is used and most importantly, what is to be done when/if false and/or malicious notices and take-downs are filed. Frequent abusers need to be penalised and content creators need far, far more protection and resources for dealing with these situations when they arise.
People have to get up in the morning.
Fuck yeah.
Es una vergüenza que las empresas abusen de los creadores de contenido y no reconozcan la existencia del fair use, hay que demandar a las empresas que reclaman falso copyright, todos debemos estar de acuerdo en que el sistema actual no funciona y debe cambiar
Please consider all of this. Some of my most favorite content creators on YouTube are being severely attacked by this situation to where original content with no clips or quotes from the form of media they are talking about under fair use are getting claims and strikes left and right without any consideration whatsoever. Enough is enough. This system is outdated and something needs to happen about it. I pray that this situation will be dealt with in the most intellectual and caring way possible. Thank you so much.
ARE SERIOUS, SINCE 1998 what the heck has no one in Washington looked at the law they made (dmca) and said ''you know what maybe just maybe we should update it as time goes on.'' wake up Washington it's been 17 years (or 18) since that law was passed when the internet became a world wide phenomenon and been improving you need to update that law of yours. because lots of YouTube channels are being taken down why? whenever people post reviews of certain movies,shows,games it gets taken down incredibly fast just because there's people talking bad about it or something and other companies are abusing this. like for example there are people who post episodes of shows THAT should be illegal considering they are showing the WHOLE THING (kind of doing a bad job there guys).
reviewers on the other hand either talk about it, sure they show parts of it but not the whole thing heck EVEN review which are just sitting somewhere in a car,house,outside (somewhere) without even showing a slight bit of footage from that particular show/movie/game. so i ask everyone and i mean EVERYONE of Washington lawyers (that sounds stupid) to PLEASE take action.
#WTFU?
Companies take down videos that are under fair use and they have no repercussions. It harasses content creators that are new to youtube as well as old to youtube. The DMCA takedowns have been used to threaten and harass youtubers, even after the videos have been cleared they are still being taken down. And not to mention, the takedowns are sometimes by random companies trying to get a quick buck off of youtubers using the DMCA, taking their revenue when it is not theirs(these companies don't even own the content used in the video, not that if they did it would be right). Look at the Cool cat versus I hate everything fiasco. The creator of Cool Cat thinks he can take down I hate everything's video because it's his content. He has no idea what fair use is and tries to claim that he does. This is just not right and we need to stop these claims from taking down fair use. There have been channels closed without a way for the youtuber to appeal and this is making youtube a hostile place. Please review the law and bring it into the new age of the internet.
Please save YouTube. It affects everyone in the YouTube community, including viewers. We need this to change. Many of my favorite YouTubers channels have been taken down because they referenced a movie, or stopped making videos because companies keep claiming them.
The system is also very dated.
Please, fix YouTube.
The DMCA punishes small creators who take content and put a new spin on it, or use existing content in a new way. Creators have learned to be afraid of copyright law. Instead of being a shield to protect them, it is used as a weapon against them. Copyright law favors existing creators and big media companies. Copyright was originally created to encourage new content, now, it does the very opposite.
As an aspiring film maker I find these practices obscene. They prevent and/or penalize journalistic, analytical, and creative content. While a system should be in place to protect content creators' rights, this is certainly not the system that should be in place.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you for your time.
Kimberly Graham
Attorney at Law
I really don't like this. It is really bad mean. Lets make it get gone. Old law is icky so lets throw it out to make things better. I like moving pictures but not rules. Fascism is bad I think.
It's pretty ridiculous that there's apparently no punishment for filing false copyright claims. You gotta fix the system so that people making content don't keep losing out on their income when they haven't done anything wrong.
I have seen several videos and even CHANNELS taken down by copyright strikes from people who didnt have anything to do with said copyrighted material! Cut this shit out!
To put things plainly the government needs to update all the laws regarding and about content on the internet. the DMCA act is downright ancient in today's standard of living.
YouTube channels like Channel Awesome, I hate everything, Your movie sucks, etc... Have all had unfair copy right claims fall upon them, causing them to loose monetization or worse their entire channel which is how they are supporting themselves and their families. If there copy right law is not corrected it will only grow more and more out of proportion until nobody can post a video without getting copyrighted for illegitimate reasoning, thank you for you time
-Alex
The DMCA is pretty outdated now. Fair Use laws need to get updated soon & I mean SOON. A great case is a reviewer I watch called The Mysterious Mr. Enter. I even have a link to his latest deal with unfair takedowns. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw It was brought back up, but considering the review he was talking about was taken down 3 TIMES by the same company is pretty insane.
My name Hairl Tabb I just saw Doug Walker's video on the abuse of the Internet and I would like to talk a stand against it.
Freedom of speech is not being demonstrated properly. I go to YouTube sites to keep me updated on thoughts, ideas, and news. I also go there to express myself. But those channels are being taken down, and, it appears, without correct reason. If it can happen to professional YouTube channels, it can happen to me too. I want to express my talents on the internet. My videos aren't great, but I enjoy doing it none the less. It's an outlet. And it shouldn't be used to steal, but it also should not be used to abuse.
I have watched many of my friends and content creators on various platforms receive violations, loss of income, and even threats in the name of copyright infringement when, in reality, fair use should have protected them from such claims. I have seen many companies have zero regard for the creators and their rights under fair use and the terrible thing is that they are able to get away with it because there are no consequences for them filing a false claim.
Please here us on this. We don't wish to steal anyone's rights, we simply wish to protect ours.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory
So please stop doing this! As this is getting really getting out of hand now! and it's unfair to the people who have the right to post a comment and to put up a video.
As a YouTube creator with almost 2 Millions views and thousands of subscribers I use this new media daily.
But Unfortunately, the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and is commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use!
This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Brian Rowe Esquire
Adjunct Professor Seattle University Law &
University of Washington's Information School
Twitter @Sarterus
MTG Vlogger
Mythic MTG Tech
Legal & Tech Vlogger
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I have had college reports considered failures because the sources were edited or removed after the report was submitted thanks to the abused DMCA. YOU ARE FAILING ME BY ALLOWING OTHERS TO CENSOR WHAT I CAN USE FOR MY EDUCATION! This isn't just about entertainment or social media.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I understand that there are people stealing from other peoples work and saying that it is their own. However It does not condone the creative right of human beings to be abused and manipulated to meet the means of the corporations which are both angry and confused. We need to realize that the Fair Use law should be treated as a very serious one as it is in my humble opinion that a society withheld from creative adventure is a society doomed to fail quickly. There needs to be penalties and more investigations in matters where creators following the written law of Fair Use are persecuted and attacked. Without some sort of step forward, for the sake of the evolution of humanity both spiritually and scientifically, anger will arise in the masses, which can only lead to more confusion and conflict. We must start taking action by first not allowing one side of the dilemma to have the upper hand, and try to balance things out, and come to a conclusion that works for both parties. But we must work hard at it.
Along with everything mentioned above, I hate having to see these content creators get threats, abuse and lose money over something that is protected by law. This whole situation is the reason I am actually scared of creating content on Youtube, because some jerk could file a false claim or strike my channel because they: don't like my opinion, have no idea what fair use is, or wants to steal money from ad revenue by putting a claim on the video.
Additional comments: The amount of people and amount of times I have seen people online be unfairly attacked by corporate entities over their fair use content is staggering. Many of these people make their lively hood over this type of content. Not only is it legally wrong and unjust for this to be happening, it's a breach of basic human rights. It has happened again and again and again and enough is enough.
I may not be a creator on Youtube, but I have seen the abuse of the DMCA in taking down creators content. Mostly conncerning fair use, videos that are simply movie reviews (who give credit to the original sourse) are taken down for no reason at all. Hollywood and big companies are bullying Youtube creators, which is a huge problem when many of these Youtubers make their income from their videos. So this law, from 1998, is letting corporate big-shots destroy the livelyhood of online critics, artists and many others. That, in America, is quite a problem, but with a simple enough
I've enjoyed watching content from the Angry Video Game Nerd, Nostalgia Critic, Mr. Enter, I Hate Everything, Peanutbuttergamer, ProJared, and many more content creators on the internet for many years. I've even started my own channel as Taijitu the Yinyanggamer. The biggest issue content creators like these fine people face is by far the rampant abuse of the DMCA. The DMCA is heavily outdated, and needs to be updated with content creators in mind. The biggest issue is the way the act requires a website to remove content the very second a company claims to have copyright on it. The problem with this lies in the fact that it's far too easy for companies to abuse, there should be some kind of grace period before the content should be required to be taken down to give the website in question time to determine whether or not the content is in fact copyright infringement. In addition to this, there needs to be stronger penalties in place for people who intentionally make false claims on content in order to stifle freedom of speech. If this is not done soon, not only will big name content creators continue to suffer, but up and coming creators, such as myself, will be stifled as well. It is for these reasons that the DMCA needs an update.
Stop taking down anime music/soundtracks. Everything I love is being taken down from Youtube!
On instagram and even small websites such as Sudomemo there are sooo many pictures and content falsely reported for copyright. I know a couple of friends who have almost gone to court for copyright issues. Luckily the one who was being sued backed down and changed their art. Instagram is a very huge place for any false report for art. Posting a picture even fairly similar to a person even if you haven't copied them can result in being reported for copyright issues. Also many people on istagram have been harassed by followers telling the "accuser" that they are going to be arrested or they should takedown the picture or they will be banned. It is absolutely ridiculous. Due to this people are affraid to post their art!!! Due to them being afriad to be reported or their art stolen.
PERSONAL NOTE: Though I am not a content creator myself, it horrifies me to see some of my favorite content creators being taken down by blank corporal faces without a chance to fight back. Using takedown notices and abuse of the DMCA system to blackmail and scare content creators on Youtube is straight-up wrong and allowing it to go on is shameful. The answer to the question, "Where's the fair use?" must be answered.
I have had people take down my own videos by claiming Music I made, I have had people take down my content and claim My Money for a Picture I used for less than 5 seconds, The picture was of Me and they still claimed it and held my only source of income hostage because the person simply did not like my opinion.
The current system allows for Corporations to hold smaller content creators hostage, hell we had someone trade mark the word "React" And just by doing that youtube allowed that person to claim thousands of videos and end several hundred youtube channels prematurely because smaller channels lack the ability to fight this due to them not having a network and you can't get one AFTER you been claimed.
In it's current form, The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is being heavily abused by corporations to unfairly take down videos by individuals that fall under fair-use. Do any amount of research on the topic and you'll find hundreds of cases of corporations doing this to both big and small content producers on the internet.
In my opinion, the biggest abuse of the DMCA, and one that happens very frequently, has to be when companies invoke it to take down negative critique of their product. I don't think I have to explain why revoking anyone who dares critique a product is unacceptable in a free market. It's misleading to customers and that just isn't right.
Please do the right thing and make it so companies and corporations can't continue this horrific abuse of copyright law
Many videos are being hit with copyright strikes for uploading videos that are fair use. Any number of companies can create false copyright claims without any evidence and once the claim is cleared there's no backlash to avoid the same person making the same claim again. Some people have made false claims based on something like audio that wasn't in the video, take all the money and do it again. Some people have said the idea of DMCA being an abuse protection system is idiotic because the system is being used to abuse people on youtube and get them banned. If the system was the other way around and the people on youtube could take all the money from big movies in the theater and on blue ray even though they didn't work on them or get big companies shut down with no evidence no one would accept it. Just because content creators are smaller than the people that use DMCA to abuse them doesn't meant it's OK to have them banned for no reason.
These are 2 of many people that were hurt by DMCA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH-8PqS84qA
Content creators shouldn't have to fear their video's being taken down via unfair copyright claims/strikes. Many YouTube channels have been shut down, or have had income stolen due to these corporations abusing the system. A video with creativity and hours of hard work can be so easily taken down for no reason, there needs to be repercussions for this.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is super biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The DMCA is remarkably flawed and has been used by corporate and naferious interests to silence free speech, to extort money, to shut down legitimate criticism and to do a whole host of unconstitutional activities. THIS ABUSE CAN NOT BE OVERSTATED. It affects nearly every independant or small to medium sized online content creator today. When mounting a legal defense is just too expensive and there is little to no punishment for false copyright claims you create an environment ripe for abuse.
Thanks to the current laws copyright holders can use automated content scanning systems which send automated takedown notices, which cause all of the major online publishing platforms (YouTube, Facebook etc) to automatically either takedown "fair use" content or transfer all profits to the claiment until resolved. All without human intervention at any point.
It is now a viable (and real) business to just send false copyright strikes on YouTube to smaller channels and take the advertising revenue for one month (while disputes and counter appeals are lodged) at the end of which time they withdraw their copyright claim, walking away with around 30 days of ad revenue. Do this to thousands of channels at once and you have a great scam only possible because of the current DMCA laws and new laws encroaching into the safe harbour laws.
So this abuse can come in the form of intentional targeting of small creators to squeeze out royalty money when absolutely no copyright has been infringed because it is easier for the small creator to just pay than try to mount a legal defence OR in the more innocuous "drag net fishing" by automated computer systems sending takedowns to infringement and fair use cases alike because they have zero incentive to take fair use into consideration until weeks later, if opposition is faced, after already causing massive damage to the falsely accused infringers livelihood.
One of the more pernicious activities lately has been buying the rights to unlicensed music that is used a lot on YouTube and then adding it to YouTubes "content ID" system and claiming all ad revenue from every YouTuber that used that music in their videos in good faith when it was unlicensed. This allows the scammer to steal the ad revenue of the back catalogue of videos.
YouTube is in a precarious position because despite safe harbour laws they have been imposed with the responsibility to be "pro active" which means turning control over to any company that claims copyright of a YouTubers content and the YouTuber is told to fight it out in court. Since disputing a copyright claim (even false ones) can lose the Youtuber their whole channel (and therefore their whole income) there are great incentives NOT to dispute a false copyright claim and instead surrender your own work to the claimant and not rock the boat.
There needs to be changes such as punitive damages enforced on companies that clearly abuse the DMCA. There needs to exceptions in the law so companies lose their automatic take down privileges if they are repeat offenders in abusing the system. After being found as multiple time abusers they should lose their right to order takedowns until there is some form of indipendant human intervention or they prove copyright infringement in court instead of the other way around.
Whatever happens we are talking about a law that is decades old and reflects an Internet unrecognisable today. The laws were designed to stop big companies or content thieves from infringing copyright and never anticipated the large number of self employed, legitimate, honest content creators that can't afford constant legal defences and are vulnerable to the abuse of these laws.
I have watched many of my friends and content creators on various platforms receive violations, loss of income, and even threats in the name of copyright infringement when, in reality, fair use should have protected them from such claims. I have seen many companies have zero regard for the creators and their rights under fair use and the terrible thing is that they are able to get away with it because there are no consequences for them filing a false claim.
Please here us on this. We don't wish to steal anyone's rights, we simply wish to protect ours.
The current fair-use laws in place are unacceptable and are inconsistent. They promote a guilty until proven innocent policy, doing nothing to punish false accusers. Companies have been allowed to recklessly and anonymously delete entire works protected by fair-use with little or no reasoning given. It's repulsive to say the least how little consequences are given to large companies accusing small creators of breaching trust and copyright. This has gone on far too long, and with too little done about it. This needs to stop, and here's why.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used toss is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to ad here to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works. Plus, Copyright ID Content Claims from Video Game Companies such as Nintendo for example on Let's Plays, Playthroughs, Live Streams, and Walkthroughs MUST END once and for all! A lot of YouTubers who don't even make millions, thousands, or even that many hundreds of dollars but they work their TAIL OFF still for countless hours recording and rerecording, editing, and finalizing their videos from beginning to end to bit by bit bring US the best, creative, and unique gameplay videos as they get BETTER at it JUST TO MAKE A LIVING AND MAKE ENDS MEET and it still takes just about over 10 hours to upload to YouTube even after the video is complete! It's not like we young adults don't understand the Game Company's reasons but that Law was made such a long time ago that it's no longer officially valid. This ISSUE MUST BE DELT WITH ALONG WITH THESE OTHER MAJOR ISSUES NOW! NO MORE COPYRIGHT CONTENT ID CLAIMS FOR GOOD!
the dmca has been being used to file illegal clames with no penalty. and harm content creators. it is being used to file clames on content they dont even own, and it is only punishing the creators who most of them have done nothing to deserve it.
>>> Please listen to us, we need change to our internet today, protect our content creators, and actually sit down and LOOK at the way we're being abused by people and businesses who shape the DMCA to their own wants and need to stifle people who are trying to tell people about the problematic issues said businesses and people are creating. Please help us and fix the DMCA!
Fair use is being abused, movie companies taking down fair use videos and etc
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
This system has caused so many problems with for example critique and satire on places like Youtube, leading to companies trying to censor negative critique and monetize content that under fair use do not belong to said companies. This in turn is causing content creators on places like Youtube to lose the money they have worked hard to earn, and in the process make these creators feel unsafe earning all of their income from Youtube. This affects the entire world as the DMCA is in place accross Youtube as Google the owner of Youtube are an American company, meaning they have to abide by the DMCA even if the company and Youtuber are not from or a citizen of the USA.
The United States has a tradition and reputation to uphold as the core of the internet. This is only possible if the US treats the internet, and the interests of internet users abroad, with respect. Letting US corporations or even US government affect the flow of information on the internet will break down the trust that is putting so much of the internet in the United States. It will have to move offshore, into smaller states with less robust legal systems. This makes attempts by the US to police the internet counter-productive, in that it will cost the US what influence it now has, as well as a great deal of international respect.
I've seen way too many videos and commenters having their stuff taken down for little reason beyond "we just don't wanna see you use our stuff" even if the videos aren't actually breaking fair use(like commentary over something or a skit that uses footage for something). This feels like a bunch of companies abusing their size against the little man, and this needs to stop.
There are many people out there whose livelihoods revolve around making YouTube videos. When these videos get taken down, Youtubers not only loose a lot of time and effort, they also face the possibility of a copyright strike. It has gotten to the point where some channels have to ban their videos in the country where the copyright claim was made. Don't let corporations abuse entertainers.
When you remove content that's in fair use you remove motivation, you lose your business. Creators should be allowed to create and entertain how they please, if you remove the content you remove the base of people that help such sites to exist. The continuation of censorship in favor of larger corporations puts people out of jobs, lots of people make their career out of reviewing and making videos and if you put them out of work then you cut down dreams, hopes and you kill the art. It should be everybody's right to use content for an artful purpose, even if it's negitive, "all press is good press." Many people are shown what they probably wouldn't have experienced without the internet, and if you cut the cord then you kill all the business. Without the creators you lose your business without the Fans you wouldn't have had a business in the first place. Let the artists create and let the fans witness all the art we can. We need restoration of humanity in business we need people who know how the Internet should be, we need art. Don't continue to censor, let the artists make their art.
I Have Seen Multiple People I Support Lose Content That They Created And I'm Getting Sick Of It. Take YouTube For Example, People Usually Make Their Videos For A Living, To Make Money To Survive In The Real World And Big Companies That Already Have Plenty Of Revenue Are Taking Away Either More Money From These YouTube Creators Or Are Shutting Them Down Completely
Now Mind You I'm A YouTube Creator Myself Whom Is About Ready To Set Up For Monetization Myself But I Have Never Had One Of My Videos Taken Down Unless I Took It Down Myself
However I've Seen So Many People I Support (As Stated Above) On YouTube That I Wish To Put In My Two Cents For The People Who Inspire Me And My Video Making Craft
So I Have Only One More Question For You Guys In The Govt.;
WHERE IS THE FAIR USE?
The current system is, in my opinion, against the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America. It's abuse by corporate interests should be considered a DIRECT violation of our constitutional rights, and prosecuted to the FULLEST extent of the law. People's posts on YouTube and social media, cannot be censored by corporations, regardless of copyrights. If our government is interested in rebuilding trust with its citizens, repealing this act is the bare minimum to start.
So many people today make a living off of content creation utilizing fair use, and their work influences many lives for the better, including my own. But the law is being abused by major media corporations to attack these small groups or individuals on the internet. The law should protect its people, not harm them and their livelihood... Please, the DMCA needs re-examined and updated to account for the massive changes in the internet and in entertainment in recent history.
I read all of this, and I completely agree with all of it. Your antiquated rules and regulations are a severe threat to the Internet. Get your head in the game!
This has not affected me directly, however, I know of many other sources who have been affected by this abuse, like the example of TeamFourStar, whom had their channel deleted because of this even though they were clearly stating and proving thay their satirical series were not infringing any sort of law.
Be Better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W-360iRCz4
This system is outdated and broken and /needs/ to be updated. Too many people who did nothing that infringed on copyright laws have their videos taken down. Even people who use it for comedy, criticism, or review. SOme people that don't even include footage or music in their video have them taken down! People are scared of video takedowns whenever the post something, and it should not be that way.
Please, fix this problem and update the rules!
When it comes to Fair Use, the system is CONSTANTLY abused on Youtube, a good example being the review of Cool Cat Saves The Kids by the channel I Hate Everything, a satirical review, which is by law, in fair use, as the clips from the film are used to achieve his purposes and show criticism and give commentary on the film. The creator of the movie, Derek Savage, gave copyright strikes to countless channels for using clips of his film, and he only took down the reviews saying the movie was bad, and with absolutely no interaction with somebody, Savage was simply able to issue a strike and get the videos taken down,
another way the fair use system is dated is that somebody can put a claim on a video, and get all the intake that video gets, and even if the claim is false, they still get to keep the money, the system is outdated and needs an update, FAST
In layman's term, someone can false claim a review video of a movie that consist only of two people sitting in a car with no footage from the movie at all. And the worst part, no one is punished for it except the person who made the video. It is quite literally, guilty until 30 days of silence says you are innocent.
There are meny false claims resulting in loss of revenue for many youtube creators as a result of the DMCA. This can not continue it affects tax paying citizens. notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
As you may know YouTube's fair use is terrible. There is channels like "reaction" channels and people that put songs in their videos. I hope you take these down or get on them, it pisses me off when a innocent channel gets taken down for no reason and the ones that aren't innocent don't. Not only that there's people filing false copyright claims on peoples videos there's a few (and when i say few there's a lot) of them. But overall i hope you get the fair use back and thanks!
When you have a video game creator having one of his videos OF HIS OWN GAME taken down because someone, who had nothing to do with the game or video, file a take-down claim, then you know the DMCA is out-dated, and just flat out broken. It no longer protect people when big corporations can have shell corporations filing the claims so it doesn't come back to them, or when others think they flat out created the law (which is, of course, 100% wrong).
inc. I am appalled that's this critical Bill Was left so woefully unattended, unregulated and unmonitored In an era such as this. I and many others believe that The Internet is the future, and to allowed such blatant exploitation of the law by corporations, unlawful individuals, And even fully automatic programs designed with the sole purpose of identifying and convicting content, often without oversight, human intervention or proper means of identification of said copyright material and/or often with the sole intention of exploding individuals or smaller organizations for monetary gain, is appalling and unacceptable.
Therefore I Bradley E Letriard vote with the upmost certainty this law be dramatically improve for the sake of all Digital content and then creators for now and the future.
Where's the fair use?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? #WTFU
Re: As an artist in the making, I fear that my visual performances will be shunned by groups such as SJW or Feminist Frequency, both who have no regaurds to standard, information-supported criticism or consideration of the rights of others. The First Amendment continues to be discouraged by those who feel like they're the higher-ups of society. Fair Use takes elements from the Bill or Rights and expands upon it for the future of social media. If our rights are stripped by any means, then we're not only diversing ourselves as a community, but as united nation.
Hello my name is Diego Hernandez and i need to help out.I am a humble man trying to find comfert in the youtube and internet entertainment having a dream to make my own videos one day.But with all that im am scared off by the terrible internet copy-right laws of today.I need to speak for everyone if not any that this is just unacceptable.Youtubers that i whole-heartedly enjoy sich as channel awesome ihateeverything yourmoviesucks theodd1out to name a few jave been hit hard with unfair strikes and account terminations.We live in a day in which you are afraid of your own work on the internet and that is INSANE.When will people realize that in these days the strikes arenot fair are not right and are not justifiable.I can litterally go to a video like Smosh and strike them just to do it and thats what i hate about thus system.So please for the sake of the people that depend on the internet as an occupations,for the sake of the fans of those creators,for the sake in being human.This comment may not mean much but i choose not to use the automated comment and to speak from the heart so please as a good human being i ask you #fixtheinternet
This is running peoples livelihoods and is horribly out dated please fix it.
I've been working for a small company that's still trying to start off and operates and generates ad revenue through Youtube. A larger company has been using the DMCA to take ad revenue from our parodies of their products. Our parodies are completely crafted by us and we use absolutely none of the content found in the original, but they always come back and repeatedly make false claims on our parodies. Because of this the majority of the employees have had to take up day jobs to keep up their own living conditions and we continue to work for our company in our spare time in hopes that someday the outdated DMCA will be fixed to account for both Fair Use- and the large companies repeatedly making false claims to steal money from us that go unpunished.
This honestly feels like a pipe dream after everyone has been dealing with this for over 3 years now. And I pray that you(the reader) can take into consideration revising this act to account for today's internet, and the abuse the current DMCA has been used for.
Something needs to change. As well-intentioned as the DMCA was about 18-20 years ago, it has been abused. Laws change often with mindsets and progress; what many fail to realize, however, is that laws become outdated with advances in technology.
It is strange that journalists receive protection against nefarious efforts of prior restraint and censorship, while content creators and critics on the website Youtube do not receive similar protections. The DMCA, while used a long time ago to protect content creators, has been deformed to censor criticism and allow corporations or even malevolent strangers to take the work of wonderfully adept individuals. I Hate Everything's criticism of Derek Savage's movie Cool Cat Saves the Kids (2015) should have been protected under Fair Use due to the review's critical nature; however, IHE (I Hate Everything) received a copyright takedown on his Cool Cat review and was almost forces to make a demeaning apology by Savage himself via manipulation, possible impersonation, and general shady business practice. Most of the review is Alex's (IHE) input, and the portion that shows clips from the movie is used to further Alex's criticism.
Alex's video was put back up after a while; however, one has to realizen not only how many other content creators have had their work or revenue stolen by wrongful claims, but also how easy it is to make a false claim by people who do not even represent the work that the DMCA is supposedly trying to protect. At the very least, companies should have to be held accountable for false claims to avoid having just anybody be able to take a video down. Ideally, the DMCA should be completely reworked in order to apply to today's internet. The DMCA was created to prepare for the future of free speech-- the future of technology-- and now the future is here. The internet has allowed more people allowing their voices to be heard than ever, leading to an increase of social progress.
The government must not allow corporations to encroach upon our rights in both the real and cyber world.
Please excuse me for any grammatical mistakes as this was typed on a touch screen.
Thank you for your time.
Where's The Fair Use
#WTFU
Personal Note: I could try and tell you of many instances of abuse through the DMCA, but all you need to do is actually look at the public outcry. This madness needs to stop.
There's a man I admire; his name is John Bain. His fanbase likes to call him his internet alias Total Biscuit. He loves video games; all kinds of them. Every kind. He was fortunate to review the latest and greatest video games, and show everyone what a good game looks like. For every game he saw he knew exactly what made the game work, and where things could get better. I respect this man for his honesty, and how he was straightforward with it.
He tried to give coverage of several SEGA titles to give them exposure. He even liked some of them. How did SEGA answer? A macro sweep and several copyright strikes that almost took down his channel.
He puts up a trailer promoting an upcoming Nintendo game. Nintendo takes it down. No explanation.
Some days TB finds a diamond in the rough, and every once in a while he just finds a stick in the rough. This game was... awful. So bad it was almost funny how short-sighted it was. TB does his review, and all throughout he struggles to find anything good, let alone functional in the game. The developers tried to exploit YouTube to silence a fair criticism, and they almost got away with it. In fact many other developers with awful games tried doing something similar, and it cost the man way too much times, money and effort to deal with them so that he can prevent some lunatic from messing with his livelihood.
This is the man who pushed to have the PC's largest online game distribution platform to take up a refund policy, among many other positive quality-of-life changes that everyone can enjoy. His stalwart blunt honesty, even to the brands and people he trusts the most, are never let off. He does this because he has nothing to hide, and as the world gets better his word commands respect for it.
Now imagine what would happen if we allowed critics like John Bain to do his job unhindered. Imagine a world where consumers never get screwed over. Where they have the means to know what products are good or bad. We need people like Total Biscuit, but we also need to enforce fair use.
As a frequent video poster to YouTube, I cannot allow these things to keep occurring and I will lend my support in any way I can.
I'm in, and the reason why is because the DMCA has effected me for quite a long time now. Not just as a person who wants to be entertained, or someone who wants to see talented people put their faces out there on the internet to help others or to entertain or to innovate, but as a worker and provider as well.
I currently work 15 hours a day doing editing, and working on material for various websites, and it is my bread and butter. It's so far the only thing that I could do to express myself comedically, and creatively, and it makes me money, where I can feed my family and I can always push myself to deliver incredible content to my fans, friends and family. However, so many times I do such an extensive amount of work, I'm unfortunately roadblock'd by copy right flags and whatnot, for very miniscule things. It is not fair, as I don't spend any time in the video saying anything bad about products.
There's a lot more to it, as many people's lives are ruined by copyright claims, things of that nature, and all people try to do is get together as a community, to provide a better internet society where people can measure themselves up to their full potential. That is why I'm in, and I hope you are too.
The DMCA is being used to harass, abuse, and destroy content creators, attacking those that don't deserve it when they are LEGALLY creating their content.
Attacks are being made by fake, shell companies, shielding the company that made the claim. FAKE companies are attacking creators, claiming that the creator's content is theirs, making money off of something that they don't even own.
YouTube is a career to many people. The current DMCA is taking away opportunities and destroying the careers of many people. Videos are being hit multiple times even after they're deemed as cleared.
Even if somebody's video is completely original, having NO content created by anybody else, they can still get attacked for a false claim. The creator even gets a strike, being punished for something that they didn't even do! And then the person/company that pushed the false claim makes ALL of the revenue between the time of the claim and the judgement. That's stealing revenue that's not reimbursed. And even when somebody's working within free use, it's being completely ignored, still stealing money away from an innocent creator.
DMCA needs to be more fair for those who use it, too many people following the rules are being treated as if they don't.
What is just is just. What must be done must be done. What is just must be done. What is just and undone shall take its toll from those responsible, through action, or through inaction. So it is. So it was. So it always will be. The DMCA has become a tool for abuse, not protection. With that in mind, may it be that you are wise enough to do what is just.
The DMCA is a relic of the past, and is being abused repeatedly as a weapon to stifle the growth of anybody who says something other than what the copyright holder wants to hear. Please stop this.
Copyright laws are very important, and are very understandable. However, as a person who enjoys creating content and watching content especially on youtube, I realize that companies have taken advantage of the copyright system that is in store on a lot of websites to collect the content creators profit on their own work. This isn't right, it's stealing. We can't go around promoting stealing. Something needs to be done, for fair use is very misunderstood by a lot of people which in turn creates a lot of false claims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign.
Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
There are reviewers that get harrassed even when they don't use copyrighted footage in their reviews and it's not right.
The copyright takedown system has been abused for far too long by companies who are looking for an easy buck.
The system has little to no checks on whether or not a copyright claim is justified and is being misused tremendously.
There needs to be a change made to stop this kind of abuse and help creators keep their work. There needs to be more checking on whether or not a copyright claim is fair as most claims are falsely stated. Please take this comment into consideration and help protect those who are affected by this kind of injustice.
So, please. Stop. Stop Dcma. Stop the trolls
The use of the DMCA to unlawfully censor, harass, and steal from content creators that are fully and legally protected by fair use is widespread and disgustingly ubiquitous. Successful critics have been silenced and threatened by copyright owners. Successful parody creators have had their revenue intercepted and outright stolen from them. The amount of times content creators have had to deal with legal bureaucracy that has lead to nowhere is overwhelmingly high. The DMCA is not being utilized as a tool to protect copyright owners, rather as a tool for copyright holders, companies, and corporations to directly circumvent the first amendment. The amount of times videos that I, myself, have uploaded that have been flagged by "claimant" or "EDM" or "copyright" have been infuriatingly common, and are blatant attempts by companies to negate fair-use and silence content creators. If the law was made to protect the voice and opinions of the people, then the DMCA is failing heavily at accomplishing that goal - because with numerous content creators becoming entangled in unfair legal battles, losing their livelihoods, and being blatantly stolen from, the DMCA has only accomplished the creation of a venomous and illicit environment that cannot hope to sustain the laws and regulations that were made to protect the ideas of the people.
DMCA is abused on youtube. it can be used as ransom, and is seriously annoying.
My name is Colin and I agree with the above statements. I have see the damages the abuse to these laws can cause and think it is unjust for these corporations to continue to rob the content creators on false accusations of copyright strikes and have them in a choke hold on what they can and can not create
The copyright procedure as done by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is absolutely useless in a society that thrives on using the internet in a way that had never been deemed feasible over a decade ago. As a result, loopholes have been discovered and are being utilized to harass and inflict problems on content creators who are simply trying to entertain or voice their opinion on some sort of media. Whether it be a review or some sort of comedy skit of sorts, content creators are being held back by false copyright claims that (more often than not) succeed in getting content censored and ultimately removed.
Content creators try battling these claims the best they can using the tools that are provided to them; Youtube's own counterclaiming system. A system that is broken and basically useless beyond belief. Many users find that they never get a response back or any sort of interaction with another person. Leaving many stricken with copyright claims left in the dark. Even videos that have no copyrighted material are being taken down. Leading many to speculate that this is clearly the cause of harassment/bullying due to the opinion expressed in the video.
Freedom of speech as well as expression are very important human rights. Like it or not, many people in this day in age have taken it upon themselves to represent their ideas in a new platform that is still being held back from being even greater than it already is.
This form of fair use is not fair at all, I lost my entire channel off of false claims of violation of fair use. I didn't make money off of it and it would go purely under the parody law but my rights were violated and i was threatened with extreme disclaimers. This out dated system needs to stop and something needs to change
While the DMCA is viable and necessary, it seems to create somewhat of a broken system. On Youtube, content created by creators have been taken down for various reasons, such as having copyrighted music or copyrighted film scenes edited in. However, what makes this an issue is that the content is being taken down even when they had permission to use it or allow it.
This has, in turn caused creators abd especially us, the viewers to suffer since we are the ones that watch the videos for them to get paid, and they create the videos for us to be entertained. Fair use has been a problem lately because it has ruined the natural cycle and has resulted in many videos being taken down when the use of copyright was used appropriately under the policy itself. Because of this, some creators can't get paid, at all, because of DMCA.
So with that being said, make Fair Use great again so we can enjoy our content.
I understand the importance of copy right laws, and how they are to protect creators. Right now on the internet the DMCA is causing more trouble for creators than anything else. People who don't even own the material they are striking against are getting videos taken down, as well as the fact that the whole system is run by a robot for the most part doesn't help either. It means you could get a claim on a public domain film and get a strike without a human having actually having sat down and seen what material in question may have been copy right material. This is not the only problem with copy right at the moment another tragedy going on is the lack of materials going into the public domain, because the legality of keeping one company from losing its mascot. Its not fair for all that good and or bad material lay stagnant and be unable to talk about it because it is under copy right or the own cannot be found.
There are many people who fall under the Fair Use statute who end up losing a majority of their income, particularly on sites like youtube, because some company that holds the copyright over the original content, ie. the content that is being used for the purposes of review, parody, or commentary, puts forward a DMCA claim within the first few days of the content being posted. This causes the money that would have been made off of this 100% legal video to go to the company that issued the claim and not to the rightful recipient of that money. This is a broken system and needs to be addressed and dealt with. We are not now in the 1990's. We need an internet copyright law for this millennium, not one based on the internet of 20 years ago, the internet that was ruled by dial up and broadband connections that could barely eek out 128kbps. Do not allow people who have the freedom to produce content covering content in the form of reviews or parody to be victimized by companies far too thin-skinned and vitriolic to take criticism or satire.
There MUST be a punitive measure that can be taken if someone issues a false DMCA claim, otherwise they'll continue to do it falsely because there is no punishment for DMCA Fraud.
While I do understand Hollywood, I barely understand the false claims and why it's even legal.
For starters, the Youtube Copyright ID system is fixable from a gramatical standpoint (I'll explain if anyone wants to ask), but the DMCA itself is so broken that we need to make punishments for companies who make false claims. Maybe if it wasn't as outdated as it was then I would consider doing so.
Do you know how often it is used as a weapon to silence reviews of shoddy products, in an attempt to prevent any from of negative press? Think back a few months to the hoverbords fires, A few of the videos That I tried to watch at the time were under DMCA takedown. I some one can endanger my family to protect there bottom line... That is Black Heart manslaughter, and in those cases legal.
The majority of my entertainment is provided by content that is uploaded online by individuals who merely have a passion to share their creativity through the venue of their choosing. The venue in this case being online distribution, which allows anyone to have a voice who otherwise could not afford to have their voices heard.
The Online Content Creators that I have enjoyed, that have provided many with entertainment and even comfort, are having the content of their work and their livelihoods become threatened by entities that wish to abuse the system by silencing or stealing from these Content Creators. And to my knowledge, the system that is currently in place has no repercussions for false claims or abuse, which allows these entities to continue to bully Content Creators.
As a Canadian, I am pleading with the U.S. Copyright Office to do something about these false claims and unfair take downs of videos that should otherwise be protected under Fair Use and Free Speech. Not just for American Content Creators, but for Content Creators around the Globe.
so I agree with all that was said and god knows I cannot say that better.
still lets also point out how the creator's pages could be taken down at night because they get 3 copy right strikes are made by people claim a video that had nothing to do with the video or images being made and that this can be done without warning. these guys need some security.
It absolutely must be updated to the standards of today's internet and its users.
#WTFU
I decided to move this little note to the top. Because honestly, I feel that a bulk of people sending in cut and paste responses are going to make you people (I am sorry for this phrasing but I am not sure exactly who specifically I am speaking to) want to pay attention to the issue. In fact it may make you more likely to ignore the actual problem at hand because it will likely appear like spam.
I know that there are a ton of these being sent in, completely unedited. So, I'm going to throw in my personal two cents so whoever has to go through these actually has something more unique to look at than just some carbon copy of all the others. Or maybe it'll make your job a little harder because now you realize "Oh wait, some of these are unique and now I have to carefully check every one." If so, sorry for that.
On to the point at hand, though. I have not been seriously harmed by the problems listed below, myself. Hopefully if all goes well, I never will be. I just run a small channel on YouTube that has a lot of videos, but I don't upload to it. I don't bother to delete the old stuff because hey, it's nostalgic to me. It's a bunch of stuff I made when I was 11 onward and it's mostly just me playing around with toys.
But things like what are listed below could see my channel, which I no longer use for these videos taken down because I didn't bother to check some video I made when I was 12 because it had a portion of a song in it and some automated system said the video is breaking the rules.
I am moderately sure, based on what little information on what's going on here, you can't change YouTube's rules because you are not YouTube. What I do know is that you can change how copyright law works and dissuade people from doing the things listed below, which makes my channel a little bit safer from being deleted.
Okay, this is the part where it looks like all the other ones, I humbly request that you do consider the below facts, as they are a very serious issue. Have a nice day, whoever you are that is presently reading this thing.
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We need these policies in place to also prevent the destruction of lively hoods that can be created for freelance video makers on these social media platforms. The DMCA seems to directly, yet unintentionally destroy the lively hoods of these people in one click of a button. Fair Use might have been intended to protect many creators, but it's a defense that hasn't been taken seriously and has been steeped on time and time again. One of the partners of my videoing group ZeroRyoko999 had his entire channel terminated in only a day by copyright reports from a company called Alcot for a fair review of their content. If it had been in violation, he would have gladly complied by taking it down, but he wasn't given any kind of chance to save his channel and the countless other videos he had worked hours on. All gone in one click of a button, and we're left to ask how this could be fair the way it is if one person has all that power and we have none.
There have been countless times that companies or even an automated system caused this to people. We know about all the people that were able to tell their story, but we don't know how many countless entertainers lively hoods have been destroyed long before they had the chance to speak out. I'm sure many other emails have already given you examples such as takedowns of negative reviews and takedown of innocent content just to give video game PR more attention. Please hear us and do something about this.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright http://www.demilked.com/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/new-hybrid-animals-photoshop-30.jpgAct (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I've seen many videos on the topic of saving YouTube content creator's channels. This problem is actually harming their lives, for YouTube is their job. If you simply type in the YouTube searchbar "#WTFU" (Where's the Fair Use) you'd find videos upon videos explaining the subject in more detail. I'd reccoment going to that source.
Greetings from a partycratic country of Poland. Aside from what actually happens in my country, I would like to stand for what youtube creators are fighting for. Do not make me stop believing in the freedom of speech and equal laws USA offers. Doug Walker and countless more entertainers on youtube are being opressed and stolen from by aged regulations and media companies. Hope my contribution makes a difference, allowing hard working people get their hard earned profit. Change for the better !
The way things are now allows some people to exploit this system and use it as a threat.
Some of my favorite internet creators (whom create their works from copyrighted works under fair use) are being hurt by DMCA abuse. Though they never see a dime from their YouTube videos, copyright holders continue to abuse these takedown laws and violate the community's fair use. This is not fair.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
This blatant misuse of such an influential system is absolutely disgusting. The spirit and attitude of the extended YouTube community can only be preserved if they are allowed to just make content with no hassle.
Down with the micro-fascistic policies, I say!
^ What they said. I'm not a content creator myself, but I personally know a few, and what's been going on is bullshit. Others have explained it better, so I'll just let them talk instead.
I believe that the take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
DMCA takedowns are abused and are a scourge on content creators and the relatively new (but legitimate) profession of online content creators. These people have inadequate protections from DMCA abuse. They're self-employed entrepreneurs in many cases but are still at the mercy of either corporations ignoring what "fair use" means and abusing YouTube's automated takedown processes or they're being trolled by internet users who use the same process just because they prefer Xbox to Playstation and feel it's okay to interfere with a person's income if they have the opposite opinion.
Most people still didn't have the internet when this law was written. Culture, information, and economics have moved on by almost two decades. The law needs to catch up!
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It's basically a vicious system for companies to make more money than they already make simply by putting a content creator who isn't in the wrong in the slightest, at risk of losing their job and taking their hard earned income that they worked for. And not even giving the creators a fighting chance at free speech and what they stand for as a creator. Simply because content that these companies own are shown on a video or even simply talked about on a video and resulting in them putting false claims on their videos (even though that said video most of the time are in Fair Use). Resulting in making Youtube's copyright system look like a complete joke and giving the impression that Youtube is a website only for big time film companies, music industries and famous internet celebrities that are in the millions category of subscribers. Whilst lesser known content creators (which are trying to make a living and are trying to make a footing on Youtube as well) are easily victimized and easy to takedown as a company. Since going in, they know that:
A) This content creator doesn't have the power or authority to fight back in any way even though they have not been in the wrong and
B) That attacking said content creator would not suffer enough Backlash or uproar for the company to suffer any consequences or repercussions for the actions that they did.
Multiple Youtubers have already suffered from this such as I Hate Everything, Your Movie Sucks, Channel Awesome, The Mysterious Mr Enter, Grade A Under A, Wrestling With Wregret. As this is only a handful of Youtubers that are suffering through this everyday from false claims and strikes as something needs to be done about it.
Dear D.C,
To put it simply, the DMCA's copyright laws and fair use policies are being abused and hurting content creators who just want to make a living off of doing what they love. Several years now, I have been seeing people on YouTube get false copyright claims. Not only is it a big pain to deal with, but it also hurts the income of the content creators. This has been going on for so long and it has become such an annoyance to people who create content on YouTube and other websites. Although the DMCA was created to protect copyright holders, the Internet of today uses these laws created by the DMCA to abuse the law. If you go to YouTube and search false copyright claims and things related to that, you can see many cases of copyright holders putting in false copyright claims just because mainly they didn't like it. People who created terrible movies put copyright claims on movie reviewers that say the movie is bad so that they can make more income. And also, a lot of companies block videos with copyright claims that are false to mainly silence criticism. It is very clear that the United States has given us the right to freedom of speech. But on websites like YouTube, that is clearly not the case. I have seen so many false copy by claims on YouTube that it makes me laugh, that YouTube doesn't do anything about this and don't even get involved to help the people that YouTube gets its money from. Now I know that YouTube doesn't get involved to protect itself from legal cost, but YouTube doesn't get involved like at all, most of the time it's just Bots, and not actual people. I can give you examples right now of a few people who have gotten false copy of my claims on their channel, which affected their livelihood and ability to make a living off of doing what they love most. Angry Joe, got over 60 of his videos falsely claimed for having short clips from my game or a movie for review purposes. Fair use clearly claims that you are allowed to take clips from such things like movies or games to show a point or to provide insight or for reviewing. Angry Joe was incomplete fair use, taking no more than 30 seconds from a movie, game, or another video on a site for review purposes. Yet, he got copyright claims, and now that company that put in that false claim getting all of the money now. And what's worse, is that the original content creator who borrowed the click under fair use can do very little to fight back. It's an unfair advantage, that the content creators on YouTube can do very little to fight back up on these false claims. Go onto YouTube to see perfect examples of this. There are even non-media companies who copyright videos just because they happen to see a product of theirs in the video. Like they saw someone wearing a pair of Nike shoes, and Nike claim the video just because someone in the video was wearing a pair of Nike shoes. Again, the company gets all the money from the video, the original content creator cannot do much about it, and that's it. What's worse is the fact that back in the day, those who put in false copyright claims would be penalized for doing so. If someone were to put in a false copyright claim back then, then the court would put a fine on them or punish them. Today, anyone can go and falsely copyright claim a video on YouTube and get away with it with no punishment whatsoever. There has been almost a little to no punishments for these false claims on social sites like YouTube. And it is frustrating for the content creators. This is almost like a complete joke, there is no laws or rules set in place, there is no order, there are people being punished who are in the right and those who are in the wrong are getting away with things. It doesn't matter if your video isn't fair use or not, the companies putting in the false claims can just say no it's not under fair use. They don't get court officials to decide these things, so basically fair use is no longer a thing anymore. It doesn't matter to the companies if your video is under fair use or not, if there is even a smidge of and other companies content and a video that you made, even by accident, they can claim the video and take all of your revenue.
There is a lot more I could talk about, but that would take all day. The bottom line is, that the DMCA's laws cannot work with today's Internet. It just is used to abuse copyright laws and content creators rather than protect them. There has to be a change, otherwise YouTube has a potential of no longer being in existence because of this. Now now honestly that is impossible in my opinion, but a lot of people who just want to make a living off of making videos, doing what they love, have to always be afraid of getting a false claim on their videos. The DMCA's laws were made in 1998, this is 2016. They have to change it, it doesn't work now. Please please please make a change for all of us, make a change for the concentrator so that they can continue to enjoy doing what they love without worrying about false copyright claims. Set something up so that when someone makes a false copyright claim on a website like YouTube, they can no longer get away with it and get punished for it just like the law states. Make it easier to resolve copyright issues when they do come up. Give the one who is being attacked by a copyright claim more leverage, give them more stuff to fightback false copyright claims with, because as of now, they can't do much of anything with YouTube's broken system and the DMCA's broken system. Just go on to YouTube and research this, and you will find out exactly what is going on, and how something that we love is being attacked by these greedy copyright abusing people. Please please please help us make a difference to YouTube. Make YouTube and other sites grade again.
Yours Truly,
Javier
The DMCA is being abused to harm people who aren't deserving of the attacks they are being put under. People are being threatened, bullied and even terrorized by the abuse of this system. It NEEDS to be changed to protect the copyright holders, the critics and the consumers.
I mean this in the best way possible, you need to get your act together. Many of our favorite critics and gamers are being taken down on claims that are not justified. Many being struck strictly for talking of the entertainment. Sure many people can say that they use the name for being famous and making money, but they're not breaking this law you put in place. By the law you are allowed to use this material for points such as such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. This is a form of such rules. Yet these content creators abuse this power to send a copyright strike to deter negative comments/criticism. Others get stuck for making positive comments for no other reason than just out of abuse of authority. I'm not 100% certain how to fix this issue other than update this law since it hasn't been updated since its creation in 1998. The internet has expanded way beyond the highest achievements the internet could create in 1998. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblur, Vine, is a new way to communicate news, content, and opinions/criticism on such content. These content creators need to learn that they cant just create laws to just mess around with, threaten, or take down people for the reason of following the law. You've given one day to make a life long change, and you know we're going to take that chance. Thank you very much for reading this and for your time. I hope you guys make the right decision. Once again, thank you for your time, patience, and this opportunity.
Any monetary gain by companies that make false claims on material that is protected by fair use must be returned to the creator and failure to do so should be considered theft.
It's rather apparent that these DMCA people just don't know when to quit. They would rather put the internet in an Orwellian state where Big Brother watches everything people say and what they upload, etc. Freedom of Speech is one of the founding principles the United States of America was founded on and yet it's still at risk. It's one thing to disagree with what someone says, it's another thing to say awful things and troll them.
As far as YouTube is concerned, videos are being taken down despite YouTubers are simply talking into a microphone. There have also been instances where Viacom and Sony Music Group, etc. have taken down videos for fair use despite the fair use statements being shown in the description of the video. YouTube has grown into a world power in terms of entertainment and it appears that the DMCA wants to tear it down by taking down videos because they can.
We, the people on the internet must not rest until this is resolved. We can not give up our fight for not only a free internet but fair use as well. We have defeated SOPA, we have defeated PIPA, and we must defeat the DMCA and get our internet back.
Overall the system is unfair and precents free speech
Especially with YouTube, but all across the Internet, automated take-downs, which do not bother to even consider legitimate fair use, are being issued by the thousands by companies which know that legislators are not even concerned with the law, they know that they've got money and legislators bow to that. The law is supposed to be for all, not just those who can pay for it. When companies have no penalties for abusing the DMCA over and over and over again, when they can stomp on anyone, even those that are absolutely in the legal right, but can't afford to take these companies to court, then the government of the United States is not the government of the people and by the people, but of the corporations and by the corporations. That's a reprehensible position to be in.
Fair Use is needed. Fair Use is wanted. And these companies ARE BEHAVING ILLEGALLY.
"I don't really make any content but when something is hurting many people then it really concerns me. When these corporates are taking what they want and defying Fair Use which is basically illegal. If we don't stop this then we lose great content that follow the Fair Use laws, having most high quality. This might even be the next step in killing internet, we have to stop this."
YouTubes copyright strikes it says no pornography stuff on it and when I look up porn there's all this stuff showing breast and even sex. But this YTber named lost pause got a strike on it which had censors to block all that stuff and he got striked out he contacted his network and got it fixed and fears for another strike out thanks to YT stupid copyright system
I have found much enjoyment and comfort in working with and watching content creators. A lot of well educated people who make content for YouTube make their living off of monetization, deserve to have a better system set in place. CEOs (owners of copyrighted property) should not be allowed to take something down just because it displeases them, if anything the CEO or owner of the content should listen and learn what they did wrong and try to do better.
The copyright system is flawed be
I have seen a select few of my favorite content creators on YouTube harassed and bullied by larger companies, even if their videos fall under fair use. Channels such as IHateEverything, Channel Awesome (a.k.a, the Nostalgia Critic), TheMysteriousMrEnter, and even more that I'm not even aware of are unfairly accused of copyright and have their income cut, absolutely unjustly. While it may not be as big of a deal for a person of smaller size, someone who may not necessarily gain revenue from YouTube videos, I do believe they deserve to be treated the same as the larger channels that do. Companies/Individuals such as Derek Savage, The Fine Bros., Viacom, Fox, and many others abuse the current laws that are in place to protect the content creators on the internet.
Another note to be made is of the people who actually do commit copyright infringement and break the law. Many people on YouTube aggregate content without transformation and upload it for their own personal gain. This is unfair to content creators of all kinds, but is especially unfair to content creators on sites such as YouTube, where many people are unable to find and report all of the content that is stolen from them. This is a problem especially on facebook, where many people free boot other content creator's videos and call them their own. Even though there is no monitization on FaceBook, currently, these people use the fame they gain through others' work and move to a site like YouTube, where they can monitization their video. If what I said didn't make much sense, let me put it this way: a person on facebook regularly steals content from a content creator on YouTube (perhaps daily, twice a week, whatever it may be), then translates their unearned and illegal success to a site such a youtube, where they then make their own content and money, DUE to the following they gained from the stolen videos.
I hope changes are made quickly, online content is a growing market and many people enjoy creating videos or viewing the videos others create. It's a medium of accessibility, communication, growth, and entertainment for a vast variety of people. But the events that I listed above drive people away from said medium, a medium that betters society as a whole and brings people together. So please, in the name of fair use, make a change for the better and fix the issues so many people face on the Internet regarding copyright.
Thank you for your time,
Jacob, Spyrops1mc
The youtube fair use process is entirely unfair and has and will continue to take away you tuber's jobs until something is done. Everything about it is simply unfair, taking away people's incomes with a click of a button and if 3 strikes are given, their job is taken away from them with absolutely no notice.
Thank you.
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As a playlister, I've seen videos taken down for violations even though the Fair Use would protect it. It is easily manipulated by both the algorithms and fake copyright claims to get high profile uploaders taken down for no real reason. Many uploaders also upload content not just to share, but to promote as well and these promoters are given strikes as well. The people benefiting from being promoted and the ones sponsored for promoting get taken down because the algorithm will flag the video on its own and wipe the person out causing a loss for the company, promoter, and even the fans of both company and promoter. Fair Use is violated by this algorithm to the point Fair Use does not exist anymore if it did in the first place. It is way past time for it to come back and for its suppression to stop.
I don't want to lose freedom of speech. I don't want editorials/reviews to become censored. The internet is a place for liberty, and we will stand up against anyone who wants to take it away from us!
I would also like to add that though there are instances where torrents and pirating can be problematic, there are many other individuals aware of the rules and laws governing copyright statutes and adhere to them. These individuals, under the policy of fair use, appreciate and critique the work, often produced through corporate entities, of other creators.
They display their own creative and critical skills by analyzing and focusing on portions or parts of a creator's work. But they always adhere to the copyright laws and only display a minimal amount of said copyrighted work for noncommercial, often entertainment or educational, display.
Yet the autonomous policing by corporate entities does not take into account how much of a copyrighted work is being used. Whether it's just a minute's worth of the copyrighted work or the entirety, it is treated the same and taken down. Personally, I believe there should be a refinement in this procedure, autonomous searches and takedowns that focus only on unlawful usage of an entirety or majority of a work.
Yet these autonomous searches and takedowns should not be focused on fair usage of snippets or small portions of said copyrighted works. Define and protect the allowable amounts of fair usage on a work, what is a good portion of said work that can be used for critique or creativity? And let there be room for critique or creativity in all forms of medium--including visual and audio, such as video commentary that includes clips from said work or snippets of music for mood.
DMCA is being abused. So many content creators making content, from reviewing movies to playing games, rely on DMCA to allow them to do what they do. Companies can take down and destroy content, even if they don't even own said content. Companies don't even have to send the DMCA claim themselves. Many companies use "Shell Companies" to send claims that they abuse, without being associated with the company. DMCA needs to be able to protect content creators more efficiently, from checking copyright claims to see if they are true, to not allowing anyone to block anyone else's content just because they don't like it or agree with it.
#WTFU
For more info, https://youtu.be/zVqFAMOtwaI
The DMCA process for handling copyright claims is massively outdated. In theory, it protects content creators of all kinds, but now that the internet has grown, it needs to be updated.
The system handling claims of copyright abuse is itself now being used for abuse. Fair Use is not properly being taken into account in the vast majority of cases, and punishment is doled out to content creators without any further review on the matter. Guilty until proven innocent simply is not American. This isn't how things should be handled.
This ancient method of handling DMCA claims costs people time and money going through a system that is not suited to the internet today. There is content of all kinds on the internet - its a massive web of creativity, art, music, videos, and more! The current state of the DMCA claims process allows large corporations and others to bully smaller content creators into removing content without any review, costing them their income despite being entirely innocent. Sometimes claims are even made on the basis of keywords - there's no content even being "stolen" or used for fair use, it may just be mentioned or in the tags for a piece and its taken down. People are able to threaten others without having any basis for a take down.
The lack of punishment towards those making false claims makes it wildly abusable. If one truly wanted to, they could flag massive amounts of content as copyright abuse without it at all being related to their content, and it would be taken down, hurting those smaller businesses or creators in the process, and the person making false claims would never have ANY repercussions for their actions. A single piece of content can be repeatedly flagged for abuse and repeatedly taken down for the same instance of Fair Use despite it having already been reviewed and cleared as fair.
The process is massively outdated. This needs to be fixed if we are to stimulate further creative growth on the internet. There is massive potential in the users of the internet to create great things, and by letting others bully people creating content, we stagnate that growth almost entirely.
From my own personal experience, I myself have fallen under this abuse where my videos (which categorized as Fair Use due to them being blatant parodies and reviews) were took down by Capcom(a Japanese video game publisher) and my own channel being swiftly terminated from YouTube, destroying countless work and also my main portion of revenue as well. This system has been repeatedly abused on the counts of rightful revenues being taken away from legitimate content creators, and also used as a means by corporate figures to censor, and harass people and lastly blatantly stealing their hard-earned rewards.
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Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Fair use, these two words are, as we speak, being slandered. Specifically on the website Youtube. I don't know if your aware, but recently Youtube has been taking down and hurting alot of content creators, filing false copyright claims, making them lose their monetization rights, and even taking down their videos or even their whole channel. Why is this important? Well alot of people now-a-days have found out to solely make a living on Youtube alone. And what makes matters even worse, while Youtube is taking down some completely innocent channels such as Channel Awesome, I Hate Everything, and putting other potential channels at risk, they are completely ignoring channels that do deserve to be taken down, because of their gross, offensive, and even harmful channels, an example of this is some channels that solely revolve around people pranking other people, a prime example is a prank channel with a video that is of a fake suicide bombing! What's worse is that this video actually influenced a person to try the prank for himself. Such videos are dangerous and can influence people in the wrong ways. So please help us by making sure that the proper content creators who follow community guidelines are kept safe and help punish the ones who are disobeying and breaking the rules, and bring them to justice. Thank you for your consideration. #WTFU Where's The Fair Use
I planned to write something of my own but this clearer then I could make it myself. The DMCA is nice in theory but it's just abused so much that it needs reforming that prevents it's abuse.
YouTube is in a mess and we need to fix it #WTFU
I have never seen before the recent years the amount of abuse of the dmca that even with people you have made original content just mentioning something that is under copyright are now subject to takedowns even if no footage was used.
And reviewers have had videos taken down because of being negative towards a project while a user is able to upload the complete series with no original content in because it was not a negative review.
The fact that shell companies are able to issue takedown notices with no repercussions is insane.
I always thought reviews and showings of any kind were good because it got people talking. However because people are stuck in their ways and don't want to grow and change we have arrived at a point of stagnation and people need to understand that if people don't care an awful lot then nothing will change.
If the old companies are not willing to change then they need to just stagnate because the times are changing and people will move forward.
Don't let the old way determine if the new way lives.
Help stop this YouTube Facebook even Twitter is getting these claims so stop this.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they more often inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Just do the right thing.
#WTFU
if this does not change then it could mean the death of creativity .
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected by fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
This is bullshit. I can't believe that this is still in use. Thousands of youtubers trying to make a living on youtube are in some tough shit because of Fair Use
I have had way too many of my favorite people and youtube and their content falsely taken away. DMCA's are being used to stifle free speech and companies are abusing this power way too often. People's videos of them just talking about a movie without any content from the movie are being taken down. Many of these stikes are being given without factoring in fair use. People are using these as threats! Where is the fair use?
The bottom line is that people who are well within fair use are being hit with this take downs. Causing lots of money lost to artist. The money goes to the claimer even if they are wrong. Companies are now just making money off false DMCA claims. This needs to stop.
(i agree to this statement, and support fixing the issues with DMCA. )
There are Youtubers who follow the laws of fair use and yet their videos and channels are still getting taken down for no reason. Reviews of movies and using music in videos are not even allowed to be posted safely anymore. If these videos follow the fair use law, why strike them? Even if the movie reviews aren't posting clips from the movie, there are still copyright claims on them. There have even been channels that have gotten terminated because of this situation. These copyright claims are taking away our free speech on the internet especially on Youtube, and this is the time to change that. To make it a safer environment. #WTFU
DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT
plz
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on free expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and those issuing fraudulent takedowns against legitimate content need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and "trolls" who seek to shut down legitimate competition and/or extract money from innocent victims.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I have known indivduals who made careers on Youtube, a place to upload videos without hassle. He has been inflicted with multiple copyright strikes, even though his videos fall under "fair use" (he used his footage to provide criticism and educate his audience). He has been sent multiples of those claims, all false; there's even a company who has been harassing him nonstop even when the claimant lost before.
I had my whole Youtube channel taken down, after a misunderstanding using the DMCA by the claimant. Claiming that my videos were infringing copyright. However, my videos fall under fair use (due to them being used for commentary and criticism), so I am not infringing anything.
It is terrible to see this system being abused, not just to me, but for anyone on Youtube. I would love to see some change to this system, so it will not be abused to anyone again.
Yo this is important to me.
Yeah that form letter and hey, i wana eatch ppl make fun of movies but the media gets removed hours after they post it so i miss out. Plox fix this.
These kinds of people and companies continue to make claims on things they don't even own, and are willing to silence anyone for just mentioning their content, regardless of whether it's fair use or not. They think they can use the law to bully, silence, and oppress others, and some even think they create the law, and the system that is supposed to stop has seemed to help them get away with this. We need to show these people they can't get away with this, and we need to stop them now.
The current form in which the DMCA exists is a relic from an age when the internet was not as prevalent, nor as used for entertainment and profit by independent creators as it is now. In its current form, the DMCA is being used by the mainstream entertainment industry and other harrassers, scammers, and general bullies to harm independent content creators working under the Fair Use clause. Independent content creators are losing revenue and airtime on the internet due to false claims that would not hold up in a court of law (as has been proven multiple times). This abuse of the current system needs to stop.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated copyright identification systems must be discouraged or at least integrate actual human review on the videos the systems may find infringement in. The current system inhibits free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Creators of online content are constantly under fear of corporate copyright holders from abusing their power to eliminate competition, a tyranny that should not go unnoticed by government bodies, especially those who claim to prevent such tyrannies, like America.
Further explanation can be found in several videos online. Three that should be reviewed as evidence of this are the following:
The first and less formal (and rather childish in nature) is a video regarding one specific copyright claim made on this creator's (mixed) review of the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes. The review itself is the second video that should be reviewed, which as one can see, uses no footage of the movie or any copyrighted material of any kind outside of the film's theatrical poster. One thing that should be of note is that the review was uploaded in December 2009, and the video talking about the copyright claim was uploaded in January 2010. This should serve as an indicator that this abuse of power has not simply been a problem within the last year, or last two years, but rather something that has been enough of a problem for over half a decade for creators to voice this abuse to their audience, further showing the need for legislation to be made protecting.
The third and more formal is a video by Doug Walker under his internet personality known as the Nostalgia Critic while featuring other creators which highlights the abuse of the current system in detail, as well as some insight to fix the problems in both the system in legislation, and on the website the creator uses to upload his videos (the latter of which I understand can/should not be directly fixed by government, but it still highlights areas in which government can prevent this kind of abuse from happening in the future). The video promotes the use of the hashtag #WTFU (Where's The Fair Use?) for promoting creators to voice their problems with the broken copyright system.
"Fight the Man, BS Copyright claim" by Jeremy Jahns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIJsPBVCwd4
Jeremy Jahn's review of the 2009 film, Sherlock Holmes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTAqqi7bJGU
"Where's the Fair Use?" by Doug Walker as the Nostalgia Critic of Channel Awesome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
This system is being abused. People who have no ties to a work of media can get something taken down even if it is fair use. This has spawnes patent trolls who intentionally will exploit this system for a quick laugh. This has been abused so much it has created a bubble of fear and anxeity umong content creators and general users. Most of which don't even have a voice to change anything. This system is broken and lementabily outdated. This needs to be fixed now. I cannot stand by while a system is exploited and abused. Many people will agree. The internet must stay a free and open place. By revising or re writing DMCA it will be a step in the right direction to keep the internet free and open. The time for action is now.
I'm not a content creator on YouTube, but I have seen multiple creators' channels being unjustly hit with DMCA claims, and being unable to fix the problem, because the system is unfairly weighted. There is no balance, and often no recourse for these content creators. Any system that is so heavily weighted to one side is simply broken, and desperately in need of re-evaluation.
So many Youtubers are abused by the broken DMCA and it's time that changed. Even when a video is made that falls under Fair Use, companies and big corporations like Universal still try to get the video taken down for copyright infringement, which is bullshit! There needs to be a way to stop corporations from abusing the faulty DMCA and I fully support any way that goal can be achieved.
The DMCA is being heavily abused by internet trolls and big multinational Corporations who use it to censor critics (who should be protected under fair use), unfairly harm competitors, and even extort individual people for profit.
It should help safeguard those who are protected under fair use laws, and those who try, or have tried, to abuse it should be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I am so tired of seeing good people hurt by these false claims.
With Fair Use, many people, both individuals and companies, create content that are within the grounds of the law and have even begun to create many wonderful things on the internet. Some things are satirical, others informative, and some based solely on opinion. Some of these people have even created their own business with Fair Use at their backs. I, myself, am taking strides with some close friends to follow suit. We're creating our own jobs, learning new skills, and coming out of personal shells that once even held us back. The internet is an amazing place to create, share and discuss! With Fair Use, we're developing entire communities that will help shape the future.
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Stop inhibiting the internet. Update the DMCA.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review!
Some of my favorite Youtube content creators have to deal with these takedowns and fight for their opinions to be heard. Some have even had their entire channels removed because of this system being abused so badly. These videos that get taken down are reviews that clearly fall under fair use, but the creators still get punished for it. Channels such as Channel Awesome, I Hate Everything, and The Mysterious Mr.Enter create reviews to entertain and express their opinions, but they end up having to suffer due to these DMCA takedowns. It makes you wonder: where's the fair use?
Simply put, the way this works right now -isn't- working as intended, and the system is being taken advantage of. I'm not one to articulate the problems too well, so I am leaving this message that was already written, but I have read through it and agree with everything it says. Most importantly there needs to be actual people who are not only versed in fair use, but the modern age of the internet and technology, involved with the system.
The copyright law is being used to punish the innocent,and even harm content creators lives, stop punishing content creators. these rules are being used falsely to harass innocent people if only because of petty arguments of opinion.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
To whom it may concern,
I'm sure by now you've seen several comments with the same information. If for some reason you've not yet seen Doug Walker's video on the negative effects of the DMCA, he does a phenomenal job of explaining some of the many problems with it. The link to the video is: https://youtu.be/NoIL5qUI1p8
As he mentions, the DMCA is extremely dated and simply isn't relevant to today's internet. It is abused by many as a way to remove content that is completely within the realm of fair use. Because there is no penalty for a false claim, anyone is free to make as many claims as they feel like on whatever content they feel like with no consequence. The scales are tipped to far in the favor of the accusers which results in unfair treatment of many content creators. I know this is only a brief part of a laundry list of problems you will hear about regarding the DMCA, but I appreciate you taking the time to consider my thoughts on the subject. I hope you will make the right choice and begin to take steps to alter or completely overhaul the DMCA.
Thank you,
Joey
Dear court
id first like to say that pirating is bad everybody knows that.
But this is not pirating, these talented people are being abused by the big companies because they believe that it's not important.
But it is very important because these creators are putting a lot of time, effort, and money into these videos that can only help the company at hand.
A system that was originally meant to protect is now being used to bully these creators of the next generation.
And also there used to be a time that something could only be taken down if it was harming the company.
Stop it, This shouldn't need to be taken care of and it shoudl already work. So just fix it.
Dear, Copyright Office
The DMCA system is being abused by those who don't know how to use it. I know you made it to protect content creators, but now today its being used to attack content creators. There have been multiple cases of people on YouTube being threatened by these people. The guiltiest of this in my opinion has been a director, who has been really misguided, from California. His name, Derek Savage. One of his movies expressed false facts about bullying, which is something you need to stop from happening. For this many critics have reviewed it and said its a bad movie and should not be watched and if you should watch it, do it to laugh at it. In response Derek Savage took down three reviews of the movie for he disagreed about their opinion and thought his opinion was higher than theirs. One of the reviewers he took down was," I Hate Everything." He was sent multiple threats by Derek Savage for a few weeks with only the support of his fans. Now Derek Savage has stopped attacking IHE and is now threatening smaller channels like Mr. Bump for making parody videos on Derek's movie, "Cool Cat saves the Kids." Right now it has stopped, but who knows when he will strike next. Derek Savage is the perfect example of someone who doesn't know the copyright laws, and allowing him to abuse the DMCA system gives him all the abilities to get what he wants. I know that the community know that there are plenty of other abusers on the internet. But, I just wanted to talk about the things that Derek Savage has done in less than a year. The internet community wants this to stop for good. So, we are hoping you are able to update the law to current day and is no longer outdated.
Sincerely, Anonymous
I personally have been affected by the abuse of the current DMCA. I received a strike on my channel on YouTube from Viacom saying I violated copyright but the content used were clips and the majority of the video was me talking. The clips used were under fair use because I was giving a critiquing of the their show Harvey Beaks.
This system needs to be revised for today's society.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Thank you for listening to us.
Some Youtube users with thousands of fans (Namely "I Hate Everything" "Channel Awesome (Nostalgia Critic)" constantly face copyright charges when they have videos under that "Fair Use" laws.
The YouTube copyright protection is outdated and abused. Some of my favorite youtubers are getting taken down because of people who have all the power to take them down with one click of the mouse, while they have to scratch and claw to get their channel back in order. Something needs to be done
In addition to the default comment down below, I would like to point out just how affecting this is. Many content creators and source of entertainment are being affected because of the DMCA.
Despite videos using content under the law of fair use, they are taken down, not to mention the moments when this happens for selfish reasons, like a negative critique of a product without a single image of it even being exposed. On top of that, in this current state, new creators will be discouraged to actual begin their aspirations through the internet because of this.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
This link is to a video explaining and giving examples of some of the things explained in this email. Please consider all of the previous.
My name is Jonathan Issac Nelson, and I want to know: where's the fair use?
I want to write that under DMCA rules I have seen many insightful videos on film criticism takedown in spite of protection under fair use. I want to see this act amended in such a way that allows for the content of creators to be more actively protected from malicious takedowns.
The system is extremely broken, people who claim to be working for the people of the copyright team are not. Thus, they are taking advantage when and nothing has been done so far. This goes against our rights and is unfair, we need our fair use. Videos and channels are being taken down because of false claims, we want to right the wrong taken upon on us and fix what has been broken for years.
*As someone whose friend is a Content Creator, I have seen nothing but abuse from the DMCA for many years, AND I mean years. As an example, as a literal nobody, I could go online to Youtube and flag someone's video with a DMCA Copyright Takedown-With NO evidence needed to prove that I am the copyright holder. There are instances where indie Music Artists have given my friends permission to use said work-only to have DMCA Takedowns issued. Even contacting the original Music Artist has them trying everything in their power to get the takedown removed since again, They provided permission-but a DMCA Takedown was still issued. 'The Orchard Music' is a perfect example of an organization who abuses the system in the method mentioned above. In fact they do it so much and so many times in bad faith they're listed as one of the worst abusers of the system on many websites dealing with the issues of Takedowns. But that's not all, even large companies abuse the system like crazy as well. Don't like a review of one of your products? Silence the content creator-The DMCA Takedown works in your favor even though reviewing a product is deemed fair use. Another instance of the abuse stems from a couple years ago, the video game company SEGA filed takedowns on users who had videos of a certain game from over 20 years ago (This game is only available from second hand sellers during the time of this incident by the way.) SEGA did this to "advertise" a new product of theirs, however as you could imagine this backfired. But the unfortunate thing in all this is that by SEGA attempting to advertise they had cut off the revenue to people who-should they be taken to court, the court would rule in favor of fair use.
If you're still reading at this point one last thing I want to mention is something known as #WTFU, short for Where's the Fair Use. It's a movement started by the Nostalgia Critic, a content creator whose show revolves around reviewing movies from the 80's to the 2000's, after his account was flagged by DMCA Takedowns in bad faith. This resulted in his inability of monetize any of his work for three weeks. So imagine doing your job for three weeks and not getting paid for any of it-even after the issue is fixed.
I have saw my favorite youtubers get copy right striked even though it fell into fair use. Also, I have seen youtubers get banned from youtube for false claims. It needs to be fixed it is bias. The system doesn't work because you have dishonest people filing false claims.
DMCA is outdated. Fair Use isn't respected, we -need- new laws, and better protection.
Monetization of the taken down videos should go to a third party instead of the claimant. Most of the time the take down notices are un-just and false. Even if the claimant is correct in doing so, it should still go to a third party for further investigation. These investigations should be done by actual people and not an automated robot.
I support #WTFU (Where's the Fair Use) on YouTube. For many years now I have been watching and supporting a YouTuber known as the Nostalgia Critic. Along with these years the Nostalgia
Critic has been getting claims and strikes that have restricted them from making his videos. YouTube has been taking the copyright restrictions too much, to the point where many YouTubers are losing money and aren't allowed to make their own content for their subscribers.
This is hurting these YouTubers because many of them have been using YouTube as a job and a easier way to support their homes, families, and etc. This time of abuse has got to stop right now. YouTubers should be free to create their own content and being someone who is planning on becoming a YouTuber in the future I think the time is now for this to end. Not only listen to me, but also listen to the millions and thousands of people on YouTube that are crying out for your help.
I firmly and wholeheartedly believe that this should be modernised in order to be fair to the whole online community, and help to create a more free and open-minded approach to modern content.
Let me say this the DMCA is being abused all over the internet. Abusing the DMCA like it has been is illigal and the people responsible are not getting the punishments they deserve. Instead content creators and people who pour thier souls into thier work get victimized over and over. The DMCA is being used to silence dissent and critical voices which the DMCA was not designed to do that. It was to protect IP and empower fair use which is now on the verge of disappearing. So I beg you to alture the DMCA to make copy holders the ones with all the power in this situation to prove copy infringement as the accuser is the one in court forced to show evidence of guilt in the other party not the other way around. The DMCA was created in 1998 and has no idea what the internet is like to day we need to change that. We need copy protection I understand that. But if copy protection last for the life of the auther plus 75 years or so we need a way to use thoes ideas easily and fairly. That system is called fair use please don't let it die! Thank you
Even further than that it puts all the power in the hands of those who are attacking, even if they are the ones in the wrong. They can go so far as to ruin one's livelihood for nothing more than petty greed. Fair use needs to be more than a defense, it needs to be a means to show those who would deny people their rights that they cannot bully those who would otherwise be targets by such agendas.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must not just be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works. They must be denied and held responsible for false claims and inappropriate harassment.
""
'nuff said.
I am a YouTube content creator. In my videos either verbally or in credits I openly admit that I do not own the product in the video. All I own is my voice and opinion. I should not be punished for not only being honest but practically being free advertisement for the company's and creates of the origin product.
It is not illegal to make covers of theme songs from tv shows, or any other songs. It is not illegal to use credited background music or credited footage. The people being hurt by these automated takedown systems are small time creators, people who rely on these videos for their paycheck. If this keeps up people will stop making things, and that is not a world I want to live in. Stop the DMCA takedowns, make copyright law work for today's internet
FIX THIS!
""
Public entertainers operating under the Free Use Act are being threatened and harassed by companies and shell companies. Comedians specializing in parodies are unable to practice for the entertainment of others. Commentators are being bullied by corporations that don't even represent or own the source material. A reviewer even received a DMCA takedown notice for talking about snow, for goodness' sake.
As a federal office you have the responsibility to ensure that current laws reflect current ethics and current practices to enable the greatest good for the greatest number of people. This is a perfect opportunity to fix what is, at present, a broken set of laws made in a time when modern entertainment was but an unrealistic fantasy. But now it is not, and modern artists and their patrons are suffering for it. Please re-evaluate the laws related to the DMCA takedown process, and correct them. We are all tired of the widespread abuse that should have never happened to begin with.
Thank you for your consideration.
Hello! As a personal note, quite a few critics and reviewers, some who haven't used any copyrighted material in any way, shape or form (which I enjoy content from) have had their livelihoods taken away from them by people abusing the DMCA takedown system to personally attack them without repercussions. Adam Johnston of YMS, Doug Walker of Nostalgia Critic, Eli the Computer Guy, Alternate History Hub, and IHE, among thousands of others, have been unjustly attacked even though their content clearly falls under the umbrella of fair use. The abuse of this system is affecting people's income directly through a lack of accountability and sometimes sheer malice, where anyone can issue a DMCA takedown regardless of if they even own the content at all, and not be held liable in any way, shape or form. This problem is most egregious on the video site YouTube, where millions of people consume content every day.
HI copyright office
I'm writing to you first of all to thank you for allowing us to speak to you about these DMCA claims that i feel are stagnating the quality of my favorite you tube channels.
I was lead to this site by "Channel awesome" by Doug Walker.
Every time i see a video with the "#wtfu" i feel more passionate about the subject, i notice how more and more people are being negatively influenced by the DMCA take down affect. i realize that in some circumstances DMCA take-downs are used properly and legally, but in my personal experience (as nothing more than a you tube viewer and massive fan of channels like "channel awesome") i think this way of drawing attention to videos that infringe on copyright law has done more harm than good.
I have noticed several of my favorite channels have suffered terribly from false claims against their content, simply using content made by others does not give them the right to take away your video and monetize from it if you have transformed it in a significant way that respects the law and rules set by you tube.
Given that i am not the most versed in law and do not posses a channel of my own i will keep the short.
My intentions from writing to you are firstly to thank you for allowing us to communicate with you (given we can be quite a ... passionate demographic), secondly to state that "I'M IN" and would like these rules changed so that matters regarding DMCA take downs must be verified and checked to see if they actually infringe on copyright. and finally to show my support for the voice rising on the internet against how companies can use this system to silence critics who rightfully call-them-out for poor quality work.
I am but one voice and i realize that you are very busy, so for the final time, thank you and please take my voice into consideration when deciding if these matters need changing. I am most definitely in. Though if i may make one note, giving until the 1st of April for a response is not a reasonable amount of time to get enough of a response from the internet.
All my respect and tanks Sam. - Go get um =D.
Penalties should not be implemented without the due process of the accused.
On a personal note: I am not a content creator on Youtube.com, but I gather news and entertainment and this form of censorship is damaging and unconstitutional. The internet provides a means of self expression or provides insight for myself, but use of the DMCA takedowns has stifled voices and businesses with unjust cause by unrelated companies or groups. Please update a nearly 20 year old policy to reflect our internet today.
I get the point of the DMCA, but it really needs an update. The internet in 1998 is way, way different than the internet right now.
Luv u goiis
The DMCA has become an outdated system that's being used not protect content creators but attack and oppress them. Multiple channels on Youtube, for example, had their videos taken down due to copyright infringement even though their cotent is qualified as fair use.
Even videos that didn't use ANY copyrighted material had their channels suspended.
So i'm posting this comment to stop companys from abusing the law for profit and to protect freedom of speech on the internet
As a content creator, companies have abused their rights to copyright claim and claimed videos that I created to have them taken down permanently. If I didn't do the research to ensure that I was in the right, I would have let this slide and assumed I'd done something wrong even though I had every right to use the material I did to create my content.
Corporations need to either have less power in this area or be more conservative with that power because they're using a big shoe to squash content creators even though they have no legal right to do so.
DMCA takedowns have allowed companies to overreach its original goals of strongly protecting the IP rights of content creators, and has been used to do immense harm to critics and reviewers.
Due to fair-use conflicts. i have been afraid to create and post things i have created, because if a big company see's it they can take it down. Or make pure profit off of my hard work. I do not want to live in a world where i am afraid of making something, because the greed of companies.
I'm a aspiring Youtube content creator. Even though I am just starting out and probably will never see any true success with my content, I still worry about the legal ramifications that could befall me due to the current failings of the Copyright system we have in place, despite the fact that I am doing nothing wrong. This needs to change. The Copyright Office needs to update the laws to reflect today's culture and prevent corruption. Please help us by truly protecting free speech!
The DMCA is a broken abused system that has hurt so many who express their own opinion, be it recreational or professional. If burning our own countries flag is protected under the constitution, then I see no reason why voicing ones thought should be treated any differently.
Please stop the abuse of the system to save the people whose jobs rely on it, to save free speech, and to save the internet as a whole.
#WTFU
This as affected YOUTUBE content creators enormously. Whilst there is a problem of copy right infringement on youtube, the actions taken to solve the issue are having enormous negative effects. Please sort this out
I've seen the DMCA abused immensely and used for purposes it was never intended when first written. Companies have bullied content creators and robbed them of income for improper DMCA take down notices on sites like YouTube.
Others haven't even done it for monetary gain and instead use it as a no questions asked method of censorship to take down content criticizing their work.
#WTFU
#WheresTheFairUse
I've seen DMCA's used literally dozens of times to silence critics when they try to discuss something negatively. The ease with which you can use it as a tool to suppress bad press is simply out of control.
Hello, I have never made a video on YouTube. But I can say this: I've seen several videos, all of them parodies of some sort. Funny reviews, or funny edits of movies and shows. When I see them, I see people on the internet breaking thier backs to make people laugh in ways that no comedy movie can, yet these people are being punished for making people laugh. Why do we do this? Is this not a land of freedom? Are you, the government, going to let them, the cooperations, bend this country to be unfree?
Please fix, oh my God, please fix,
One cool dude
NOTE: I have had multiple claims from the same company (Maker Studios). At first, I thought it was fair for them, but some of them don't see the claim until months after I uploaded it. I even got multiple claims from one video. I have been using the video fairly to satirize & to entertain (YouTube Poop)
Since I've started using the internet actively I have heard of and seem many times people abusing the DMCA law. I have seem videos were no copyright material was used at all, a name on the title of the video, and it was still claimed under DMCA. I have seem many funny and intelligent videos that fall clearly under Fair Use protection being taken down under DMCA violation claims with total disregard to the law protecting critiques and transformative works.
If the internet is to become a place where creativity truly thrives with no fear the DMCA needs a serious revision so critics and humorists can work without the fear of someone ruining their livelihoods with a unfair and unfounded claim of violation.
About a year-and-half-ago, I started a YouTube channel called GamerSketch. At the moment, there's not much on the channel, but as I have recently acquired some new equipment, I fully intend to start releasing more videos after I am done with a project I am currently involved in.
One of the reasons I have not uploaded much of anything is because I don't have a ton of time to make videos. I'm a high school student and most of time is usually spent doing homework, working on a school project, or doing other things I have to do for school. But I'm passionate about making film related things, so I can work around my time limitations. But the main reason I haven't done much as of late is because of everything that's wrong with YouTube right now.
I first noticed things were getting out of control when, back in November, the channel "I Hate Everything" was being overtaken by the creator of a movie he reviewed. Since then, things have gotten far worse. And recently, after the fiasco with "The Fine Bros.", I came to a realization. As of right now, I've already got my next 25 videos or so planned for my YouTube channel. Almost all of them would be around 15 minutes in length and be analyzations for movies, old video games, and other things in media. Quite frankly, I haven't uploaded anything out of fear of what could happen to me. Why waste my time on a big video that I've spent tens of hours making when a corporation could easily take down my product simply because I talk about one of their properties.
To go back to "The Fine Bros." situation, they got a video taken down that had abut 10 views from a channel that had less then 10 subscribers. The situation on YouTube is so extreme at the moment that the exact thing could happen to me. So why even put effort into doing anything if no one gets to see it?
Please help.
-Matthew Stacey
Example: The Little Panda Fighter from IHE (I Hate Everything). This needs to be fixed.
In short, the current copyright laws are a crippling limitation on content creators and needs to be updated to the current standard. This nuisance needs to be fixed. Creative freedom is at stake, even more so, our current way of life is at stake. The internet has changed entertainment forever, and the law needs to catch up!
As time moves forward, with the advent of new technological innovations, so too must U.S. case law and legislation keep in lockstep with these advances. Please take the information below with the utmost consideration:
Basically just look at channel awesome to get the full jist of it!
Fair use needs to be returned now content creators aren't safe with work and can just be sued merely! Fair use needs a return
Takedown occur blatantly without cause, oftentimes by parties without legitimate copyright claim or ownership.
While I did not write the above, I agree wholeheartedly - I don't create content on the internet, but i'm a pretty active viewer - YouTube is my primary form of entertainment, from comedy sketches, to reviews, to silly mash ups and lets plays to music videos and news updates and pretty much everything in between. False DMCA claims have seriously disrupted the content creators that I follow for a long time now - and the most abhorrent way these takedown notices are being used is to violate freedom of speech, the most prevalent of which that i've been affected by is Derek Savage and his relentless pursuing of anyone who has a bad word to say about his god awful movie; Cool Cat saves the kids - Now I don't care that much about Savage, he's a moron - but he's able to do what he did because the system allows him to without consequence - despite being totally in the wrong with his claims in the case of Derek Savage Vs Alex of the IHE YouTube channel, he was able to bully and disrupt the creator - and then go on to do it to other creators again and again with NO RIGHT to - there NEEDs to be a strict and enforceable punishment for issuing false DMCA claims as well as a reform as to how the claims are dealt with, and what happens to the monetisation during the process in order to protect a potentially innocent creator from losing their hard earned income to a false copyright claim. I mean come on, one of these DMCA's was issued against the MUSIC in a video WITH NO AUDIO, a video that had been uploaded purposely with no audio to catch out the issuer of the DMCA, one DMCA tried to claim ownership of a video that featured a youtuber showing himself on his lawn and NOTHING ELSE in the frame - It's ridiculous that this goes on.
I won't pretend to know anything beyond a general understanding of this whole system - But I know right and wrong, and oppressing free speech, stealing income from dedicated creators, bullying anyone who disagrees with you using the law - are all wrong
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fíair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I hate the current fair use. So many times I go on the Internet to watch a review or a spoof of a movie or cartoon and it's gone even though it's not breaking copyright. Please replace this broken system
Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and to commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating
This isn't fair.
individuals’ rights to free speech.
Here is a good video summary which I agree with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
Thank you for your time.
The Internet, primarily YouTube, is one giant, fat, joke. And it is getting goddamn ridiculous. Anyone can file a false copyright claim, anyone! And the worse thing is, there will be no punishment on the accuser's side. The channel being attacked however will suffer huge setbacks all for naught. Please someone has to do something about this.
I agree with the statement below. Something needs to be done.
The DMCA was a great idea. And it worked great for what it was supposed to do. But it isn't working the way it should be anymore. The amount of false claims that are being acted on as if they were completely true is ridiculous. Please at least try to do something to fix this
Seriously, fix this shit.
Many have lost videos,profit, and many other things thanks to this. It needs to be updated so making content isn't a terror every second it is up.
Did you know that companys can copyright your videos on youtube just becuse the title of your video have the same name of a song that exist. The song does not even has to be in the video, it does not even have to have something to do with the video in general.
So to put it more simply a persons video video was copyrighted becuse the title shared she same name of a song and the video itself did't even have something to do with the song an his video was taken down.
He even filed a claim that he lost and he did not wanna try again becuse if he did his youtube acount would have gotten a strike (if you dont know if a person gets three strikes on his or hers youtube it gets taken down). And thats not a risk people want to take since alot of people is youtube their job and where they earn money.
People should not be able to lose their job for something as little and stupid as this.
I hope this messege can help make a change and help content creators to be able to make videos without fearing for every video they make in the future.
Under a court sanction companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Plus, Youtubers who create entertaining and rich content (which also includes parodying or reviewing other footage) and make a living from it, whenever have to battle a false copywright claim will often loose money which goes to the claimant even if it's in error.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, SoundCloud, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
The DMCA laws are allowing corporations or even just malicious individuals to literally steal from original content creators on the internet. The DMCA laws need to be looked at and reassessed or just rewritten altogether. Some people make a living posting content to the internet and when someone flags their work for false copyright claims they are infringing upon the unalienable rights set forth in the Declaration of Independence. If we, as a nation, can't even protect such basic rights, then we have failed as a nation.
This system is only hurting the creators and helping the huge corporations. This is being abused online with no consequence, and at times no real reason. There are at times no reason to abuse this system other than to silence. We have right to voice our opinions without punishment.
DMCA is used to harm youtubers and content creators. It is used without any fair use or anything factored in. People can issue a DMCA if they don't like the way their stuff is used even if it is for entertainment, comedy, or the greater good nobody cares. Companies use DMCA to steal money from content creators. It's time to stop.
Hey there, people with actual power. Thanks a lot for listening to those of us on the internet.
So I haven't been personally affected by this copyright issue on the internet, but I know a lot of people are being affected.
A friend of mine named Sirius had his channel taken down for copyright even though it was under fair use, and there's of course, the drama between IHE and Cool Cat. Where the channel was almost taken down by copyright strikes even tho their videos are under FAIR USE! People who possess copyrights to their content are given too much power in the world today, where they can take down a person's hard work with a single click of a button.The current system is not made for the internet today, so please take this into consideration.
Thanks again for hearing us
-Enzo
so
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible
The abuse of DMCA takedown's on Youtube have personally affected content creators. Those who wish to abuse the system meet little to no resistance and are allowed to legally usurp the advertising revenue of other people's, or group's, videos. Issue lies within the fact that any company may stop revenue for a person for a period of time, in which the content creator is forced to endure a process that is against them. Secondary to the base problems with the system, is that any person may claim to be any organization without a background check or process to ensure that the claim is legitimate. Under these circumstances a person may, without repercussion, file a claim, take revenue from a video for the period until the claim expires, and walk away with no consequence for taking another person's income. This is a system that was created with outdated guidelines and little to no checks or balances. Change the law to assist the new world of entrepreneurs.
Save the Fair Use, old laws must be ditched, the world has changed, we are no longer in the 90's, internet is more than then, the people has change, they see more easly to go to internet to entretain themselves, cable and satelite age has died.
Greetings from Mexico.
One of the most important freedoms granted to a human is that of speech, the ability to express themselves. I have seen the DMCA take action at proper times, when copyrights were being infringed and the copyright holders were having money practically stolen from them; however, I have also seen the DMCA be abused in order to strike out against unpopular or rivaling opinions, as well as be improperly thrown out to content creators that have made significant additions to the content that they use from others.
Overall, copyright on the internet needs to be dealt with as it is in any other aspect of life, we cannot have people striking down creative and innovative content preemptively, without actually looking into why it was requested to be taken down, out of fear of legal action--such an event is cause for a chilling effect that can be extremely destructive to the individualistic and rapidly changing world we live in.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works
If this shit continues, expect major consenquences. Take down the inefficient and totalitarian DMCA
As someone who creates content on the Internet I can not stress how broken the current process is now.
To use and analogy for what this lets people do via YouTube, this is like a person walking into a store and claiming all the pastries were baked by them. They then go to the register and every time someone buys a pastry they take that money out of the cashiers hand and pocket it. They are allowed to do this for 30 DAYS before the real owner of the bakery is allowed to stop them. At the end of 30 days all the money lost is kept by the thief and the baker is told they are eligible to get paid for their work again.
The worst part is ANYONE can walk into the store and make this claim. There are no consequences for stealing this money and there is no way (right now) to stop one person after another from doing this. It does not matter if the person walking in could not even bake anything and it is obvious they could not bake to anyone looking at them (IE they have no arms). They are still allowed to steal from the real baker, just by making the claim.
While not a content creator myself, I do revel in the ability of people from all walks of life to create a work and share it with an audience. I understand that these creators have the right to protect their creations, and that the DMCA was created to assure this right. However the current state of the law and its implementation at different sites online results in those using copyrighted content to create their own copyrighted content in a manner consistent with Fair Use doctrine, or those creating original works, to be treated in anything but a fair manner.
Content creators are routinely having content, that is their own copyright work, censored or having legitimate revenue generated from such work stolen by others. Sometimes the claiming party may own a copyrighted worked which is used in part or in whole in a manner consistent with Title 17 Chapter 1 subsection 107, and thus are not entitled to such a claim or in the most egregious cases by someone with no right to make a claim under the DMCA. In most cases presented, the claiming party has not been penalized for making a false claim under the DMCA and are free to offend again, sometimes against the same work multiple time. Again in most cases presented the lost revenue seized while the DMCA claim was in effect is not returned to the content creator but is kept by the party filing the false claim.
While clear and flagrant violations of copyright law need to be addressed, all content creators should and are entitled to reap the rewards of their unique work. The current system does not appear to meet this goal, and the lack enforcement for filing a false DMCA claim results in not only outright theft but censorship and removal of unique works. The failings of the current DMCA need to be addressed before artist stop making content out of fear that their work will be summarily and unjustly removed or have their livelihood stolen with no recourse but to sit and accept that is the way the system works.
No one should have the right to upload a complete album and make money off of it unless they own the rights to do so. But, no one should have their legitimate earnings stolen by someone claiming one second of audio, belonging to a piece of media the claimant has no rights to, in a twenty minute work. No one should have the right to upload a movie to an internet site in its entirety and make money off of it unless they own the rights to it. But, no one should be able to censor a critic using pieces of work to be critical of that same piece of work.
In a world where content can come from anywhere we should be ensuring that it can come from anywhere, and that those producing it are protected and are able to reap the rewards that come with that act.
I created a song from scratch, recorded my own video, it belonged to me... Yet somehow, it was taken away. My own creation that didn't even come near to the fair use law as it was purely original in ever sense of the meaning, was stolen from me because the DMCA process is heavily flawed.
To translate this long automated list of complaints into a more modern and realistic fashion, THIS IS AMERICA! GIVE US FREE SPEECH, DAMMIT!
It's all a bit of a pisstake m8s...
Overall, laws need to be changed when the environment in which they were created and created for change.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Thank you for reading.
Greetings to all at the U.S Copyright Office. I am e-mailing you because Fight for the Future tells me that you are thinking about changing the way fair use and copyright laws work online. I want to give my own two cents on the topic to help change how you think about copyright laws. I say this because the way copyright laws work now, will pretty much lead to the return of SOPA and PIPA. There are many reasons why I believe this, but the big reason is also a question regarding fair use laws..."WHAT Fair Use Laws?"
Over the course of my time on the internet, people and corporate companies seem to have forgotten how fair use works. I have seen many channels on YouTube, DailyMotion, and other video sharing websites just to name a few, who have been deleted, or bullied for "posting copyrighted material without a person's permission"; even though, the person in question had made a video that falls under fair use. Content creators who now make a living off of making videos like reviews, parodies, commentaries, and even song covers are now in danger of having their content deleted because of copyright laws; but all the videos are videos that are under fair use. Now I myself am not a content creator, far from it. I'm just a person who watches videos on the internet. However, I feel as much at risk as the content creators.
There are so many opportunities that have opened up for new jobs on the internet because of content creation. Small groups of friends who wanted to parody a certain work have become big online corporations that go through the same process of work that bigger businesses go through. Unfortunately, bigger businesses think that they own anything that has to do with their work and not in the way I mean. Here's an example. Pretend you are a content creator who makes parodies of something, and I'm a big company like Sony. Let's say you make a video that is a parody of something from the gaming company, Nintendo and you put in a short five second scene from a Sony movie that really has nothing to do with it. Being Sony, I say that I own your entire video because of those five seconds. This has happened on many video websites, but YouTube is the worst offender. This is a list of YouTubers who were affected; Jim Sterling, Themysteriousmrenter, Channel Awesome, Anime America, Lost Pause, The Anime Man, Your Movie Sucks, I Hate Everything, Drwolf, Joshscorcher, TeamFourStar, CinemaSnob, Potatobombkyle Lego Productions, CinemaSins, AlternateHistoryHub, Jontron, BadComedian,, Sargon of Akkad, Chris Stuckman, Bobsheaux, Sheeleシェーレ, BrainScratch Commentaries, NFKRZ, Pyrocynical, The Gaming Czar, Games Repainted, AdoseofBuckley, Totalbiscuit, Matthias, ToddintheShadows, Angry Joe, ElectricDragon505, CentralDerp, Krimson Rogue, EyeOfSOl, Dragon Mage, and CreepyMcPasta.
Going back to the previous paragragh, some of the people mentioned are reivewers who show small clips, but commentate over the rest of the movie and even parody some scenes. They do this for entertainment or to educate future creators; they are also now online businesses that don't get paid if their videos are taking down. Big businesses are asking smaller businesses to send false copyright claims to these videos; and when it happens, those big businesses get paid for something that wasn't made by them. Even worse, some of those who fight back have been contacted by the original creators of what they reviewed and, in a nutshell, said " You have no right to make a video about my work. I will continue to try and stop you from posting this video up, so just stop and we can live our regular lives again." They are harassing these creators not because they break copyright laws, but because they didn't like their work. Meanwhile, people are posting whole episodes of their work, which DOES break copyright laws and they get off scott-free.
Things have gotten so bad that a campaign on YouTube called #WTFU (a.k.a Where's the Fair Use?) has been going on since February. The campaign was made by a man named Doug Walker, also known as the Nostalgia Critic as a way to bring fair use back to the internet. The whole campaign has gotten many followers to stop Hollywood from breaking laws and saying the video makers are the bad guys. If you go to this youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8) and watch each video in the description or even look up WTFU online, you will find multiple people who were hit with a copyright claim that they didn't deserve. The DMCA act needs to be updated, so that it fits today's standards. We all want to feel safe on the internet and we need you to help us do so. For weeks, we've been asking Where's the Fair Use? I hope that you all will tell us so we can get it back. Thank you for taking time out of your day to read this.
Companys have been making false claims on other people's videos and even taking down videos where people are just talking with no music or footage.
Many of my favorite YouTube content creators have suffered under false copyright claims, including the Nostalgia Critic from Channel Awesome, YourMovieSucks, I Hate Everything, and MatthiasIAm. I understand that my role as a passive viewer of Internet videos is small, but I still want to see my favorite content creators online have the freedom to employ fair use without suffering the consequences of unfair claims that they don't. People much more eloquent and knowledgeable than I am can tell you exactly what's wrong and how we can move to change, but know that people like me are out there supporting them as well.
False DMCA takedowns, especially on youtube, have no adverse effects, and rarely if ever get punished for abusing the law. What needs to happen is an update which protects content creators such as reviewers who alter someone else's content in a TRANSFORMATIVE nature. If the law continues to stay stagnant then it can be used to silence valid criticism under the guise of a breach in copyright.
There should be more dire consequences for false DMCA takedowns, this would protect the creators of the original work, as well as those who use alter it and create new content.
Many YouTube channels have been unfairly attacked by false copyright claims for many years now, only now it is not only affecting just small channels but bigger ones too, examples being Dereck Savage's false copyright claim of I Hate Everything's review of the film Cool Cat Saves the Kids.
As well, the current system in place has too many loopholes that these false claims can use, and they have been exploited to the max, such as taking family videos down for having copyright songs play in the background, or remixed videos (examples being YouTube poops, videos where copyright content is remixed and edited to create new meanings and comedy) being taken down for having one or two seconds where the visuals/audio were not remixed.
Clearly,there's a need for change.
innovation on the Internetabuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown
In addition, this is what my words say and notice in the modern way of thinking as well as to create a fair updated system where media can be used with fairness at the individual level. It is the nature of certain industries and consumer goods existent presence that can only be relevant for so long. An example is, Uber created itself as an indirect competitor to the Taxi industry. Now there is no law that says there cannot be a competitor to the Taxi industry but in the country of France, it becomes apparent that Taxi drivers make their sole income of chauffeuring tourists and the local population. Another example is that cable TV is tactically trying to stay relevant as a business for there monthly services that can make them a relic in the sense that content will be more at the control of the consumer. This is the same case for Youtube users/viewers. It is unfair that big corporations can pin a strike on independent content creators since then we as consumer viewers won't be able to support them as a small business. Please stop the power that corporations think they have and let the individual have more power to their viewing pleasure.
Anyone should be able to express their own opinion without false claims of copyright, even having the proper sources. Its not fair if someone wants to make a video with no intentions of making money, then a corporation comes in anf belittles an independent studio and takes money for doing no work. Youtubers should be protected just as much as the corps. That watch over all of us. Money involved or not.
notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Just watch this video to understand everything https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
Dude, The DMCA are dicks. Why should they tell us what we can and can not say or what we want to show to the world. This is our freedom and its not up to them. Peace out
companies and people need to be held accountable to the validity and lack of specificity of their claims.
I mean it's to such a point of abuse that it's used to post ads
https://torrentfreak.com/spammers-flood-google-with-fake-takedown-notices-150919/
People's videos are being taken down just because the company being reviewed didn't like the video. This needs to stop.
There are so many innocent people who are trying to share memories, opinions, or make a living with YouTube. There needs to be work done to help the American public trust copyright offices.
There's also the fact that it operates on a system of "guilty until proven innocent", rather than the other way around. Instead of giving the accused party a chance to prove themselves innocent, the DMCA system instead allows the accuser to take down the video right away, thus penalizing the accused person regardless of whether or not they actually did something wrong.
While I personally have not been impacted by this massively flawed regulation, I've seen all too many people's lives seriously affected. Copyright law is vital, and there must be regulations in place. Those regulations, however, MUST be kept up to date.
DMCA take-downs are a huge threat to individual creators on the internet and freedom of speech as a whole. As the system currently stands, DMCA files are being used by companies to claim content that they don't even own! DMCA's are being used to inflict serious personal and financial harm to content creators, whether they use content from a piece of work or not. People just talking on camera about a given work (film, television show, music, etc.) with NO footage from said work are being TAKEN DOWN! DMCA's are being filled by third party companies to shield the bigger companies issuing the take downs and the claims are even being used as threats! Video creators are even being hit with claims long after their videos have been cleared and these claims have all led to lost revenue and lost content. The people who make these videos have the right to Fair Use, to use small portions of other works for commentary, satire and review. Freedom of speech by definition is the right to express any opinions without censorship or restraint, but the DMCA take-downs have done NOTHING BUT restrain and censor these content creators. Therefore DMCA take-downs need to be altered or removed from the system entirely in order for people to have the right to make content on their channels and express themselves!
The DMCA was originally created to protect content creators and their first amendment right to free speech. Today the DMCA has become a weapon against what it was made to protect, as it is used to attack content creators. Criticism, opinion, and completely legal means of entertainment is being taken down and restricted not only is this a violation of the DMCA itself but also of the first amendment. People everywhere are using this fossil of copyright protection as a weapon to attack anyone who criticizes their work or even just mentions their work. The truth is the DMCA is a thing of the past being used by companies refusing to let go of said past and let the future technologies prosper. This is a classic example of denying change and holding on to the customs of the past.
We need to fix the internet.
The saddest part about this is that the notice and takedown system isn't balanced in the slightest, the punishments are heavily against the people who use sites like Youtube, Facebook, etc. and posting creations (or even mentioning said creation) leaving creators and/or companies acting more as observers more than someone trying to get their creation back.
From my experience, not as a user, but as a bystander watching Youtube, I know that complete theft of someone else's work is wrong, not to mention illegal, but it seems that nowadays, the work in question can be either the minority of a video, or in some cases, examples of the work don't even have to be seen, just mentioned in order for a video to be taken down.
The worst part, in my opinion, is hearing how badly the creators/companies who take the videos down, are doing it mostly out of spite, and demand that they're in the right, even going so are as to, in Jim Sterling's case, who found one of Digital Homocide's games to be "a complete failure", be flat out insulted and mocked by Digital Homicide, who created a video, to which the sole reason was to harass Mr. Sterling, and claim him to be entirely unjustified in his reasoning, even though there are other videos doing the exact same thing, to the exact same work.
As a loyal bystander who watches Youtube, and as an observer to the cause, I would like there to be some change to the rules. While I personally believe we shouldn't get rid of it entirely, it should be truely balanced, and inflict some form of punishment to people/companies that Falsely claim/strike video (send claim/strikes against creators on works that Aren't protected under Fair Use). What that would be, i'll leave to the higher educated.
#WTFU
The big corporate industries are repeating the mistakes their adversaries made when they were first starting out. They are diminishing the ability of the small time independent producers such as myself because they're afraid of change. Instead of doing the smart thing and trying to partner-up with us and taking advantage of new technology, they are trying to destroy us because of their avarice and pride. It has me so afraid of uploading anything because so many people that have made the internet their lively hood have been taken down for uploading... well nothing that even belongs to those who claim copyright infringement. It is wrong, hypocritical and just down right CORRUPT and needs to stop. They seek to tear down the original "American Dream" which via the internet is shared all over the world, to make something for ourselves and horde it all for themselves. It's the rich minority versus the poor majority all over again. Even if Fair Use is not returned and properly enforced, the overthrowing of the minority is inevitable and it will be violent unless true equality can be restored to the internet.
Long story short this system may have worked in 1998 but I believe this system either needs updated for the Internet of 2016 or completely scrapped. It's a fails business now to just remove people's videos, tweets, ect... Unfairly.
MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS:
Take downs have been rampant and abused, There needs to be consequences for having false claims on peoples FAIR USE content.
Just TALKING about or REVIEWING a subject or film with out ANY COPY WRITED MATERIAL are getting taken down...... that is a gross negligence. These people's lively hoods and my own depend on our right to free speech and fair use. We need to protect the creator as WELL AS THE CREATOR............ just because you MADE something doesn't mean people can't review or satire it. BOTH creators deserve protection
CONTINUED
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works
The DMCA laws that are currently being abused right now to take down and harassing perfectly genuine and law abiding peoples content, To punish them for making something that took them time,Effort and a hell of a lot of creativity.
These Laws need to be re-evaluated.
I've been a user of the internet for so long i don't remember a time where there wasn't one to use. And it always seemed like a place for ideas to be exchanged freely, And without scruples. However over the last few years I've noticed a change in the way that the content on the internet is slowly being encroached upon and is now being systematically eliminated under the guise of "Protecting Copyrighted materials".
I understand that this is a slippery slope, With content being produced in the hundreds of thousands if not millions a day, Keeping track of this is a daunting task. So to "Protect Copyrighted materials" People have been having the freedoms of Fare Use, And Free Speech slowly taken away by taking down videos and making them incapable or unwilling to fight back.
To quote Benjamin Franklin and Captain America,
"Any society that will give up a little liberty for a little security, Will deserve neither and lose both."
And i truly believe this. I also understand that these laws were put in place in a time where the Internet wasn't what it is today. The Laws and freedoms of the average person on the Internet are being cut down, And the Laws that were once Protecting them, Have started attacking them.
so I think we should do something about this... don't you?
Though I believe it is important for artists and content producers to have protection, (as nothing is more aggravating than your content being stolen and claimed as someone else's or used without permission), oftentimes, fair use is ignored under current copyright procedure. The current law greatly inhibits free speech and entertainment, and I feel that it would be best for there to be more of a report-oriented system than an automated system.
Thank you
hello
I appreciate you are taking the time to read this, the reason i'm sending this is because of the "fair use" system problem on youtube, it unfortunately results very unfair to all the youtube users and It makes it easier for companies to steal from the users and put false copyright claims on videos that clearly doesn't infraction any copyright law.
please, i request you to fix this problem.
I thank you in advance
And since english is not my native language i apologize for any grammatical errors you may found in this e-mail.
Examples of the issues currently going on YouTube
Doug Walker's video on Fair Use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFA...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0W...
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (STILL going on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J0...
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ...
Team Four Star's issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkc...
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nU...
Chibi Reviews gets a DMCA for talking about snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWys...
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company - MMA company thinks it makes the law!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXo...
Mr Enter and the saga of DMCA after DMCA takedown on the SAME video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtw...
NFKRZ and how ransom is now on YouTube!
Any set of rules that can be abused to stifle critique and creativity are harmful. That is a simple fact. Without critique entertainment and culture can not improve. Parody and satire have also been a part of the American culture since before the dawn of the internet. A simple look at any political cartoon created since the birth of this nation will prove that point. Critique, parody, and satire are necessary for our culture to advance.
In addition to parody, satire, and critique being a necessity, they are also supposed to be legally protected. The concept of fair use is supposed to protect these necessities in the same manner that the freedom of the press protects them in written media. In fact, depending on one's interpretation of the term "press" they would also be protected on the internet under that constitutional right. So long as the original creator is given credit and the work is truly a satire/critique there is no legal basis for such content to be eliminated.
On a final note the ways that the DMCA has been implemented are a failure. A company should not be allowed to claim the entirety of the revenue from a piece of online content if their content does not comprise the entirety of it. Ten seconds of a song does not mean that a record label is the sole owner of a ten minute piece of content. And if they aren't claiming revenue that they aren't fully entitled to they are removing content without regards to fair use by use of a system that leaves the creator of said removed content with few, if any, possible ways to go about rebuking the claim. And to make matters worse, they can do it without having to prove that they were wronged in any way. This computer controlled system is a failure. It goes beyond protecting copyright holders and gives them the power to police the way people view and think about their content. It enables negative press to be silenced in order to benefit the copyright holder.
The system needs to be rewritten for the modern age. It needs to provide just as much protection for creators satire, parody, and critique as it does for copyright holders. And systems put in place to enforce this must also require both sides of a dispute to prove their case via a system that in exclusively under human oversight.
I don't think DMCA is fairly used. Lot's of companies use this but use it in a way that can destroy the livelyhood of many who make a living via youtube and the internet. It's used to stiffle free speach, DMCA takedowns are used to remove videos that don't have any copyrighted footage or audio. Companies and individuals use DMCA strikes as threats when a youtuber reviews a product and said review isn't positive.
DMCA needs to be reviewed and changed because it is being abused. Change this. Please.
So please, STOP DMCA TAKEDOWNS!
You must update the DMCA. It needs too be updated for what the internet is now. Not what it was then.
#WTFU
Stop these attacks!
I'm against bullies, especially bullies with the money and power to exert unfair control over everyone else, especially when they are exerting that control over something as innocuous as YouTube videos. As the service provider, YouTube is hurt more than helped by DMCA takedowns that alienate their audience and prescribers. Bad business model. Not to mention the undue corporate censorship. The only difference between a book review and a movie review, or anything that discusses popular culture, is the medium. Publishers can't take down quotes from GoodReads and DMCA abusers only weird the influence they have because of a loophole in the existing law. The fact that so many inconsequential videos, some with less than 5000 views even, with all the overzealous editing of a preteen's first production, have been targeted shows a disturbing lack of oversight and transparency that needs to be rectified for YouTube to continue being a constructive environment (concerning the videos, the comments section seceded to the bumfucks of reason long ago) where freedom of expression has the unchallenged right to be expressed. It's not a tall order.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
(youtubers have been loosing money because of this. their videos have been wrongly accused of copyright. let the viewers voices be heard. this is unfair. youtube is an independent site where artists can express them selves in their own way. i may be just typing blindly, but i don't care. this is the voice is viewers. this is what we're fighting for.)
The problem of fair use has restricted and struck fear in to the hearts of entertainers robbing them of there best work and the saddest part is that anyone can file a claim stop the abuse save entertainment
Also this doesn't just effect big youtubers this also effects anyone who uploads to ANY platform. For example The Fine Bros have taken down videos by YouTube channel with less than 100 subs and you know what? These channels didn't do anything wrong.
These companies need punishments for making false copyright claims. We need to stop this. This action should be punishable by law. This is how the current copyright infringement law has effected me and others.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
When two people talking in a car about a movie with no music or movie pictures can be flagged for copyright infringement and have their video taken down, you know your system may have a problem.
Everything done at the moment is put in place to stifle the creator and save the big corportations. In some cases yes, these laws are correct and people are using copyrighted material unfairly in a way that affects the artist or artists badly, but in the vast, vast majority, a big faceless corporation victimises someone innocent of any wrongdoing who's actions would not affect them in the slightest OR would give them free, positive Publicity. This is the case with Youtube's ongoing battle against Project Voicebend, a small group of talented individuals who pose no threat to Youtube OR Nickelodeon AND are abiding by existing rules put in place to protect the sort of content they and others like them want to share with the world. The whole system currently in place needs an overhaul, many creatives have been unfairly blocked or had videos removed with no real consideration even though they have done nothing wrong. I love Project Voicebend and believe that it should not be blocked and needlessly stifled by unfair practices that are not technically illegal but thrive more on stagnation and pre-emptive punishment rather than abiding by any real laws.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) needs some serious renovations. I have personally watched it become more of an abusive tool to silence critics of games and movies online than an actual law to protect copyright holders. TotalBiscuit, Jim Sterling, The Angry Movie Critic, are all content providers on Youtube that have strong followings and have earned financial support for their quality content online.
However, some companies believe it is their legal right to take down any negative videos covering their product, based on the fact that these reviews often contain in-game footage (or movie footage) of their product. This is simply abuse of obsolete copyright laws, as reviews and critique have always been covered under Fair Use. If these reviewers were uploading the entire game or movie, or even a majority of it, I could understand the concerns. However, snippets of the game or movie do not justify the entire video being taken down, or the lost income of these people who rely on views and advertising revenue to support themselves.
As it stands, there are two major changes I and many others would love to see happen:
1) More manual policing methods of videos - copyright does indeed need to be protected, but so do those people who review and critique content. The consumer has every right to be informed if a product is amazing, or fails to meet expectations. The people who inform the consumers should not have to worry about losing income, videos, or possibly even their entire channel over upsetting someone who made a product that wasn't praised, therefore decided to issue a takedown on the video. Instead of an automated system such as the one Youtube currently uses, we need an objective third-party or some method of manually determining these issues on a case-to-case basis.
2) Revamp the DMCA. As it stands, copyright owners are currently able to leverage this act to censor negative criticisms of their own products, and monetize other people's hard work just because it contains a little footage of their own work. The current DMCA has become a tool that allows copyright holders to take down videos with little to no reason, and has become more of an abusive act than a protective act.
I have seen people and companies file DMCA claims on videos they don't even own. I've seen specific people targeted and their livelihoods ruined even though their content is well within the confines of fair use. Individuals and companies have used this rule to censor criticism of their work. The internet has changed too much in the years since DMCA was put into place to be relying on this rule. It's time to change the law and allow for content creators to sleep soundly, knowing everything they have worked so hard for will not be gone in the morning.
There must be penalties for abuse of the DMCA takedowns, no more free rides for corporations and individual content creators who abuse the system for their benefit. We are allowing money to trump free speech. It must be stopped.
This is something that should be heard. Please listen
Hard working videos that i make gets blocked from 241 countries even if i use a song under fair use and gave credits , source and said that the songs are not mine and that i have no intentions of monetizing the video itself or leeching the company/artist that i used his/her songs in the first place.
The internet is the largest growing platform for entertainment, media, and the common person. Content Creators on the internet that have studied and followed fair use, have been penalized for nothing. Meanwhile, content creators that do not follow fair use are getting pat on the back for breaking the law. Fair use was put in to help content creators on the internet and other forms of media, instead fair use is being ignored. Content that is lawbreaking is not getting taken off the internet. follow it the most. To close this comment, the DMCA needs to be updated to help the content creators that deserve and need it most.
I'd like to voice my concern at how the notice and takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Unfortunately, while the DMCA has been created with noble and good intentions in mind, the act, which is from 1998, addresses an internet of the past, and not the internet that is rapidly evolving and changing as technology advances every year.
YouTubers, such as Doug Walker, "RubberRoss" of GameGrumps, Markiplier, and numerous others have either made comments or even entire videos on how Fair Use under the DMCA was used against them and had their videos "striked" or removed. The hashtag #WTFU (Where's the Fair Use) features people sharing their accounts of how their videos were unjustly taken down even though their use of fair use was in the legal limits and not outright pirating copyrighted works.
Good reform is needed for a modern internet, one that does not tip the scale towards big companies or people that will intentionally misuse fair use to suppress any criticism or free speech. People make their income through videos, and legal fair use, I believe it is time that reform should be made so that internet works for every single individual, we need fair use that will not be abused against other content creators for personal or financial gain.
Thank you for taking your time to read this.
Where's the fair use?
I am hoping to be a future content creator, but with how the DMCA is handled at the moment I am worried to attempt even trying to start creating. My content would be fully original, yet with how the laws are set up I am worried there would be such robots that would decide my content is in their violation and try to take away something I have been working so hard for. It is very discouraging to new content creators, myself included, to feel like the current DMCA laws are working against us rather than for us. It truly is scary to want to share something with the world, but feel like it can be taken away from you because someone else claims copyrights on it.
The notice-and takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Okay, this DMCA abuse has gone on LONG enough if you ask me. People on Youtube have suffered for years now are their creations are attacked by false copyright claims!
Sometimes they can claim videos and provide no real reason for it. Seen here is a man who managed to catch one of these acts red-handed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4iITttE_GU
The video had no audio whatsoever, yet it was claimed for its audio according to the claimant, one [Merlin] CDLTD.
If you want more information on our struggle (And don't discredit it just because it's a meme research website, it DOES do the research and allows for many videos on the issue to be posted), check this page thoroughly.
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/wtfu-where-s-the-fair-use
I hope you understand that the DMCA is outdated, and hasn't been updated at all. It follows the same guidelines it did back in 1998, when Youtube didn't even exist!
Thank you for your time... DMCA needs to be reconfigured for the modern internet era.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is being abused by companies issuing false claims on various media that are protected under fair use, be it for reviews or parody. I've seen videos struck for 'copyright infringement' that were giving positive reviews for the movie they showed short clips of. I've heard of claims being issued even when no clips of the movie were used at all. And the reason these companies are doing such things? Because at worse nothing happens to them, at best they steal revenue from the content creator's fair use. And the people who made the movie review or created a parody lose money, time and resources with every single claim even when they are proven to be in the right repeatedly, sometimes for the very same content.
While copyrights certainly do need to be protected, their needs to be a balance against those who abuse the DMCA to censor, harass and profit off the legal and fair use of content creators. Just because the reviewer is on Youtube does not make them less a potential source of information than a newspaper, and a parody video made by friends in their own home should have the same protection as a comic book publisher mocking a product they do not own. And yet, as it stands right now, certain media companies are making it hard for individuals and small companies to get a legal start.
Laws are meant to protect all people and businesses, not just the rich. And this needs to be fixed. Fraudulent claims of copyright need to be punished. We can not continue to allow corporations to hurt people without penalty.
The DMCA system is outdated and affects thousands, if not millions, every year. People abuse this system and feel as if they themselves can create the law and target many innocent people with false claims. It is a system that needs to be updated so that those that are unjustly affected by it are not destroyed by those unjust false claims.
I think we need to be given more freedom, because this at times is abused and ridiculous.
Too many people who make an honest work reviewing or satirizing content, which can drive interest into the source material and also assist citizens in making wise decisions on purchasing goods and valuables, are under threat of having their careers undone by people who abuse the system for their own gain.
This would be like if The Daily Show was taken down by Fox News for copyright infringement for using clips of their segments to mock the current political climate. Or if Siskel and Egbert were taken down by Universal for using Jurassic Park footage in their review of the movie. If it's fair use on television, it's fair use on the internet.
Watching content creators on YouTube get hit after hit with false claims shows us as viewers that we can't create our own content in the future, because you're literally doing nothing to change it. So please, fix it.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holiders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
This is terrible and violates basic rights of every YouTuber. I'm in.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
People abuse this law as a legal way to basically steal money.
Short and sweet, the DMCA is an extremely flawed system that has affected many content creators well within their right of fair use. Along with everyone else who comments here & millions of others who's voices may not be heard, we want you to take another look at your system so that we will not have to be punished for expressing our love for the things we pay tribute to.
Film and tv series analysis is one of the most important and underappreciated content on the internet. It can teach a lot of the basics of filmmaking in a relatively short amount of time and it makes studying filmmaking a lot easier and interesting. And reviews are important as well because it helps the audience decide better on what films and tv series to spend time and money on. Sadly this form of content is under constant abuse and its addressed way too slow. This needs to change.
It isn't right. Content creators shouldn't have to deal with a system designed to protect them turning against themselves.
#WTFU
Hey, Washington!
The DMCA is super broken.
Lots of people right now are telling you that the Notice-and-Takedown procedure is broken, and that's true. It's so true. But I also want to remind you that the DMCA is also used to shield companies that do terrible things involving encryption. Specifically, the laws concerning DRM are horrifically out of date and draconian when it comes to penalties and fines.
For example: Right now I am breaking the law. Right this very second. How? By watching A DVD of Iron Man that I have legally paid for at Wal-Mart, on a computer I legally paid for at Best Buy, with a DVD player I legally paid for from Amazon.com. I own the DVD, I own the computer, and I own the DVD player. Why is this illegal? Because I'm using the program VLC Media Player, which sits in a legal gray area when it comes to playing back DVDs. Specifically, it has to bypass the Digital Rights Management encryption on the DVD in order to play the DVD on my computer. Nothing about my actual DVD, my actual computer, nor my actual DVD player is illegal. The software being used to watch it is illegal. Why is that? Because of the DMCA. I hardly think that when the DMCA was written, it was meant to make it so I could only use my DVD with one kind of DVD player, and yet that's the reality we have created. I like VLC player; it's innovative, has good support for subtitles, allows me to turn the volume up farther than most other video players. It works better, faster, and supports many more formats than other players. VLC Player is a true innovation in the space of playing DVDs, and yet to get it to work, you have to break the law. Even if I own the DVD. Even if it's my computer, and my DVD player.
~~~~
Just a few months ago, I remember reading a story on the internet about how U.S. automakers were considering including DRM in car batteries. What does that mean? It means that automakers could have put a little computer chip in your car battery, and suddenly your car would only work if you had a battery that was manufactured by, say, Ford. Because of the draconian way that the DMCA is written, it could be illegal for your home mechanic to **change your car battery**. And all of that is of course perfectly legal! Of course, that scenario ended up being completely hypothetical, but imagine the possibilities.
How about the possibility a coffee maker that won't pour you any coffee unless you buy a special coffee brand? Oh wait, that actually happened! That's a real thing that you can read about that happened. Keurig added DRM into their coffee makers, making it so that you had to buy a K-cup (the special, overpriced, Keurig brand coffees), otherwise the coffee maker wouldn't make coffee. It'd just sit there and refuse to make hot water. Therefore, the DMCA enabled a company to -- completely legally, mind you! -- force me to use their brand of coffee in my coffee maker. If I tried to use any other kind of coffee -- say, a competing brand, or use some kind of "workaround" in order to use my own coffee beans -- that would be literally illegal. I would have committed a crime in order to brew coffee. Under the DMCA as written, circumventing the digital restrictions inside my coffeemaker so that it would brew my favorite cup of coffee is punishable with heavy fines, and there's nothing I can do about it. There is no way -- no way! -- that the authors of the DMCA meant to make my morning coffee illegal.
~~~~
Please, please, I implore you to take what you hear from your friends, family, and especially industry lobbyists about this issue with a grain of salt. We're not talking about hypotheticals. (Well, OK, the car batteries thing was hypothetical, but that's not the point). These are real things that affect the real public. Things that affect our local economy. And despite what you might hear, the Internet is not exclusively full of hoodlums intent on pirating the next episode of Game of Thrones.
Yes, you need to protect copyright. Large corporations need to be able to have the legal tools to defend their works and to seek fair monetary compensation for what they create. But it needs to be a fair and balanced system that takes into account the modern reality of computers. Back when the DMCA was written, computers were so expensive that you wouldn't imagine throwing one inside a car battery, or a coffee maker. And yet now technology is so cheap and so pervasive that you could put a computer inside of every single box of cereal ever sold at Wal-Mart and nobody would bat an eye. Computers are inexpensive, and everywhere. Back then, it made sense to make the law as strict as possible, so that companies could protect their investments where it was sensible to do so. Not only that, but it would have been very, incredibly difficult for a company to act in bad faith by wielding only the DMCA. It would have simply been too expensive to do.
These days, the DMCA touches everything everyone does. Computers are everywhere, and so is DRM. I can only use my cell phone with one carrier, and that's legal, because of DRM combined with the DMCA. I can only use my smartphone with one kind of software on it, and that's also legal, thanks to the DMCA. And before you think, "Well, why would you ever want to install different software on your smartphone?" please first ask "Why *wouldn't* you want to install different software? Is there some sort of reason that it should be illegal?" Because it is currently illegal, and carries rather harsh penalties if anyone breaks that law. Why? Surely, if I own my smartphone, I can do whatever I want with it. And I may want to leave the software that's already on it alone. That's okay. But I might want to get it to do something else. And that should be okay too. After all, I own the device, don't I? Not according to the DMCA.
One last thing before I go: We already have a case study for some of these things. It's not like the apocalypse will suddenly rain down if these restrictions are removed, and we can prove it with things that have already happened. Yes, movie piracy is a problem, but it's always been a problem, and will probably always continue to be a problem until the end of time. But despite the movie industry demanding harsher and stricter controls built into the DMCA, movie sales are still doing okay. DVDs get bought. Movies get watched. And legally, too.
Keurig eventually went back on their coffee-cup-DRM, and their roof didn't fall in. They didn't go bankrupt. Everything worked out just fine, and now I can safely use my coffee maker with a K-cup, or with the bag of coffee beans I got from the nice old lady who has a coffee shop in my town.
As for smartphones, phone carriers will try and tell you that a smartphone is different than a computer. It certainly looks very different from a computer, but I assure you it is not. It has exactly the same guts inside of it as the PC on your desk, and you can even get regular old PC programs to run on it. (As long as you try really, really hard. CodeWeavers is a company working on this technology right now.) And yet wireless carriers will demand that the DMCA should cover cell phones because allowing users to install whatever software they wanted on their cell phone will lead to the complete and total end of the world. Or something. But PCs have been open for decades. If I buy a PC from the store, it usually comes with Microsoft Windows. And yet I can install Linux on it, if I really wanted to. Or I could install FreeBSD. Or I could even install a version of Android for PC. Or anything else. I can do that, and I'm fine. And the world has not ended. And the Internet has not exploded because I can do that. In fact, many companies rely incredibly heavily on Linux to do their work. Linux is a good operating system, which has grown to be quite useful, but only because it's not illegal to use it. And the entire technology industry was quite grateful for the advancements. Android is based on Linux. Without Linux, there would be no Android, and Android is the most prevalent smartphone OS in the world right now. (Yes, there are more Android phones than iPhones, it must be hard to believe.) Installing something different on my phone just to try it out will NOT, I repeat, will NOT, instantly cause death, destruction, catastrophe, free-wheeling stock prices, and rampant software viruses to be transmitted all across Verizon's network. It just won't. In fact, people still do it all the time, even now when it's still illegal, and Verizon hasn't had any problems with that. And the DMCA is the major reason this is illegal.
Dear lawmakers of the world, the DMCA is broken.
We can do better.
We can do much better.
And we owe it to ourselves to fix the problem.
Thank you for reading.
Matthew Clive
Before the official message that is made to follow, I am here to tell you that this is a ridiculous plight put on the people of the internet. These are no longer just websites, these are industries that people make their living under and I demand that we treat it with the respect it deserves. I am not ASKING for you to fix this mess, I am telling you right now that people are being ABUSED by big corporations. Sometimes, this abuse isn't even about money, sometimes it is simply because they feel like bullying people. We, youtubers, will not stand for this any longer, and we demand that you step in and stop these big companies from abusing the system and the people in the system.
I run a movie review web series called Film Illiterates which reviews and educates people on classic films, B-movie, and showcases and promotes discussion on movies that otherwise would go unnoticed. I have gained multiple take down notices in the past for these educational video reviews.
The current state of the DMCA has long passed. Over the internet's course of relevancy, it has done nothing but continuously evolve human interaction, and what the world has to offer. If we cannot refer to our inspirations as free promotion, education, or any capacity of fairly sourcing their content, this ever growing medium known as the Internet may be struck down.
Smaller content creators are suffering big time from the endless feuds of corporations and content creators of all kinds simply needs to end. These profitable businesses are not taking any Fair Use into consideration; an aspect established by the original DMCA law back in 1998. Fair Use is a concept corporations are disregarding as an upper hand for their own profit or in fear.
Individuals are being targeted as threats by businesses no matter what cause they must preach. The people have the right to free speech all across America and American Media. Freedom of speech is on of the set in stone original ideologies of what made the United States where it is today, and it's just being thrown away like it's nothing?! The individual is what makes the corporation successful. A way for business to thrive is direct interaction to the targeted audience. There's no reason a person of any kind must be terminated for their own rightful thoughts.
Many believe in right and wrong in the society we live in. Creators across the country are sharing a similar goal, which is to make a living by what they love. Everyday, many start this life long dream. Very few succeed due to the unconstitutional practices of, "copyright claims", while many are shot down and spat at. If a human feels attacked, that is not right to them. It is not right for the individual to be attacked by sets of nameless shady companies bought out by larger ones to abuse the user of earning them a profit or to stay silent for what they believe is their own benefit. Disagreement of their work is not an option to them, and proceed to take down any negative words against them. Criticism is also how businesses and people improve. Creating more desirable and valued content requires the creator to undertake the serious constructive criticism, and produce something bigger and better without committing the same mistakes. If no one is able to step up and improve upon mistakes, then what's the point of evolving further with worsening actions?
Where's the Fair Use? Give the people the right of free speech!
DMCA's are too easily abused. False DMCA's can be claimed on videos that contain no actual copyrighted content and are often claimed on negative reviews purposely, whether or not copyrighted material is shown in the video.
I began to write that "some" of my favorite Youtubers were being negatively affected while well within fair use, but halfway through the statement I realized that wasn't true. ALL of my favorite Youtubers have been affected. Companies have claimed DMCA's on videos, enabled monetization on non monetized videos and kept the money even after the false claim is lifted. Reviewers have been censored of their negative review or reviews wherein all of the visual content is a recording of the reviewer as they talk.
It is entirely too easy for companies to claim videos that they have no real claim to, and the system is currently stacked in their favor because they face no risk. A Youtuber can easily lose their entire livelihood over companies' claims, and yet a company doesn't face a loss for false claims. This is unacceptable and needs to stop.
Please, fix this, companies are ruining entertainment, I want to make content, but this makes me afraid, please move to the future.
I am tired of people who are trolls and people in companies that think they can be jackasses and take down posts on Facebook, tweets and videos in YouTube that are directing problems that are truthful and real and meaning no harm oncesoever to nobody but decide to take it down cause one-points out bigotry, abuse, misogyny and ect. And two -videos that are posted that have amazing creativity but so happen to have music from an artist. Now youtubers constantly credit artist in their videos but companies who are greedy take down videos that are awesome just because they are not making money from that video or that piece of music. I'm tired of the trolls abusing posted tweets and post from Facebook because they are called out or truth is told so it's taken out because it doesn't favor them. I know this is in fact a double edged sword cause this can effect trolls as well, if they post something on fb, Twitter, or make a vid and they can be spammed for hate speech and such but protected just like us. But again, this has to stop. It's unfair and cruel.
People aren't able to safely express their opinion because of this dated DMCA act. It needs to be revised in order to guarantee a free internet.
There have been multiple incidents with companies not looking the Fair Use rules before taking down videos on YouTube. On Feb 25th (NZST) the YouTube channel I Hate Everything had a video called "I HATE DAMN DANIEL" that was hit by two copyright claims from Merlin CDLTD who claim to be representing Dylan Duzat. This is proven to be untrue and it is revealed that Merlin CDLTD issue false copyright claims on videos related to this meme as a way to rob creators of their money. Nothing has been done about these robberies. Fair Use also protects criticism, yet Channel Awesome has been struck by take down notices for reviews of movies that fall within Fair Use. Please fix your rules for the sake of the internet.
Many people have had their entire videos taken down out of spite and revenge. It needs to stop.
I'm not against a law like the DMCA, but it needs some revamping or something, because all that's happening is people are getting harassed for making silly parodies, for making legitimate criticisms and reviews. And have we actually seen any reduction in pirating and the like? Just people, usually fans of the very media that persecutes them, getting abused by a system that holds power over them. I wish content creators had a better way to argue their own cases.
I myself have been a victim of false claims, and I have seen many more content creators fall victim to it as well.
I have seen too many content creators bullied by major corporations when they were perfectly within their right to use copyrighted materials to make new works. Way too many have been unfairly punished and have even last would have been ad revenue for them from I Hate Everything, Your Movie Sucks, The Mysterious Mr. Enter, even Channel Awesome (the Nostalgia Critic for goodness' sake!). They were all using copyrighted materials to make reviews which are clearly protected as Fair Use, but big companies get to bully them out of their money and get away with it because there's nothing stopping them. This needs to stop now, and it's ridiculous that ever started to begin with.
As a viewer of tons of internet content I stand with those that have been abused by the unfair use of the DMCA. It is my understanding that many content creators are being not only abused by companies that own content under false claims of their property being used outside of Fair Use, people are also being attacked from third-party companies and Individuals that do not own content. These actions are unfair and with the way that the internet is being used there needs to more protections for content creators using other intellectual properties or those that get claimed when not, and not only those that can make the claims. The internet is ever changing and the laws that concern it need to change along side to reflect the differences between decades. Bellow is a prewritten letter that explains things better than I can. I hope that as a viewer my opinion on what is going on is still taken seriously. Thank you for your time.
please stop this abuse on youtubers please
Seriously, technology and its standards keep changing, the laws and its guidelines need to change too. Its been abused far too much, where even various groups claim in the name of corporations as a scandal for their own gains.
This is not a one-sided debate. It is not asked to companies and artists to simply stop defending their creations, as youtube content creators are in the same perpective. It is just asked a viable solution that satisfy both parties, which requires to respect the Fair Use.
Might this be a warning to all, this is not going to stop until the situation is fixed.
It is very important to me that our rights as citizens are protected. We should be able to create content without fear. The age of censorship and abuse must end.
There has been a problem for youtubers for a very long time, most video have been attack for no reason, excluding me, I have a copyright strike for a stupid reason, saying that I've been using someone's content in my video, but I made a video of a Rythem game where they use music in their game. I had no intention of claiming some else's stuff, and getting in trouble for something, that I never claimed as my own is a very big problem
Seriously, guys. Fix this already.
I'm afraid. For a young girl to be afraid of the internet, afraid of getting sued for saying her opinion, afraid to be shushed where she was promised to be heard, that is something that I will not stand for. There are people, smart people, brave people who follow the rules and use clips under fair use in order to prove a point or to entertain. They acknowledge the footage is not their own and it is more often than not heavily edited and talked over. Why is that not fair use? Why is it they have to deal with their critiques being taken down for five seconds of one clip? That is not fair use. That is abuse. That is people who want to get ad revenue from hard-working, smart individuals. This isn't fair. This violates one's freedom of speech. Hear us out. Protect us. Protect the ones who want to say something, either because we admire the clips or pictures we are showing, or because we want to entertain, or make a commentary. Is that bad? Is it immoral? Should it be deemed illegal? I don't think so. Protect us. Stop DMCA takedown.
https://youtu.be/zVqFAMOtwaI
I refer you to doug walker's quick summary of what's wrong with companies.
If companies can take down fair use videos by hiring other shell companies without consequence, something is very wrong.
Large corporations are abusing the rules of the DMCA in a way that is harming independent creators. I say this both as a consumer and as someone whose job used to be managing incoming DMCA claims. Too often they are processed sloppily by third party companies with zero quality control and zero accountability. They have too much power and they are never, ever, EVER held accountable for the harm they cause. This must change!
The DMCA is guilty of enforcing countless disproportionate retributions against those who haven't even committed the crimes they are being punished for. With this new millennium we have entered, a new form of making money has risen -- that is, the online blogging/critiquing scene. These formats typically take into account shows or films and deconstruct them or simply use them for satire. Satire alone should be free of ridicule from a company to the point of taking an object down. Furthermore, even positive reviews have resulted in videos being unjustly taken down or even whole channels. Peoples' livelihoods rely on these channels; it's how they make their money. How is an online critic's word any less reputable than a real life critic's?
Companies are even making claims that don't exist, such as reporting a video without having watched it or the content isn't even theirs to begin with! And if a person who has been told of their "crime" even tries to follow through with the guidelines given, they still are given no room to work with. The DMCA is horrifically flawed and needs to be fixed as soon as possible.
Also, some music companies like Sony, have taken down some parodies off of YouTube and claimed the it was "their" song. For example, a parody actress and singer Nowacking, made a song called "All About that Bass Cannon". It was a parody to " All About that Bass". The parody had different lyrics than original song and a better message. For some reason, Sony thought, it was " thier song" and took it off. They broke the Fair Use. We need parodies and many videos back on YouTube. I hope the government listens to this and do something about it.
The DMCA was built for an older internet. The internet is surpassing television in popularity for video content, and claimants are using the DMCA to stifle this. It's being used to harass and destroy content creators. False claims need to be punished.
The DMCA fails to account for the internet of today.
The DMCA System needs to be revised to protect content creators. DMCA was created before a greater understanding of how social interaction works on the Internet, now it's an out dated and frankly harmful system that works against free speech and fair use.
See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
DMCAs do not take into account our first amendment rights to fair use!
DMCA's are being used to inflict harm on individual creators and they are being used to stifle free speech
They've been used for people just talking on camera with no copyright footage or music and those videos are being taken down
DMCA they're being sent by shell companies to shield the companies sending the takedowns
people use them as threats
videos are getting hit multiple times even after they're cleared
DMCA takedowns have resulted in loss revenue and harassment for content creators
The DMCA is incredibly easy to abuse, and results in takedowns from DMCA filings that aren't even by the copyright owners; most DMCA takedowns are on content that, if the case went to court, would be deemed fair use; and furthermore, has been used to take down videos with no copyrightable content at all. It's built for the internet 20 years ago, and must be updated for the modern age and modern content creators.
Please protect our private rights to have Fair Use and create new content. Even videos that have been cleared by the DMCA as fair use are still being hit by people who don't understand what Fair Use is all about. Please protect content creators who review toys/t.v. shows/movies. etc, react, create new art or recreate old art in different styles, and other different things.
I myself am not a internet content creator, but I view many of them. And recently I've been made aware of how much the DMCA is abused to harm creators who use fair use correctly. These people use it as threats and to attack innocent people just trying to make a decent living and bring joy to other people. It's extremely unfair and needs to be stopped. So please, please reformat the DMCA so this happens, if not never, less.
All around the world, youtube viewers suffer from unjust laws that do not even come from their country, and stop citizens from enjoying watching other people talk about something. These laws make no more sense than restricting two friends talking about a movie in public after going to the theater! Please take action to make the internet a better place and restore a good image of the US government on the web.
The current DMCA system is currently broken in the realm of the Internet. It's being used unfairly by various companies/people to outright take down and censor videos that people have made about their work (which all falls under fair use). These includes the likes of Derek Savage who took down a video of and harassed the content creator of I Hate Everything (Alex) and his review of Savage's movie "Cool Cat saves the Kids" and through a series of emails has refused to put the video back up (which again, falls under fair use) unless Alex created a public apology. Savage even went as far to impersonate a law firm. This was all possible due to abusing the DMCA act. Jim Sterling also had similar troubles as he had the DMCA act used against him by the game publishers "Digital Homicide" when he covered their game, "The Slaughter Grounds". What makes this worse that it effects their revenue they get from their videos which is very damaging as that is in fact their job.
The DMCA act needs to change to adapt to the modern day Internet, to not be used unfairly against content creators and to also work better with fair use. It needs to change so it can be no longer be abused to damage content creators and threaten their livelihood.
Canned message just below, but personalized messaged at the bottom.
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Above is the canned message of the site I am using to ensure you see this message. However, I am a disabled vet of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and I am sick of large corporations using an outdated law to take down legitimate (fair use and non-copyrighted material) thus stifling the most important freedom guaranteed to us by the constitution that I swore an oath to.
The law MUST be updated to reflect the current status of the internet and should be re-evaluated every 5 years to reflect the current atmosphere. There MUST be VERY LARGE (preferably scaling to the profit of the accusing company/individual) that is both paid to the victim and to the government. This would promote free speech and help the economy as a whole (by preventing large entities from holding funds for prolonged periods of time).
Up-date this outdated act. It is causing more harm than good, and is being abused.
Thank you.
-Bryan Parrish, SSgt, USAF (retired)
Personally, I've had a YouTube video taken via DMCA for an audio clip in a game that came out four years BEFORE the song the record label claimed was present. (In fact, the song used audio sampled from the game, not the other way around.)
Under DMCA, the record label was able to take down the video for material they didn't even hold the copyright on. Even worse, when I appealed the takedown notice, they simply denied it.
DMCA allows a company to steal material - or revenue - from content creators, legally, even when the creator did not use any material from that company. Even if the content creator would ultimately win any resulting court case, the vast majority of us are unable to afford the legal fees necessary to bring the case. Nor is it financially worthwhile to do so.
Because of this, companies can (intentionally or otherwise) target large numbers of content creators that, individually, are unable to defend themselves.
The current DCMA system is incredibly broken. This issue needs to be addressed and dealt with as soon as possible. This is costing honest, hardworking people their rightfully earned income. This would not be allowed to stand in any other entertainment industry.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act no longer serves the function for which it was intended. The steady progression of technology, and companies' adaptations around abusing its provisions - such as the ability to issue takedown notices for content they do not even own, or that is protected by Fair Use doctrine - have evolved, while the law has not. Cases are rampant in which companies have used erroneous, but untouchable, DMCA claims to bully and coerce web hosts to remove content, or even to forcibly monetize content - regardless of the validity of the claim, the transparency of the plaintiff, or even the actual ownership of the disputed material.
As comic author Zach Wienersmith facetiously but insightfully wrote in his daily comic "Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal": "Sorry, I own the phrase 'IP law is no longer serving its intended purpose.' You owe me $10,000."
I would like to say that I do NOT like the unfair DMCA takedowns that have been going on over the years. I have seen YouTubers who make reviews over games, movies and so on. They stay strictly on the criteria of Fair Use yet get taken down regardless either for biased opinions or hate in general towards the content creators. Please, this is completely unfair and is ABUSE to DMCA. Please fix this.
All my favorite channels are suffering from this, and they can't produce all the quality content that I know they're capable of.
I'm not even an American citizen yet I'm affected by the unfair copyright laws put in place by the DMCA. I use the internet to gain access to the news and try to keep myself informed on a range of topics, with a particular interest in films and TV. There are so many content creators that are able to give intelligent and well-informed opinions about different forms of media, and they manage to do it in entertaining and inventive ways.
When content creators are restricted in their freedom of speech it means that people who take interest in pop culture can only gain access to a limited number of opinions. People need a range of opinions to help them gather information and make up their own mind. This need for discussion and balance is particularly prevalent in the world of art. Western culture has increasingly become centred around American culture, so the updating of this bill will have a meaningful affect on the whole world.
Whenever a new piece of technology has been released by Apple or Google, it's naturally assumed that the equipment would have the latest software to go along with it. As software and hardware evolves, bugs and past problems are reduced significantly and give the user more freedom. So doesn't it make sense that as technology as a whole begins to evolve the laws surrounding content should change with it?
The laws should be able to protect all parties until a decision is made and not to punish before making having a legal dispute to resolve the problem to be able to protect the people who are accused of stealing copyrighted content in case if the accused are under the fair use. This will resolve the problem of people stealing money from others by making false copyright claims.
Especially when the companies make false claims and there are no repercussions against them and the content creator for lack of a better word is screwed out of their revenue.
I have seen many content creators who review media for a living get their videos taken down despite review falling under fair use. Sometimes it's not even the company who owns the content taking it down. Examples include IHateEverything, Dr.Wolf, Channel Awesome, and TheMysteriousMrEnter. Meanwhile, people upload entire episodes of shows on YouTube and don't get punished. There needs to be punishments for companies who abuse the system to take down unfavorable reviews of their content. It's not just an issue of taking a while for the video to come back up. While a copyright claim is being disputed, the company accusing the creator gets the ad revenue for the video until the dispute ends. Even if the company is proven to be wrong, they still keep the ad revenue. This needs to stop. Either have no one get the revenue, or have the revenue held from both parties until a resolution is reached and have it given to the one that wins the dispute. If there is no reform, fair use will be crushed.
Please do the right thing. I've had so much money stolen from me, and I know lots of content creators who have had far more stolen from them.
You already know what's happening. You don't need me to explain it. Please just do the right thing. Corruption is wrong, and it always ends badly for everyone.
Thank you.
The DMCA needs to be updated. So many of my favorite video creators have false copyright claims simply because companies know they can and there will be no repercussions. I'm a new youtube creator myself and I just show my face and talk about wrestling events. I'm worried wrestling promotions will file false copyright claims on my channel simply because I may express a negative opinion about their product (something as an American I have the right to do) A company can and will do this because nothing bad will happen to them if they are wrong. All the problems fall on me and that is wrong and a blatant case of injustice
What I deeply respect about the United States is that people in US have such strong faith for freedom. I think you know what is right and what is clearly wrong here. Please protect free speech and fair use.
DMCA is stifling my free speech. Fix that immediately or im defecting to China. They have pork buns.
Personally, I have seen several accounts of youtube content creators, particularly Jim Sterling, Nick Nocturne, and Doug Walker. I have seen copywrite owners file false charges against youtube users in order to intimidate, threaten, or otherwise shut down criticism. I have seen people use the DMCA in order to create red tape, remove a content creator's source of revenue, and even attempt to claim revenue off of videos where they themselves do not hold any copyrights. The system as it stand today is clearly broken, and must be amended to give broad, over-reaching protection of fair use, and hold those who file fraudulent DMCA violations accountable in a court of law.
hello im Noah Henry im an up and coming artist
i love to draw, paint, sculpt, Photoshop and animate i also have a small business that i would like to start up you can see more at my website http://nmh1997.wix.com/awsm
you probably already know about #wtfu as you could imagine im completely behind it
i want to have freedom to create any piece of art without some corporate stickler breathing down my neck about how im using "copyrighted" images
im using images that i found and creating something completely new out of it and id hate it if any of my work was taken down because of a false claim
this is for the future of me, my company and any other inspiring artist
i ask
wheres the fair use?
I have seen widespread abuse of the DMCA copyright. Examples for reference are all over youtube.
This law from 1998 needs to be updated to help protect everyone.
Regards
Thomas
The term "Fair Use" comes up a lot in videos recently. Most, if not all, of them are in retaliation to the unjust copyright system abuse. There are countless victims of copyright owners who either don't understand what fair use is, or choose to ignore it. This must stop.
Quite frankly, the DMCA is a good goal with unintended results that could be considered hilarious if they were not actually true. The laws in place need to be adapted in order to accommodate the new creators who use the internet for their career, and as someone who uses the Internet for the entirety of my entertainment, this is important. Yes, patent holders have a right to their material, but not at the expense of the rights and livelihoods of others. Please fix the situation. Thank you.
The DMCA is outdated. We need to bring it into the 21st century! I'd like to thank the Nostalgia Critic for bringing this to my attention.
I have seen far too many YouTube videos be taken down despite falling under fair use. Something needs to be done to protect content creators from false claims against videos that are doing nothing wrong.
And, on a personal note, the unlawful use of a law that YOU made seems a little silly when taken from a larger perspective.
This entire copyright thing is bull crap, and you know it. People making an honest video to make an honest living, are being punished for some reasons that are unfair. There right to express their opinion and our own, is well our right! And you can't do a damn thing about it. I mean there are some videos with one or more people talking about something and there videos get removed, that is such bullshit it hurts. Quit this stupid shit, and give us our free use back. #WTFU!
Everyday small youtubers that are weak and cannot protect themselves from these strikes are taken down, While big ones are striked too, But they quickly take it down with the help of their fans, But because the small ones are not recognized, Their strikes are left there
I've seen many creators be abused because companies claim videos that are 100% fair use. If you want a good example look up IHE vs. Derek savage. We need to make it so companies can't just claim anything they want!
This is legal jabber and such agaisnt the DMCA.
Heres some words from a normal person.
ITS. FUCKING. BULLSHIT. I've seen many a video that falls under Fair Use get a copyright claim. Parodies, Reviews, Covers (that usually link to the actual album so they can be supported), you name it, its been wrongfully claimed. Now, I'm not saying every claim ever done is a wrongful Claim, but a mojority of the ones I've seen are. Hell, if anything, they're getting free advertising from these videos, why get upset? So i ask, please, Update the DMCA for today's standards.
I've been using the internet for about six years now, and within those six years, I've noticed a lot of malicious copyright strikes towards videos that are totally under fair use of copyrighted materials. There is a definite shadow for video creators when making new content, for there is a surreal fear for being struck down by companies that apparently run the internet and can do whatever they want. If the system got revamped, it would relieve so many content creators from the blatantly random copyright strikes that are all over the internet. Please, fix this.
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I've have been seeing the abuse of this system on Youtube all the time. It's not fair. One example is one channel called Anime America does reviews and countdowns on anime stuff. They have always done their best to follow the DMCA rules but a 3rd party is almost always filling claims on their channel and they don't even own the original material! This system is ruining our freedom of speech. There was even a strike against a person on Channel Awesome who did a video blog and it was just him record with no pictures or visual references. I am even scared to put my own stuff on youtube now in fear of getting a strike. Please change this.
We all know its a low blow,come on, give those youtubers a chance.
The notice-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
One of the most atrocious acts of wrongful copy right strikes is the YouTube channel I Hate Everything and Derek Savage. Mr. Savage file against I Hate Everything's video criticizing one of his movies. Because Derek Savage felt insulted by the review, he felt the urge to take down the video even though the video follows the copy right rules on YouTube. Not only did Derek Savage harass I Hate Everything by making lies about him being a delinquent, he may have also falsified an email that was a supposed threat to his channel. Now that the strike has been lifted the strike has been lifted, the video can be enjoyed by the public, but Savage still made all the interest money from the ad revenue of the video. Savage suffered no repercussions for a false claim and could file another strike against the video. He is able to abuse the system to make more money from his work and this prohibits channels and content creators from making videos without fear of a copyright strike. There are also cases of videos receiving strikes from corporations even though they're is no use of the supposed material. Please fix this problem so content creators can bring the world entertainment without having to worry about losing their hard earned money because of a exploitable system. Thank you.
The DMCA takedowns has always been somewhat annoying for the typical goer of media on the internet, like myself, but it has always seemed rational, as it helps protect the companies that hold their copyrighted material.
However, sadly, this has come at the cost of fair use, the most popular way for people to voice their opinions and critiques on the internet. It stands that companies and individuals should be able to protect their products from being abused by others who seek simple profit, but the platform for seeking their claims has been far more abused.
From my simple experience on Youtube, countless channels have suffered from harassment and takedowns, with little say on their part. It has become a one way system that gives little to those who wish to speak their voice, and they are being silenced and blatantly ignored.
The internet is the platform of our generation, and it's changed a lot since it first started. With so much to consider, it's still only fair for both sides to have a voice. As I've seen, those who are claimed to copyrighted material have little say in their problems, with lackluster responses to their problems, or being processed months on end, with those who make the strikes having to simply click a button for there to be an automated response, usually in the form of a take down, with irreversible consequences to the creator.
As I'm sure you are aware, there are many who also find fault in these systems. I'm confident that we do not want the leisure of using whatever materials as we please, but where's the fair use? Please consider how to revise these policies to better protect those who need it, not those who intend to bully creators out of their fair work.
(lets get into the custom part)
I have seen a lot of false copigright claims on tweets, youtube videos and more. This system needs to be changed. It has ruined lives because someone coudnt stand someone elses opinion on something they owned, this needs to be changed. NOW
Also, Cool Cat hates cyber bullying. Don't be a bully. Have friends.
Just google WTFU (Where's the Fair Use).
I feel that content creators are being held back by the fair use policy. These content creators put everything into what they love. For some it's their job. It's not right that their content is being taken down. These people actually acknowledge the fair use policy but still get flagged for absurd reasons. YouTube is mainly where the controversy is coming from. Even when content creators explain themselves all they get is an automatic response. Youtube would also take away features from these people like the length of a video or the amount of money they can make from a video. This is just outrageous. How can the world be more progressive if there is so many limitations. I get there should be some sort of copyright policy but the people who are complaining are the people who try to obey the laws. Please make the fair use up to date or replace it with a new policy.
Basically it's a retarded system
In short, the current system allows companies to abuse uploaders and reap the benefits. It's honestly outdated and does not account for current times.
Please, these people work very hard and put love into their work. There are people who are stealing from them and harassing them and they get away scot-free.
I will add my own comments before repeating the obvious below. The DMCA is an unfair law. I am a film critic. I write reviews and make review videos. I have had multiple YouTube claims and cease and desist letters written to me asking me to take content that is clearly fair use down. Ironically this is ALWAYS for negative reviews and NEVER for positive reviews! My stuff gets flagged so that it is either taken down or I lose the money I would have normally made from those videos/articles to the studio.
With the way the current law operates I never wake up a day feeling safe for my livelihood even though the law states I should be safe. Even if the review or video uses no footage, images, or music (which is a good majority of them) I can still get claims on those reviews/videos just because the studio doesn't like what I have to say. The DCMA is being used to silence and harass, and this needs to stop! Thank you!
Original points:
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Also Giant Robot cartoons are being removed by bots because of the problem so please let people dream
Please fix the fair use.
I think its very unfair to many people on the internet in this present time because a lot of people should be able to be themselfs and also not be afraid of doing somthing online even tho a lot of people on the internet do listen to the law but many companies and people that lie a lot about content are able to take away a lot of abbiltys for people to keep a job online even thou most people online that try to make a living online putting content online , when its easy for companys and many people that dont own someone content to easily claim copyright infrigement and are able to hinder the orignal creators of content in potential loss of money and also be able to lose a lot of abilltys online like not being able to do certain things like monetise any content and also this DMCA can easily be abused and not everyone can easily go to court for fair use. Companys can easily keep taking content down without even be able to have a fair case.
The Internet flourishes because all of the stuff people make and share. But, there's a force that has kept works off the Internet entirely, making it so that there's a whole host of content that most us never get to see or hear. The current notice and takedown system for copyright unnecessarily allows for abuse. With the current DMCA rules, copyright holders can censor and takedown practically any online content, just by saying that it infringes their copyright—no court order or oversight required. It's time to bring fair use back to the Internet.
The DMCA was created to help curb piracy, but all too often it is abused to censor content with valid free speech or fair use rights. Video and music creators are having their work taken down and their income stolen by big corporations who bet that nobody has the legal resources to challenge them. And even when people successfully challenge a takedown and get their work restored, oftentimes there is lasting harm done to their reputation or income.
It's time to take a hard look at the DMCA. A clear fix to the current system is to impose penalties on corporations who abuse the DMCA by issuing false takedowns.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
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Too often i'm seeing people's works taken down with no notice or regard to fair use. It leaves creators distraught and us viewers missing content we enjoy. It has to stop somewhere. Hopefully it's now.
While I recognize that the DMCA was a simplistic measure designed for a more simplistic internet, the internet has truly become a global presence allowing for an extreme amount of diversity and overall a force of education and connection. By not updating DMCA take downs in order to accommodate the average content creator, you ensure that the spirit of the DMCA is upheld. Please do this, for while I am not a content creator, there are far too many of the mere threatening a DMCA can cause a person to lose business and be squeezed out of the marketplace.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Currently the way the DMCA is set up. Its being used to harrass content creators by large companies. There have been claims on content that the supposed holder doesn't own.
Many times on Youtube, companies have falsely taken down videos that have no copywrited footage or music. The DMCA is being used without the consideration of fair use. Its being used to silence free speach.
I, lost my first youtube channel in March 2007 because of this. I even put disclaimers on all my videos, but I stilled lost it. After that, it seem all that can do is make vlogs. I have tried to put up top 10s, and amvs, and I get a false claim, I would love to go back to that! We need to update! WAKE UP its 2016 not 1998. #WTFU
I am a Youtuber that mainly deals in Let's Plays. I also watch reviews and other let's plays. I keep watching channels being brought down by people that don't understand how fair use works and also by people whom just wants to get the money from these content creators. As it stands, not just Youtube but the internet in general is broken by these people abusing the system.
With playing old and new games and uploading them to youtube to share with the viewers about these games that they might not know about, i am constantly in fear that my entire channel could be taken down. I am more for the knowledge about games and sharing the experience than getting the money from my videos. But still my channel or videos can be taken down by people whom don't even own any of the content that i put out.
On the viewing end, i watch a lot of the reviewers for their own comedy about the movie or game. Chances are that i already have watched or played the game and watching to see their own thoughts on it. As far as stealing money from the original content holders of the movies and games, these reviews don't sway my view on these in any way, a good portion of the time i am introduced to a new movie i never heard about. This movie called "Cool Cat Saves the Kids" was brought up to my attention a while ago and i think it might be a good movie to show my kids, sitting with them and talking about the movie. Derek Savage himself stated that his sales wasn't hurt by these reviews, but have improved. He didn't realize that these reviews in fact have given him money instead of stealing from him.
What ever happened to the age of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and other shows that reviews and talks about games and movies? I think i know, they moved onto the internet and thus changed into a new form. I feel that the law needs to move with the reviews and protect the content on the internet that falls under Fair Use. And instead focus on those sites and channels that uploads the actual videos in it's entirety.
Also, reaction channels should be included in Fair Use.
On a personal note, I do not create content but watch many videos from those who do. I have seen certain creators targeted continuously by false claims, even after their content (and even, in many cases, the exact same piece of content), has been cleared multiple times as fair use. This includes reviews as well as parodies and educational material. Automated takedowns without accounting for fair use costs these people who I support my my views and clicks a lot of revenue.
I have also seen many issues with foreign companies attempting to abuse the DMCA to conform to their own nations' much more restrictive standards, primarily in the EU (Italy, Spain) and Asia (Japan, Korea) using automated takedowns, even on content that they do not own the rights for, either from them being expired or them having tangentially related rights (i.e. taking down a review of a series due to them having the Italian-language distribution rights for a different but related series in a different medium, such as comics to television). This needs to stop, it stifles free speech and generally makes the internet a worse place for both producers and consumers.
Please look into how this system can be fixed - to properly punish those who steal copyrighted material but protects those who use it fairly.
I've seen what they've been doing and I'm just starting out and have gotten claim abused it's not been counting yet but when it will It'll be to late for me to stop it.
As an aspiring content creator, seeing other people's content being flagged or taking down due to illegitimate reasons is really discouraging. Some people make a video or commentary on material that is completely fair-use and/or free for use and then are having it be taken down due to false claims from companies that may or may not have anything to do with the product or item shown in the video. YouTube creators' are especially affected by this because, for them, YouTube is a job and their source of income. When videos are struck with copyright claims, all of the ad revenue from that video is given to the copyright-strike-claimer. This is a HUGE flaw in the DMCA. It hasn't even been updated since 1998! People are abusing this and it needs to stop. If the DMCA was updated to accommodate for how the internet is used today, then content creators' would not have to worry about being copyright struck and having their OWN content copyrighted. This also does not only apply to YouTube, anywhere where content is created and share over the internet will be affected by the changes made to the DMCA. #Where'sTheFairUse?
The current regulations and approach to DMCA claims and take-downs is unbalanced towards the copyright holder and often makes the content creators vulnerable whereas new legislation could help to reach a more understandable and financially viable middle ground
Copyright holders have a huge amount of power as they can take-down, claim revenue or claim to sue in some cases over content that falls over fair use. I think that copyright holders require a large degree of power in certain places with more carefully constructed infrastructure in areas such as YouTube or media outlets to prevent false claims. On the other hand they have had the upper hand for a long time as the laws were made seemingly reasonably when original content was rare at best and I believe that companies and content creators should both be treated equally with arguments to be taken seriously.
On the other hand there needs to be more power for content creators who have to wait for responses from companies while losing a fair amount of their livelihood due to the time it takes. I think a lot of creators do try and flaunt the idea of fair use which is why I think legislation that gives creators a stick to fight legal proceedings could help the balance as any creator who believes their content is fair use should be willing to fight a claim like this.
I think that some system allowing certain kinds of copyrighted content to be used not under fair use while giving some ad revenue would help as there rarely seems to be a middle ground and creating a middle ground I think could help the community thrive. For example allowing more mainstream music to be used in short bursts to add to a section of a video could be worked out between the copyright holder and the creator to reach a better balance.
I have listed a fair amount of different examples below which are sadly limited to videos as although I'm sure other forms of media have been claimed this is by the far the one I consume most.
Examples of companies using the DMCA take-downs can be seen with Jim Sterling receiving a DMCA take-down on his video of skate man intense rescue which he made a video where the developer admits it is out of spite. Jim sterling has had a myriad of DMCA take-downs most notably from Digital Homicide who have now tried to sue and Cobra studios have done the same.
Angry Joe also was a victim of this with some of his videos being taken down because of a section using music for a few seconds and then trying to justify the take-down of a 20 minute or more video.
I Hate Everything received a take-down on a review of a film called 'Cool Cat Saves the Kids' despite the fact that other reviews had been allowed as they were more forgiving towards the film.
Sega removed videos of shining force to move their trailer of a newer game up the pecking order on search queries which is a perfect example in my opinion of the DMCA claims being used in appalling fashion
DMCA claims are a flawed system as the internet has allowed more content on the internet while restrictions have not been applied to certain types of media such as reviews, parodies or other examples of fair use. I think that while copyright holders need power on the internet I think that more thought needs to go into how they wield this as I accept it would be hard to distinguish between fair use and not it could be possible.
I think that at the time of writing this there has likely already been an out pore of emails and comments sent your way and if this does somehow reach somebody I would think that it shows a true passion by people on the internet to see fair use. Some sort of voluntary system with a unorganized community of people deciding what is fair use and not while requiring curation to prevent preferences, personal issues, ideological leanings etc, I think a lot of people would step up to the task
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Hundreds of content creators on YouTube and on all sorts of media are being relentlessly taken down by these false claims, due to the DMCA's outdatedness. This has become much more then a small problem. This is turning into an epidemic. A majority of these content creators need the renevue from their videos, but because of the abuse of the DMCA all the money that rightfully belongs to the video creators is being stolen by companies. Please.... Something has to be done.... Before it's too late to do anything...
Where's the fair use?.......
Also, JUST LOOK AT SOME OF THESE THINGS PEOPLE HAVE CREATED! They are incredible, and it would be a shame to to hurt the people who did those things.
This entire process is broken, false claims to silence people on the internet and shut down unbiased opinions. People falsely abusing the way DMCA works to stop someone/something hurting their reputation. fix what is broken.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held financially and legally responsible - considering the sheer magnitude of abuses, preferably as harshly as the Constitution will allow.
I am not much of a content creator anymore, but I have seen just how unfair, outdated, and frankly nonsensical the old copyright laws are. They have been abused so badly that they can be used as a means to bully negative criticisms of a particular product into silence.
I have had some videos had an ID match because I used some songs from the video game series "Final Fantasy", which is fair, but in many other videos, I had used one song from the same series multiple times, and none of them were claimed at all! I even had a match (which disappeared not long after it was issued, but mind you it still happened) where, I'm not sure what the claim was for, but I believe it was because I mentioned, just for a second, the video game series "Metroid", and said nothing else about it. I haven't ever had my channel put in any dire circumstances, but these are examples of how archaic these laws are.
The laws are so bad that they have been able to completely terminated the hugely popular YouTube channel named Team Four Star, popular for their comedic interpretation of the legendary anime Dragon Ball Z. They have very recently broke two million subscribers, and each of their new episodes get up to one million within just a couple days. They had received no warning that this would happen, and there channel was terminated right out of the blue. They were able to get it back withing 24 hours, but this sets a very dangerous precedent. If these laws can be abused to a point where channels with that big of a following can be shut down so abruptly and without warning, then there's no telling how much worse it can get from here on out.
I'm am putting my voice out there that enough is enough. These old laws need to be changed now. There are people whose livelihoods completely depend on the videos they put out on the internet, and copyright laws need to be changed to accomodate for them all.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. Individual creators with few ways of protecting themselves are harmed as well, heavily stifling their free speech. This kind of damage can not be undone.
And considering how the world is experiencing a cultural shift in entertainment not seen since the 1950s, copyright laws and the companies who enforce those copyright laws need to make changes in respect to this cultural shift. They need to understand that
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. They need to understand that the internet is becoming the new source of entertainment, and that copyright laws that haven't changed since 1998 need to change to reflect this cultural shift, and the nature of the internet.
As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
People have made it their jobs, their careers on making these types of content. What is considered a "job" is evolving, and our judicial system should evolve with it. This is damaging lives, taking away jobs and people's only revenue to pay bills, feed their kids, and just to flat out survive.
DMCA act is now being used to abuse channels that do nothing wrong and use as threats. People content that violates no rules of fair use are being punished for talking about or showing clips of content that's not their's.while other people take someone video and play it in its whole most time not saying anything and not getting punished.
Many content creators who are fairly undergoing transformative action to commentate on videos are being ripped off and frequently being reported by large companies despite their content falling within the guidelines of fair use. I have seen over 30 commentary channels in which individuals could not even react to episodes of a TV show because, despite their commentary on the episode and their transformer be edits, they received strikes from companies that are just bullying and taking away monetization from these small youtubers. The LIVELIHOOD of people is reliant on commentary, review, and reaction, but random people and companies for some reason are allowed to just call unfair use and force the deletion of a video. Unfair. We need change.
Even large businesses can be hurt as content made using video or images of their property can easily act as free advertising.
The DMCA system is incredibly broken, and easily exploited. Please do something. Please?
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Watching these people provide account has become a part of my daily lifestyle as well as theirs. To see them be back into corners several times over and ABUSED has not been pleasant. If you would hear them out and help stop the constant take downs and multi-copy right strikes on the channels have done nothing wrong (within reason). Something needs to be done, WTFU.
Continuing the previous message which I accidentally sent unfinished.
Wild Games Studio, who were responsible for the development and publishing of "Day One: Garry's Incident" abused the DMCA system to remove the reviews of the video. This has been demonstrated in other cases as well, where the unregulated abuse of DMCA allows for copyright holders to severely limit free speech and monetize the profits of those who speak out.
The DMCA is dangerously outdated. It's ruining creators' livelihoods, deleting great content, and is targeting videos that don't even apply to its guidelines. Videos of two people just talking about copyrighted material- not showing it, not playing any audio, just talking- is being taken down. The DMCA doesn't apply to the modern Internet, and it desperately needs an update, or else people are going to continue being unjustly targeted and their content is going to continue to be deleted for no good reason.
Please, fix the DMCA.
In its current form, Copyright law is too abusable to be more than a blight on legitimate content. We must take steps to correct it, or else those muted will find other means, worse means for them and for those who want them quiet.
The DMCA is outdated, bias against Corporate entities over individual creators and damaging to artistic culture and creativity everywhere.
The internet is the future of creativity, and saving and protecting Fair Use is the only way I know to best safeguard it. In the late 90's, when this act was created, literature was published exclusively in print, film was distributed only via cinema and VHS. Music could only be heard at concerts, or bought from a store. More than a decade later, all these aspects of the entertainment industry find their biggest consume base online. Sites like Netflix are where people go to watch film and television, Kindles and Amazon are where many people read, and Itunes has basically replaced the physical CD. While this isn't necessarily true for all people, I can easily foresee a time, in the very near future, where the internet is the main form of entertainment and creative communication for all people, regardless of age or nationality, and by adhering to this outdated, and harmful piece of law, we are jeopardizing that bright future.
Corporations must not continually be given the right to trample the creative freedoms of those who disagree with them. As an Australian resident, and a New Zealand citizen, this American piece of law may not effect me in the same way, but it does still have an affect. The artists I watch and enjoy, the stories I read and even the art that I create is being put in danger, has been in danger for years now. America has always been the land of opportunity, the creative center of the world. Other nations may restrict free speech, may curtail creative freedoms, but America must not.
As an artist myself, as an enjoyer of art, it is both my duty and responsibility, it is the responsibility of all of us, to safeguard the creative liberties of the future, by opposing this outdated piece of law.
Many content creators on Youtube, Twitter, and the entire Internet can be harassed by many people who ignore Fair Use and attack the creators who are using it. Some use it to monetize videos, silence critics, or as threat. Many companies use other companies who only take down videos, to hide their name. Many take down videos with no copyrighted footage in the video. Some take down videos with footage as evidence they don't even own. Also many creators are losing a massive amount of money due to these claims and the company do not receive repercussions. Thank you.
I personally watch a series entitled "Midnight Screenings" which has had copyright strikes held against it for no good reason. The videos contain two to four people sitting in a car discussing a movie. There are no clips of the film, music, or any content from the creators of the film.
To whom it concerns
We run a small website called www.longplays.org that specialized in preserving videogames in video form. We also run an accompanying YT channel with around 415k subscribers. We have uploaded already over 9000 videos of and have over 400 million views. In the few years we run this channel, we have recieved at least 2000 claims, with at least half of them being bogus. The other half is video game and music publishers claiming videos that are fair use.
Our site is not just a museum, it also serves as a source for walkthroughs. In the 2000s the internet was slow, and walkthroughs were mainly done in the form of text and html pages. The 2015 way to do it, is to make videos.
It is impossible for a small community run channel like ours to fight giants like Capom, Konami, Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, BMG, Warner & Co. The DMCA allows them to claim 100% of our work. The current system they can claim 100% of our work, and we get nothing! If we upload an 8 hour long video and 10 seconds match, they can claim the whole 8 hour video. It would be perfectly fine if they recieved a small percentage for creating the game, but its not fair they can claim it all!
The DMCA is an outdated relict of the past.
Mr.President, tear down the copyright wall!
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I personally have never been affected by any false DMCA claims because I have just started taking the steps on the road to being a voice that people on YouTube listen to, but let me make this clear a false DMCA claim is something I have worried about long before I started my channel. It is always in the back of my mind and constantly makes me think twice about even attempting this sort of life.
Nearly every single one of my favorite channels have been affected and hurt by these claims including one that is primarily a channel about gaming news. Now you don't see a news station getting in trouble for their use of footage.
Their are many companies that use this system not as a way of defending their brand but as a way of attacking small groups or even single individuals who are essentially doing what magazines and certain TV shows have done for years, its just a new and more easily consumed form.
The Youtube DMCA debacle is an event that I can't avoid as a fan of multiple content-creators and it needs a good update for an internet that has aged and evolved 18 years from 1998. I've seen multiple stories of people using the claims to silence opinions they don't want to hear, I've heard of times where companies claim videos that don't have but just the creator in front of his own camera. I've even witnessed some claimants state that the law was designed by them and gave them grounds clearly past fair use. This has to stop for the good of a world that is growing and changing at a pace faster than ever before and then there is a copyright hold on nothing but a simple product that evidently gives a company the power to dictate any and all speech on their topics.
The DMCA needs to be fixed! It is being abused to the point where people can get copyrighted for nothing and I mean literally nothing! This law would save innocent creators from being bullied by other people who abuse this law!
My addition is on two videos that were recently flagged.
One case I was asked by an agency representing a film to shoot an interview with one of the actresses. I was promised rights to use trailers, stills, behind the scenes clips and film clips in the final product. The video was released in timing of the film release into theaters, and shortly after a claim was made. My video was allowed to be played without any restriction EXCEPT FOR monetization. YouTube stated that all monetization would go to to the claimant. When I disputed the claim citing not only fair use, but the agency's clearance and electronic press kit's (owned by MediaMax Online) terms of use - the studio clamped down further by blocking the video in 246 countries.
A second video I produced from MediaMax's EPK website. Their site allows major studios to upload clips, pictures and other documents that are cleared to use in promotion of their products. This particular video got a false claim that someone else owned the content. I contacted the studio directly and they went after the claimant and got the noticed removed. Flash forward a few months later when the studio themselves claimed the exact same video. I've tried to get in touch with them but they will no longer answer. They also will allow me to use the video on my channel, but I forfeit all my monetization to them.
This is an area of confusion and I feel is beyond fair use limitations. These are moments where I'm contacted to basically make a piece of marketing for the studios and according to their affiliates, agencies, representatives, websites and their "terms of use", I should be able to do so. It shouldn't have to rack up expenses to make a video only to give my monetization back to the studio for what basically is a commercial for their product.
As for the agencies, representatives, affiliates, websites and their "terms of use"- when a copyright notice comes in they seem to disappear, leaving me to fight this battle alone. They don't want dragged into copyright claims and it's not easy for a self starter to fight against corporations.
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For instance, on YouTube, channels like I Hate Everything, Channel Awesome, TheMysteriousMrEnter, and YourMovieSucks all fell victim to their free speech being taken from them because the creators of the content they reviewed, in clearly fair use reviews, didn't find their opinions favorable.
Many content creators on Youtube, Twitter, and the entire Internet can be harassed by many people who ignore Fair Use and attack the creators who are using it. Some use it to monetize videos, silence critics, or as threat. Many companies use other companies who only take down videos, to hide their name. Many take down videos with no copyrighted footage in the video. Some take down videos with footage as evidence they don't even own. Also many creators are losing a massive amount of money due to these claims and the company do not receive repercussions. Thank you.
The Internet is now being harassed and abused by corporations no matter how small the channel and kills not only free speech but companies who believe they create the law or companies using them as threats, to stifle creativity, and shutdown criticism. It steals money from creators and gives it to corporations who don't deserve any of your revenue that you should be gaining from your own material that is fair use. Not to mention the ludicrous fact that there's no penalty for a false claim! Why is this? A false police report is punished but corporations partaking in sheer highway robbery is legal? This law needs to be not only updated but made to be transformative and able to be easily changed years on down the road.
The state of the DMCA process is absolutely disgraceful and is in need of serious reform.
Too many big companies are taking advantage of DMCA to stomp on the little guy. People who do things that fall under fair use are seeing their work being taken down or claim unjustly by people who take advantage of the DMCA claim system.
Fair use has been used to keep content from being unoriginal and stolen content is frowned upon. But as of recently people have been abusing the copyright complain system to where copyright infringements are used as threats to keep content creators from making add revenue on videos with a company's content. And company's use copyright claims to steal add revenue from videos protected by fair use
but the problem is the company's are not penalized for their false claims. This needs to be fixed like a limit to copyright claims or a system where the company filing the complaint needs proof of infringements longer than 15 seconds or a system that cannot be abused to steal add revenue from content creators protected under fair use. #wheresthefairuse
The DMCA is preventing Twitter and YouTube users to be able to exercise their right to free speech and the content that they use under the Fair Use policy. We need to be able to correct this so that nobody else will be threatened or have their livelihoods destroyed!
If automated or non automated copyright takedowns are going to remain in place then there must be a human element implemented if a automated scanner sends a request to a site the site will take it down and those who are protected under fair use face a long struggle with hours of work communicating with automated emails and computers to get their hard work put in place.
Time like this is valuable to individual content creators and result in lost revenue for this as stated above these creators should be given compensation for lost revenue if these DMCA claims are invalid
where is the fair use at. Update the laws to protect. I keep missing my favorite youtubers due to unfair claims.
There have been false claims made by copyright holders, such as Derek Savage, because they can't handle criticism.
There have been a number of people who have been struck with the abuse of this system that have had their livelihoods effected because of people or companies that have misused this system and gotten money from it, money that belonged to the content creators. I'm not the best at wording my thoughts, but at the very least I'll say that and hope it shows how this is effecting some people.
The DMCA needs to be reviewed and updated to fit into today's internet since it was made so long ago when things were much different then they are now and hopefully it comes sooner then later.
There have been so many issues with the DMCA. It is heavily biased towards companies and not smaller creators. There have been false claims over copyright disputes, and many of them should never have happened, as anyone in their right mind would be able to see that it falls under Fair Use, no exceptions. This happens all the time. It needs to be fixed. It was best said by Doug Walker, The Nostalgia Critic, Where's The Fair Use. We sure can't find it. The false claims happening just over Youtube.com is out of control, and that is the full extent of the DMCA's effects. Things like Derek Savage Vs. IHateEverything and John Enter Vs. Blue Rocket and Co. have caused large issues and serious problems for other content creators. All of this is because DMCA Takedown abuse has no consequences, no repercussions, and anybody can make any false claim. The system is broken and needs to be updated for the modern era.
YouTube channels are being taken down because many film studios are filing copyright claims over people just talking negatively about a movie take the YouTube channel "I hate everything" for example he makes videos talking about how much he hates things like a TV show or a movie because of his rants studios filed copyright claims for that and his channel temporarily got shut down for it . another example would be Doug Walker aka nostalgia critic one day I see this Disney movie he reviewed it caught my attention so I clicked on it,sure enough it was blocked because of copyright claims he has countlessly posting videos on YouTube explaining what happened to him these copyright claims against all these videos are ruining YouTube channels and YouTube all together
The current DMCA simply does not work.
The idea behind its inception- behind any copyright or trademark, for that matter- has always been, on a fundamental level, to protect those who create. Whether film, music, critique, parody, any number of contributions to entertainment or education, the purpose behind it was to ensure that creators could safely make a living, and indeed a profit, off the time invested, thus adding more and more to our repository of tales, videos, comedic shorts or informative documentaries. The age of the Internet has certainly made the protection of a creative work more challenging, as we live in a world where many of these creations, as digital constructs, can be endlessly replicated and distributed, without the permission or even consultation of the original maker. For that reason, some form of copyright protection- and the 'teeth' to enforce it- are necessary.
Unfortunately, the DMCA fails to properly prepare for what would happen when the creators it protects would think to abuse it for their own purposes.
The examples of such abuse are numerous on Youtube alone, whether it's from game developers such as Digital Homicide or Wild Games Studios using it as a means to try and stifle criticism for their games- games that, for the record, were of such poor quality, proper public criticism was all but a necessity,- film creators such as Derek Savage stifling criticism of his film, even other Youtube channels leveling strikes against perceived competitors. Even large companies have been repeatedly called out on filing false claims for the most absurd reasons, even on content they theoretically made available to be distributed, such as footage from trailers. And I speak only of instances that are well documented and recognized because the victims of such false claims had substantial fanbases to raise an outcry; it's impossible to say how many other claims have struck smaller content creators and utterly destroyed them, before they had a chance to grow and thrive.
In many cases, these claims are filed with malicious intent, and full understanding that they are false, because the party filing them knows that they will face no legal repercussion at all. Let's say that I, as a videogame developer, saw a highly critical on Youtube panning my title for being of poor quality. (In this situation, keep in mind said video would be entirely correct.) In order to prevent people from seeing the critique for as long as possible, I would be able to file a DMCA claim against the video through Youtube, even though I am fully aware I have no real legal ground to stand on.
When this happens, there are two possible outcomes. The first is that the critic I have filed the claim against chooses to simply allow the claim to stand, either through ignorance of their rights or a simple unwillingness to face a possible legal battle- in which case I have permanently destroyed valid criticism. The second is that the content creator fights against my DMCA claim... in which case, due to Youtube often needing weeks to process the 'counter-file,' their critique still remains inaccessible for upwards to a month. During this time, nobody can see the critique of my product, and by the time the video is finally made accessible again, my game has been on sale for weeks, and I face absolutely no legal consequences for my false filing.
In both outcomes, as the abuser of the DMCA, I have benefited directly by filing a false claim and abusing the law. In neither case do I face any form of legal repercussion. It is impossible for this situation to exist, and for it not to be abused.
Now, there are likely some instances where the individual or corporation files a false claim out of ignorance; they have not educated themselves on Copyright law, or fair use provisions, and so are unaware that their claim has no legal standing. However, in the laws and codes of many countries, (incorporated in the American penal code,) ignorantia juris non excusat does not let ignorance of the law absolve one from the consequences of violating it. Whether this same principle applies to DMCA claims and other aspects of Copyright law, I am uncertain, but it should be noted that this principle exists in criminal law to prevent those who act maliciously from escaping legal liability by claiming ignorance of law. A similar principle must be applied to the DMCA in order to prevent its abusers from similarly claiming ignorance to avoid penalties.
More importantly, without sanctions and consequences for filing false DMCA claims, those individuals and companies who are sincerely ignorant as to the intricacies of copyright and fair use will never bother to educate themselves before filing their intended claim.
Ultimately the issue is this. As I said earlier, DMCA claims and other numerous aspects of copyright law have been designed to give traditional creators- filmmakers, established musicians, etc- tools with which to fend off those who might maliciously steal their digital property, be it for profit or unsanctioned free distribution. Those who attempt to violate the letter and the spirit of copyright law can have their violating content removed, and in some cases even face penalties depending on the circumstances.
But there is no balance. Many individuals and corporations who have been given these powerful tools with which to protect their work from legitimate misuse have, ironically, misused those very same tools to fulfill their own agenda. Criticism has been stifled by those unable to accept it, with justifications thin to the point of absurdity. Trans-formative works that contribute something to entertainment or education have been destroyed by those who disapprove of the subject, conclusion, or materials used within. Creators who spend countless hours crafting something, be it for simple pleasure or entirely legal profit, can find the growth and accessibility of those creations damaged, even destroyed, by the overzealous owners of a related property, discouraging proper competition or even creative offshoots that offer new insights on familiar themes.
The current DMCA stifles free speech. The current DMCA stifles creative expression and competition.
The current DMCA simply does not work.
I will be honest, I'm not someone who post stuff But I like a lot of people that do it and I'm angry because almost all of them are getting their videos, reviews and fan art because of these takedown, and its not even fair. They are abussing it. Most of the time this people are in their right to upload this content but the companies keep abusing of these to keep taking them down. This have to stop. I know you problably wont even read this because I'm not a content creator or not of the "all powerful america" but these problem envolves anyone. We can't let this keep hapening.
The below was given to me as a standardized comment, I'm going to keep it because it probably contains all the important legal proceedings necessary to actually get anything done.
However, I just want to say, on a personal note, that the DMCA has only hurt creators such as myself, and I'm sure I'm not the only person with a story to tell.
Thank you for your time.
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Please listen to us, for the good of all humanity.
So in the YouTube community, many content creators are being screwed over because companies are abusing the copyright system there. Too many times I have seen people get copyright strikes and even getting there channels taken down because of reviews or parodies that were totally within the Freedom of Speech law, but the people who owned the product didn't like it and are just acting like children. Unfortunately, the content creators can't do much about this unless they are well known in the community, but the companies get no repercussions if there just abusing the system. This needs to stop. Possibly you could try and filter the copyright reports or have actual human beings overlooking this instead of robots, I dunnu. All I know is that you need to get YouTube and other websites like it to actually smarten up.
Whilst I have never personally been victim to these infuriatingly abused laws, I have seen many of my favorite content creators wronged by them. Here are just a few examples:
Nostalgia Critic/Channel Awesome - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC3NIdiZF_E and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFlgx2LTdeY and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
Jim Sterling - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0Wpn1zmU (THIS IS STILL ONGOING)
Team Fourstar - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J03pUizE and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ9U8YLY
IHateEverything - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkcWbvnN0 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzXSQ5f08sA and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyQjcFmc-Cs and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0qoD3viXL0 (THIS IS RIDICULOUS)
Someone gets a DMCA for vlogging about snow in his front yard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nULnD9OQ
Charisma on Command vs. and MMA company that apparently thinks it makes the law - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWysPctePw
Mr. Enter (Multiple takedowns on one video) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw
NFKRZ (Apparently it's acceptable to hold possibly years of work and content ransom to exploit money from small creators) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtwVOZ0Yc
These are just a few of the examples. Another example that I have come across is that this company called Merlin claims to be taking down a video for someone else, but that someone else usually has never even heard of them. They need to be charged for Fraud. This has to stop. So I do have to ask you gentlemen. Where is the fair use?
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Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
This has led to many people skittish on uploading content for fear of the content being taken down and their account's standing with the web site in jeopardy.
I'm doing this for two reasons. The first is that I want to support the people I watch. People like Doug Walker, I Hate Everything, Yourmoviesucks.org, Joshscorcher, Lily Peet, Jim Sterling, and so many more. I love to watch these amazing people create great content by talking about movies, tv show, and videogames. But it's not fair that their videos get taken down because the people who own the stuff they are talking about don't like their opinions, or worse, they want the money the video-makers make.
The second reason I'm doing this is because I want to make videos on Youtube. I want to voice my opinion on movies and tv show, but I can't. I can't because I am afraid that if I make those videos, I will get a DMCA takedown or get sued/harassed by the owners of whatever I'm talking about. I shouldn't be afraid to make something I love, and every other video creators shouldn't be afraid either.
I hope this one little comment, along with all the other ones, will make you rethink every thing about the DMCA and entertainment on the internet.
Thank you for your time.
I hope you all have a good day.
Seumas MacIsaac (maybe someday, AKA DarkStormChannel007, cartoon/animation reviewer/commentator)
The abuse of DMCA is the main reason I am not creating content currently.
In essence, I just want the cool people who spend hours making fun content for thousands, if not millions, of people to have a fair shake against large corporations who are able to steal revenue and squash criticism with little to no oversight. The system is broken, and needs to be fixed.
The DMCA is inadvertently affecting many content creators I view on a regular basis. The world's system of digesting media content has changed and so should the legislation surrounding it. My Content Creator's I view have had DMCA's put onto their content by 'shell' organizations haulting the output of content. Please, we need to work on changing the system for creators to not be so hindered. If an organization is falsely claiming DMCA on Content Creator's, this people (or organizations) should be privy to repercussions.
TAKE DOWN DMCA TAKE DOWNS.
I have seen this dated law been taken and abused so much that it is quite frankly appalling. Companies and people have been taking down negative reviews therefore silencing the truth, and hurting the creators of these reviews. I see this as a actual issue, and believe that it needs to stop. The times have updated and so the laws must also be updated to protect the freedom and safety of free speech on the internet and in other parts of our lives. I strongly believe that something needs to be done and I support a revision and updated look at these laws.
You are likely to receive numerous complaints from people about how the DMCA is, in fact, not doing any favors for the internet. You are likely to hear about the many ways it is being abused to hurt the content creators and benefit only the corporations and businesses falsely claiming copyright infringement. I'll spare you another long message about that sort of thing, but the reason for that isn't because I haven't seen these things happening. I've never had a single copyright claim, false or otherwise, on any of my YouTube videos. Do you know why that is? Its because I've seen it happen to so many other people that I admire that I don't see the point in creating anything. I know I'm not the only one who feels bullied into not creating content.
If I were to create content on the internet, it would likely consist of movie reviews and similar publications. I've heard accounts of people who do that very same thing, many of which I admire and want to be like, such as Chris Stuckmann, Joe Vargas, Doug Walker, Mr. Enter, YMS, and IHE. I want to get my voice out there and present unique ideas and perspectives on film, but please understand my intention. I don't want to create a sob story about a guy who just can't creatively express himself because of the big, bad copyright holders. That'd be condescending and full of cheap pathos. I just want to express the irony that a potential content creator such as myself feels like he can't create content on a platform like YouTube (that was designed to post content) without false threats and claims.
Thank you for listening to what I have to say. I guarantee you that cases similar to mine exist. They're just too scared to even talk about how scared they are.
Some of my favorite Youtube names like Angry Joe, Total Biscuit, Neebs Gaming and the Nostalgia Critic have all been attacked by the abuse of the DMCA process. Precious time, energy and revenue that they have earned and worked for have been stolen from them. As a consumer of content I see that it is totally unfair for companies to use copyright claims on works that simply criticizes their product. Creators of content need to be protected and encouraged instead of being attacked and abused.
I understand the piracy and the like are no good, but being a jerk about things and allowing a broken system that is easily abused to continue to persist is not the proper way to combat it.
Yes, l Did read All of this!
More often than not I see DMCA being abused. Youtube review videos being taken down despite actually not showing any of the content in question just because the critic says its less than perfect, Internet trolls reporting videos to get them taken down just for difference of opinions and to take away revenue out of spite, and shell companies or even bots programmed to report content that contains keywords regardless of what the content is about.
All of that stuff is stupid. I don't care that you're a company with the right to something. What I say and do, that isn't at least 70% related, shouldn't get removed. It's almost like Compton all over again. Instead of "Fuck the Police" it's "Fuck the Corporate Offices."
i am Henry and this rule bands me form make video I need to make
I hope that one day I can live out my dream of becoming a reviewer of movies and television shows on YouTube, but I haven't started making videos yet because I'm too afraid of facing false copyright claims that I should be protected from.
Many of my favorite sources for media critique have been affected
in the previous year including the complete removal of their online
presence by automated system abuse on youtube. Because of the
complete loss of income this has caused said reviewers, many are now
considering giving up and moving onto alternative forms of work.
Hundreds of hours of work gone in a instant because a lawyer wants
a cut of the funds from someones hard work creating critique or
satire hardly seems fair. Creating an intimidating name and phony
email account, and one click is all it takes currently to automatically
remove someones comments or satire. This isn't just used by large
studios who want to silence a opinion, but by lone individuals
fraudulently representing themselves as a large company in order to
attempt to exhort revenue from small time content creators. It's the
modern version of the old "Hello, I'm Nigerian Royalty and I have thousands to give to you, all I need is all your personal details" email
scam; but it costs people who use fair use material their deserved
income, the content they create, and sometimes their job, and there is
currently no checks in place to stop it.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must not be allowed as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Stop unfair DMCA takedowns! They only hinder creativity and deter others from pursuing their goals.
dear copyright holders there are a few things I would like to say
1. I am pretty sure the only reason there's an argument to this is because your being bribed to drag it out
2. At this level BRIBERY IS A FELONEY
3. i am 13! And some kid who will go unnamed has told me to give him a 100$ by the end of the month of I could kiss my channel good bye and a month later I got three copyright strikes I went to the principles office and told her she had the school police officer interview me I told him what happened and he looked at me like I was crazy then told me to get the kid in here and the school police officer made me pay him the 100$
4. When a 13 year old gets robbed something needs to change
Thanks for reading this
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The law and systems as they are in place only hurt the true content creators on sites like youtube. The failed system has made it possible for anyone to file a copyright strike and take the content creator's income while providing no proof of any copyright violation. Additional, companies are use it as a way to silence criticism and punish people with negative opinions about their product.
Both of these happen far too frequently and the law needs to be rewritten for modern day. The internet is my only source of video entertainment as I don't have a cable or satellite provider. I love the freedom the internet allows for creator.
Thank you
THIS NEEDS TO STOP, LET US HAVE THE FREEDOM OF USING STUFF WE WANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOUTUBE AND OTHER COMPANIES MUST STOP AND ONE DAY WE THE PEOPLE WILL FORCE THEM TO REMOVE THIS TOOL, ACCESS, AND THE RIGHT TO USE THE "CLAIM"-ING. OR THERE WILL BE VIOLENCE. BIG VIOLENCE.
The DMCA is being used by individuals and corporations to steal revenue from innocent people on the internet, namely YouTube. There have been multiple cases over the past months of people having their revenue stream heavily disrupted or being completely hijacked to fund other entities. This should be outlawed, this is indefensible.
I believe a better that the current system of those who make the claims get all the revenue until the claim is resolved (Which can take up to 90 days) is completely broken and should be replaced with a different system. A system that I think should be used is one in which the revenue generated by the content in question is held separated from either those making or defending against the claims. Once the claim has been resolved, 100% of the revenue is given to the winner.
Another system that could be used is one which follows the idea of holding the revenue separately but instead returns the revenue on a percentage system based on how severe the content in question violates copyright ruling. If 5% of the video is copyrighted content, 5% of the revenue is given to the one making the claim. In this case 5% of the revenue made by the video for the rest of it's time remaining posted is also given to the company to avoid only temporary punishments.
However no matter which method ends up being used, few can argue that giving all the revenue t the claim holder even if the claim is later dropped is acceptable. I believe the system proposed is fair and unbiased, unlike the current system.
Please stop this constant abuse. Some of my favorite YouTube channels are ones that review games and movies, and I am tired of all the strikes they wrongfully get.
TL;DR (too long didn't read) fair use needs to be fixed to rebalance the power distrubution towards content creators
Plus, YouTube channels and other social media profiles that do not infract on the copyright policies find that their videos are sometimes being taken down for illegitimate reasons.
I like and support many YouTube channels, and I find it unfair that their content is being taken down due to YouTube's broken copyright system.
In a personal example of the evidence above, a video I made explaining Spider-Man's powers/abilities, a video made for educational purposes, Sony claimed the work I put in over a week for and now make every penny off of it. Everything was sued properly, and they've attacked me on that, as well as multiple gaming videos that had music from the game I had no control over. it eventuallu discouraged me from making any more videos. The abuse has been widespread and needs to be stopped.
""
What's happening right now is wrong, immoral, and unkind. The United States has it written in the Constitution that we have a right to free speech, and we are having that right taken away in the worst setting possible. The internet is a place where we can make the world a better. Be it bringing entertainment to someone's day, talking about serious issues and searching for solutions, or educating people as to what's going on in the world, the internet is important, it is a part of a whole new culture that we never anticipated would exist. For me personally, I'm an artist of a variety of mediums, cinematography being one of the ones I want to get into. I want to be able to go online and share what I do with the world, but I am not safe in doing it, I can't post what I want because the system is broken. All I'm asking for is to have the freedom to give someone else's day a little sunshine in my own special way, that's not such a bad thing, is it? Please, all we want is to be able to speak freely. There will always be consequences for speaking about what you believe in, but the consequence shouldn't be this kind of repression.
I've seen many videos taken down for very stupid reasons against people using fair use, while the people that actually copyrighted material are not stopped at all. shows I've watched for years disappear without a trace for no reason other than someone didn't like their video or wanted to take their monetizeation on videos in order to take money from others. It's very frustrating for this to happen and enrages my friends, family, and even myself whenever someone abuses the law because the abuser cannot behave themselves and act selfish for very stupid reasons. I hope this makes a difference and saves fair use for content creators to come.
Holy fuck don't do this, it's idiotic. Where's the fair use for non-copyright holders? #TakeDownAbuse
Yes, the second half of this was already there. It's all true, and I agree 100%. But I'm hoping the powers-that-be will be more likely to pay attention to a personal message.
The DMCA has caused loss of income, legal trouble, loss of time dealing with getting things resolved, and just general annoyance for everyone involved. It's over-used by more powerful parties to bully and abuse the smaller people who can't fight back.
I'm not a content creator, but I watch sometimes dozens of videos on YouTube every day. I've lost count of the number of times something has been unfairly flagged, and accounts outright deleted, because of someone taking advantage of DMCA to be, quite frankly, a jerk.
From game companies flagging bad reviews or videos that put them in a bad light, people simply sitting around and talking, parodies that are perfectly legal under fair use laws -- even a woman who went out into her back yard on a nice day and simply took a video showing how lovely it was had her video removed because some film company decided it was too similar to the sound effects in one of their movies.
This sort of thing really needs to stop. It's an outdated law, like trying to enforce horse-and-buggy laws on automobile drivers. Things need to change, and I'm hoping those of you with the power to do so will help.
Thank you.
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This system is antiquated and prone to abuse, its about time the system is updated or removed.
This is a system that is regularly abused and used to hurt smaller content creators. There are even cases where bogus take downs are used in order to steal revenue from creators on Youtube. This system is not being used as it's intended purpose and should be overhauled or taken away completely. It is simply broken.
Hello.
And this is a call for the government of the United States of America to address a piece of outdated legislation that has stifled the right to fair use and in many cases, free speech.
I call for Congress to pass a bill that would amend the DMCA to accommodate the modern status of the Internet as the main source of entertainment for many, if not most, Americans and many others.
A tenth of Americans subscribe to Netflix, more than that of any premium cable network.
On YouTube, ordinary people are now multi-millionaires for simply sharing their experiences with the world.
YouTube is a major part of my current life, and I even make some videos of my own.
Thank you.
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Hi'.
Your system is broken.
I have seen a youtuber have a video he made some four to five years ago get a strike because of another video a new company put online less than a month ago, with a loop my youtuber had paid rights to and when said youtuber wanted to remove or modify the loop because fighting even such an obvious false claim is suicide Youtube simply prevented him from doing so. He was forced to fight the claim, jeopardizing his entire channel, and he is surviving on this channel.
You have created a system where the victim has to prove his innocence, and you are breaking lives. The DMCA must go, period.
Copyright has been abused on many platforms like Youtube and Facebook it is unfair not right and just wrong. THERE ARE MANY EXAMPLES! You can not take down a video for criticing your work or paradise it! It's unfair not right and just wrong thx for listening bye!
Everything bellow is true. Most of my YouTube subscriptions have been affected by abuse of this system and it's getting out of hand. Companies are stealing revenue from creators even if the claims are false. This needs to be changed. Now.
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
People's videos are being unfairly taken down. Trolls and haters are abusing the DMCA by claiming videos criticizing or mentioning their content. As a result, these creators are losing money. Some people make a living off content creation and I do not like to see people out of work because anybody can clean a video that falls under fair use. The DMCA needs to be updated to account for the modern Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 70 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
Also companies are able to make bots to take down videos on YouTube, by way of searching for copyrighted material. These bots claim copyright on videos and take them down, and you can't stop them, the problem with bots is that they don't just find copyrighted material they can claim copyright for someone they are not associated with. Take the company called Merlin LLC they claimed copyright on a video of I Hate Everything's on behalf of a fellow YouTuber who was not aware or associated by this company. The copyrighted song Merlin LLC claimed was not even in the video.
The current state of the DMCA leaves it open for abuse and is need of updating. Takedown and copyright claims all over the internet have been used to steal revenue of legitimate creators (through shell companies issuing false claims) and quiet criticisms in Fair Use revues of products. These takedowns and strikes are often used as threats and plenty of creators are often left with little recourse against wrongful claims. There's also the issue of Let's Play style videos (recordings of people playing video games while commentating and reacting), which fall into a grey area and have no precedent, but has grown into a large and significant part of internet and gamer culture.
(I may not have been affected by this myself, due to i don't create this sort of Content, but i DO know people that do, and this system is really hurting them. As someone who would like to make videos in the future, i would like to enter a system that wasn't broken beyond belief. This my just be a drop in the bucket, but one more voice can't hurt.)
Every day content creators on Youtube are victims of illegitimate copyright claims by companies or mostly 'shell-companies' (to protect the actual company) that don't even hold the copyright for the content. They can even claim the ad revenue that the video, which the person who uploaded it would receive with one mouse-click. Fighting off such false claims can take weeks, enough time for the person who claimed copyright to steal money away from the original uploader. People who don't know how fair use works are given a tool of immense power and use it and abuse it to not only harrass but even threat youtubers that if they don't remove the video, they will sue. Every court would declare those videos as fair use, but Youtube doesn't give a damn. They don't review it or they have some automatic system review it and the copyright claimer gets away with it. And even when they claim is successfully fought off by the uplaoder, there are no penalties for the company. They just get away with false claiming content that isn't even theirs and profiting from it. That's pretty messed up. This needs to be fixed and I hope it will be.
The purpose of this act was to help limit copyright infringement and protect the intellectual property rights of content creators. A noble effort indeed. Sadly, this act is now being abused constantly and consistently. As a consumer of internet content I see videos well within the bounds of fair-use get needlessly taken down for weeks or months only to be cleared entirely and somehow taken down again. During this time the creators of these videos are deprived of needed add revenue (which many make a living on). This isn't justice, but sloppy application of a an outdated Act albeit created with good intentions. If you do not impose real penalties on misapplications of this Act(not just malicious misapplications but careless ones as well) , it will be exploited, causing real harm to real people. I understand that the law is complicated, and that there are no easy answers, but when a law starts to hurt the people it was trying to protect (content creators) it is, by definition, self defeating and counter productive.
I think it is safe to say that YouTube only cares about their users when it is convenient for them. If you are NOT making them money every day, then you are dead weight to them. YouTube has been fed so much ad-revenue and traffic that they have grown fat and lazy and allow companies and individuals to silence people who criticize them. You don't even have to go to another page, when you search "Copyright" on YouTube.com, before you see how broken YouTube's copyright system is. Anyone who says that YouTube will try to solve this whole copyright madness out of their own free choice is delusional. Will letting the government know, of how unfair and unbalanced YouTube has become, accomplish anything? I don't know, but it is better than doing nothing and letting YouTube allow abuse to its users and get away with it.
The DMCA. Originally put in place to protect creators, the "little guy", if you will, has been abused for years, with a sudden spike in this abuse during 2016. The DMCA is fantastic, in theory. The issue with it is, it operates on the honor system in a vast majority of places. And time and time again man has been able to prove they are far from capable of utilizing the honor system properly. Unfortunately, on sites such as YouTube, people can easily file copyright claims and strikes on videos, with the claimant often benefiting even in the event they lied. The defendant, the creator, the "little guy" as mentioned earlier, is rendered unable to fight back and too often winds up silenced. We use YouTube as an example here because it is arguably most abused here, and has the most drastic impact on those affected. People upload videos for a living, and if their channel gets taken down and money gets stolen by fraudulent claimants, they're out of a job. There are entire COMPANIES that make their money via fraudulent claims, and this obviously is not okay. The DMCA and content creators on video-sharing sites like YouTube would benefit immensely if the copyright claim system was revised. The claimant should be able to provide solid evidence the defendant did violate copyright, and in cases on YouTube where monetization is taken away in the event of a copyright strike, the money taken away should not be given to the potentially lying claimant, but rather stored in a side account until the matter is resolved. YouTube defendants should be able to fight off as many claims as necessary, not just three. False claimants deserve punishment as well, and that I'll leave up to you. Lastly, cases need human involvement beyond that of the claimant and defendant. Someone with the video sharing site staff needs to review the claim and ensure it isn't't fraudulent. Make a whole branch of staff out of it if you have to, which you likely would if we're talking about a big site like YouTube. In conclusion, the DMCA and Fair Use require massive revision to prevent content creators from suffering fraudulent claims, claimants of fraudulent claims need repercussions, and cases need human investigation to ensure they are legitimate claims. #WTFU
btw. how am I supposed to make a youtube channel if my work is at steak by monopoly's and Viacom. I cant do anything if all my work gets shot down by big players. do not allow companies to abuse the law
As a viewer of new media on sites such as YouTube, I have witnessed abuse of copyright law from several large companies who seem to either wish to silence criticism or misguidedly attempt to bring profits back to themselves without any regard for both the producers or consumers of media. DMCA claims are being used to harm people's free speech, criticism, and creativity.
I believe that there needs to be strong and effective penalties on those parties who issue false and fraudulent DMCA claims on media creators.
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I am an aspiring writer for the film industry and I personally think that it's unfair that content creators are getting bullied like this even though that, if anything, they're helping projects get recognition. These studios are hiring these bots that take down videos without warning, even if they are in Fair Use. But at this point, people have just given up. YouTube channel NFKRZ recently had several of his videos taken down and legal action threatened against him over the song he used in his intro, even though A. it was well within fair use and B. the artist threatening him was only the featured artist on the track, the main artist actually gave him permission to use the song and was completely with NFKRZ on all of this. But, NFKRZ gave in and decided to change his intro song and private the videos that had the original intro song in them. However, we can't give in to this, it is well within our right to use clips from any form of media to make a point or to just stand out from the rest. Not only that, but the channels that are not within fair use (like most reaction channels) get a free pass because they bring in the money. YouTube needs to start prioritizing creativity over money. That's all I'm going to say for now...
Abuse of the system is greatly shown on YouTube.
I am an avid watcher of created content on youtube and other video sharing sites, as well as an occasional content creator myself. Almost all content on youtube relies on fair use laws that allow for the use of content for critique, criticism, and comment.
Big corporations have been using the system of DMCA takedowns to takedown content for absolutely no reason. They make claims on videos to keep people from criticizing their creations and to steal money from honest creators.
Companies have made claims on videos of people TALKING about a movie that was according to popular opinion, horrible, and the worst part was there was ABSOLUTLY NO COPYRIGHTED CONTENT present in the vide, simply two people in a car talking. Yet the broken system of DMCAs allowed the company to take down this video, simply because they didn't want people badmouthing their movie.
I implore you to read the facts below and realize that if any of these cases were to actually go to court, the companies would lose. They would get laughed out of the courtroom by the judge. Yet they can use as broken a system as patent trolls do to steal money from hardworking people and prevent free speech.
Overall, the DMCA is being Abused. It is used to take down critics who abide by fair use, simply because filmmakers don't like their opinion. Filmmakers are seriously crippling a Constitutional Right, that every American has the right to speak what's on their mind and to give commentary.
#WTFU
I have seen opportunities arise, communities grow, brilliant people emerge, and wonderful new forms of education and entertainment flourish through mediums like Youtube over the years. Unfortunately I have also seen this development repressed, inspiration quashed, and dedicated innovators repeatedly beaten down and bullied within a system whose rules they diligently abide by. At this moment, the concepts of fair use, protection of content, and equitable treatment of creators simultaneously embody a lovely ideal and a dismal result. I hope the equanimity which law espouses will become a reality in this medium soon, protecting and preserving the people composing our dreams and brightening our future.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 is outdated and has major flaws when applied to the Internet as it is currently; many content creators have suffered from lost revenue, time, effort and resources trying to deal with false copyright claims against their content, even when the content is clearly within fair use or in some cases without any copyrighted material at all.
Too many copyright claims are false, with estimates of up to a third of all copyright claims being fallacious, and the current methods used to assert copyright over a piece of digital media is too lenient towards the accuser, who does not need to present any proof of copyright to have a claim filed. When these claims are filed, due to the DMCA the content is removed immediately or other restrictions are put upon the content.
This is clearly in vast favour of the copyright claimant, whose claim is instantly taken as legitimate and does not require any proof of copyright, while the content creator must file a written counter-claim which is typically not analysed for extended periods of time (up to a full month), during which they will not receive any revenue for advertising or any other methods which they use to gain income from their content.
I understand that the DMCA is a valuable tool which is necessary for any copyright holder, especially in the current technological age, but it is being abused far too easily - there must be an amendment to the act which either requires more evidence to be presented and analysed for the legitimacy of the copyright claim or a method for creators to hold false claimants responsible for their abuse if there is to be freedom of expression on the Internet.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is an extremely outdated system of copyright management that was designed for an older and far outdated version of the internet. Since 1998, which is the year that the DMCA was put in place, the landscape of the internet and the content that populates it has changed GREATLY.
The DMCA allows for automated systems to be put in place that enable corporations to scan and automatically remove pieces of work that they detect contains a segment of their copyrighted material. This system is disastrous, and absolutely does NOT account for fair use, a law that allows copyrighted property to be used if the intended purpose is to be critical of the original work. Many content creators exist today on the internet that have made it their livelihood to produce fair use reviews for websites like YouTube, and have build large audiences doing this. However, even though the work they create and their usage of copyrighted clips and material is entirely legal as it is protected by fair use law, many creators online feel extremely threatened and vulnerable due to abuse of the DMCA system by large corporations.
On YouTube, huge film studios often choose to censor negative opinions of their movies by filing copyright claims on critical videos, which can either get the video removed entirely, or have the ad revenue from the video stolen from them by whatever entity claims it. The dispute system in place is heavily slanted in favor of the claimant, and ultimately works only for their benefit. This is the result of the DMCA giving companies the freedom to have anything they want censored at a whim online, simply because it contains (fairly used) segments from their copyrighted material.
One important thing to note is that when fraudulent claims are disputed, almost no company actually chooses to pursue the case in court, because they know the verdict would rule in favor of the creator. This demonstrates that they are FULLY AWARE that their claims are not justified, and yet they still file them either to steal as much money as they can from the creator during the dispute process (during which point they are given monetization rights to the video), or in an attempt to intimidate the creator into handing over rights to the video. These kinds of practices are driven by nothing more than corporate greed and legal knowledge of an ancient system that they know they can abuse, and it must be stopped for the sake of freedom of speech on the internet.
Some companies even go as far as to create multiple "fake" accounts in order to continually claim a video, even after it as been disputed on one account. This way, they are able to keep making money from the video no matter what. I want to emphasize that this kind of thing is not a rare occurrence online, and fair use videos are getting removed and claimed DAILY, even when they should rightfully be able to stay up. All this intimidation and censorship creates an enviroment of fear for budding content creators online, and majorly stifles the creativity and free flowing of new art and entertainment.
Thank you for taking the time to hear our concerns, and I hope deeply that action is taken to fix all these problems.
Wow. Just wow.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is phirotected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I am new to YouTube, and I'm already seeing the imperfections of the current DMCA laws. It's happened to me first hand before but only on 2 of my videos which do not get many views, but my usage of the footage was used transformatively, and I lost revenue for those 2 videos. But I lost my videos nonetheless. And I've witnessed people like I Hate Everything and Doug Walker get taken down for videos under abuse of DMCA laws. DMCA needs to be changed ASAP. I do not have enough experience in this field but I still know DMCA must be changed.
asasasasas
DMCA is abused to steal money, blackmail, silence criticism and this is done without thought or repercussion. It is done through shell companies and automation, Fair Use is seemingly never taken into consideration and large companies have taken to using this system to their advantage forcing smaller users out of the market. New businesses with no claim to any copyrights are able to pretend that they are and fraudulently shut people down and intercept their income.
This is all weighted to the side of large corporations with no downside to wild misuse of the power and no defence for small content creators. Critics are made to remove unfavourable reviews, the income from favourable ones is stolen through YouTube's flagging system. The law must be updated for the sake of creators, consumers and the reputations of all involved.
Protect legitimate free speech!
It heavily favors big corporate interests. It allows them to abuse it with automated take down requests which can take days or weeks to contest, and when you contest them, they can just deny your request and pretty much have little recourse. It allows them to be very heavy handed about not allowing for any legitimate fair use, and in some cases can cause the actual rights holder to have to spend inordinate amounts of time on their claim. For example, NASA had video taken down by DMCA because a youtube news video used their free to use footage in their news article and their bot detected a match in NASA's video and issued an automated DMCA takedown on it. Its so easy to abuse like this and contesting a takedown is orders of magnitude harder and more expensive than the takedown itself. And guess who has a bigger legal department.
As of the past year, it seems that the struggle for YouTube Content Creators has gotten much harder than its ever been, and this is because many companies are weaponizing the Claiming system on YouTube. Censoring anyone who they deem bad for their products reputations. Negative reviews, sharing what a product is truly giving you, are being removed and punishing the person for trying to tell the world what they thought of what they bought. Even if a company is "Generous" enough to let them keep the video online, they still win by being able to take all profits that video generates, creating a huge problem for the people who do this for a living. Reviewers, Critics, or anyone else who has a thought to share about someone else's product should not have to pay them, or be punished in order to share their own thoughts on it. Some people go as far as to not even show any footage, or play any music from what they are reviewing, and they still are censored or punished with loss of money. As it stands, the creator has everything to loose, and the companies have everything to gain. Having no punishment for false claims, and being able to trample over as much fair use as they desire. So why is it fair that people who work hard to provide us with the truth, are punished for sharing your thoughts with the world? And why are the companies who punish us allowed to walk off scratch free? To put it simply, change is needed.
Please, make YouTube a better place again. Make it a place where YouTubers aren't afraid to post content and get strikes for false reasons. #WTFU #MakeYouTubeGreatAgain #ProtectYouTubers
Hey, the DMCA has not affected me personally but it does affect the whole of the Internet. The DMCA is abused by companies that don't like someone's review of a movie. Even videos that don't have copyrighted music in them are taken down for no reason what so ever. Shell company's will give a claim on you tube to protect the company that sends the claim.
I've watched my favorite Youtube personalities struggle with false DMCA claims ever since Youtube first started. The system is broken and it needs to be fixed NOW. People would get a claim regardless if a video is within fair use or not. The people issuing the strikes would do it to censor criticism they don't like, harass other people into submission, threaten people, lie, or just to try and steal someones revenue. This needs to stop otherwise people will continue to suffer through this and get oppressed by people who have no right to issue these claims. The people who issue these claims get no penalty whatsoever, your guilty until proven innocent and they take all the money no matter what. The money does not get returned to the victim and they have to wait till 30 days just for the claim to expire. And even then they attackers will reinstate the claim so it's an endless battle until someone backs down.
We need change, and the change needs to start now, hold these people accountable for their actions, hold Youtube accountable for these actions. People are breaking Youtube's community guidelines and they don't care as long as they rake in the money. Please put a stop to false claims and hold people who issue them accountable. Make it so people are required to show evidence of copyright at the moment they issue it. Make it so the revenue is on hold until someone wins the claim.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use on platforms like YouTube that utilize a separate version to stay current to the digital age. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Copyright holders strike content under fair use because they got their feelings hurt. They should not be allowed to do that.
Many websites and social media outlets are currently using a copyright identity system that can be abused by holders, abusive and ignorant to creators, and biased in favor of companies who can willingly bully individuals, all while ignoring the copyright laws put up on their own website. Please add a punishment to the system that a false copyright strike can result in just as much punishment as receiving one. The people of these websites ask that copyright laws be upheld, but also that the laws for their own legal use of property (parodies, film reviews, and discussions) be respected more as well. Thank you.
Some companies believe that they are above the law. It's the job of the government to tell them that they are not.
#WTFU #MakeYoutubeGreatAgain
The internet has become a scary place due to this biased and easily abusable system that was put into use almost 20 years ago! With this old system in place, so many content creators have had their voices silenced by greedy corporations (with no care for the 1st ammendment) just to earn a quick dollar- most of which resulting in the content creator being punished for something they never did.
Websites (such as YouTube) also don't help the situation when they have all the money made from that video go directly towards the person who made the copyright claim and, even if the claim is false, the creator gets 0% of their money back.
How can something like this be acceptable in today's society? A society that relies so heavily on the internet for entertainment and fast feedback on some form of intellectual property, still relies on such an old and bias system that it is time for it to change as many upcoming content creators are, unfortunately, scared to continue on with something like YouTube as a profession due to the constant harassment and unfai criticism that comes from a company which already has too much money.
Moving past this prewritten response I would go on to say that number of instances where I've seen someone falsely flagged by DMCA take down in cases of fair use for something such as critique, or review, or simply in using a product in making their own original video, is far to high. And by that I mean I have seen this kind of thing happen, unfairly, to bigger channels even, having their entire channels deleted or suspended on websites such as YouTube where it is primarily the issue. Now, in most instances these channels are able to resolve the case, but that often seems to be due to an influx of complaints from the viewership of these channels, there are likely far more unheard of cases where someone simply doesn't have the viewership to warrant an extra response from the DMCA.
Another of the biggest problems I have with how the current system functions is that these claims not only can be made by third parties posing for actual companies, which is a problem in and of itself, but it is the fact that there is no kind of dispute before hand. If a claim is filed against you, you are punished and treated as if it were true by default having to then prove your innocence. This stands contrary to many of the principles of the United States, to Justice, and to a free and open society. Furthermore, if you try to appeal the claim and fail once then you cannot attempt to appeal it again and are stuck with a permanent strike on your account which then limits the length, and therefore the type, of content that can be uploaded to your channel.
I stand on the side of protected freedom of speech, against government, corporate, and cultural censorship. There are far too many glaring errors in the system as it stands that it can even attempt to state that it can stand on the same ground as these values due to its many loopholes, corporate bias, and act first ask later approach are detrimental to the free internet that is so fundamental to our society and its growth.
Far too many people and companies abuse the Internet and destroy individual creators under false claims. This discourages creativity and personal projects, something sites like YouTube were founded upon. Large companies are almost building a monopoly on material from the Internet, ignoring basic laws to make a quick buck by copyrighting videos they have nothing to do with.
Copyright holders are allowed to silence others and profit off their hard work without any proof or court order. They simply say they can. This is easily abused by individuals who may not be affiliated with such companies, but desire to silence others and potentially profit.
What's worse is that robots, not humans, flag and automatically take down content when it believes a post contains the companies product (which it usually doesn't).
people must realize that simply because part of a song or video is included in a post does not equal theft or copyright infringement. Content such as reviews and parodies, which are protected as valid, are often victims of false claims. While many have tried and succeeded in combating these false claims, their reputations and incomes could still be negatively affected for unjust reasons. This is technically illegal as it stifles free speech, America's First Amendment right.
This is unacceptable and hurtful to free speech and fair use. This can not be allowed to continue.
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I would like to add to the description above. This needs to be stopped. People should not have to live in fear that their Tweets, Facebook posts, YouTube videos, and the like will be taken down for unfair reasons. Some people rely on things such as YouTube as a job, and taking down the channel they use would inevitably mean they are unemployed. The unemployment rate at current in America is at 4.9 percent as of February of this year, 2016. As for the United Kingdom, unemployment rates are at around 5.1 percent as of the same time, February 2016, both according to TradingEconomics.com.
So, may I ask, do you leaders really wish for unemployment to be higher? YouTube is only one place this issue lies; however, upon the ending of this case, I am hoping that fair use spans the entire internet. Freedom of speech is one thing included here. But yet, in America, where freedom of speech and press are protected under our Constitution, it is being taken away. Is this truly acceptable?
Those are just two things in this whole case. There are hundreds more that I support and hope will be listened to. The abuse of various administration and copyright systems on a number of websites is unacceptable, and the things the DMCA does to influence these flawed systems is also quite unacceptable. So, in the name of our future with the internet, I ask, Where Is The Fair Use? Well, my dear American Government and Copyright Office, that is in your hands. I sincerely hope you will protect our rights to usage of media, and that the internet as a whole will indeed change for the better.
Signed,
Isaac Gibbs
I strongly believe the structure of the DMCA needs to be revisited with the modern internet in mind.
I believe it is important for rights holders to be able to protect their property.
I however also believe that the current implementation of shoot first, ask questions later automated content take downs is damaging to further creative development.
Original content needs reasonable protection, but fair use requires the same level of protection as well. Too often the DMCA in its current form is used to take down valid transformative work.
The take downs of critique based content is particularly worrisome.
I support the idea of revisiting the DMCA to better implement both copyright protection and fair use protection in the context of modern media content creation and distribution.
Youtube is a sh*t-show right now. The fair-use policy is being completely ignored and that's obvious, with channels like Soflo and Sam Pepper staying up with no problems despite the fact that they are clearly stealing content that they didn't create. While channels like I Hate Everything and Channel Awesome, who create original entertaining content, are getting copyright strikes and even getting their channels TAKEN DOWN even though they are staying within the boundaries of fair use.
That's not even mentioning the false copyright claims. Random jackasses have been filing false claims against channels and making money off of their videos. It's not okay that this system can be abused like that. They aren't asked for proof, they just get it. Once the claim is removed, though, the original content creator doesn't even get his/her money back, and the false claimer gets to keep it. What the f*ck.
Good channels with original content are getting punished for no reason while sh*tty content like "reaction videos" (a video where a person sits down and watches another person's video ALL THE WAY THROUGH without adding anything to the experience, usually not even providing feedback or any kind of constructive talk) and "prank videos" (Usually about someone harassing other people and in general being a total d*ckhead) get to thrive as they please. This needs to change.
Even my channel Fungusaur, with a grand total of 15 subscribers, is at risk. I don't want my content to be stolen or falsely accused of being stolen and I don't want to suffer because I put effort and soul into my videos.
Change is very much needed and very much appreciated.
The current system is incredibly biased in favor of corperations and has little to no accountability or oversight. One of my friends create an online video with two components, one was just 100% created content (her drawing), and then used freely available music under the creative commons license, stating that as long as credit was given it can be used.
Immediately after it was posted, not even 5 seconds after, an automated system claimed her video was infringing on copyright, and claimed all monetization of the video. The copyright claimer was NOT associated with any of the actual copyright holders of the music. It was a company that automaticity swept You Tube, and monetized people videos with out the copyright holders consent, or any revenue going back to them.
This means any company can register in the current system, claim to have copyrights, monetize peoples videos, and take the money from going to the actual copyright holders OR the people who are using it legally to make their own money off of Fair Use.
This is affecting even hobbyists. It allows for companies to simply claim content and money, regardless of actual ownership, take any revenue from it, regardless of any actual claim or ownership. And my friend can do nothing. As someone who does this as a hobby, she is unable to fight the claim, and will never see any revenue from this, and it has significantly decreased her desire to do this in the future.
On a personal note: multiple projects, channels and etc have been adversely affected by the very law that Copyright is supposed to protect. Completely taken down, erased from the internet because someone decided that they couldn't handle criticism or fair use. This needs to end now, this constant abuse of freedom of speech and fair use.
Make YouTube Great Again.
The strength of a site like YouTube is that is a platform in which anyone with a camera and an internet connection can have a voice. Unfortunately, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has been twisted into a tool used to suppress opinions that copyright holders don't like, weather there is a legal foundation for a claim or not.
This includes videos that only involve two people on-screen speaking about a movie and not showing pictures or play audio from said film. This is not the action of a company sensibly protecting its assets, it's a way for them to silence any views about their product that they didn't pay for. Companies which continuously file multiple claims that have no legal foundation must be held accountable for the losses they inflict.
I am only 19, and last July I was in a 55 mph head on collision. I had a collapsed lung, and should have died. I was airlifted home to a hospital and went through surgery without pain killers or anesthesia. In the months following where I have been stuck at home going through surgeries I use sites like youtube as my main source of entertainment. I cannot describe the joy and inspiration that some of these channels have provided to me. Channel Awesome created by Doug Walker is one of thousands affected by these outdated policies. He and his reviews that constitute as fair use, have been constantly harassed and attacked by shell companies that will not stop abusing this system. Even AFTER disputing the copyright claims, they constantly receive more claims on the SAME VIDEO. Not only does this affect their progress, but their livelyhood. Their monetary income from these videos HALTS and is given to the company that claimed the video EVEN before the claim has a chance to be disputed. And on top of not making any money during this period, they STILL put out content for fans like me. They helped me make it through every day after the wreck and many more following. The least I can do for them is fight for their rights. And this is a fight that has gone on too long. Please, examine these laws and update them.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. They get all of the power in the dynamic between copyright holders and those who use their material fairly - when the user is in the right, fighting the ignorant or silencing copyright holders is a lengthy and exhausting process. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I make reviews or commentary videos on YouTube regarding a specific animated series, and it is incredibly frustrated getting flagged multiple times with copyright strikes, even though my videos fall under fair use.
I get multiple strikes on the same video, even after it has already been cleared.
And YouTube just allows the copyright holder to review everything and decide whether or not they want to take down my video, instead of having an impartial third party also review the content.
My videos get repeatedly blocked worldwide and I get threats of sue even though my videos meet all legal requirements.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Honestly the internet has changed so much but the laws regarding it are out of date. There is so much I could say, that anyone internet-savvy could say. You can search this up; it isn't that hard. Videos and other media could be taken down for no reason despite a bogus claim, for instance I could post a video on youtube of me talking about my day while I stand in front of blank wall, if a claim is made, bye bye video. The reason given is usually wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiuKWM8nqxw
It would unconstitutional to not change the laws regarding this.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) as it currently is, is being heavily abused by corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has harmed, and scared away those who wish to express themselves on the internet either through creativity, politically, or commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA seriously needs to be updated to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have unfortunately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
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In my personal experience on YouTube, out of approximately 15 content-id claims that have been filed against my channel, only one was valid - the rest were either mistaken, music I had written artist permission to use, or outright fraudulent claims.
Despite my care in not violating others copyright, I always hesitate to contest a claim. To contest a claim is to risk having a content id strike on my channel if the claimant so desires - so for the most part I've simply edited my videos to remove the claimed music, despite in almost all casings, being in the clear.
In the end, I've simply had to stifle my creativity and only use Creative Commons music from Kevin McLeod - because he is willing to help in the removal of fraudulent claims. I've had to stop using music I have written artist permission to use - because if they've ever had a third party publish it for them, I start getting content-id claims on their music.
I haven't personally experienced someone using content-id claims to stifle my views, but I have heard of others who have on YouTube. The DMCA as it exists, and is currently being used, is stifling creativity on the internet, stealing through false claims from content creators wallets, and being used as a club to silence critics making fair use of content.
The DMCA badly needs to be updated for today's internet.
Thank you,
Susan G. McManus
While I don't know much about the laws as a whole, it's pretty clear that the whole process of suspending content while the creator did nothing wrong is pretty much unfair, especially if it's the only source of income for the said creator. While before it hasn't been much of an issue, in this age, when pretty much anyone can put some stuff together to share with the world. And, of course, there should be some kind of punishment for false accusation. I mean, if the claim is right, then there's nothing to fear, but these shots in the dark won't get us anywhere.
The current DMCA is too outdated, not accounting for the internet as it stands at this moment. Too many companies are taking down videos even when the videos themselves clearly fall under fair use, and even if the video only contains a few seconds of content that is publicly distributed anyway. Too many copyright holders file copyright claims not because the video violates copyright, but because the video said something the person didn't like. Too many copyright holders are using the DMCA with malicious intent, inconveniencing the content creators without any kind of repercussions of their own. This seriously needs to stop. The internet isn't just a place to go shopping or watch videos, but also a place where creativity can thrive and take new forms. However, with the current DMCA, too many people and corporations try to stifle that creativity in the name of "protecting" themselves, as if creativity is a bad thing. It seriously needs to come to an end.
The DMCA needs to be updated, desperately. There needs to be a way for content creators to protect themselves against false claims. "Guilty until proven innocent" is unacceptable and needs to change. It needs to stop being so completely one sided. Copyrighted materials and the laws protecting them just simply are too archaic to account for today's standards. For the sake of creativity, innovation, and fairness, please, update the DMCA.
Company's are breaking the law and getting away with it by abuseing this system.
Many companies abuse the Youtube copyright system, some companies have used DMCA's when they don't own a piece of work. Furthermore when a DMCA is used on a Youtube channel the creator, even if the creator doesn't infringe, the copyright laws the creator can loose their ability to make money on their video, which is a huge problem considering more and more people make a living from making Youtube videos. And far too many times do companies make copyright claims on videos that they clearly do not own. This is such a big problem that third parties can make a living by doing this. Furthermore, some companies use DMCA's as a way to threaten youtubers. It is unfair, unjust and violates our right to the freedom of speech, so I, as well as many other people beg you to change DMCA's, as well as to find where the fair use went.
I have been watching certain peoples videos on Youtube. It annoys me when these videos that are taking about the films, or a form of entertainment are not allowed to show any footage from a form of copyrighted art. When an internet reviewer is talking about a film it is spoiling the film, and prevents people from seeing it. In fact it increases people to go watch the videos. I want to do something entertainment wise, but when I hear stories about films being taken down because of these claims frustrates me. I did a film with my buddy, and at the very end they played Bob Dylan, "The times they are a changin". That film was taking down. He even posted a creidit indicated how he used the song in the movie. The movie was made with a less then 50$ budget, but it was made with a lot of love.
The current laws are being used to harm and threaten people on the Internet. It's destroying people
DMCA in practice has hurt the Internet more than it has helped. Currently the DMCA systems of enforcement are used as a tool to censor criticism and reviews. There is a need for the Internet to not be a safe haven of illegal material on the Internet, but DMCA law is overwhelmingly being used to simply silence others. Fair use is a vital necessity and it is increasingly being ignored by companies and producers. The internet needs to have a fair and reasonable system that peanalizes companies for the unlawful and unjust abuse of DMCA laws. Protect the Internet, but never compromise free speech.
I'm tired of copyright holders being able to automatically silence fair use and criticism of their work. Abuse is one thing, but biasing in favor of automatic, no-questions-asked censorship is the wrong step to take; in the arena of free speech, it allows guilt to be presumed from the outset without even keeping a human in the loop.
I understand that protecting copyright is a legitimate concern, but free speech in fair use and critique are, as well.
Thank you,
Nate Turner
Speaking as a creator, I am constantly having to keep my content that is considered "fair use" secret due to how easily the notice and takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) can be abused. I do not want to be afraid of a law that was made to protect content creators and ask that this system be revised. This system not only harms our culture, but also our future.
The notice-and-takedown process is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Content creators have been the victims of abuse of the DMCA by all manner of individuals and companies that seek to do everything from stifling or even censoring honest and objective criticism for the sake of their profits, to stealing revenue from content creators by making false copyright claims that have nothing to do with the actual content they're reporting. Content creators like those on YouTube need attention now more than ever, and they need our help immediately. Allowing this to go on with nothing being done to stop false claims and the abuse and exploitation of gaping DMCA loopholes, or to protect content creators that actually DO follow the rules, we are allowing, and honestly encouraging, theft; theft of revenue and oft times irreparable damage to people's livelihoods utterly bereft of consequences. Doing nothing and making zero changes to the now-archaic laws currently in place is essentially creating a form of government-sanctioned criminals. Criminals that currently have a way to hinder free speech. It doesn't make sense, it's not right, and most importantly, it's not fair. Where's the "fair" use?
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I have seen meany people have problems were people who don't have the right on their videos take them down. This is wrong peoples jobs are on the line here and this is a real problem.
I even want to start making YouTube videos of lets plays and reviews but I am afraid to. Pleas help all the people so they can still bring great content to everyone.
""I'm in""
Critics today have moved to YouTube with overwhelming success. This is the new normal for the internet. But the DMCA is not what it needs to be. It needs to be updated for the new critic genre.
DMCA is being used to inflict harm on creators that simply have their voice and no copyright music or video footage. It is being used as a tool for harassment and needs to be taken a look at. People are getting pushed around all the time, in fact, one of the YouTubers that I watch had his channel taken down by getting a copyright strike on a video made LAST YEAR. The DMCA no longer encompasses all that it should since it has become outdated in for today's internet.
•Many of my friends and people I know have suffered because they can't express themselves fairly under Fair Use.
The DMCA benefits mostly corporate interests and intimidates the smaller content creator. It has been used despite current fair use laws, and sometimes even as a method of censorship of opinion (such as criticizing a negative review of a movie). Even in some cases, it leads to companies claiming original content that isn't even their's. People can do this without any repercussion and can lead to a loss of revenue.
The DMCA should be re-written to protect smaller content creators, and adapted to the modern internet and how media is consumed today.
I think the Machiavellian like nature of the current DMCA does not work in today's time. DMCA should not be allowed to be claimed on a review piece or analysis of someone's work, not matter how they do it. People shouldn't feel guilty for having a few seconds of a song, movie or TV show in a video. There needs to be penalties for falsely accusing content creators of completely stealing their work when it falls under fair use or is not even that company's property to begin with. Big corporations are thieving money away from people that earn money to live off of youtube as a job. Most videos earn their worth in the intial 72 hours, but it goes to the company instead of the content creator... regardless if it is there product or not.
-Alexander Roberts (aka Crimson Revenant on Youtube)
I respect and understand the reason for this laws, however, the only way this process can work is with real people who can see the difference between which content is in fair use and which is not.
I study computer engineering and I know that machines and algorithms aren't perfect. The programs can make mistakes, which can leave innocent people to unemployment.
People of Copyright Office. Ever since I have started watching new channels on the website Youtube.com such as: "I Hate Everything", "The Nostalgia Critic", and "many others", there has been complaints going on about how their videos along with other people's channels are being taken down. The question is: "What is going on?" Why are false claims being put on those who follow the rules of the video site? Why aren't the claims being posed on those who are making videos that break many of the rules of YouTube's Community Guidelines? There are many good people on the channel whom are following the rules of Youtube, but yet they are the ones getting in trouble by either other users on Youtube who break the rules, or even people who run large corporations etc. You have to do something about this. The fake DMCA take downs cannot be happening. The internet was made for many of us to chat, post, make videos, and so much more with friends and family. But with these false take downs going on, it is causing the people who make these various videos, post, and chats in a good way really stressed out. You are supposed to be attacking the people who BREAK the rules of guidelines on whatever website they may be using. Those who FOLLOW the rules need to be left alone. This situation cannot get to a point where being a good user is bad, but yet being a bad user is good. How is that even possible? You need to realize this and actually do your job! People have a right to opinion/free speech, and there should be no reason whatsoever to shut them down, because either corporations, or a fake claimants didn't agree with what that certain person may have said. The world is filled with many peoples opinions. Including people like me and you. Yes we may get mad, but that doesn't mean we just hurt that person because of having differences or how harsh they may sound. Opinion is opinion, and we all have a right to say what we want to say about certain things. The world is not perfect. And you can't just shut everyone up just to make it perfect. You need to put a stop to this. Many of us are sure that even YOU use the internet yourself, and you pretty much enjoy it don't you? So do many of the men, women, and children who are on here! I ask you... no, not only me, but many of us as men women and children on the internet, are asking you to stand up and put a stop to these false claimants and make the internet a good place. Future generations are going to be using this kind of new technology when they are born, and they can't use it, if there is someone watching their every move and taking their stuff down whether a video is fan made, opinionated, or something else etc. PLEASE DO SOMETHING! Right now with what is going on, the entire internet is possibly at stake, and you have one day to make the decision. And it needs to be the right one. Free Speech was a right of one of the "FIRST 10 Amendments of the U.S Constitution"; so that amendment NEEDS to be followed, and enforced in the BEST way. And it needs to STAY that way. The internet could be at stake because of people wanting MONEY, and claiming other peoples hard work. First of all, some of these claimants may not even OWN the stuff that a certain user has made online. People are actually filing claims to STEAL other peoples money! Literally! And there needs to be a stop to this! You can't just create something for everyone to use, then all of a sudden switch everything up and mess with the way people are doing things. NO. The Internet is something we all enjoy and it NEEDS to be that way ALWAYS. PLEASE, many of us are telling you, many of us are asking you, heck, many of us are probably BEGGING you to take down these false claims. Because if you don't....then what is the point of internet period? Do You understand what me and many other internet users are trying to say? Do something! You need to do the right thing, and it needs to be DONE NOW! We hope that you understand what we as a people on the internet want. WE are the people of the internet in the U.S and possibly the WORLD that makes it so great with our creativity, good and bad comments, and just showing everyone around the world what we are capable of doing! Whether it be smart, dumb, funny, serious, all of that! U.S Copyright Office, we DEMAND that you do something now. And it needs to be done...IMMEDIATELY!!! Listen to what the people want! This is a DEMOCRACY! It applies for this country and the people, and it includes everything that the people use. INCLUDING THE INTERNET! So PLEASE...Do something about this. And make the right choice. Not just for me... EVERYONE, on the internet as a whole.
I personally think that it's complete bullshit that many corporations and people abuse the fair use policy and harm my favorite YouTubers. I'm not a video creator, but I'm gonna support them with this comment and I hope that this make a huge impact on the YouTube community and the Internet as a whole.
If There is one I hate, it's seeing my favorite creators have their content or even their channel get remove because of some bullshit claim about them using a short clip from a film, Game, or songwithout permission, despite the fact that the creators have fair use. This abuse of power needs to stop.
I never had any personal conflict with these copyright systems in the past since I've never uploaded anything to YouTube or any other media, but one of my dreams is to become a video game reviewer on YouTube, I was inspired by several other critics on the same web page and I decided that I want to try it on my own style... But then I see things like Nostalgia Critic (Doug Walker) getting copyright strikes, losing his monetization, and getting videos taken down for ridiculous coopyright claims that were never right and should have never gone past the attempt of existing, or the case with the youtuber I Hate Everything, he lost his channel for a while because he made a review of a bad movie and the creator of said movie tried all he could to silence him. My point with this is, how safe do we feel with the current events? Not at all, during all the time I have been planning on becoming a youtuber, of going out there and sharing my content with everyone just for the joy of doing it, I have been worried of people who abuse systems like this one just to make a profit out of it, I have been worried of those huge companies that make copyright claims non-stop, left and right to go even further and sue me for things that I have the right to do but no one seems to care, I know greed has no boundries, I know that abusive people would do anything to shut down whatever they dislike being as brutal as possible.
Right now I am not making this for me, but for those youtubers that I admire and to keep the website that I love and many more as a place where justice is being kept, where laws are being imposed, people who do good can enjoy the site and people who do bad are stopped, I want to help on this for Nostalgia Critic, I Hate Everything, Jim Sterling, JonTron, ProJared, PeanutButterGamer, AlphaOmegaSin, The Completionist, Caddicarus, The Game Theorists, The Angry Video Game Nerd, Grade A Under A, SMG4, Smooth McGroove, Tsuko G., String Player Gamer, and so many more who could eventually suffer do to faulty systems like this, what they do has become their job, their favourite hobby, something that they truly love and that can help them to keep going on, and if someone comes here and erases all of that just because they personally don't like this or because they're greedy, they should be stopped in an istant and have an appropiate punishment for that, as it is for everyone who does something wrong.
I apology for the long comment, but I wanted to make clear why I find this to be so unacceptable from a legal and moral point of view. I count on you to help these people who need your help so desperately.
Thank you very much for this opportunity for all the content creators on the world.
I am well aware that this comment is unlikely to be read by anyone, as it is one of hundreds, thousands of others just like it. We don't need anyone to read my comment, or any others like it. What we need is for people to see the sheer amount of people who wish to bring a change to this broken system for copyright laws and end the tyrannous corporations that reign supreme over content creators everywhere.
We live in the information age. The age where everything we need or want to know is at our fingertips. We can learn or teach whatever we want with the simple press of a button. The world is as open to sharing content as it has ever been, but with the current laws, the peoples' freedom has been rendered fragile. It is unbelievably easy to forsake all that the existence of the internet has led up to.
Companies can freely take down or monetize whatever they want, simply by saying that it's against their rights. People like Derek Savage and the company "Merlin" are aware of this, and are taking advantage of these circumstances. These outdated and broken laws are being bent out of proportion for the sake of a quick buck or because they didn't like what someone said. In reality, this "copyright infringement" is subject to fair use.
These rules need to be changed. They have not been changed in a very long time, and do not conform to the modern age of the internet. We live in a world of creators and creations, we don't want it to all get ruined by some fraudulent company looking to get a bit more money out of the smaller guy's hard work. Don't let this continue. Let our voices be heard.
Censorship destroys freedom of expression.
copyright holders and too commonly used content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
This system is not only outdated, but it simply allows for corporate and even citizens to strip me of my rights to freedom of speech. It allows companies to issue quick and easy forced shut downs without justification. This takes away people's income in the modern world. It is not fair to allow companies to work through a system of guilty until proven innocent, especially without them facing repercussions for false accusations. To allow this system to continue is a complete violation to everything the government's involvement stands for. They are supposed to protect the masses as well as their rights, and this is allowing the public to be manipulated by anyone, even if they don't own the content they claim to.
Many internet videos and content creators on the internet have been punished while still practicing fair use. Multiple companies in the past have even used this as a way to silence critiques of their products. Youtube channel TotalBiscuit,TheCynicalBrit for example, was given a copyright strike for negatively reviewing "Day One: Garry's Incident" by WildGamesStudio, who claimed that the channel cannot make money from their intellectual property. This company did this despite the fact that they gave this channel the permission to review it as well giving the channel a review copy of the game. This is not an isolated incident.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works. Those who abuse the system willingly to take down content despite that content being within the confines of fair use should be punished in some way.
I do not personally don't monetize my videos (yet) but I did receive a claim from a company that I am 100% certain that did not own the rights to the music mentioned in the claim.
I'm a frequent user of the internet, and as someone who continually use the internet for both entertainment and information, I find that by the time that the information that is needed to be reintroduced has been deleted, removed suspended or terminated.
I as well use videos for therapy, as I recover from depression; these videos help and inform me.
It has also come to my attention that some of the site channels have been harassed, threaten and even stolen from. False channels have been made to take down others, false claims being made after the video has already been settled, even videos that have audio have been muted for copyright infringement.
So I would like to seed change in the copyright system and immediate response from a human being if a claim has been made
Thank you :)
No one should have the right to claim a video falsely either.
I find it unfair that some of my favorite internet stars are having their content removed because of things like 'copyright infringement' and sorts. Some of my favorite videos on the web are no longer available because of false claims, and now, to watch them, I have to search obscure websites or other users just to watch them. And the sad thing is, based on the information I know, they aren't using other's content for their own gain, but just using it as part of their medium. Most of the time, 90% of the video is original content, while the remains 10% is clips. I hate how some of my favorite moments on the internet are being removed completely for barely using other's.
I believe that freedom of speech and freedom to create is very important, taking away these rights is not good it's bad it's unfair and companies just keep abusing copyright online to rake in money that is not their own.
Thank you, Zane
First off, before you read any of this copypasta... I want you to know I feel rather strongly about this. I'm some kid in Virginia who uses the Internet on the daily. I see the affects of the outdated DMCA on some of the best content creators on the internet. Some of them have devoted their lives, and savings on their content but have had some videos taken down, and not all rightly so. Many have experienced the inequality of the law through this act. People abuse this act and misuse it so that creators on the Web are unjustly sentenced. Their videos are threatened and taken down; and for some people this is their livelihood. The DMCA should update in order to be fair and just on the internet. I know this may be incredibly hard to do, but it is necessary since an exorbitant amount of people use the Internet, create on the Internet, and many more in the upcoming generations will find themselves interacting perhaps even more so with the Internet. Change this Act and change the future so that future generations will experience free speech and equality on the web.
While it is legal to use algorithms and automated systems to search for possible copyright violations, the automated systems should not be able to cripple content creators by reaching some arbitrary flag count like with Youtube in which 4 flagged videos cause an automatic shutdown of a channel. The systems should instead search for copyright violations and create a list of those violations for independent human review to see if the copyrighted content is being used in a legal "Fair Use" manner.
False flagging or people who flag content they don't own the rights to should lose their ability to flag content for a minimum of 3 months up to a permanent inability to flag content for repeated false flagging. Any money lost from false flagging a piece of monetized content should be paid back to the content creator of the content that was falsely flagged.
It also REALLY pisses me off.
Many YouTubers have had strikes for showing some sense of it and reacting to show or movie, reviewing about the show or movie, and even for saying it wasn't good. It to easy for people to falsely copyright something and they don't get punished. They get all the money made from the views and if it was wrongfully copyrighted none of the money goes back to the creator that need that to make more content. it's a big problem and i hope you are able to fix it.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Many lives were affected by current DMCA Law, Including, but not limited to
I Hate Everything: (Youtuber.) Suffered an attack from Derek Savage, Creator of 'Cool Cat Saves the Kids' for critique of the movie.
Jim Sterling: (Youtuber.) Attacked with lawsuits from Digital Homicide for a critique of the companies game 'The Slaughtering Grounds'. Negative critique had his videos Flagged for Copy right infringement. Jim Sterling followed DMCA Law by using footage as Critque of the work.
League Of Super Critics: (Youtuber) Consistently attacked with false claims over Critique of movies. Some include 'Pixels (2015)', Dream Works Affiliated Film Franchises like 'Shrek', 'Kungfu Panda'.
I'm Martin. Where is the Fair Use? #WTFU
Just look at youtube. It has been hating the current Copywrite laws in place and is currently up in arms to take large corporations down that oppress certain users. And it's not the users fault. Businesses take down videos with no footage or licenced content and then claim that it was against Copywrite laws. It's no secret that there are some illegal activities happening. Please just look up #WTFU (where's the fair use).
There's so many false flagged videos when they don't infringe upon anything. They're being used to stifle free speech and simply people talking on camera with no copyrighted music or footage are being taken down. A lot of DMCA are being used without fair use being taken into consideration, and on top of the many companies think they create the law.
PS: Please do what's right and protect our freedom of speech.
On YouTube, I've subscribed to a guy named TheMysteriousMrEnter. This person has to deal with false DMCA and copyright claims very often, despite all of his videos being reviews and critiques, aka Fair Use. His reviews also get taken down once in a while due to false copyright claims by various companies, and even companies that take it down FOR OTHER COMPANIES.
A lot of YouTubers get false copyright issues like that everyday, despite almost all of these being reviews or parodies, often using only snippets of the original source material, and sometimes none at all. They should all fall under Fair Use, but greedy corporations take them down anyway. It's why some people moved to Blip.TV until that ceased to exist.
Recently, more and more channels I know of get axed by false copyright claims and takedowns, such as Doug Walker, aka the Nostalgia Critic. A wellknown internet celebrity.
Because of Doug, though, people are getting more concerned about this terror, since he's pretty wellknown and yet he's not safe from false claims and takedowns either. It makes people afraid of making their own reviews and parodies.
Since Doug Walker is wellknown, however, a little hashtag gets being spread around all over the place, #WTFU, aka Where's the Fair Use. It spreads awareness of these false copyright claims and disregard of Fair Use.
I think it's a great idea to also let the government know about #WTFU and what it stands for and against. Hopefully, they will do something that makes false copyright takedowns less common. Hopefully, they'll update the DMCA to the more current standards it so much needs.
Please stop this unjust use I have been threat and blackmailed
because of my vlogs which fall under fair use.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to these Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
You have probably already read thousands upon thousands of post such as this so I'll make mine to the point.
Creators of original content are being forced to give away ad revenue they make with their videos for about two weeks at a time. These video creators have been accused of showing images of copyrighted content within their videos, even when they legally obey copyright law. When a video is reposted, the chance for ad revenue has been lost for the creator of the content. Even if these people who put the copyright strike on the videos are proven incorrect in their assumptions, they still get to keep the ad revenue they do not own.
Things such as SOPA are merely short term solutions that will provide more inequality. A better solution is to reconstruct these laws from the ground up to bring copyright law into the 21st century.
So I, a citizen of a democracy, ask you sincerely to renew the laws that were made to be used before this moment in history was barely a thought.
This is an outdated, archaic law that desperately needs to be updates for the 21st century and onward. The internet is a different environment, and the current law heavily favors the copyright holder, who too often abuse it for a variety of reasons. There are content creators, movie critics, who don't even use actual footage from the movie they are critiquing who have their video taken down because of an unwarranted strike. This content should fall under fair use. There is nothing in those videos that infringes copyright. The law needs to be updated.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
A world without Fair Use is like a world without Freedom of Speech. Bring back the Fair Use! Now!
And as a non-US citizen, I wish that all governments from around the globe look at this issue as the internet does effect every user in every country, and so will faulty copyright systems attached to the World Wide Web.
DMCA takedowns really perpetuates bad business practices through abuse. Anyone can file dmca claims without the case ever being reviewed for fair use. This makes it easier for the claimant to stifle competition by removing it altogether and even stealing revenue from the video in question. No one wants to be a content creator on youtube out of fear of DMCA takedowns. Enough is enough, DMCA hasn't helped anyone since its conception in '98 stop these bogus take downs.
The current system makes creating content impossible, because every single video is at risk of strike and removal, even without a good reason. Please change it!
It is unfair for content creators on Youtube and any other website to abide by the rules of free use yet suffer from having false copyright flags put on their videos. It is too easy for a video to be falsely flagged, and then allow the user who gave that false flag to gain money from monetization. Far too many people have been dealing with their videos being taken down and not having any way to contact Youtube for help without receiving an automated response.
The law is not being followed, and people are getting away with it. The internet has changed over the years, and so the rules must change with it. Right now, it does not seem like there is any free use, and people, such as movie critics, are being silenced unfairly.
The DMCA is a lumbering dinosaur that big business now wields as a weapon against legitimate critiques. The biggest examples of this can be seen on video websites like youtube and vimeo. There, I've seen videos taken down with DMCA claims when it is simply people sitting around talking about a film or a song. This cannot be the intent of the DMCA, not for our country that centers on freedom of expression. The DMCA needs to be updated to reflect how today's internet has allowed everyone to become a reporter, everyone to become an analyst, everyone to have a voice. If something is not changed, those voices will continue to be stifled.
ProjectVoiceBend rocks! And even more than Lin; save it!
I have had a strike on one of my former channels that I had to get rid of and this was for a claim that was not true, so far I have had no other copy right claims yet but as i am a growing channel i fear that it will happen again. Another way it has affected me is by other fellow youtubers having the trouble as well and in most cases the channel has been shut down or has been off the internet for weeks or even months meaning people who's work is youtube have been out of action of work for months meaning they are not making any income.
As a Verified YouTube Partner, I have experienced TWO false DMCA claims on one video. I make videos explaining tips, and showing walkthroughs for video games. In one of the first videos I made, two shell companies filed false claims due to a piece of audio that was a part of the actual gameplay, not background music or anything of the sort, but an actual part of the game that is necessary to hear to advance to the next section. My video was taken down for approximately 2 months, that is two months of obtaining ZERO views while bigger channels have the same exact portion of the game in their videos, but remained unaffected.
The abuse of the DMCA system is ever increasing and the automated system needs to be reviewed or have actual people staff and review any claims. Shell groups will file a claim to protect the actual company from being under any legal fire for the false claim when the material being claimed is in fact, fair use.
Another problem with this system is when a video is made that does fall under fair use that is critical of another creator or group of creators, they will file false claims, or threaten to file the claims. This is a serious problem as the creators who are completely innocent and have done nothing wrong can have their entire channel shut down without notice, while those who clearly break the fair use policy have NOTHING happen to them.
Quite a few of us creators who monetize our videos do so to bring in extra income to make ends meet and when our work is falsely claimed, we lose that revenue while those who make the false claims pocket what we worked for.
I like many others want to see these false claims come to an end, and if that is not possible, then those who are submitting false claims to be punished appropriately. At the very least require sites like Facebook and YouTube to staff people to REVIEW any and all claims to see if they actually do break the Fair Use Policy.
To end it off, I would like to say that the entire DMCA system needs to be evaluated and replaced as the abuse and inefficiency of the system actually catching those who break Fair Use show that the system is outdated.
The DMCA was a good idea on paper. A system is required to protect copyright owners. But the DMCA has failed. Takedown notices are often used as threats on youtube, and the way it is set up, There is nothing to stop false claims. This is horribly wrong. Fair use is important, and should be protected.
P.S. my favorite youtube subscriptions now have to rewrite music that's over theres original music or videos dispite being under fair use. its killing and exploiting creativity!!!
The take down provision of the DMCA is abused much more often than it is used correctly. Additionally, the anti-circumvention section of the DMCA (1201) is harmful to citizens. Copyright is important and copyright infringment is a serious problem. However, anti-circumvention laws are not the appropriate way to deal with these issues.
I have seen many videos get taken down over false claims, like Angry Joe, he made a video on Street Fighter V before it came out and had Capcom's permission to upload it, but they still claimed it and took it down. I Hate Everything had his channel taken down, but no explanation was given to him. Even my channel that I run with my friends, while very small, had an instance where a song we had permission to use was claimed and all revenue was going to them.
Enough is enough.
I'm a fan of simple content made by simple people. With all these copyright cases, that is seriously underthreat. I think that is who it should matter to are the fans. Stop the unfair use so the common folk can enjoy content made by other common folk.
This is a broken system, with this outdated system entertainers are being held by the throat by the DMCA copyrights. Any person can flag a video for absolutely anything. People who have used three second audio clips have been flagged and in extreme cases, people have been flagged for nothing at all. This needs to change as people can flag videos with no negative repercussions and cause the entertainer to lose his money and his livelihood with no way of getting lost revenue back, this has to change. This system needs to be brought into the 21st Century.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
#WTFU
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I have bare witness to too many people abusing the current copyright law. It has been used to attack those who want to just use one of our first amendments yet those who do not agree with those opinions attack them with a law not caring that the system was not meant to limit a person's speech, but to protect those whom have already spoken from the fear of having their words taken from them. Some people don't even use copyrighted material but instead merely just talk about it, people don't even watch some of the videos they take down. Many people want a change and are fend up with the system that is used to limit their rights. This is America the land of the FREE and the home of the brave. That is what we are proud of this is what we teach our kids. So stop limiting the rights of the people by giving a power to those who do not care the consequences of their actions. This law is our of date and needs an upgrade to protect the future. I am 15 and don't want to have to wait till I am older to make that upgrade. Here is a voice from your future: Please fix this now so we do not have to do this for you later. I love America and plan on joining Air Force like my dad, but if need be I will have to add possible diplomat to the picture.
Here on the internet Copyright is practically a joke in my opinion. The DMCA Takedown was made for copyright-holders and only for those holders, it's one-sided. Not to mention companies can file DMCA takedowns illegally and get away scott-free with no repercussions whatsoever, and the content-creator suffers for doing nothing wrong or illegal. On top of that companies can file as many DMCAs as they want and again have no consequences towards they're way. Fair Use is completely ignored, it's pretty much "Hey they're showing my copyrighted work and they're saying mean things about. WAH! WAH! I want it taken down right now! WAH! WAH!" or they're mad because they're not getting money from that review. And on websites like YouTube, it's completely robotic, no humans can check to see if the claim is legitimate, so again it's only one-sided, the content-creators are always in the wrong, no matter what. It's being abused to takedown anyone with a different opinions, not just on reviews of certain media, the DMCA format is used to takedown anyone with an opinion different than the person who use DMCAs. Even if there is no copyrighted material in the video, and yet they're still in the wrong. They're are even companies who go under different names and can still file DMCAs, and yet again have nothing done to them, consequences be damned. Fair Use was made so that people have the right to critique anything, it goes hand in hand with free speech, and companies stomp and spit all over that, violate their constitutional rights and again, HAVE NOTHING DONE TO THEM! Thank god that people are finally speaking out about this inflammatory censorship, enough with the bills trying to kill free speech on the internet, how about we have a bill that's trying to keep free speech on the internet and making content-creators on the internet feel safe, and scaring off idiotic politicians that have no idea what the constitution and/or Fair Use is, as well as companies actually being punished for taking down videos falsely and illegally. Please fix the mess that was made in 1998 and finally clean it up and keep it organized.
The current system has been an extremely intimidating to me, as an intended content creator of things that would make heavy use of the fair use clauses and as someone who would be extra vulnerable and targeted by people abusing these systems. Please, i want to make good things happen, and i will try even if I'm scared, but having laws that are fully intended to protect those who properly use things is important and would make it a lot less scary.
The copyright system is made to be abused. It gives more power to those who copywrite than the accused. There needs to be a more balanced system.
I may not be a vlogger, but I do watch them via YouTube and Facebook. Making a rule to limit fair use isn't right and limits who we can and can't watch online.
Free speech is the most important right we have in the USA, and any law that limits speech must be subject to the highest scrutiny. The current Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) fails to live up to these standards.
The DMCA is used to silence criticism. It is used to harm content creators by temporarily cut off their incomes. Claimants are under no obligation to prove that their claims are justified, meaning that false claims can be used just to harass. We are currently operating under a guilty until proven innocent system, and that is not acceptable.
Fair use is important, too important to have a program that has no judgment to be able too take down videos on the internet. Imagine 30 years ago before the internet if all of television was run through a program like that the DMCA allows. All the News shows, review shows, all the music stations, public tv shows, tv show for kids, anything that might have another product in it. Now imagine if those shows were taken off the air with out any warning. How much money would people, stations and networks lose?
Times have changed. The internet is bigger than tv ever was. The laws that are used to protect content on the internet do not work as they are now. No consideration is used to figure out if products(websites,videos, podcasts,etc) is fair use or not.
In the us court systems is it not innocent until proven guilty? Than why is it for copyright material on the internet its guilty until proven innocent? Why is that revenue from this content is given to the people that issue the takedowns with out any consideration for fair use? If the content is fair use the original content creators doesn't get that money back.
Companies hire other companies file as many take downs as possible just too receive the income from these videos, with no consideration to if the content is fair use or not. Companies have to be held accountable for issuing false claims.
The Internet is for everyone, and the laws need to change to protect everyone not just the big companies. Fair use is just that fair use, and right now it seems there is not fair use on the internet.
-Grant Gagnon
Silas Ruedin: It is worth noting that the music, film footage, photos, etc. that are claimed to be stolen are in the public domain and already bought and paid for to the companies that produced them. Do I have ask permission from and pay money to company for the music I downloaded off a library checked out CD for my MP3 player? If a movie gets a negative review from an online reviewer, it actually benefits both consumer and producer: the consumer is deterred from wasting their money on a film they wouldn't like anyway, and the studio has an incentive to produce better films by being made aware of a movie's faults; less wasted consumer dollars and better quality products equals a more stable economy. I should also note that many of the movies and songs I've bought were originally brought to my attention via online reviewers and amateur online projects; the Content ID system is deterring sales to these companies, NOT protecting them! #WTFU
Personal Note from Signed:
I'm tired of the work I enjoy from brilliant and creative people being repeatedly and pointlessly endangered due to the reckless and unwarranted abuse of the DMCA takedown process. I wholeheartedly support the notion of analyzing and reworking the entire system to better accommodate the modern age's internet and the droves of talented people who make use of it.
What's the problem:
FAIR USE ON THE INTERNET IS BEING ABUSED
What's the problem causing:
Money is stolen
Videos are being taken down
Hypocritical people are taking down videos
Peoples income are being destroyed
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
PLEASE FIX THIS
MakeYouTubeGreatAgain
WheresTheFairUse
The Dmca was used to take down one of my student films I derived no income from. THIS NEEDS TO STOP.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Youtube is messed up!! We need the fair use back!
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The DMCA takedown process has been horribly abused. Automated bots patrol for content which triggers algorithms, and takedown notices are sent without human review. Big companies have issued takedown notices against content creators from whom they've licensed content! It is imperative that strong penalties are put into place to force companies to use the system properly. They are supposed to declare that they have a good faith belief that the content is infringing. Make them pay a penalty if they're wrong. Let creators recover costs if their content is found non-infringing in court.
DMCA reform is essential to protect free speech.
p.s. You motherfuckers need to fix this shit.
I am Sick of theses BROKEN copyright laws of this "Great" country that allow companies to keep down people that they dont like AND ATTACK THOSE SAME PEOPLE once again a country that once baned corporation are giving them all the power like Iv seen some many times And why well it all becus "Snake Skins" "Green Backs" The thing that make the world go round Money just a little money in the right politions pocket and more rights get striped away DO SOME THING HAVE SOME F##KING INTEGRATED YOU MONEY HUNGRY A## H##ES...(sigh) ok I'm done please do the right thing
Thank You
Many of my friends who have YouTube channels having had their videos taken down due to false copyright claims. One of my friends didn't even get to defend the claim and she couldn't figure out why. I think companies and corporations should be penalized for false claims and have to pay a fine to the content creator or creators since these claims have to ability to disable monetization on all of the creator's videos.
This is Wrong on the people who are trying to do work. This needs to stop #DMCA
Dear Sir or Madam,
It is no understatement to assert that copyright law is fundamentally outdated, broken, and no longer fit for purpose in the digital age.
At the heart of this is the misguided Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) which—by design or accident—is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders, and has become routinely used to threaten, silence, and ultimately destroy small content creators on the internet.
The chilling effect this has created has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Best wishes,
Isaac BD
MAKE THE INTERNET FAIR FOR CONTENT VIEWERS/UPLOADERS!
My personal experience with these issues is with the YouTube creators that I watch. It is saddening to hear that a great video that I have watched is a video that no one can watch again.
The DMCA process has severely limited my creative output as both an artist and a content creator.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI&index=11&list=LL_lyiohJxAG8O9JM5U8N-WQ
This video showcases how individual content creators are effected by the flawed laws that are currently in place.
Since the Nostalgia Critic uploaded his now famous #WTFU video, I've began to notice the amount of videos falsely getting accused of using copyrighted material without permission.
A notable example is TotalBiscuit's Day One: Garry's Incident review, which got taken down after TotalBiscuit gave it a negative review despite the developer giving the game to him to review. While TotalBiscuit did in fact get his video put back up, it just goes to show that the system is flawed.
I get that people do release pirated movies, TV shows, and others, but DMCA has been used to hurt so many innocent channels.
Please, end this. Please.
With a 30% rate, it isn't fair to people who are just voicing their opinions to be bullied into taking down videos since companies have the funds to do so with no one questioning their ability to do so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
My favorite YouTube critics and so many other people who make content have dealt with the archaic and dismal dmca system and the people who take advantage of it. I just want the system to be updated so that it helps YouTube creators rather than hurt them.
Please choose to protect free speech, art, and citizens whose lifestyle depends upon it!! I'm sure you've seen the following comments before. I stand behind them as well.
Once I've uploaded a video of just fireworks and it was claimed to contain some pieces of a radio show that was only pink noise.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
It is ridiculous to see copyright holders be sued and erased. Here is why:
I don't like how these recent takedowns have violated free speech. These policies that were crated to protect have been greatly abused and stop those expressing themselves creatively. It is blatant and unfair censorship that discriminates original content and discourages young and aspiring creators like myself from ever making anything. I shouldn't be afraid to share my thoughts or express my ideas. I'm also tired of seeing people I admire and look up to having their content being taken down. It seems that everyday when I go online I see another one of my inspirations telling their followers that their work was taken down, and that is damaging. I just want to be a part of a community that is free to share their ideas and say what they have to say without being silenced. I just want to have freedom of speech.
The abuse of these laws is an affront to free speech and must be corrected. The current laws allow for rampant censorship of content obviously protected under fair use.
This is clearly and in its simplest terms violating the first amendment
I've been running a youtube review show for nearly 2 years now, I've had countless copyright notices on videos I've put up, and while a number of owners of the original movies I've reviewed, including Sony Pictures and Warner Brothers have been fair in how they've handled the claims (all claims so far have been removed in a week or two after dispute or appeal,) But Lionsgate so far have been the...well...bitchiest about use of their material, after a number of disputes and appeals on my reviews of some of their movies, most are still blocked in some countries or world wide and one recieved a copyright strike for two separate claims. They use a sub company (Co-Peer Right Agency Italy) to do this, and seeing as how youtube's legal standing is shaky at best when it comes to upholding fair use of copyright law, I'm very hesitant to appeal the claims again should I have another copyright strike hit my account. My videos are clearly fair use reviews, I use the clips from the movie to make jokes or criticisms or even praise about parts of the movies where I can, but whenever I have to appeal something it makes me feel like I'm playing Russian Roulette any time I send one. I know my case is one of the more mild ones as opposed to other's who've been directly harassed by the content creators but I'd like to add this to the long list of copyright claim abuse of the claiming system on youtube.
- Mad Cyborg 2552
Stop ruining youtube channels that follow the rules.
DMCA heavily favors big corporate interests. It allows them to abuse it with automated take down requests which can take days or weeks to contest, and when you contest them, they can just deny your request and pretty much have little recourse. It allows them to be very heavy handed about not allowing for any legitimate fair use, and in some cases can cause the actual rights holder to have to spend inordinate amounts of time on their claim.
One of the biggest problems with the system is that it hasn't been updated to reflect the state of the internet. As time passes and technology allows for better and greater things the laws that protect them must be updated or replaced in order to make sure that no one can use the system against those who it aims to protect. The system has been abused by copyright holders have abused the system to silence criticize and many do not even do their research to know if they are in the right, they just state that they are. Most of these companies are capable of long drawn out court battles and win or lose their loss is far less then those on the internet. A fair number of these cases on sites like youtube can be anything from small use of video footage for critique to just talking about the subject matter with absolutely none of the content in the video. Some people have been able to make a job out of uploading content and a fair amount of them have been bullied by companies because youtube uses a system that ends up giving all revenue to the copyright holder regardless of whether or not it is fair use and even if it is deemed fair use, the revenue is never given back to the creator of the content. youtube does not police the system and allow copyright claims on already cleared videos to be reclaimed anywhere from two to four times or more. It even goes as far as to say that even companies who are applying on behalf of the actual rights holders are able to do this and even more so companies who own no rights to the videos are able to get these claims filed. Youtube doesn't look at proof that those filing actually own the content. All of this is due to the fact that the DMCA is open to abuse and doesn't do a well enough job of protecting those who need protecting the most.
The DMCA needs to be reformed or replaced in order for content creators on youtube to stop being abused by people filing false copyright claims. These claims impact youtubers in ways that can completely throw their lives out of balance (such as their videos being taken down, their monetization being suspended and taken away causing them to no longer receive the revenue that many youtubers rely on for their entire income) and it can take months before their lives are stabilized again.
Beyond how it abuses the creators, it's important for people who are clearly under the protection of fair use and free speech to be able to use those rights. If the rules do not change, these rights will continue to be ignored by people who benefit from the corruption in these rules.
Shits pretty fucked, yo.
I have had many of my videos flagged down by big companies just because of one song or one image. I've lost lots of money and views because of all of this. I am a small time YouTube content creator trying to fight with the big dogs. If my channel gets taken down for these dumb reasons, that's it. Everything I've worked for, all of the fans I've met, the whole community I've created, will all be gone. And my fan base is not humongous, so my appeals won't go as far. I want to be able to feel safe and secure about content I put up, and I don't right now. YouTube's system is deeply flawed, and needs reform. I've abided by fair use since I started my channel, and I won't stop. I stand with #WTFU forever. Now listen to us and fix things!
Sick of copyright abuse primarily done in the US effecting every content creator in the world.
The notice-and-takedownprocess under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Intimidation as a result of DMCA abuse discourages many new content creators. Those creators who do dare attempt to utilize copyrighted materials in order to exercise legal free speech must jump through complicated hurdles in order for their voices to be heard.
What companies have done is an abuse of the power and not acknowledging 1st Amendment. The supposed "Fair Use" is ignored for content creators and put others afraid of having theirs taken off as well. The First Amendment states the right to free speech through the media that we have fought for from British tyranny. Corporations taking their income they use to pay bills and necessities for their own greed and arrogance. The DMCA is outdated and antiquated as it was tailored for the Internet in 1998, but must be replaced completely more accustomed to the millennial era of 2016 and the future ahead.
This has gone on for too long, many have received false claims for copyright infringement despite obviously following the fair use rule. What companies are doing is basically an abuse of power on their part so something must be done about it.
i enjoy a lot of reviews and YouTube poops from some of my favorite youtubers it pains me to see them get threatened with false claims I'm hoping that they fix the system.
The DMCA is the epitome of shoot first, ask questions later. People's livelihoods are threatened and a lot of creative enterprises are being stifled.
I want a content creator on YouTube to be my career choice, but there have been times where people whom I am inspired by had troubles with their channels due to this outdated system. People whom have been able to make YouTube their way of life have been affected due to the outdated system. I am scared to pursue my dream for fear of being taken down for similar reasons. Change needs to happen for everyone both long-time creators and new ones such as myself. I hope change happens so the amount of time, effort, and support from those who care about me see my dreams become a reality and it was not all for nothing.
Every person has a right to what they post and they should keep that unless proven to actually be protected under copyright. Please where is the fair use.
Now, I'm not a content creator, but I do believe in actual fairness, some thing you don't get with mere algorithms. And you're certainly not going to get fair results using laws made for outdated technology.
Please don't let big shot companies take away fair use for people in their right!!! I had posted a video of me on my sisters account for my ASL 1 class signing to the song Blue by Beyonce. The audio was removed when it was uploaded do to the copy right. I was not making any money off of this and was in fair use to use it for my project. It was later taken down even though the copy righted audio was gone. I had failed that assignment do to the fact that my right to fair use was violated! Listen to the voices that are important, don't violate anyone's right to upload content for personal use and, more importantly, for use to make money if they are in their rights!!!
Additional notes: The pressure on sites by copyright holders to take down infringing content has caused very heavy-handed judgements without any valid legislation to back it up, and with no fear of penalty should they be called out. It needs to be changed to match with modern technology, and switched from a 'guilty-until-proven-innocent' demeanor.
I love Youtube and the content it's people create. But when my content creators have to constantly be worried about false DMCAs ruining their business their livelihood, I can't help worrying too. I've seen professional Youtube channels, people's jobs, disappear over night with no warning because of the outdated abused systems that are in place now. I've seen so many obvious false claims over the years. From someone doing a review on a film in their car without any copyrighted audio and visual clips to a review where only recreations are used. These kind of false claims are only there to censor critics, impeding freedom of speech.
With no repercussions in place for filing a false claim, the current system is getting worse and worse. Fake third party companies keep popping up to file a false claim whether they own the content or not. By doing this, they not only prevent a content creator from making money but they can also steal that money as well. Even if the time on a claim runs out, they can still keep that money while the real owner gets nothing.
And they can keep doing this over and over again. Certain companies will let the time out by fighting appeal so they don't take the claim to court where they know they would lose. And once the time runs out, they file a new claim on the same video and repeating the cycle for months. While also sending threatening passive aggressive emails to the content creator to try and bully them into taking the video down. This is harassment and needs to stop.
DMCA's are not being used for their intended purpose to help curb piracy. It's easy to find a pirated movie on Youtube. But finding reviews for a movie that hasn't suffered from a false claim is almost impossible.
False claims affect every content creator I know, no matter what their channel does. From critics to gamers to bloggers, everyone on Youtube has had to deal with a false claim.
This broken outdated system needs to change.
The Current algorithm is being abused to attack parodies and various other media under legal fair use. FIX IT
Innocent and fair people who just make safe,legal videos on youtube have been noticeably abused recently due to false claims and what is scary about it is just how easy it is for it to happen.Content creators channels now are constantly being taken down,brought back and then taken down all over again with very little explanation or understanding and it has been happening to creators both popular and longtime to even the small creators who are just starting out and it gives a feeling that no one is safe with this system because quite frankly it isn't safe.People who thought of being content creators expanding and expressing their own talent and art in ways that only the Youtube could help accomplish are now scared of doing that out of fear of being taken down so quickly and easily.Bottom line some sort of change needs to happen.WTFU?
False copyright claims on YouTube is out of hand. Companies claiming videos they don't own just money. There is no penalty for the company the creator who didn't break any laws is being punished and losing money to a company that is making things up or abusing the fair use system for something that is well with in the laws. The law needs an update to 2016, 1998 laws can't deal with, it's outdated and broken. Time for a upgrade to help creators and stop companies making illegal money and ruin the lives of creators. If you are REALLY taking feed back to YouTube to channels like "Channel Awesome" & "GradeAUnderA" they will show you how messed up copyright companies ares being.
This whole issue lately has not been fixed yet, and we need to take action. Youtube is only the start for false claims like that. Soon it'll spread everywhere, Washington, we need your help to stop this. This law passed to protect content creators, hasn't been updated to today's internet.
So please, Washington. Help stop the false claims,
#Where'sthefairuse?
Please update the DMCA and Fair Use laws!
The current DMCA has allowed for the blatant abuse of many content creators on the internet who are clearly within the realm of Fair Use (using heavily edited clips for criticism and other purposes). It currently is allowing large corporations like Viacom to censor and in certain cases even make monetary gain from other's work by abusing the current DMCA and ignoring Fair Use law, and with no repercussions or comcequences at all. It allows them to bully and steal from others continually. This needs to change, because we are living in a different world than 1998, where the Internet and the way we enjoy content has changed, and this is being taken advantage of by companies who can abuse creators smaller than them.
The current implementation of copyright laws, like the DMCA, promotes abuse. Be it false claims, be it using shell companies to protect the actual owners of the copyrighted material, be it to censor reviews and critics, be it to stifle free speech, be it as threat and much more.
The law, created for a 1998 internet, is horribly outdated and must be updated, or replace wholesome.
As someone who watches videos on the web, it's become a trend in which corporations have stepped in to take down videos from sites such as Youtube. I am fine with this most videos I've seen taken down fall under Fair Use and it's baffling to see smaller creators getting bullied and even sometimes removed by corporations that don't wish their to fall under criticism by reviewers or content creators. It needs to stop.
On a personal note, I am entertained by a number of small content creators. I enjoy the content they bring. It upsets me when they get trampled on even though they should be protected by fair use.
The technology and culture around content creating is not going to go away, but by reevaluating what constitutes an intellectual property and copyright claim, we can protect freedom of speech and genuine creativity while taking down criminals just looking to make money.
People are manipulate this system to harass and take down channels on youtube and stifle freedom of speech and being used as threats. Using company names as a shield to place false claims. No factor of fair use is being applied when claims are made. DMCA does not pay attention to the internet of today and only follows the laws way back in 1998, and we are now in 2016 quickly moving to the next year and the year after that where the internet is greatly evolving.
Those who are placing false claims are not being punished and is claiming content that are not theirs, companies believing that they are the ones who make the law and ignore fair use due to a negative review.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube(which has one of the biggest issues of Fair Use), Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
The notice-and-
takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use (a la YouTube). This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
just regular people who make videos or tweets do it to tell or to have a good time if there showing a Nintendo product you can't just take it down there sharing there child hood there passion and doing so is revoking them of there rights and that passion .
Holy take-downs, Batman! Seriously this system that the DMCA has definitely needs to be updated! I've watched YouTube videos, especially Lets-Player videos(people who record themselves playing a video game and upload it to YouTube), ever since I was little. To see that big bad companies can take control and abuse a law designed to protect people disturbs me greatly. I went here in the name of YouTubers and Lets-Players to tell you, the members of the US Copyright office, this abuse needs to be stopped. All of the people I watch on YouTube are apart of my life, and I probably would have been very depressed by now if not for them. So please, help all of the YouTube generations, fix the DMCA and its unfair laws.
Over the past few years that I have watched content on YouTube and other sites such as, I have seen some disgusting things happen to content creators. Many other people can explain it better than myself and people have complained about this. What I can explain is that the current state of the DMCA is harming content creators in programs such as YouTube, instead of the intended purpose of protection. I have seen videos and even channels in which they have been taken down because of bogus allegations of "Copyright Infringement" which harm the content creators.
Take an example such as IHE (I Hate Everything), a content creator which was flagged and had his channel taken down nearly twice because people false flagged him simply because an extreme minority of people didn't like the content he created.
So as a person who uses the internet daily to find his entertainment in more ways than one, please, fix this now! It has gone far enough.
The notice-and-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Furthermore, under the current system, false takedown notices have become a cudgel used to silence criticism, creativity, and education, explicitly protected purposes for fair use under the Betamax case. Numerous critics have had DMCA takedown notices used to silence them, or to pocket any money that they may make from their critiques. Even the use of works in the public domain has been challenged by companies seeking to do nothing more than profit from a law that has outlived its usefulness.
DMCA claims are being filed on Youtube videos that are not owned by the people filing the claims. Whole jobs are being affected of reviewers, critics, and people making transformative content from unchecked claims. Individual creators aren't protected, only big copyright holders like large companies. I realize that they need their properties protected, especially on sites like Youtube, but the system needs to be updated. Protect Youtube content creators, change DMCA takedowns!
I want to make content on youtube but can't because of abuse of a system which relies on the sorely outdated dmca. #WTFY
I am a content creator on the internet or I was. Look, I have said this about a bajillion times and I don't know how to currently express it. But if we can quote entire passages in novels, or we can quote paragraphs and give credit to the original creators. That should be respected with visual mediums as well.
A video on the internet is not someone stealing someone's content. It's a quote. It's a visual quote. It's our homage and the way we express our creativity. Our love of something we love.
We give credit to the content creators. And these laws harm us. I am not looking to backpack fame onto the original creator. I want to say, hey I appreciated your work. I want to say, I respect your original content and this is what inspired me to do this.
All of my content on the internet was taken down unfairly. And original content creators, should not have the ability to harm, content creators on the internet.
I never once in my videos and neither has anyone in the past, said the clips belong to us. We always give credit to the original creator.
And I wouldn't know about some of the movies or the music I have bought existed without those original creators and someone showing their love to the content.
ive been wanting too do reviews for old video games and anime with my friends for years, but even alot of these old games and shows have holders that have very territorial hold on them and wont let clips or even screenshots been shown. the products are years old and they shutdown videos and channels on youtube using shell companies or hire companies too do it and that is not fair use i would like the dmca to be re reviewed for updates to todays world.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The DMCA takedown process is used to threaten content creators who are protected under fair use, and those who make faulty claims are not penalized while content creators lose valuable revenue. Free speech should not be attacked.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
In addition to the above, I would like to add that it's frustrating as a consumer to be unable to experience content that has taken down due to DMCA takedown notices, especially when said content only serves to increase my interest for the source material that it borrows from.
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Ay bruh, I didn't wanna delete any of that stuff up there, cuz I agree with that. Listen, I'm no lawyer, but I know when something's BS, and the companies that are abusing this are in fact, BS. Any criticism of their crap will be met with copyright strikes, even if no copyrighted material is used. If you're actually paying attention to these, watch Channel Awesome's video '#WTFU", or Where's The Fair Use, because Doug Walker says it better than anything I'd ever be able to.
Please revise the DMCA. There's loads of content creators who have their videos taken down simply because a random company decided to steal money from somebody else's hard work. In several cases the videos are taken down because the owner of said content being used in the video, doesn't agree with the opinions of the content creator. Your system is being abused. Do something about it
Some of said companies not only use this as a way of abuse to small businesses, taking down their videos and any income made by that video, but as a way of censorship of any non-desireable commentary which could affect their income in any way.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review, which is not the actual case.
Please, know that this issue is important, not only to me as a content-creator, but to all content-creators both off the web and in it. There has to be a fair, strong regulation of the legal processes regarding creative-content, one that doesn't put into harm the creators who make to entertain, teach, inform, etc.
To not defend us creators is to put to risk the ability of the internet to help businesses and creativity. To no defend creators is to further give advantage to those who aim to take the fund of the content-creators, to bully those who dare create, and to those who abuse the system.
Please, stop these ridiculous DMCA takedowns, and protect free speech.
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Many creators have been falsely taken down because of this broken system, this system was made in 1996 when the internet was not as used as it is now. With this system people are able to falsely take down content that does not violate the fair use, and whats more is that people who do violate it are ignored. This system is flawed to such a degree there are companies falsely copyrighting because of their own opinions and not for actually violating these guidelines. This system needs to be updated to how the internet is today, not how it was.
fuck you bitch ass nigga trying to patrol the internet
Many people are losing their hard made content and now because of this people can now hopefully be relieved and fully express their stuff
This automated process often causes users to lose income via advertising revenue by automatically redirecting revenue to the company that issued the clame. If the clame is determined to be not legitament the user is not reimbursed for lost revenue.
In the past several years I've seen a terrible trend online that has stiffed so much creativity and crippled many talented content creators, this trend is now overrun by automated systems that indiscriminately issue takedown notices for content that has in no way violated current copyright law. Something must change in the current dmca so that content creators I have some sort of recourse to defend themselves from those who would issue false copyright claims.
I beg you please set free content creators from the bindings of illegitimate takedown requests and allow fair use to be given its due process.
Thank you for your time.
Ben Greiner.
This law desperately need to be updated.
I have been around the web and have seen many cases of youtube content creators being hit with false copyright claims it happens quite frequently the worse part is that these content creators have pretty much no say in it they have to deal with those false claims or have their lively hood taken away all from a fake claim. Companies who own don't even own the copyrights and even random people can claim copyright infringement on a video, picture, or piece of music and the victim has to deal with everything but the one who sent it faces no consequences at all not even a warning for their illegal actions while the victim will continue to suffer because of the false copyright claim which ranges from money loss to complete shutdown of their channel not to mention that the person or company who sent the fake copyright claim can and most likely get all of the ad revenue from that video because of it. Other times this is used merely to harass and bully the content creators and scare them into doing what they want or giving them all of their hard earned money from ad revenue etc. and let's not forget that they can use this same broken law to hold a person's channel for ransom not even kidding this really does happen more often than you think it may happen. So in conclusion please for rights of all content creators on the internet and for who have suffered at the of companies and random people who abuse this law update it please for their sake and for the sake of free speech.
People who's entire Livelihood's have been Sabotages or ruined because the abuse of this system. And even people who aren't abusing it, Not understanding what fair use is are hurting their demographic by being out of touch due to dated DMCA Laws. It is imperative we change this system and bring it into the justice it was rightfully created to serve. We all deserve to be able to produce content without fear that its wrong to do so.
The number of false positives and unsubstantiated claims is too damn high.
The DMCA hasn't been changed since 1998, showing it is highly out of place and not reliable to use with modern Internet usage. It must be changed to provide security, cooperation, and aid to all users of the Internet.
People copyright strike videos and channels just because they can't handle the criticism in the video or just don't like the creator (see the IHateEverything channel dilemma 1 and 2). See the videos on ChannelAwesome about how they lost monetization for no reason. Look at a channel like Pyrocynical or RiceGum where their YouTube channeles were striked and even deleted due to people not liking what they are saying.
And to bring fair use back to the internet
I've noticed a lot of problems with fair use laws as people are not sticking with them but breaking them without seeing the law take into account that they are stealing. This is a problem because if someone can steal without seeing the law fight it then what is the point of laws in the first place. One of the few things in life that all humans hold dear is the fact that stealing is wrong, yet people are breaking fair usage laws to steal on a daily basis. Yes, things do get stolen and that is wrong, but there should be some sort of law against making false claims and stealing money just because you can. I've heard of some really obscure things being taken down not because of fair usage being broken, but because they reference something and this is being done by third parties and that shouldn't be allowed at all. It should always be done by those who actually have the content being used and determined if it is breaking fair use. These people should also be penalized for breaking fair use if it is a false claim. Please make the fair usage system fair.
Laws need to change. The human species is always adapting and changing and with that, the laws need to as well. Years ago, it was believed that the Bible was law and should be followed as such. Now we think that it'd be crazy for a person to sell their child off into slavery, in fact it's illegal. Too many times I've seen videos, channels, and web sites taken down, just for showing a clip from a show that they actually give credit for. Do the owners have a valid reason to take down websites and clips? Sometimes, yes. I understand that it is apart of their company and affects money and all that business. I'm not going to pretend I understand all the complications and technicalities from the business and Internet world. But these laws were written back when the Internet still used dial up. Sure some things can be taken down, but what about things like reviews or fan art? People expressing their opinions or showing their love for a certain topic, should we take those down? No, because it violates amendment rights. You also have to consider who is actually saying and making these complaints. If it is really the company, then they have every right. But what if it's just some a-hole trying to get attention or feel important about something? Or if it's someone who just finds the video offensive? Hey, news flash, if you find something offensive on the Internet, you don't have to watch or look at it. The Internet is suppose to be a place of expression...for everyone, not just a certain group of people. Freedom doesn't just protect the things you like, it also protects the things you hate.
This kind of problem has been occurring for long enough. As has been mentioned, this sort of automation is being abused to others' detriment, even jeopardizing smaller companies' way of life.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has allowed many companies to file false copyright claims on various videos that have been fair use, causing the content creators to lose revenue and possibly be taken down entirely. The companies that file these false copyright claims still keep the revenue that was taken by the content creators even when their claims are proven to be false. Even worse is that the companies are not punished in any way for these false claims, instead they can just make other accounts to harass, threaten, and bully the content creators into giving up protecting their work that falls under fair use.
The DMCA is outdated and is heavily biased towards large companies that have used this advantage into silencing any critique made by these content creators. There needs to be some kind of punishment for filing false copyright strikes, and the revenue should not be given to these companies while the content creators are fighting back against those claims.
There are many creative people on YouTube and around the world in general, but some people are abusing Fair Use and the DMCA because they believe they make the law them selfs.
Some one has either made a video or know some one who has made a video that if it was taken to court it would be deemed Fair Use, but get removed anyway.
The DMCA was put into action in October, 29, 1998 and it still hasn't been updated to today's Internet back when YouTube was just a fantasy.
News stations aren't the only ones that can bring news, a person with a cell phone could brings the news possibly faster than they can.
Being a begginer YouTuber, I am actually scared out of my mind to post new content, even though it is only family videos, I have seen a baby dancing to music get taking down because of fair use and almost sued because it was dancing to copyrighted music.
This really needs to get fixed because the fait of the internet relies on it. We need to stand up to the money makers that are reporting People's videos with no reason at all. The think that we are too small to do anything, and it's true. We can't do anything about except put up a counter claim and risk losing your channel and your videos to go along with it.
I'm truly greatful that there's is actually something going on that is trying to help the internet rather then just make it worse.
SAMPLE BASED MUSICAL WORKS ARE NOT PLAGIARISM, IT IS ART! MY SAMPLE BASED WORKS ARE NOT PIRACY AND DO NOT DESERVE TO BE TAKEN DOWN!
Thanks.
-DJ NB
When a law supposedly meant to protect copyright is used to instigate copyright theft, something's definitely wrong. Many victims who are well within their rights regarding fair use are unable to defend themselves due to the exceedingly expensive process of solving this in court, regardless of how fraudulent the copyright claims can be.
Protect fair use. Protect the creators of fair use, as well.
A number of shows that I like to watch nowadays are Youtube videos of reviews of various movies, shows, and games. Some of them are even more entertaining then the item that they are reviewing. And on occasion when I try and go find those reviews again or watch one I missed because of travel for work I get the message that it had been taken down. It is annoying and it is unfair to the creators since a number of those reviews that I watched should have been protected by Fair Use. I would hate to loose those shows because people were abusing a system for their personal gain.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
PLEASE READ. IMPORTANT.
Please do make the best decision possible. Peoples' jobs, careers, dreams and livelihoods are at stake. This does matter. This is important. It's not just some whiny internet brats, these are real people who depend on the internet for income to live off of. They are legitimate. They matter. You are thanked SO much for your time (by me at least). If this is not corrected, I hope you sleep comfortably with that knowledge and hold no regrets...though essentially condemning what are probably hundreds of people to a troubled life due to inactivity may become a little hard to swallow.
Best regards.
This isn't memes tho.
The interests of corporations do not trump the rights of citizens. The DMCA process is broken, as people's free speech rights are being suppressed on the basis of insufficient evidence, and the accusers have no accountability. If the government is here to serve the people, why do the regulations allow considering the people guilty of infringement and the corporations/abusers innocent of false accusations as the default? Does that not violate every principle of freedom, the rule known as "innocent until proven guilty"? Why is a corporation's pennies worth of possible lost revenue given greater priority over the possibility that invaluable speech is silenced by a false takedowns? The damage - political, ethical, financial consequences from allowing censorship through tolerating false DMCA takedowns is much greater than the damage a pirate uploader could ever do.
A pirate uploads a popular song - the copyright industry loses maybe hundreds of dollars for the most popular content. A DMCA abuser silences a voice - crucial information affecting elections, exposes detailing a company or person's fraud, or a company or person defending itself against accusations, speech that could save a person's career, opportunity, income, or life...
What is the value of a person being unable to defend their reputation, leading to a ruined life? Maybe something that will get your money-grubbing attention - what is the value of a small business' lost profits, if its competitor can so easily silence videos comparing competing products? What is the value of a sick person being unaware that he is being treated by a snakeoil salesman who takes down criticism, or a victim who cannot afford a lawyer's cry for help being silenced by bullies online, leading to their suicide?
What is the value of a human being's livelihood, the value of time sensitive evidence and arguments being censored, compared to the value of "lost revenue" of either minute sum, or the value of revenue that the rights holder only had a chance of receiving? What are your priorities, U.S. Copyright Office? In fighting piracy for which loss of profits is the *only* consequence, you've set up a system that is horrendously tolerant of abuse that stifles free speech, for which the consequences include but are *much, much greater* than just fewer coins in a corporation's pocket.
Videos on YouTube are being taken down simply because egotistical directors want to believe their right and say they can under the umbrella of 'fair use'. A lot of trials about this are STILL going on today.
This abuse needs to end against content creators, who spend time and effort on what they enjoy, regardless if it's for fun or for work. Many people build their lives on social media and many have jobs with it, such as YouTube. The fact that many are losing their jobs or have become crippled due to the current DMCA, despite carefully following and obeying the rules, goes against everything the first amendment stands for.
The DMCA desperately needs to be updated.
The abuse needs to end.
The system hasn´t been improved upon since it´s inception during the 90´s. Now a days the internet is used more than ever, and it´s increadibly unfair for people to lose their main form of iincome just because certain companies are unsatisfied with products that aren´t their own.
We need this sorted now. Too many people have been stifled or silenced by false claims whose only purpose is to shut them up or even to steal their revenue during the vital first few days.
Its not right. Even at its most basic its simply. not. fair.
Darren
Lately we've seen an unfair system constantly crushing the creative forces within our society. The internet acts as a medium for people to spread new ideas, and allows us to learn and consider new things at a rate that is startlingly faster than anything the previous generation had access to. That's why it's surprising that the government hasn't been able to find time to protect the ideas of tomorrow, and give them the shelter they need in order to grow.
I understand that copyright is incredibly important, and allows those same creative people to protect their intellectual property, but we've seen systems set up to protect copyright holders be abused time and time again. This unbalanced system not only threatens the creation of new ideas that can shape the future, but also the variation in ideas at all. The basis you can have for finding and flagging content that you claim to be your intellectual property can be incredibly broad, and often lead to great injustices against innocent people. Oftentimes, a company can win these disputes through intimidation, and aggressiveness, as a single person being challenged by a large corporation, with possibly no ability to dispute this claim with an actual human(as its typical on many big sites that bots mostly deal with copyright disputes).
So for the sake of the ideas of the future, for the creative people that can teach and entertain us, and for the justice that we should find when disputing copyright with bigger companies, please hear our plea. All we ask is that you strongly reconsider what many people see as an outdated, unfair law that could use a change. Thank you.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works. Additionally, every single submitted DMCA takedown claim should be reviewed by an actual person belonging to an independent third party before any further action whatsoever is taken regarding the claim. (The lack of this has led to several outright ridiculous YouTube video takedowns, including someone discussing a movie on a handheld camera while sitting in their car, and someone merely walking into their front yard and wishing their viewers a nice day.)
Taking into consideration whether or not the media in question would be covered by fair use clauses should also be a required action by the would-be claimant before the claim is made, the clear ignoring of which can be grounds for immediate dismissal of the claim without the uploader of said media needing to know a claim was ever made. Instances where the claimant does not even own the material being claimed should be dismissed immediately and the claimant penalized. All of this will discourage corporations from making knowingly false claims, but only if fraudulent claims are held against the claimant and lead to a penalty, particularly if the number of previous false claims made against any party steepens the penalties for later false claims made against any other party.
Specifically in cases such as YouTube videos that claimants are attempting to monetize where the uploader is disputing the claim, the would-be monetization profits should be collected and held by a neutral third party from when the dispute is filed to until the dispute is settled, after which the profits should be transferred to whichever party "won" the dispute. This will discourage corporations from attempting to exploit content creators who are acting in fully legal ways, as the corporation's false claim will acquire them no profit, the opposite of which they are currently more than capable of unfairly doing without consequence.
Finally, if a DMCA claim has been settled in favor of the media's uploader against the claimant, then that claimant should be forbidden from knowingly making another claim of the same kind on the same piece of media, either directly or indirectly through another company. Attempts to hide their identity by having a shell or dummy corporation claim the media on their behalf after their original claim has been rejected should be held against the prime corporation and lead to a penalty. On this note, any corporations set up for the sole purpose of making knowingly false DMCA or other copyright claims should be banned and shut down immediately upon discovery, with penalties against any company who used or attempted to use them.
This is the view of this humble citizen, along with many others across the country, on the matter of the DMCA.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I have observed these processes in action. The rules as they are enforced are written on sand, air and water, and seem often to be literally whatever the accuser decides it is. To give the best possible example, a review will be struck repeatedly, while full episodes of the same show being reviewed are posted and left to stand. That shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is an attempt to silence criticism and control not content, but what is said about it.
We who watch these shows are not looking for free stuff, but free discussion. Unless the DMCA is updated for an internet vastly different than when it was founded, copyright holders who behave little better than e-mail spam scammers, deceiving and intimidating their way through multiple attempts, and enabled by vagueness that favors the pushy and obnoxious liar. Fair Use will cease to be if they keep cutting the corners out.
As a content creator I have found it difficult to work up the courage to post some of my content on YouTube due to unlawful abuse of this system and that there are no consequence for such an act. This includes, but is not limited to, theft of revenue from those who need said revenue to continue creating content or paying for necessities, corporate threats to content creators protected under fair use to silence opinions, good or bad, and using third party companies to do the above and more. These issues have created a hostile environment for creators, consumers, and companies alike. I feel that an update to the current guidelines is in order to help resolve these issues and more.
I have problem with the DMCA because most video I like to watch get banned. I'm OK with it if those video gets banned because of good reason, but most of the time their not. So I hope by joining this, that does not happens again.
Got a critical call of duty review taken down with a dmca
I had fifty subscribers the video had 23 views.
This law is in sore need of review as it hasn't been updated since it's creation and it is now protecting something that has been obsolete for decades. We need a copyright law that will protect big business as well as individual entrepreneurs, rather than simple allowing big business to attack and threaten individual creators into business failure.
I am an avid consumer of content created on YouTube, content created by a multitude of talented entertainers and artists. DMCA abuse has caused many of them great trouble and hampered my viewing as well. Seeing critics and reviewers using fair use of copyrighted materials as well as those who critique the work without showing any of it and being punished unfairly for their trouble is abhorrent. It both limits their free speech to entertain and inform as well as limits my access to reviews and critiques. False DMCA claims are ultimately anti-consumer, an attempt to prevent people from being well-informed about entertainment products. This is also bad for those corporations filing false claims, as without access to the wealth of reviews about a film or TV show, I am hesitant to spend money on them. Ending this abuse should be seen as a positive for everyone.
Fair use is imporatant because not only is it protecting fair use and freedom of speech, but it's also putting risk of some people's jobs, hobbies, and lifestyles. They cannot create content that they use to educate or entertain, the people who are watching. I am not a content creator myself, but a viewer who has watched as content creators have been harassed by false claims and takedowns. Some creators don't even use copyrighted sources anymore out of fear of their content being taken down even though they know that it would still be under fair use. As the Internet grows into more of a media outlet, more and more businesses want to be apart of it, leading towards more fighting between them and content creators who just want to entertain or educate people who are warching. But if these false copyright claims and holders are brought to justice, the Internet can feel more like the community it used to be than the business it has become...to an extent.-Campbell
I used to have a YouTube channel but it got taken down and i didn't get any response from anyone about the reason why
The DMCA is being used to harass content creators and abuse Fair Use, with some companies not even taking Fair Use into consideration when filing a DMCA takedown. They are stifling Freedom of Speech, they are using shell companies as shields; some are even claiming that they created the law. They are using the DMCA as threats against content creators and are constantly hitting the videos multiple times even after they are cleared.
The DMCA needs to be fixed.
(WAKE UP YOU JERKS!!!)
As someone who was born into the age of the Internet and currently uses it as a means to sell his art and services, I would deeply regret seeing automated content takedowns remove the rights of the very people that, inarguably, the most important invention of the last 25 years was created to serve.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act was written as a precaution, a prediction, created when the Internet was a mere five years old to strike back against what it might be used for, and in few noteworthy cases, such as Napster, has been. But eighteen years later, it’s ubiquity is currently used for, quite literally, everything from entertainment, education, communication, business and, even from it’s very beginning, running an honest business. In a day and age where jobs are scarce and many people don’t have the skill sets for well-paid jobs, these people have used the Internet to simply make a living.
But if people without the legal right to remove content with (possibly) copyrighted material are allowed to hide behind the automated take-down system that weeds out what can only assume is illegal content distribution, who’s to say that this system won’t be used to weed out unfavorable or unpopular opinion pieces on the subjects of government, race relations, sexuality and other real-world issues which Fair Use protects as educational and critique simply because someone can use the DMCA as an excuse to do so?
That is not the Internet I was promised. The internet I was promised was created to bring the world together for the greater good, so what greater good is accomplished by stifling it’s progress and denying it’s users their given rights of free speech, especially when, by all accounts of government mandate, they are obeying a law which those making the copyright claims are blatantly breaking?
The Internet was created to give power to the people, so why are web-based laws working in favor of a process that removes people from the equation?
-Gabriel Schleifer, 3/31/2016
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted Material.
Copy right law is a dinosaur that hasn't been updated in years , not just in the US but the world over . the abuse of this broken system is apparent all over sites like you tube and has to change....... fair use is just on step there is a whole journey that need to be taken to fix Copyright to better protect content creators and Originators as well as licence holders .... so that those who make content and livings from there work are not adversely effected by BOTS , unwarranted claims and company's over stepping there bounds
It's pretty simple. Fair use claims are a good thing... when actually used to protect fair use. The problem is that a bunch of companies have been going out and filing claims for even the slightest infractions, even to the point of absurdity such as removing videos where the focus isn't even on the thing claimed against, simply for the sake of money and/or to swing their weight around. There is no current penalty for a false claim and it's being used to take down ANYTHING that can even be considered 'remotely criticizing'. So please, find a way to stop bogus DMCA claims!
Since copyright law is outright broken, people get harassed every day for fraudulent takedowns of videos that are created for parody, criticism, and/or entertainment. These people are just as much creators as the people making movies in Hollywood, comics in New York, games in San Francisco or wherever else they may be. This is the time to fix this and create a better world. There should be a deterrent for these fraudulent takedowns, I propose a $5,000 fine for each ($2,500 for the government and $2,500 for the creator) to prevent people from stifling criticism and oppressing people. the time to act is now, and now is the time to stop people from committing fraud on a daily basis. As good men have said before me "Give me liberty or give me death!"
Examples of the issues currently going on YouTube
Our original video on Fair Use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFA...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0W...
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (STILL going on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J0...
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ...
Team Four Star's issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkc...
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nU...
Chibi Reviews gets a DMCA for talking about snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWys...
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company - MMA company thinks it makes the law!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXo...
Mr Enter and the saga of DMCA after DMCA takedown on the SAME video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtw...
NFKRZ and how ransom is now on YouTube!
A different balancing step then the one you might have heard 100 times now, is monetary compensation for any DMCA takedowns that were unfairly done.
Additionally, the actual problem of freebooting( a term coined by CGPgrey), where one malicious or negligent entity reposts an effectively exact copy of someone else's content, goes by uninterrupted since even if the original content creator gets the malicious entity to take down the video, the potential monetary revenue is not transferred.
I have had my videos and people I enjoy watchings videos taken down even though they fell under fair use of review and critique
Okay, so most of of my favorite you-tubers like channel awesome and I hate everything have all gotten copyright strikes for no reason whatsoever. Channel Awesome has been the one trying to take a stand from this, as he's seen other you tubers fall from unfair copyright claims and strikes. I hate everything has gotten many strikes as one was from an unfair Strike that was processed by Derek Savage, who disliked the negative review that IHE put out, and claimed that it was not in fair use even though anyone who knows anything about YouTube would know that the video was completely in fair use. Shane Dawson also got one because of an unfair take down by Taylor Swift's company after he made a song parody that contained the full out exact song. Her company (don't know offhand) would have had to use some unfair practices to claim the video, as it was a full fair use video by all means necessary.
At any rate this DMCA law was created in 1998 and hasn't been fully updated until you asked for feedback now. That's 18 years not only for the Internet to change ENTIRELY but 18 years for some type of government check and balance of the law. The government put out sunset laws for a reason. Sunset laws are supposed to allot time to review or revise a certain law if need be at certain times. Strangely this one went 18 years without any real check to see if the law needs to be stricter or better in any way.
Companies are unfairly striking videos to gain any possible amount of income from the videos. Once a company strikes a video, they will own it until a counterclaim is brought out.
Anyway, yeah, change up the law folks in the Capitol Building. You're not incompetent. You can see from others how to fix it. Now do it
I believe the DMCA need to be amended as the 1998 act has not kept up with the technology explosion we have had in the last 18 years.
Youtube needs actual people to look over claims of plagiarism from not only online creators but also to bigger companies. If they had actual people this could not only solve a big problem with online creating. But it could also give people a lot of jobs.
(These false take-down notices are the reason people like me are afraid to start doing anything big on Youtube. What is the point bigger companies only need to follow the law when it suits them, even when we're caught in the crossfire?)
I am a content creator on YouTube and live in fear that my content will be flagged as violating DMCA.
Another thing I would like to advocate is a fine for individuals/companies who also abuse the DCMA takedown process for their own gain. And especially if they otherwise had no involvement in the production of the original material. Far too many videos have been taken down by one or more companies/individuals unaffiliated with the original material.
I've had issues with this myself and have made two videos about it; watch them at these links:
https://youtu.be/SYXbK4OKxq0
https://youtu.be/H2vpkGfCqY4
As a person who is thinking about starting a career on YouTube because I have disabilities that would prevent me from getting a real job, having to deal with the possible takedown abuse that comes as a common problem with such a career, I would hate to have this be another thing on my shoulders preventing me from entertaining people.
Really, though, there have been far too many instances of these things happening. On websites such as YouTube, content creators lose out on valuable ad revenue during the initial hours of publication. Additionally, it makes it hard for people to get off the ground, as new creators don't have support from a network or lawyers.
*Before the message down here: Come on, it's way too unfair, even if I don't live in the US (nor I have the nationality), it would happen to me if not handled correctly right now. If they want money/profit, fine, they can keep working for it, but don't take our voices, our work, our legal human rights in order to do so.*
This is a country that is based on free speech. Our rights, our freedoms, and our own individuality is based on the principle that if anyone has a voice, it can be heard. This is not simply a legal issue, it's a moral one. Using copyrighted material for non-profit, satirical, critical, and entertainment purposes is a right that should not be taken away. Far from theft, it is an artistic expression of honest hard working people who are being bullied by corporations and drones for just that, being artistic. The day we abandon these rights is the day we let millions of American lives (both living, and passed on) become meaningless.
Innocent until proven guilty is, on the whole, a lot more sane than the current system.
Seeing a lot of youtubers i like getting shot down and loosing revenue because some little brat will flag their video for copyright (with either very little or no grounds to it) and still the video will disappear and video maker will be held responsible for copyright fraud. Its madness and im glad i finally have somewhere i can protest this.
I believe that the DMCA needs to be changed for the following reasons;
The form letter says it all! The DMCA should not be used by corporate robots to bully small content creators who are using fair use correctly. Some of these claims are even on content the claimant has no rights to whatsoever.
I have been witnessing companies/corporations (Hasbro, Viacom, Shout! Factory, etc.) abuse the faulty and obsolete copyright laws implemented in the U.S. for 3 years. Although I have not dealt with these false claims, strikes or what have you, I can relate because I am in the same business as many who have been illegally attacked. TheMysteriousMrEnter, Channel Awesome, and joshscorcher are just a few of the YouTube users that I have followed during their individual copyright battles. This injustice must end. I am but one of millions who see the same way. Lets fix this problem and make the internet a safer place for people who just want to: get their voice out there, have some fun, entertain, be entertained, interact, or even provide meaningful art.
Companies shouldn't be able to control the internet. It is a safe haven for many people and a place for people to express themselves. It isn't fair that the government is against that.
It's completely one-sided and the claimant has NO penaltyl for isuing FLASE and ILLEGAL claims. Often they even steal money and PROFIT off the broken system.
As a content creator on Youtube.com, I have suffered from numerous false copyright claims, mostly from shell companies that do not own the content they claim as their own (such as CoPeerRight Agency - Italy, IODA also known as The Orchard, and VOD, just to name a few). These attacks stifle content creators' ability to work, even within the Fair Use Act, can be used to violate free speech and to harass small channels like my own, and can even be used to steal ad revenue! This behavior must not be tolerated and has to be stopped!
Please put an end to this blatant abuse!
- Kyle Martin (Krimson Rogue)
It is simply just a social slip up that needs to be corrected with the playing field of sharing content too slanted to be credible when judging what is approvable and what is not. No one should be able to take extensive advantages here.
When a law promotes the suppression of not only rights but of basic human social normality, such as the sharing of ideas or opinions, that law has become nothing more than a method of corruptable business practices.
When a person posts a video or picture about a copyrighted product with commentary or parody involved it is certainly, and plainly distinguishable as not a copyright infringement. But the DMCA gives copyright holders way too much control over frivolous claims that, when investigated, typically show the holders' claims dont hold water.
Worse yet, the law prohibits critics, writers, artists or just plain citizens who like to comment on the world around them, the proper means to defend their product in a timely fashion when copyright infrigements are claimed on their product. This means their product is censored or completely removed with nary a way to show, again in a timely matter, that they were actually within the guidelines of parody and criticism.
While these claims are being cycled through the process at a typically lackadaisical pace, the person who is facing the charge is incapable, by the laws' design, of defending the product with any punctuality. While days or weeks pass the monitary gain on their work is halted or worse sent to a party who is abusing the system to continually profit off work they have no hand in producing.
And isnt that what the spirit of the DMCA is? To stop fraudulent profiting off other peoples work, ideas or products over the internet?
By allowing uninvestigated claims to immediatly impact the uploader with a delayed defense allocation and a continual chance to refile claims, the law is actually helping fraudulent monitary gains by one party over another. And isnt that what the law was written to protect from? Or is it only lawful for a large organization to unfairly profit off a smaller group or individual?
In the end, where does it stop? Critics arent allowed to show the product they are discribing or promoting? How long until it gets to the point an average citizen cant even tell a friend what they liked about a movie over coffee without being susceptible of a lawsuit?
If i show my brother a part of a movie and talk to him about why i think it is terrible, should i be looking over my shoulder for a lawsuit? If i do a supscription based podcast and talk about a product in any kind of detail, am i infringing on someones copyrighted material? Because im technically being paid while talking about or showing what amounts to a fraction of the copyrighted content?
It is censorship of opinions and of the free exchange of nonthreatening information. A review, a criticism or a promotion is not intended to encroach on anyones rights. But the DMCA law is being misused by those who do intend to encroach on others rights and that is why is has to be reviewed and updated to suit the current times and the times to come. The exchange of ideas over internet is not going to go away anytime soon.
Dont let them take anymore of our ability to freely exchange opinions or ideas.
Despite not being a US Citizen, this issue has affected people internationally and needs to stop. It is clear that these companies are no longer interested in simply protecting their intellectual property, as much as rigging it with pitfall legislation that heavily favours the copyright holder, in order to effectively steal advertisement revenue. They don't even need to do it themselves, numerous small start-ups have simplified the process by issuing these take-down claims on the company's behalf, helping both to profit from a system that is clearly broken. Even when a claim has been proven to be false, take-downs can be made against the same individual again, on the same content! There's even cases such as with Youtube, where the advertising revenue is not even transferred to a third-party account for safekeeping, it's delivered straight to the account specified by the person issuing the DMCA take down.
I fully support the idea of reviewing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and hope that it is expanded to protect and serve new media such as live streaming, ad-supported free viewing video models and Fair Use.
Some of the most important work into parody, educational and criticized material, is produced using the ideals of Fair Use and it holds huge value today.
Thank you for your time
And arguably worse still, many of these claimants do not own, nor or connected with the entity that owns, the copyright accused of being violated, but are simply abusing a broken system to pocket revenue from other content creators -- an abuse about as opposite to the very function of intellectual property protections as could be conceived.
All I have to say is that the current DMCA law needs to change for today's internet. The one we have now is killing creativity.
Where's The Fair Use?
I am a Canadian and the worst thing that has happened with the DMCA, is that it has on a number of occasions silenced my voice from forces outside of my country. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act has on more than one occasion silenced creators, and education beyond the borders of america.
Personal: As a creator who's planning on setting up shop on various areas such as YouTube, I have witnessed many times the law being abused. I've seen small creators being attacked but larger budget companies despite what they produce being under Fair Use. With the Internet producing communities and businesses not even thought of in 1998, this needs to be rethought.
I've seen people lose a lot of revenue from videos that fall under parody, that once they lost there part time job (due to unknown reasons), couldn't afford housing. This could have been avoided on places such as YouTube, where the ad revenue was stolen from the creator and to the abuser in the peak of its viewership.
As someone wanting to jump in, there needs to be reworks in the law that would prevent many people from being screwed over.
SAVE PROJECT VOICEBEND
Plenty of my favourite you tubers have been threatened and attacked on youtube for something that should be in fair use.
ALSO: please watch this. He explains the problem quite well especially in regards to YouTube. warning: explicit language... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjXNvLDkDTA
I have fallen under copyright abuse from Disney, as well as random
people on the internet trying to make money off of my work.
Please change the way that the DMCA works. Thank you. #WTFU
TL;DR DMCA is being abused, you have my vote if you fix it.
Too many company's have bullied and harassed independent creators just trying to make a living.
Those who do review movies and television shows for a living, on sites like YouTube or other video sharing websites, depend on Fair Use to allow them to use content from an audiovisual work. Fair Use also protects parodies and works with commentary on the original, including critiques. Many have had legal action taken on them, even while their content would be deemed fair in a court of law. The government should be able to review all cases of copyright infringement, possibly in local governments.
It's so unfair that Youtubers and content creators have to live in fear of this, when it should protect them! For many, their content is what pays the bills and puts food on the table. So what happens if their content is taken away due to unfair use and regulations? It's like firing someone for no reason! I may just be one tiny voice that has little to say in this, but I firmly believe the rules should be changed.
Countless reviewers, Let's Players, and even just regular vloggers who want to use clips of films or pop songs are at risk of having their freedom of speech limited even if its fair use. Prominent Youtubers who have become victims of this include Doug Walker, I Hate Everything, Todd in the Shadows, and The Mysterious Mr. Enter-as well as an unknown number of people who could have made it big on the internet, but didn't have the chance to because abuse of the Fair Use claims killed their shot at fame.
These video takedowns violate free speech. We believe in allowing people to express their opinions, don't we? Why does it suddenly change when it's a person on the internet expressing an opinion on a film? Voltaire said, "I disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Clearly Derek Savage, director of the movie Cool Cat Saves the Kids (who bullied several Youtubers who negatively reviewed his film) doesn't agree, and many other Hollywood types don't either. In their view, free speech is okay as long as you aren't making them look bad.
I am using internet reviewers as my main example because they are some of the most frequent victims of these unfair claims. But many other Youtubers suffer, too. those who make comedy sketches or drama vignettes suffer when they decide to add popular songs to the soundtracks of their videos. People just filming themselves having a good time can suffer, too. Did you love Drake's new single so much that you decided to film yourself dancing to it, intending to just express yourself and find a little fame? Well, too bad, because his record label took your video down. People who just want to make others laugh, cry, or think aren't able to because of these takedowns.
Hollywood fears the internet because it doesn't fully understand it. The internet can actually do good-even for those who don't seem to agree. Exposure to new content through internet videos can actually benefit Hollywood. If someone watches a review-even a negative one-of a film (or tv show, or song), it can stimulate interest in that particular film-people will want to check it out. So why censor the people who are spreading awareness of your film?
To what extent will this continue? How many kids will see their dreams crushed as their fun, dramatic, or even educational videos are censored even though the uploader did nothing wrong? My little sister likes to make videos of herself playing video games. Are you willing to send a young woman to jail simply for sharing her passion? Are you willing to take away basic freedoms simply because a few ignorant guys up in Hollywood said they don't like what new up-and-comers are doing in a different medium?
There is a huge difference between fair use and straight-up piracy. There ARE, indeed, those who will put entire movies, albums, and tv episodes online in order to make a profit. But you need to know who's actually stealing and who's just using content legally to make a point or liven up a video. There is an obvious difference between a full, uploaded movie that has not been edited at all and the guy doing a 20-minute video critiquing a movie.
Remember: the internet is only going to continue growing. You can try to take away our rights, but the video uploaders are only going to fight back even harder. Good luck.
(That's just me adding my own words; now here's the stuff that was already written in this text box):
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of the complainant, regardless if they are the legal copyright holder, and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies and individuals that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Due to fear of legal litigation, companies such as Youtube which offer a revenue share program to its content creators will divert any accrued funds to the complainant over the course of a DMCA complaint regardless of the outcome of complaint made against an individual. This effect has a serious impact on self-employed individuals who distribute content online as their main source or revenue. In almost all cases the content being distributed falls under Fair Use and cannot be subject to a DMCA takedown.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls (Companies or Individuals who seek to exploit Copyright law and the DMCA purely for financial gain, whether legally or illegally) who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies or individuals that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to uphold Fair Use. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works due to the fact that these systems cannot take into account the context of any use of Copyrighted material and have been shown to have acted illegally on countless occasions. Examples of this include, but are not limited to: issuing takedown notices on works where the complainant is not the legal copyright holder, issing takedown notices on works which fall under Fair use, issuing takedown notices on works that have content which is now Public Domain, and issuing takedown notices for content which is not present in the work (i.e. false positives).
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
I personally think this needs to change
You need to take down the DMCA , it's ruining people's lives by having their work taken down even if it's in fair use. The DMCA is old and outdated PLEASE take it down!!
The system is broken and we need new copyright law!
It is absolutely ridiculous how the system is being used to abuse small channels making great content
#wtfu
The thing that's wrong with the DMCA is how messed up it is right now. The fact that so many people can be easily bullied through DMCA takedown notices, copyright claims, and copyright strikes just shows that it needs to be reworked, that it needs so desperately for a way to punish those that abuse these laws. If the DMCA gets tweaked to better uphold the content creators and not greedy companies then so many people wouldn't have to live their lives in fear over when the next person decides to strike down their content due to abuse. Please, save the content creators!!!
The notice-andtakedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Channel Awesome, JohnTron, Chris Stuckmann, YourMovieSucks, etc. on YouTube have been accused of stealing entertainment of fair use. Piracy is big but these people are not enforcing that, unlike YouTube channels dedicate to pirating films and shows like Degrassi. I don't want to be a tattletale, I just want to do the right thing. Nostalgia Critic (Dong Walker) has actually turned some of has recent videos into from 15 minute videos into 3 minute podcasts. That's not right. I listen to hour long Collidervideos podcasts while pushing carts at work and those are full podcasts. 3 minutes is nothing. But people and their reviews and opinions are everything. Our four father argued freedom, opinion, control and the limits to it all many times and they would want justice. I'm not a smart guy and i've jumped around a lot but i had a right to speak.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Make fair use fair again.
(Personal note: I would suggest requiring anyone sending a DMCA takedown request to verify themselves as both existing at a billable address, and as the copyright holder; and add sharp penalties to falsified takedown requests, either in the form of fines or in penalties to a company's ability to use the DMCA.)
I have been personally affected by this having videos being automatically taken down by DMCA claims by companies that didn't even have legitimate claim to claim monetization and claim on my videos.
The DMCA was signed into effect in October of 1998, back when the internet was in its infancy- from that point, we have come a long way online, for many the web becoming their chief source of entertainment, and in some cases, income. Piracy is without a doubt a surge upon this nation, however the current legislation allows for *far* too much interpretation in what counts as piracy- In some cases, completely original content has been claimed for its revenue by umbrella corporations. To be frank, Mr. congressman whoever you are, You'd have to be legally blind to not have seen the #WTFU videos on youtube and Facebook, which surround and provide countless bits of evidence concerning the issue. Content creators are being harassed, violated, in some cases even threatened by these corporations and their web bot peons. Remember- the internet is not marketed to the elderly, but politics are. How long are you willing to run with ignoring the issues of the current and next generation before the boomers capitulate and who puts you in office falls to us, hmm? I'd appreciate you thinking on this.
Big companies are abusing the system that is there to protect everyone.
I have a professional relationship with an independent movie studio. The company allows me to use clips from their films in my movie reviews on youtube. After posting one of our movie reviews we received a takedown notice from someone who claimed they were associated with the film company. When this happened my monitization got turned off and all profits were transferred to this person. They "claimed" they were with the movie company, they had rights to all the clips in the episode and the movie company's movies. I e-mailed the movie company who in turn said they have no record of this person working there, the movie company owns all the clips and never gave their ownership on Youtube to anyone on Youtube other than themselves. In the end I appealed the claim and it was dropped, with a notice from the person who filed it, claiming that the company had sold all their rights to him. He said that I would have to go through him from now on. Once again I e-mailed the movie company and the verified to me that this was untrue. The fact this person who was not employed by the film company but yet could pose as someone from it, and steal my money is very concerning. I was lucky in that I knew who to contact in this situation from the film company. This system is being abused, and as long as people can claim to be from companies and not have to prove who they are, or aren't the system will continue to be abused.
Thanks for taking the time to read.
The DMCA process, particularly on companies such as YouTube, has become easily abused to allow for companies to issue threats and cyber-bullying to small content creators and businesses who use the content claimed for a purpose which falls under fair use laws.
This system is outdated and must be changed to provide more economic freedom to entrepreneurs who want to be successful. My Catholic faith tells me that small businesses must be protected from abuse like this.
The world has changed and is changing. Many of the platforms we use are relatively young in the grand scheme of things and to be expected some of humanity is taking advantage of it to gain more power, more money and more control over others. As humans do of course. This is of course a minority of people simply taking advantage of a broken and flawed system and the majority suffers for it.
Gag orders, false claims, rampant theft of the livelihoods of a myriad of innocents who in all fairness did nothing wrong to start with. Its not just company's who blatantly censor their own Youtube videos to stomp out actual legitment criticism. Its small groups of radical people attacking their rivals of the opposite party (In literally any online controversy just pick one) as well as single individuals who force youtubers to jump through hoops of paperwork and emails just because the reviewer calls them out as being a scam or being a bigot, racist, sexist, or generally bad person.
The WHOLE point of free speech is to allow everyone to have a voice. To throw there Idea into the ring and have everyone take a shot at it. If the idea is good enough and stands up to scrutiny it moves on and is used. This process is used to weed out BAD ideas that would impact negatively. Not on just one group of people but ALL people. If all of humanity looks a pawn an idea and they know its bad, that its harmful they say,
NO.
Lets take the new Ghoutbusters movie. Me personally I think a try at rebooting it is fine. But when I start hearing (These are rumors so take them with a bit of skepticism) that the studio is deleting any real comment that criticizes the film in a negative light and simply blocking out anything that will inform people that the movie my be not as good as the studio wants you to think, I get a little worried.
This isn't about just Youtube. Youtube,Twitter, Facebook all of them are meant to give the WORLD a voice not just a bunch of power hunger people who know how to write a blog with a bunch of buzz words in it or a company with teams of lawyers who know how to rig the system to bleed money out of everyone they can find.
Censorship is a form of control and these people know they can get anything censored on Youtube, Twitter, Facebook simply by using certain words that scare people.
"Triggered, offensive, abuse, feminize, bigotry, rasism, Privilege"
All these words are used by people to get what they want simply because they know they can get away with it.
And when a situation pops up that is actual bad. A ACTUAL case of abuse or bullying people ignore it now because they think its just someone crying for attention instead of just crying.
Those that live by "cry wolf" die by the wolf.
As more and more attention is brought to these false claims more and more of the true copyright violators slip through the cracks. I've seen literal porn on youtube before that had been up for over a year before it was taken down all because it did not use key words or any sound. And yet I made an account as a joke to comment on one video and in less than 24 hours it was terminated with no reason given. Every time I try to access said account it just reroutes me to the rules page that says what I can do to get terminated but never say what I did, what rule I broke no nothing.
The system is a dead hours being feed on by vultures of Crybullys, Greedy companys and just bad people in general and we the people are suffering for it.
We must draw the line here. Show them that they can not take our voice. That they can't block everyone from speaking. There is no "Safe spaces" There is nothing that can be censored forever. The world is a tough place. Its tough so it can make you strong. Strong so you can support yourself and the ones you love. To shut yourself off from the world then slam your ideals in peoples faces and have them silenced when they don't agree with you is a old, outdated, barbaric, way of thinking that died with Fascism and communism. Two forms of government that were crushed by the masses or collapsed under their own ineptitude.
When Freedom is at risk its up to the masses to fight the evil that is trying to consume it.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected
under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The system needs to be updated to account for the internet of today. I've made critical review videos where the subject of that video has been able to steal the ad revenue from that video. That is unacceptable.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Not hundreds not thousands but millionth of YouTube channels are affected by this system every day Mr. nightmare, the drunken peasants, the amazing atheist , Angry Joe, and many others. And people who use this illegally like Brett Keane, Tommy sotomayor, and many others abuse the system just to take other peoples money and take people's revenue and it is a system that needs to be fixed immediately .
I will add: my friend is a content creator whose videos have been taken down due to this unfair practice. The system needs to change now.
Please don't make good content creators who make us laugh, and inform us suffer. Times are changing so change with it. What ever the out come is just know that their are people out their with an idea and a voice they want to share it with us so let them share in peace.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
It is time to bring DMCA to the present. Thank you.
The number one use of the system now seems to be abusing it to take down things that constitute fair-use like non-profit fanworks, parody, or video reviews like the critics on sites such That Guy With the Glasses Produce.
It's also been used by unscrupulous content creators that produce objectively bad content like unfinished and broken video games to remove videos criticizing their work and thus silence others from warning the public away from being cheated by their product.
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As of today, I have seen many of my favorite content creators being flagged as content stealers by a certain afternoon, and by the end of the same day everything is fine, and no reasons were given about why they were tagged as such whatsoever. It felt like a hostage situation, where the kidnapper would run away at the end: The situation is back to normal, but the fear of the events happening again still roams around you.
I have heard many testimonials about the fragility of the current bill, with extreme penalties for those who "stole content", but no penalty for those who falsely claim that these people did so, leaving them, who/whatever they are, free to abuse other critics, musicians, filmmakers, and much more creative people, inside an relatively unfair arena.
"This needs to be solved, and solved fast. I may not be an American, but even from Europe I can see that the DMCA is causing undue stress, loss of money and is being heavily abused by those seeking to eradicate their competitors. The DMCA is so old now, it can't possibly be an effective part of the modern day Internet in the form it takes now. Please, please look at the law and either remove it completely or update it."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
With the current system, as it pertains to Youtube, false copyright claims can allow individuals, without proof of owning the rights to a particular medium or repercussions for repeated offenses, to claim monetized revenue without the possibility of the original content creator receiving compensation for false claims.
Current process often too automated on the behalf of claims and very intensive for defendants; even if they are in the right.
Therefore censoring and disinsentivising creative works.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Free speach is a human right, yet people think taking this away is ok. This is a terrible problem, so I MUST HELP THIS CAUSE!!
While not having been affected by a copyright or other claims of sort directly yet, I still am limited in my means of consume and am not able to have access to technicly legit media just because e.g. videos on youtube had to be taken down.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Also DMCA takedowns executed on content from a country of origin other than the US that appears on sites (Eg, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook) that falls under fair use such a parodies should have protection if uploaded to these sites that are on US Soil
The current laws are allowing massive companies take down bad reviews of their movies even though reviews fall under fair use. In some cases they even take money earned by the review even if the review doesn't use any clips or sounds from the movie/show. The rules right now were written for the Internet as it was years ago. Why haven't they been updated? These companies are abusing this and are getting away with doing stuff that would be considered criminal if we, the little people, did it.
A creator should not have to fight for his creation.
Many of the content creators that I've watched have been bullied through the DMCA as companies make false claims about their videos and profit from it by just claiming that they stole some content even though they didn't at all. Companies are abusing the DMCA to harass content creators and take down their videos. Content creators only have three strikes and their channel is taken down and there no break time as they get hit again by same company. Many people earn a living making content for people to enjoy and they follow the fair use system, but they're being harassed and threated. Companies are ignoring what makes video fair use and make claims for the little things they see in a video so they earn profit from it. This act anti-competitive practices needs to stop
I spend most of my time on YouTube. I'm in college, aspiring to be a filmmaker. I love watching people create videos on YouTube like Nostalgia Critic. They serve as inspiration and even make people who have been having a hard time smile. To see people try to suffocate creators like him is aggravating. People like Nostalgia Critic bring joy to so many people and it isn't right to have a system where the creators are at a disadvantage. So I am eager to help YouTube creators get the Fair Use they deserve.
The current system fails to protect small and medium content creators. Anyone can claim ownership of a work and have it removed without any proof of ownership and without fear of any retribution if the action was taken in bad faith.
I have dreams of being an online reviewer, but I see my favorite reviewers getting their videos brought down without just cause. Their videos are clearly reviews and not reshowings of the movie. Please show these hacks who take down my favorite videos some god dang reason@!
In addition, I would like to say that the way companies are allowed to take down any youtube video without justifying it is ridiculous. If a wrongful claim is filed, The content creator is punished while the company who filed the takedown notice gets no punishment at all.
I love Project Voicebend, the creators and voice actors re animate everything themselves and provide their own voices and soundtrack e to the show. I want to protect it, but the DMCA is taking their videos down without any consideration or careful review of what is actually being put out on video to the public.
There are so many YouTube content creators I could list who have inspired me and helped me to understand my talents and the world I live in. They've helped me to become more mature and take different approaches. My life and personality has changed drastically and it's all thanks to all those people. So it angers and frustrates me so much when people who generate useless waste such as Reaction channels on YouTube are explicitly breaking the rules of the site and never get held accountable for their actions, yet actual content creators get copyright claims for trying to deliver good to the world. Freedom speech should be heard, and if these DMCA take downs don't stop then we will continue to eventually spiral into a whirlwind of politically correct generated waste for a consumer society - this shouldn't be happening! Fair Use needs to be returned and people who have been unfairly treated like trash deserve to be compensated for - I want to help them continue what they want to pursue and for me and many similar people to be shown the world in whole new perspectives, and will until the very end continue to actively protest and campaign for artistic integrity and freedom of speech - Where's The Fair Use?
The current DMCA law needs to change. There has go be accountability for people making false claims on copywrite infringement. People are being threatened and having their livelihood taken from them. Many of these claiments will never take their argents to court because they know they do not have a legal case.
Instead they rely on how easy is to abuse an outdated system tp steal revenue from smaller businesses.
For example TheMysteryousMrEnter, a YouTube critic, is constantly having his video taken down by a foreign company for his megative review of their television show. Because there is no limit on how many times this company can claim his videos after the alloted time the company is given to seek legal action expires they just claim the video again.
Everytime the company does this he is losing the money he should be earning on that specific work. When this company figures they could bot be bothered to renew the stile themselves they got a third party company to put strikes on the video on thwir behlaf. Of this was really about protectig the copywrite and integrity of their work this company would have taken legal action long ago but it is clear that all they care about is making free money on someone who is given no means of fighting back. This isn't even the only case pf thia happening.
Jim Sterling, Stoned Grimlin Productions, Team Four Star, and so many others who make their money on transformative works are having their work deleted, the monwy they are supposed to be making monotized stolen and their sites completely taken away even when through they are within their rights under fair use. This problem can be best seen by just googling "Where's The Fair Use". Many of these content creators arw victims of big corporations over stepping their boundries or small time trolls who want to make free money off of someone else's work. Either way the DMCA needs review and revision to fit the current climate of the internet and better protect people's jobs. Imagine of Rodger Ebert couldn't have written negative reviews on movies and instead got his articles cut out of magazines and newspapaers while the movie studio collected his check. This wouldn't stand in anyother profession and it can't on line either.
There are too many people being harmed by this and I say "enough "
The DMCA copyright laws are being misused and used for the wrong reasons on the internet. On YouTube channels such as IHateEverything, Channel Awesome, Eli The Computer Guy or Alternate History Hub are having their videos copyright striked for no apparent reason. This not only makes it look as though the creator stole content but also removes a source of all revenue made from the video as well as viewers and subscribers which are the creators sources of income. It's a broken system that needs to be amended and that's why I'm in.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
o
It doesn't work, plain and simple. It hampers the creativity and voice of people at large, for the benefit of a few companies. It is antidemocratic, anticreative, and fails to protect small creators.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I received a copyright strike following a DMCA takedown request that resulted in me losing the majority of my YouTube channel's features. The video was clearly fair use so I disputed the claim and won, but still lost months of potential revenue and STILL haven't gotten my monetization re-enabled. All the channels I know of have had copyright problems at some point. People can file claims that are outright false with no consequences. People who just upload videos of them talking into a camera with no copyrighted material at all get taken down for no reason.
Before the usual stuff, let me just say that I met a lot of really cool people (current friends and colleagues, plus celebrities!) by doing "literal video" parodies of popular music videos such as "Total Eclipse of the Heart", which ended up referenced in academic books on digital media. However, the copyright strike system on YouTube resulted in me losing my YouTube channel (and many contacts) two years ago. It has discouraged me from doing videos on the internet, despite all the support from friends and fans. THIS NEEDS TO CHANGE. Please....
Extra Details: The people who are "supposedly" responsible for Youtube's existence have been replaced with bots that don't do anything to help the consumer/creator who he/she has been given a false copyright claim, people who do remixes or change/edit footage to fit the video's purpose/message are getting false copyright claims, people who use music, say where it came from, and give credit where credit is due still get their content removed, and people who use only seconds of footage just to prove a point or to make people laugh and allow people to generally have a good time are being bullied by companies/organizations who can't take a joke, miss the overall point, or just flat out understand that a company can make mistakes. Even people who aren't even using any sort of footage from any company or organization or person and are just talking about a certain subject can get false copyright strikes for crimes they didn't commit.
The overall point: People are losing money, jobs, and homes because of their Youtube channels being destroyed by companies who are insecure about their properties despite the fact that many people that they attack are supporters of their property. The internet is a dog that has been brutally abused by oppressive organizations. The dog has been barking long and loud but no one with a sane mind is paying attention. Youtube has become a hunting ground and the consumer is the pray. This copyright law that's existed since 1998 is outdated and obsolete. Our voices have been shut out by several japanese companies such as Capcom, Nintendo, Toei Animation, and even american companies such as Warner Brothers, and 20th Century Fox. These business practices are unhealthy for the consumer economy and this system has done nothing but attack the consumer. The 1st Amendment which has been the very foundation of the american government has been violated for over 11 years now. Corrupt businesses who wish to threaten our very lives must be punished in some way. I ask the american government, the american people, and every person that can hear my words to please hear the barks. The Freedom of speech must be enforced! Our voices aren't loud enough but, yours is. Please for every sacred, holy, or valuable in any way PLEASE HEAR THE BARKS!!!! We are dogs hungry for a voice and we are bleeding out. FELLOW AMERICANS HEAR THE BARKS!!!
I believe a law should be be in place to protect content creators on Youtube. A sort of penalty on people that try to destroy the act of fair use with false DMCA claims. As it stands now the claimant can withhold earnings made by the person that is defending the claim and even if that claim is proven to be false, the money is not restored. This leads to further problem when the companies that use false Digital Millennium Copyright Act claims continue to make claims on the same video to constantly drain many from the person defending the claim. Links that lead to more on what I am talking about can be found here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8) and one of the most shocking examples of the abuse I have seen is here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw) I suppose my question is, What can be done if anything to help these people or the future of anyone that would want to make a living this way?
As someone that wanted to create my own content on YouTube, my own viewpoint on video games and internet video, the abuse of the DMCA was hit hard upon me, forcing me to quite making my own voice on the worldwide network. That is the opposite of what the DMCA stands for.
(ADDITION AT END)
DEEP POCKETED COMPANIES ARE TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THIS LAW'S IMBALANCES AND TAKING AWAY THE VOICE OF HUNDREDS UPON HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD. WE OWE IT TO THEM AS AMERICANS TO FIGHT FOR THEIR VOICES, JUST AS WE HAVE DONE FOR OVER 200 YEARS. AMERICANS STEP UP AND FIGHT FOR THOSE TO WEAK TO FIGHT FOR THEMSELVES. ITS TIME FOR OUR GOVERNMENT TO HONOR THEIR PROMISE TO THEIR PEOPLE
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Stop the unfair and unlawful take down and harassment of channels and you tubers who do nothing but bring joy into people lives and try to entertain us, and actually have competent people check to see if something is violating copyright maybe, before taking down a video.
This is a great way to improve your website and the entertainments and opportunities it gives so many people, don't miss your chance.
DMCA is being abused. Not only by companies but by people that don't have the right to take down content. People are using to DMCA to remove content because they don't like the content uploaded or just because they feel like it. This hurts people who try to use media to make a living or even share their craft.
The DMCA is outdated and doesn't hold up to how the internet works today. There needs to ways to stop companies or people from making a false accusations. These accusations are nothing more then pity in most cases but are harmful to people who have done nothing wrong.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Not to mention that these algorithms allow a staggering amount of content that actually violate fair use through the cracks.
Numerous content creators across the internet are suffering from unjust use of DMCA takedowns. The majority of these cases that I have personally come across are clearly in the wrong and are either the work of automated systems who are unable to filter out unlawfully copyrighted content or outside entities who seek to abuse the current state of the law in order to make a profit. The internet today is is in no way the same as the internet back in 1998.
I implore you, please update the law to appropriately reflect this new era beyond that of the information age and preserve the freedom of speech across every medium.
Thank you for giving the internet an opportunity to have a voice in this matter.
-Travis
Content creators that use the news means available with the rise of new technology are currently being silenced with claims regarding the DMCA legislation. Even though many of these claims are baseless they are often sucessful in limiting creative voices on the internet like youtube content creators, effectively steel their revenue or even get their channels disabled, which is a thread to this business model and ultimatively to free speech. Even false claims of copyright can occur without any repercussions, resulting in financial gain and sucessful sensorship. An update in legislation is necessary to arm content creators using material as permitted by the DMCA laws with effective option to fight off false claims and to hold antagonists decending to criminal behavior responsible.
The DMCA is being used to stifle free speech and is being maliciously being used by companies and individuals to silence others' opinions on their works even if none of the origional work was even used in the taken down content.
If the DMCA is not changed the future of the internet may be heavily censored with big companies abusing thier power to take down content that they don't like. This has already happened to many YouTube channels both big and small and the number of abusive takedowns will only increase if the DMCA is not changed.
The notice-and-takedown uprocess under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I what to bring to your attention that movie companies and corporations abuse the system of automatic copyright protection to silence any criticism of their creations. Movie companies claim that their content is being used unlawfully and, apparently, they completely forget about Fair Use law. It comes to absolutely ridiculous cases when a video of people talking critically about a movie with no fragments or music from the movie used is being penalized with a claim of illegal use of content.
Movie companies file claims against critical videos that are being processed automatically in favor of movie companies. Appeals fro critics takes up to 3 months. During these 3 months money from from the views of the critical video (ads usually run during the video and generate revenue) are going to the company that filed the claim. Even if the case is resolved in favor of video creator - money stay in the movie company pocket. Movie companies are also not being penalized for unlawful claims and that allows them to file claims non-stop and abuse the system.
That violates the following:
1) Fair use law and freedom of speech (first amendment)
2) Presumption of innocence (video creators and critics are pronounced guilty by an automated system)
3) Clear fraud (money are not coming back to video creators and critics when the case is ruled in their favor)
It needs to stop.
Best Regards,
-Oleg.
Stop this shit
Below is a statement provided by Fight For The Future, which sums up the issues with the DMCA better than I can, but I want to give my personal thoughts beforehand. Over the past few years, I've watched as several of my favorite YouTube critics and commentators have had their videos, all of which are transformative and covered under fair use, get taken down by corporations and entities unfairly and without recourse. These YouTube content creators have lost revenue, had their very channels and livelihood threatened, and even more importantly, had their criticisms silenced. To make matters worse, it's become common knowledge that groups WHO ARE NOT EVEN COPYRIGHT HOLDERS have filed false DMCA claims simply to get content removed or to claim ad revenue for themselves. Even videos that have been restored due to false claims are sometimes hit with claims AGAIN and AGAIN until the uploader has no choice but to comply simply to make the claims stop.
I and a group of friends have been wanting to start our own YouTube channel for a while now. The content we would post would largely rely on fair use for protection. But after witnessing these flagrant abuses of the law, we wonder if we can even depend on fair use for protection. The DMCA has been used as a weapon for years now to fend off fair use and the protection it offers to everyday people on the internet. The internet has changed immensely since the DMCA was enacted. It's much larger, much faster, and much more important in our lives. The internet has given ordinary people the ability to report, to criticize and critique, and to spread their views. The DMCA is threatening all of that.
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The DMCA is currently being used by content creators on sites such as Youtube as a weapon against criticism.
Content creators such as Derek Savage have used the DMCA takedown system to silence critics providing insightful commentary.
People are being threatened and manipulated by the DMCA. It has hurt more people than it has helped.
Please, listen.
The DMCA laws are highly outdated and need to be reformed to prevent their abuse.
An example is this creator, who had his review of a film taken down because the creator did not like what he had to say: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkcWbvnN0.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
While I may not live in the U.S., I legitimately feel that I have a voice in this conversation. As a second year law student at what is currently the most prestigious faculty of law in my country (at the Babes-Bolyai University, in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania), as well as a daily user of the Internet since 2005, I feel that the DMCA is severely outdated.
Having studied the DMCA as part of one of the optional subjects I have chosen in the first semester of my current year of university, I can honestly say that it instantly struck me that it was basically a relic from long ago, even before my teacher had mentioned that it was signed in 1998. Now, it is true that some laws can stand the test of time for far longer than the more than 17 years the DMCA has been in effect, but in this case, because of the changes that lead to the fast development of the Internet, the DMCA simply does not fulfill the purpose it was created for in 1998 anymore.
Nowadays, the DMCA is being used in completely abusive ways, such as: absolutely ruining the concept of fair use, DMCA takedowns being issued falsely, the DMCA being used as a means to bully other content creators due to criticism, multiple DMCA takedowns being issued on the same video (despite the content creator having solved all of the previously issued ones), MMA companies using the DMCA to make new laws (something which, of course, they are not allowed to do), as well as people having their work removed via a DMCA takedown simply for talking about a copyrighted work, without using any footage from said copyrighted work.
Needless to say, this is all unacceptable. I want the U.S. to be the first to change the online world for the better and I really believe this can be done. Through your positive change, you could show the entire world the right way of producing online content, and help a new form of entertainment fully blossom, instead of unnecessarily ending it and stifling the creativity of so many great people, including both current and future content creators. That, in my opinion, is definitely something that should be done.
As it stands videos with just camera footage from a phone are being taken down for no reason. There is no music, no video playing, just two people in a car talking to each other about random stuff related to today's issues. Please take this into consideration that those who are protected under the fair use law are being abused, and copyright claims that are being revoked are taking days and revenue goes towards the companies instead of the video producers they sign contracts with.
The constitution Bill of Rights is meant to protect a person's rights, but that is not being enforced nor is it being upheld. In fact all it does is protect the accuser rather than the victim. Please rethink the copyright laws and make it so that users like myself can be free to make video content that won't be taken down just because it was a video about an opinion on teaching.
Even now videos are being attacked by companies that have no connection with any content of the video part of the company. Please put a stop to this abuse where you can't even film in your room because your video can be taken down for having a charging Nintendo DS in your room!
I find the historic fair use system is horrid, and not helping the internet.
The system was established in 1998, 18 years ago.
DMCAs do NOT factor in fair use, and this is directly related to the outdatedness of the law. Anyone can make a change and get a foothold out there on Youtube, and the outdated law does not factor that in. I created a video that was entirely in fair use and posted it on youtube, to find out later that it was taken down by some company for a song that I didn't use. I Hate Everything creates transformative content and is constantly harassed by many companies, who misuse the law and make false claims.
Copyright law was created to protect the profits of artists who make a living off of their work and to encourage them to continue doing so. No one would continue such a career if anyone could steal their work and profits, and our culture would not be as rich as it is if these people stopped creating. Unfortunately, some clever criminals and large corporations have found different ways to abuse the DCMA. While there actions and motivations are different, they both use the DCMA to do exactly what it is supposed to prevent: steal from and limit content creators.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) heavily biased in favor of the party making the claim and does not allow adequately allow someone who's content was claimed to make a defense. This allows for both false claims from malicious entities who are claiming material that they do not own, as well as using the process to censor content that is protected under fair use. Unfortunately, this happens far too often to be ignored. This has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This is done by comparing the content to a database of copyright-protected material. Unfortunately, this process is vulnerable to significant error. Two of them will be discussed here.
The same techniques used by criminals to slip copyright-protected content past the algorithm (such as making superficial changes) have been used to slip public domain material into the database. When this is done successfully, the algorithm will flag material that does not violate any law, and the the fate of that content (and the fate of the profits that could have been made from it) in the hands of the criminals who put public domain works into the database. The problem of public-domain material in these databases can be fixed by better technology. Perhaps public-domain works that are known to be used in this war can have their own database, and when someone enters material into the database for copyright-protected content, it is checked against this public-domain database.
The other main flaw in the system is that it does not allow for judgement to be made about possible fair use exceptions. Often, large corporations make strikes against content that any judge would consider to be fair use, but that the computer will claim as a copyright violation. Once this happens, just like above, the system that is so stacked in favor of the party issuing the takedown will put legal content (and it's associated profits) into the hands of those with no motivation to do the right thing. And why would they have such motivation? There is no penalty for making false claims on fair use material. Unfortunately, there is no easy technical solution here.
Until these two issued are addressed, they will continue to result in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet and the theft of hard earned income to small content creators who might not be able to survive the (hopefully temporary) wrongful loss of income. While better technology may eventually be developed, we are not yet at the point where we can trust our computers to make potentially financially-crippling decisions; we must have humans review these decisions before actions are taken.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
This broken notice-and-takedown process does more than assist criminals in committing the very crimes that it is supposed to prevent; it puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
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This was not written by me, but rather a group of hard, passionate workers having their income taken from them by these attacks on fair use. They have set up a website to stop their work being taken down by faulty, mistaken, or flat-out fake claims (because third-party companies and greed heads are working their way around your broken systems) The fact that they set up a website with their time and money to help this problem shows how big this issue really is. The reader of this has a job, I'm guessing. So do they. And thanks to the reasons stated above, they're losing them.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use wshen enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
The DMCA is extremely flawed, the internet is different from 1998 when it was issued. The DMCA affects everyone, not just Youtubers and Hollywood, everyone. What the DMCA does is take down any piece of content that may or may not even have copyrighted or trademarked content, regardless of whether that content even infringed on copyright or trademark at all. This is creating a system where the current internet is under a monopoly. Where do you go to view videos? The answer is Youtube. Where do you use a search engine? The answer is Google.com.
Speaking of other monopolies, there are plenty of oligopolies on the internet right now. Data companies like Comcast, Cox, Centurylink, and Time Warner Cable have agreed to stand still. They have been putting caps on the internet and slowing everything down to the point where placed like Poland have way better internet than us. Those companies are some of the few that abuse DMCA, and by changing/removing it, you take away their power. America does not need more monopolies. America needs change.
Thank you for reading this.
WARNING - RANT APPROACHING
Fair use is such a wonderful privilege to have - the public domain is truly vast and provides many opportunities for entertainment. But that's what these videos are for - entertainment! When a musical ensemble, like a wind band or string orchestra, performs a living composer's piece, does the composer shut down the ensemble's performance? No - they are happy that their work is being interpreted and used for entertainment. When a parent puts a child's drawing on the fridge, does the child throw a tantrum because the parent is stealing their creation? Maybe, but the child might be proud of the drawing and happy it's on the fridge. I'm not saying any of these examples are always true. That's not my point. My point is that if other forms of art and entertainment can be free and public, why is the DMCA so tight and restricted? It makes no sense to me. I understand the importance of giving the creators and owners of media their due credit, but why is it that although YouTube creators dutifully cite their clips and music, videos are still taken down? It's a backwards, messed-up policy. I'm not saying that blatant copyright infringement should be legal - if someone flagrantly breaks a copyright code, appropriate consequences should be administered - but the people who've done nothing wrong shouldn't be penalized so harshly for a crime they did not commit.
Thus endeth my rant.
Please stop the trolls
cmon m8s
this is dumb, yall need to fix this shit
There are people getting taken down by companies who didn't even own the content, that's messed up
Allow me to share with you an e-mail I was recently sent regarding a copyright dispute I opened up over a Youtube video I had both created and published. I feel that it does an excellent job of revealing where the holes lie with regards to the DMCA.
"After reviewing your dispute, Paramount Pictures has decided that their copyright claim is still valid."
If you haven't yet noticed the problem with this statement, allow me to explain. The statement "Paramount Pictures has decided that their copyright claim is still valid" should be a statement that is fundamentally unlawful, as I have received absolutely no legal representation in this matter.
Instead, Paramount Pictures has been given all of the power to decide on my behalf whether or not my content fits the definition of Fair Use. The content in question is literally a critique of one of their films. Criticism is one of the most important forms of speech that is protected not only under Fair Use laws, but also by my first amendment rights as a United States citizen.
Not only are my rights being infringed upon in that I have not been given any legal representation in these cases, but my first amendment rights and my rights to fair use have also been denied in one fell swoop. How can this be happening to an American citizen? How is it that a large company is allowed to have this amount of power over me, and restrict my freedom of speech in such a direct and unjust manner?
This is the problem with the DMCA as it exists. It does not account for issues such as these, and it does not have provisions instilled which deny companies the power to make these kinds of decisions for content creators.
As a content creator on Youtube, if I choose to continue fighting said claim, I will be at risk of losing access to certain valuable features on the website should Paramount Pictures once again decide (without providing any legal representation for me) that their copyright claims are valid. In this manner, I am literally being bullied into compliance, because if I do try to fight them they have more than enough power to literally punish me for doing so. It doesn't matter if I can be proven right in a court of law beyond a reasonable doubt, because this isn't a court of law – this is one company denying my rights to freedoms that are guaranteed to me as a citizen of the United States of America.
Paramount Pictures should not have the power to do this. No company should have the power to do this. The DMCA needs to be drastically changed in order to ensure that the rights of American citizens are just as respected as those of the businesses who are currently trampling upon them. Please do something to stop this madness.
Thank you.
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Many people use false DMCA claims against people who's videos are clearly fair use. They use it to silence others from their freedom of speech, our nations own First Amendment. People who spend time responding and reacting to others content WITHOUT clips or audio from the source are being striked against.
People who just talk in front of a camera head on without cuts, clips, or copyrighted music are being taken down. It isn't right! Most companies even state how they think they themselves CREATE the law and have complete control and immunity and the "right" to place a false DMCA claim. DMCA's are factored in despite the right of it being fair use for the public.
Many people who have claims sent against them, like people who create videos for a living such as Channel Awesome's Nostalgia Critic (Doug Walker), Drunken Peasants, Eli the Computer Guy, etc. even have shell companies who go after them just for the sole purpose of silencing their voices and shield the companies sending the take downs to their videos. It should also be said that people even use false DMCAs as a means of threatening others.
False DMCAs are dangerous especially to people who create and make a living off of their content in which they fairly use the content of others to make their videos. Independent companies and people who use social media sites like youtube to help them provide for a roof over their head and food on the table. False DMCA claims often result in the lost revenue for the independent creator who was doing their job through the Fair Use Act.
This needs to stop. Big companies and 'trolls' use this dated Act as a way of silencing and stifling the voice of a generation. It needs to be changed. We all have a voice and the right to free speech. We have a right to have our opinions be heard. Not to be pushed over and abused by others who feel it's right to cut out the critics and competitors just because they don't appreciate what's being said about their content and to pilfer profits.
Repercussion is needed against people who falsely place DMCA claims onto others. Balance needs to be adhered.
If you are taking down content creators, and not digital art thieves, you are doing it wrong. The internet has changed, and the abuse of this law has ruined content creators, and lives. There is no penalty for the abuse of this law, and it it harms the people who are following fair use, and have done no wrong. In many cases, content for external media is avoided, and STILL their videos and criticisms are being taken down. It as if my book reports were being called plagiarism, and no quotes were used.
The internet has changed, and the laws for it need to too. If sites with whole copyrighted films stay up, but a criticism for those same films gets taken down, then not only are the fair use laws not being followed, they are being abused.
I personally am not a content creator, but anyone should be able to recognize that the DMCA is an abomination to content creators and free expression all across the Internet.
The state of the DMCA system is BROKEN and needs to be updated for our modern time. Companies are filing false claims against creators who follow all of the rules, and there is no punishment for this. People are losing their livelihoods to companies that claim ad revenue when they don't own anything in the video. There was a creator who literally showed no copyrighted footage, played no copyrighted music, or even used copyrighted images, and his video got a claim filed against it. The sad part is, the claim won. If companies are allowed to freely abuse a system that offers no punishment for false claims, then you will have an abusive system that is hostile to creators. This isn't just a money issue, its something that threatens the rights of people to create new things and share ideas. My question is this: If people are punished even though they follow all of the rules, and punished if they don't, then what incentive do they have to follow the rules at all? Companies do deserve to have their copyrights protected, but not at the expense of freedom of speech. Please, please fix this so we can all express our ideas in a fair way. These creators work so hard to make things that are entertaining, and by no means will copyright holders suffer for it being fair. If anything, someone making a video about something increases the sales of it, regardless of the opinion being offered. Thank you for your time, please work with us to make this system something great.
DMCA was created to protect people who produce work, but for years its been invoked largely to crush them instead. The internet is the only place where young and fresh talent can find an entry point and should stay that way.
The DMCA is very useful to artists who want others to stop stealing their artworks online, and want the reposted work to be taken down from websites. However, it does not work with websites overseas that have US copyright holders' work on it. There needs to be a way that US copyright holders can protect their work stolen to parts of the internet that aren't American.
The Copyright Law on youtube is a joke as companies and people are abusing this system so much so that channels and groups are being taken down for the immense strikes that companies do. These claims can be false and they can still get away with it and take the monetisation for it. This needs to dtop right away!
Some of my favorite works, such as Project Voicebend, had to battle unfairly against DMCA claims, to the point where it completely stressed them out. The DMCA is antiquated and needs to be replaced with something for the modern age. We cannot stifle the media creators of the future.
I am not someone who extensively researches the DMCA, but I don't need to. The DMCA was signed in 1989. The internet changes extremely fast in just a few weeks or even a few days, think about how far the internet has changed in 27 years. The DMCA, even though it sounds nice in theory, extremely limits and/or hampers the person making content even if the content is under fair use, corporations and simple abusers can abuse the DMCA to get free ad revenue and keep the money. They can delete videos people put in hours of work into, with no evidence to back the statement up. In short, the content makers are guilty until proven innocent, and have to lose money while fighting this force from the taken ad revenue. The DMCA is braking the First Amendment by limiting freedom of speech, freedom to create content that fits into fair use. It needs to stop, or many more people will be abused by this one rule. Please don't view content creators as simple people getting a flick on the wrist from the schoolyard bully. Please think of them as people with jobs or careers. Thank you for reading this.
As has probably been mentioned before, this system is set up in a way that makes it all too easy for people to take advantage of it. I've seen people get their work online placed into jeopardy by people who were either wrong about the way copyrighted material in the work was being used, assuming such material was even being shown, or who didn't even seem to understand the copyright laws themselves. Worse than that, it seems that some people deliberately use the system to intentionally cheat people out of the money that their online work earns them, or, perhaps, simply do so because they think it's funny to behave in such a way. Obviously, in such a situation, something needs to be done about it, in order to prevent innocent people from having to suffer due to problematic issues with the fair use laws.
Do not ruin the Internet for the creators.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse, and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music), companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error, and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Inhibitions of free speech are against a large part of what I feel makes America a great country. While copyrights and other forms of protection for intellectual property are important for the proper functioning of a capitalist system, proper enforcement of personal liberties is just as important, if not more so. The fact that the DMCA creates an environment in which companies and patent trolls are able to stifle free speech is a major threat to the American way of life.
P.S. It's time for some change (:
I am scared to pursue my ambitions because of how these laws are being taken advantage of. This precedent is harmful and stifling to the entire world. It's time to take a hard look at these laws and who they are truly meant to protect and from what.
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I have seen content creators fall victim to bogus copyright claims and takedowns under the DMCA time and time again, with seemingly no punishment for the ones who are ACTUALLY at fault. The current Copyright Act is simply obsolete. It allows the companies that hold these copyrights to abuse the law and silence the free-speech of anyone who dares to speak about something that they don't own, regardless of what they've said. These companies choose to repeatedly bully certain higher-profile victims but leave others alone. I can search on YouTube and find entire movies and/or episodes (sometimes whole, sometimes in parts) uploaded by parties that clearly do not own them, but if someone uploads a video that criticizes that same movie then they've somehow done something wrong, regardless of what they say. The DMCA needs to be updated and improved to protect content creators from frivolous claims and punish the ones who make them, and it needs to be done now.
And it is dumb
Please, please take action now and help us, these companies are violating our own constitution, taking away our own freedom on speech. America was created because people couldn't find anywhere else they can live out their freedom. America is not a country that restrains voices, America is a country where everyone has their own voice. Us creators will stand no longer to have our voices silenced.
The DMCA does not work for the internet nowadays for it was designed decades before. Now people can share anything on the internet at any time and use it for all sorts of things, while back then it was a lot more limited. While we have the ability to share our critiques, parodies, etc. of all various movies, video games, television shows, and all sort of media, big companies have been using the DMCA to silence us. The problem is, we are not violating any laws, they are simply doing it because they do not like what we say about their work. Many examples can be found, especially on YouTube.com. Many reviewers on there get false copyright claims for simply reviewing or parodying something. Look at Channel Awesome, YourmoviesucksDOTorg, I Hate Everything, and TheMysteriousMrEnter. These are all YouTube channels that have been falsely accused of copyright multiple times and were punished until proven otherwise. The worst part is that the companies that accuse people like them get off without any penalties, and sometimes even continue to falsely accuse them. Sometimes the company doing so doesn't even own the content they claim is there when filling the copyright strike. These situations are not fair and still happen today. I hope something can be done about this.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videostaken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
I may not be a creator myself, but I follow many creators that are having ongoing issues with copyright and fair use. It is not hard to see that the DMCA is very outdated and it is affecting many of the Internet's content creators negatively. I have seen various videos that are fair use being taken down, while other videos that are actually copyright infringement are ignored and sometimes even supported by websites that host the content. I believe it's time for a change.
The current system gives all the power to the companies and no power to the creators. When's company makes a claim stating that their properties are being pirated, there's nothing stopping them from getting the content removed for petty purposes such as giving a movie a poor review. There's no rule that says they must prove they've been violated and it's almost never looked into to see if the claim is valid or not before that person gets a penalty. What's even worse is that when a content creator is getting paid to make things (say, a critic on YouTube) and get a penalty that stops their content, then decides to plead their case the company that shut them down gets their payment until the case is resolved and the creator is never reimbursed for it. The current system is being used to bully creators to a ridiculous extent. Videos that are perfectly in the bounds of Fair Use are getting taken down without any due process, that's like if the cops arrived at a crime and one guy pointed to another saying "He did it!" And that guy was taken to jail with no trial or investigation at all.
I'm not going to say all internet content creators are innocent, there's plenty of videos labeled "Frozen Movie Part 1/6" out there, but people have been penalized for just talking about a movie in their car! No clips, no audio, just talking about the movie.
There needs to be a penalty for false claims on Internet creators and the content must be checked for Fair Use BEFORE it is penalized. This system is far too dated for what's currently happening, something needs to change!
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I Am a content creator, I am not a large creator and only have a small amount of subscribers, but I have still had to fight off false accusations of copyright claim and in fear had to remove my own videos...BUT I AM DONE I WILL NOT BE SILENCED! THESE DMCA CLAIMS ARE HARASSING EVERYONE AND THAT IS ILLEGAL! All of us on the internet are tired of these countless harassment claims and them stealing our money while doing so! I don't make alot of money from youtube...but the little I do make they have taken from me many times, even when they are proven to be false claims! This is illegal and needs to be taken care of! WHERE IS THE FAIR USE!
harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
I would like to discuss how the DMCA has become immensely outdated for the internet we all use today. As a measure to protect copyright holder's rights and content, it is now used in a majority of false copyright claims to many innocent content creators and people who are powerless to stop these baseless accusations. There needs to be a strict penalty to those who unjustly prosecute others without definitive evidence of their claim. As a person who wants to use Fair Use and create content to share my thoughts and bring joy to others, I'm ultimately afraid of the corruption copyright holder's have against others and their ignorance towards the laws in Fair Use. Please, if we could just update the DMCA then we could find a compromise to both the people and the copyright holder's best interests and make the use of the internet peaceful and enjoyable for everyone.
#AbolsihedDMCA1998-2016
#abolished18yearsofDMCA
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. These algorithms target innocent people who are completely in the right, silencing those too small to have their voices heard. According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
The notice-and-takedown processed under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The fundamental problem here is that non-corporate backed creators have absolutely no recourse to this policy. That's NOT right. I can't tell you how much harder this policy makes the creation of quality content, and stifles creativity by imposing financial barriers to entry for the public.
This all needs to stop. Many people on youtube are being harassed and are getting their content removed by people who don't have the right to do so. There are people who do reviews and other videos where they educate and talk about their personal opinions on several topics that are getting taking down. There are even people who have videos that they made themselves with no copyright material that are still getting taking down for no reason. As a youtuber, all I ask is that we put an end to this nonsense and help every video creator on youtube before it gets way out of hand.
We need to fix the fair use. There are hardworking people on the Internet making us content or speaking the truth. And then there's strikes that threatens you by deleting your channel on youtube. Or they take your review of youtube. We are being pushed around by these companies. But we can change it. We need the system to be fixed. And we can get rid of these bots.and make the Internet great again. And punish those who mistreat those who abuse the Fair use law. With fake strikes. And that there must be prove
provided
False DMCA takedown notices are being abused by corporations and individuals. Things that fall under fair use are often taken down with the burden of proof being thrust upon the person who has had their work taken down. This alone would be bad enough. There are corporations and individuals that do not hold any copyright that will use DMCA takedowns frivolously, or use them to censor works of criticism.
The fact that such abuse is as rampant as it is is evidence that the is a distinct lack of balance in this process. There is too much power in the hands of the those claiming copyright, and not enough penalty for abusing this system (or none at all). Whether the takedowns are successful or not, the ones issuing them win either way, as the time, effort, and potential lost revenue from dealing with these false and abusive takedown notices can only serve to discourage those making transformative works, be they critical, parodical, satirical, or educational, from making further works in a similar vein.
The abuse of this process undermines the tenets of free speech in general, and the creation of transformative works in particular. Transformative works have played an important part in the history of our society, and they need to be protected.
it been abuse so much it ruin life!
like
Jan Animation Studios
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7gQ9EamVfo
they was wasting his life. there keep him from creature art and fan work please change the law it there use to there adventure they think he government will protect them from anything! please help him.
I am an avid viewer of streaming sites such as YouTube, and many of favorite creators have been harmed by the abuse of the DMCA by companies and others scamming the system into stealing the ad revenue from a content creator. This system is important and CAN be helpful when done properly (such as removing a movie or episodes of a TV show that have been fully uploaded without any editing whatsoever), but the current state of the system is too easily abused. I may not be someone who's livelihood is at stake when abuse like this happens, but it's still asinine to see some of my favorite creators have to deal with things like this that may limit them being able to put out content.
A requirement of the site for a formal request and argument by the company or person filing the DMCA as to why the video should be taken down ALONG with a job position on that site's staff to review and verify these requests would easily resolve any of the abuse this system has, narrowing down the number of companies trying to get negative publicity swept under the rug or trying to prevent anything of their product from going out that is completely protect by the Fair Use Policy.
I wanted to just be a part of making change, but this is even more important than change. The DMCA laws are not just out of date, they're wholly ignored by the very companies USING them to "protect" their copyright. These laws were to be used to wisely protect actual efforts that DO use someone's original work in an effort to profit from it. Instead, they've become a club that music, television/film and game companies have swung to inhibit free speech, criticism, and even PRAISE, simply because there was no law saying they COULDN'T.
Music companies are throwing copyright strikes and takedowns around, for music that might be heard on someone's car radio as they are recording a video log about their personal life. Television and films strike critics or those who parody their work, to avoid negative views about their product....And game companies? Well, Nintendo strikes videos that use footage Nintendo ITSELF gave out to press, even if the video in question is just TALKING about the game.
And as bad as the corporate levels of copyright abuse are, the smaller companies and organizations that seek to blunt someone's views on their work, are absolutely insane. Video makers James Stanton(AKA Jim Sterling), John Bane(AKA TotalBiscuit) and Doug Walker(AKA Nostalgia Critic) have all routinely been targets of myopic attacks on their work, simply because someone wanted to inconvience them for giving their work a hard time. Pointless takedowns are filed to yank their videos off Youtube for two weeks. After which, the complainant is supposed to file legal paperwork to further their case. In as far as I can tell EVERY case, that doesn't happen. And two weeks later, the video is back up on Youtube. Imagine if that occured on television or with a film. Imagine if say Batman vs. Superman was yanked from theaters on day one, and people were told the tickets they already purchased, would have to be used in two weeks, assuming the copyright issue was favorably resolved.
I understand the goal of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, was to prevent piracy, and maintain the viability of original works. Well, the DMCA has done NOTHING to protect that. I watch Youtube videos about films and games. I listen to fan-created music videos. And based on those experiences, I go out and BUY the game, movie, television show or song I saw. My music library is over 1,000 songs, and more than half of that list, comes from songs I saw an animated music video or a game music video about. My video games library shares a similar propensity; For every Witcher 3 or The Division on my PS4, I've got at least one Rocket League or Blood Bowl II.
Here's a demonstration of my current views on the state of fair use: Earlier today, I watched John Bane's(AKA TotalBiscuit) video regarding the upcoming video game Battleborn. It was a 50 minute long video detailing how Battleborn will be different from other upcoming games like Overwatch, and how he hopes it won't be missed by the gaming community which is beginning to be flooded with similar games at this point in time. But as much as I was interested in the 50 minute video for Battleborn, I had NO interest in watching the one minute long trailer for the very same game, that was placed in FRONT of John Bane's video. I had no time for the corporate plug that did far less to impress me, in comparison to the effort that Mr. Bane put forth. His video, were I not biased against Gearbox studios for OTHER games they've put out, would have sold me on Battleborn completely.
Fair Use has become a joke to the very industry that thrives on it. I consider my time and money valuable. And I want to invest those resources on things I believe will be worthwhile. I don't get that from a snappy, slickly edited commercial or trailer for something. Were I just restricted to going by trailers or newspaper reviews of something, I would probably be a lot richer, because far LESS of my money would be going out to media entertainment. The content I see from people I TRUST, does far more to motivate a purchase, than any pregnant-pausing trailer ever will.
In closing, I can only hope that the DMCA and Fair Use clause are changed, so they can better reflect what OTHERS are doing for the media entertainment industry. Because the day that I lose independent voices on the net that can speak about things I like, is the day I take my money and go elsewhere for entertainment.
Stop copyright strike
I will like to add a small preface to the pre-filled form letter with my own personal feelings towards it. As a content creator who does not reside in the U.S., I feel as if the corporate bias your government has towards copyright law is going too far. My country has very similar laws regarding copyright and fair use and I understand why U.S. law is typically used in fair use claims on the internet but I don't want my personal freedom of speech and ability to fairly criticise and critique the work of others to be silenced completely or even potentially punished because of some company with an ego pressuring and buying out content hosting and government officials in a country that I have no voice in.
There are many major problems with the DCMA and Copyright Law in general as it pertains to the internet. The internet has changed a lot since the DMCA was created. Websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube have flourished and become an important part of global and internet culture. Many people now do online things make YouTube videos or sell their products on Etsy to make a living as their full time jobs. Troubles with the DMCA cause a lot of problems for them, and for many other people making content online.
Free speech is protected under the Bill of Rights. Fair use is also protected under the Fair Use Act. However, the outdated DMCA is often abused and used to strip internet users of these rights that are supposed to be protected by law. YouTube's copyright system is especially broken and unfair. Every day there are reports of users having videos taken down unfairly, such as a review of a film that uses brief clips from the film for the purposes of review and commentary (which is explicitly protected under Fair Use) or copyright claims from a company when the video does not actually contain any content copyrighted by that company. Sometimes companies make copyright claims through a third party to try to mask themselves. I even heard a story of a user who got a copyright strike on a video where he simply took out his camera, opened his front door, and talked about how pretty the snow was in his front yard. Ridiculous "copyright violations" like this get unjustly issued every day.
In YouTube's copyright system, automated bots are often used to automatically detect copyrighted content in videos and flag them. However, as with any computer program, these are prone to error and often make mistakes. The problem is, the copyright strike automatically get issued without any person ever actually watching the video and checking if it actually does contain copyrighted content. This results in many unfair false claims by videos that are completely legal and doing nothing wrong. This is especially a big problem for monetized videos, as the company making the copyright claim can take the money from the video in question before the claim is reviewed, even if the claim turns out to be false. For people like, say, Pewdiepie (for example) who rely on YouTube to make a living, these companies being able to unfairly steal their money with false claims can really hurt them financially. Also, customer support on YouTube is virtually nonexistent, with many users reporting not being able to get in contact with anyone at YouTube and receiving no help at all or sometimes not even any explanation as to why their video got flagged for copyright infringement in the first place.
This outdated and broken system needs to be fixed. Piracy is a serious crime that does need to be protected against, however innocent users who are not committing any such crimes also need to be protected against this kind of abuse. Companies should not be able to censor the people by easily issuing an unfair copyright claim when the don't like what the person is saying. When a video or other content is suspected of copyright infringement, it should be required to be reviewed by an actual person to determine whether or not the content in question actually does violate copyright in order to minimize errors by automated systems. Also, there needs to be repercussions or some form of punishment for companies that issue false claims. This would help prevent companies from going through and making errant claims on anything they can to try and take money from the people who are rightfully earning it with their work. It would also encourage them to be more careful when making claims and make sure that the content in question actually does violate their copyright before making the claim.
Free speech and Fair Use are important for an open internet and the free flow of ideas, and it's time to stop the abuse of the broken system to violate our rights.
I am not one for writing professional standard letters or well constructed arguments, however I have read through the statement a few times and I agree with the points shown, so I will simply leave it attached to this e-mail and confirm that it represents my opinion:
The DMCA, though made with the best of intentions, has been severely abused for years, and it has only gotten worse over time. An act which intended to protect has been used only to harm. Independent content creators are being robbed of their livelihoods, their only source of income being taken away from large companies and corporations. Oftentimes, these corporations will threaten content creators with claims that, while clearly invalid, cannot be overturned and must be obeyed. This has gone on for far too long, and must end now. Well-respected entertainers on the internet are made to suffer and have their rights violated so that large companies can pocket a few extra dollars at their expense. This is not "fair use".
TLDR; Your system is busted, and biased against the small people. We all know and are angry about it. What you are doing is ruining peoples ability to create content, and speak freely. Its exploitable, and it hurts many people, especially those of which that have their livelihoods depend on it. Seriously, I'm pretty sure you guys knew this, its pretty obvious and many people already have their feathers rifled. Do the right thing, its important, probably more important than you. Do something big, do something right, fight for freedom, don't be a dick.
DMCA'S ABUSE OVER COPYRIGHT LAW MUST END. IT VIOLATES THE RIGHTS OF THOSE WHO PRODUCE CREATIVE CONTENT, AND THAT, IS INEXCUSABLE AND ILLEGAL
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
I am someone who makes sure that I use videos and other types of media under the Fair Uses Law. So when I upload something that is considered Fair Use and it is still flagged as copyright that really upsets me. I like to create content and make things that people find entertaining but my creativity get's stopped because of this. I've seen people who just talk in a video, no audio or visual aid, and still get called for copyright which makes no sense. Or people who claim copyright over something that they didn't make and expect other people who use it from the original creator to have to go through them. The system is defiantly flawed and needs to be updated.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This can take the form of 1) threataning to claim a video that expresses a negative veiw. 2) claiming a video multiple times after it has been investigated and found legal. 3) Claiming popular videos with no ties to copyrighted material to receive ad revenue.
This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
It's hard to say that I have expert knowledge of the DMCA and its use, but I have seen its effects on several YouTube channels over the last year or more. It may take months for an uploader to dispute a DMCA strike (mostly from the party making the take down not responding) and in far too many of the cases I have seen, it is directly against fair use.
The most awful case of this is often for media critique, especially film and television. Even if the user is uploading short, silent clips as they discuss the episode/movie at hand, they can be hit with a DMCA manually if they pass the copyright checks on the video site.
Most often this has to do with a negative review...after all, why not just wield copyright like a sledgehammer to silence any nay-sayers?
With this, also, some sites like YouTube give money to the claimant (FALSE or otherwise) while the content is still in dispute. These companies are trying to steal ad revenue from channels unfairly by sneaking around a broken system.
I understand the importance of copyright in a free market, but the DMCA needs to go or be revamped, and additional measures put in place to penalize false claimants who are abusing fair use.
Some of my favorite videos on YouTube are parody videos, such as dragon ball Z abridged, and film reviews, such as the nostalgia critic. Parody and criticism are both protected by fair use and don't require permission from the creator. Dispute this both of the channels mentioned above have had their videos removed by claims of copyright infringement. The current DMCA did not account for these types of videos existing as it predates YouTube by over 5 years. These videos help the companies who created them by bringing awareness to shows and movies that some people would not have found otherwise. This in turn leads to some of these people supporting the original content because they were exposed to it by a youtuber. The current DMCA needs to be revised because it is hurting people trying to make a living on YouTube, restricts people's ability to discover new works through people's videos, and causes a loss of potential income for the companies that lose potential consumers who never find out about whatever the company produces.
I do not avidly post content on the internet, nor have I been affected by this kind of copyright law. However, from an observer's viewpoint, It's clear to me that this outdated system of notice and takedown is clearly not suited for the internet of today, which is vastly different than the internet of 1998. How can content be hit with DMCA claims, even after it has been cleared as fair use? Clearly this law is biased in favor of copyright owners, and other trolls across the internet who either want to starve out their foes, or just don't like what others say. There are better ways of dealing with this, other than taking down the content. If not, more thorough investigation is needed before content can be removed, to ensure that a takedown is justified, not just through the explanation of a copyright owner. Secondly, the act of taking down public content comes into conflict with the 1st amendment, which protects free speech. I will not argue that there is questionable content that should be removed, but it cannot be carried out through algorithms simple or complex as they may be. Somewhere in there there must be some human judgement to determine what should be removed. This kind of abuse also opens the door to potential harm to many new businesses in competition with much larger businesses. If a new business posted content critical to its survival, a larger and more powerful business could simply ask for that content to be removed, and under the current law, the smaller business would be forced to cut its own lifeline, succumbing to abuse from the larger business. Allowing infringement of free speech, while also neglecting the abuse from these copyright holders is not right. The DMCA needs to be updated to allow for thorough investigation before these takedowns. Also, content must not be taken down, if deemed to be of fair use. I have not been affected by this, but I speak for all future users, and for users today, when I say that laws regarding content need to be updated, in order to prevent abuse from people who want to smother out the speech of others. Stop these bogus DMCA takedowns, and protect our free speech!
I believe the DMCA is biased against members of he Internet community specifically on YouTube and Twitter and pretty much everywhere. Too long have corporations and businesses used it to crush all of the wonderful creators on the internet all to just "keep their product secure" when in truth they just want to be unnecessarily cruel. I believe the DMCA has caused more problems and harm than good and strongly wish it to be gone or at least seriously revised with strong input from the community. Please know that I mean all this and hope something can be done. Thank you for your time.
^^ I agree with all that, just also wanted to say personally how I've seen this hurt many of my favorite content creators on YouTube. At this point in time there are a lot of people who make their living on YouTube, so it's very vital that these laws can be manageable for those people. I have seen a lot of creators have their videos taken down, sometimes just for discussing movies, music, etc. in their videos, without any clips, audio, even any still images; be deleted for copyright infringement. I've also seen a lot of those creators make videos specifically describing their struggles trying to defend their videos, and how YouTube's system in particular makes it nearly impossible to talk to a human being and to defend themselves. I would suggest watching some of the videos on this from creators on YouTube themselves, many of them are under #WTFU <-that standing for "Where's the Fair Use?" they can go into better personal detail than me of course, but I would love to see change for their sake. I would also love to thank you SO much for this opportunity to make the voices of the fans and the creators heard! It is so greatly appreciated. And I can guarantee that for every comment you get hear, there are many many more! Just look at the view counts on any of those videos, the amount of 'thumbs ups' to get a better idea of the number of people who are concerned with this issue. Thank you so much again!
God bless :)
Eileen
Copyright protection is needed for the internet to protect content creators. Unfortunately, it seems like there are far too many content creators becoming victims at the hands of an exploitative system skewed far too heavily in the favor of forces willing to abuse the current system. You'll be hard pressed to find a maker of critical, educational, or transformative content on the internet who hasn't had their videos wrongly flagged or taken down by an outdated system, despite the vast majority of such works being protected under the DMCA. If the the future of media is to succeed on the internet, it needs new and updated regulations to protect the individuals and communities that are making the future a reality.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biasied in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
#WTFU
#roasted
Fair use laws have caused many videos and posts to be unjustly taken down, and it has badly affected people I know. Companies can heavily abuse this to horrible affect, many companies are able to take videos on YouTube down that say negative things about it. The Internet has changed, like it or not, so the security and copyright measures need to be edited as well.
Frankly, this kind of behavior is not only petty and childish, but tyrannical. Often, these companies prevent valuable information from being spread about bad practices or potential danger of products. Not only that, but music copyright is all sorts of difficult.
Let's talk about music copyright. Many people put various covers on YouTube and sites like it, just trying to show off their voices because many of them are wonderful. Sometimes, it's in an unrelated video and the user is just singing because they want to, without any instrumentation or professionalism at all. But, music companies take these down without much cause because of supposed infringement on their copyright. This is unfair to the user and also not good for the record label, as they're essentially getting rid of free advertising and silencing potential talent. The record labels can often get into spaces they don't belong as well, taking down videos with slight singing for comedic purposes that aren't even in the music category.
But the real meat of the issue lies with how this all works. Many people make a living off their YouTube videos using advertisements that play at the beginning or end, or pop up after a certain amount of time. This is not a perfect way to make money, but a job is a job, and it's a job many people enjoy doing. Some people hold down many other jobs and use the advertisement revenue YouTube pays them to donate to charity. Whether it's your livelihood or someone else's life, it's certainly worthwhile. But there's something about YouTube that can be easily abused. If someone on the site gets a copyright strike, for something as little as five seconds of unlicensed music, their video can be taken down. No big deal? Wrong. This strike never goes away, and three strikes, your channel can be taken down forever. Companies or record labels who abuse their copyright privileges can ruin livelihoods with their actions, and what's worse is they might not even know. Copyright bots that are programmed to take down videos with certain keywords in the titles exist, and they are far too common to ignore. Jobs are being destroyed and content producers are being pushed into a tight box by the DMCA and copyright holders who seek to abuse it.
I hope you all now see how abusive this system is to content producers on the Internet. Thanks to the DMCA, videos containing innocent covers to slight visuals get taken down, and companies and copyright holders go to ridiculous lengths to "preserve" their copyright despite the harm it can do to content producers just trying to make a living being funny or helpful. So, in conclusion, I implore you to stop abuse of this law and protect content producers from malicious copyright holders who seek to manipulate them using the DMCA as their weapon. I can not trust a system that can so easily be abused, so do what you must to fix it, or you could be allowing content producers to be further muffled by copyright holders.
This might be the last uncensored thing I'm ever able to say online, with the way things have been the past while, so I'll make sure every word I say, and every letter I type, is worth it. I, personally, do not enjoy the thought of a world where, despite the incredible advancements in technology and communication, I have to keep my head down and my voice silent while being constantly monitored by corporations wishing to enact a lawsuit at anyone who dares to joke, comment, or even promote something they own. I would like to see a world where copyright is used to keep people from making cheap knockoffs and ripping off customers, instead of being a legal way to eliminate anyone willing to try and compete, or speak against their corporation. I'd like to live in a world where the amendment that's been there for two centuries is actually seen and put into action. The ways that copyright has been abused throughout the years makes me, honestly, ashamed and saddened. This was created to promote creativity, not shoot it in the foot. I want to be able to see a review of a game, or a show, or a movie, or anything really, and not have it taken down so I have to waste my own money to find out how terrible it is. I want those wishing to get into the business of comedy and parody to be able to get into it, without being terminated immediately. We're born with mouths, with voices, and we have our rights as human beings, as Americans, to use them. Thank you for listening. I can only hope my voice is truly heard.
The following is a pre-written statement, of which I personally affirm as adequately expressing my concerns about how copyright is enforced on the Internet. In addition to this statement, I would like to clarify certain issues that I would like your office to consider. I preface my clarification by asserting that I fully appreciate and support the rights of content creators to protect their creations, be they corporations, groups, or individuals. However, I believe that such entities should be held accountable for engaging in unethical or illegal activities under the guise of invoking the DMCA of 1998. I would ask that as this is a Federal law, that anyone who could be found in a court of law to have implemented such actions against other content creators, who have acted in-line with the Fair Use provision, to be subject to criminal prosecution and civil liability. I would also ask that any third-party companies who exist and operate outside of United States jurisdiction which are contracted by copyright holders who operate within United States jurisdiction be barred from acting on their behalf against individuals, groups, or corporations within United States jurisdiction. My final suggestion on the matter is that any fraudulent copyright claims made by any third-party entity will result in liability, both in criminal and civil courts, of said entity and the copyright holder who contracts them. I suggest these measures in order to deter abuse of the law, and to give recourse to other content creators who abide by the Fair Use doctrine.
I appreciate your office's willingness to ask for our input.
- Benjamin Z. Peterman
""
Come on and be fair internet!
I'd very much like to see something that stops mass auto-removal of content just by bots, removing something should take it being seen by actual people, and ideally have whoever posted it notified before it's removed.
Anyway, copy-pasted stuff away:
The DMCA is a flawed, out-dated law that has no place in determining fair use of the modern internet. It is exploited and abused to target individuals and gain wealth at the expense of others. The most shocking fact about the DMCA is that anyone can file a copyright claim on websites such as YouTube, and rather than at the very least having the income of the content creator be sent to an offshore account until the case is resolved, all of that creator's income is given to the copyright holder, even if the creator is well within their rights to fair use of copyright material. The internet needs a new policy that is fair to both the copyright holders and those who use their content within the boundaries of fair use, and until this happens millions of people online will continue to be exploited and extorted by corporations.
This act was started in 1998. Today, the internet is leaps and bounds ahead of where it was 18 years ago. It desperately needs to be updated. There are thousands of content creators online, mostly on YouTube, who are clearly within the bounds of fair use. Much of their content has been taken down by people, or companies who abuse this act, simply because they don't agree with what's being said, or in some cases, because they want to take money from the pockets of those creators to benefit themselves.
I understand people want to protect properties that they rightfully own, and that is a good thing, but their have been numerous DMCA false claims, and this needs to stop.
Please help bring fair use back to the internet. Thank you so much!
There's been so much abuse of the copyright system, I just hope we can make some changes so that the law doesn't constantly get broken like this.
Many film/television critics, reviewers, parody artists, and animators make their living from the internet, and have given inspiration for hundreds of thousands of people. They shouldn't have to be afraid every single day of their lives because of phony restrictions and false strikes from copyright claims, despite many of them operating under the fair use laws; especially when it's so obvious they don't deserve the strike.
- Lauren Weber
So many people have been abused by this outdated version of the DMCA, after 10+ years I think it's time to stop companies from falsely claiming peoples hard work and jobs.
We know you guys are looking at the situation of DMCA, and I'm here to tell you something – the system is archaic and prone to abuse – Here's why. With the growth of the free internet a new form of entertainment has come out to entertain the masses – these are the Fair Use Contetn Creators – Youtube and many video sharing sites is full with this form of new entertainer who have followers that can range from 100's, to just the few 1000's and even to the millions in some cases.
As we know, Fair Use is the use of the Copyright Material where a person do so without the need of permission nor paying the Copyright Holder, as long these are use under a Transformative Work (such as Critisimn, Education, Reaction, Commentary, Reviews and Parody). Youtube is fill with People who comments, parodies and educates on various media and technology products everyday – these people are wonderful and talented and many have become successful stars with their own safe private businesses in their own right under the protection of Fair Use online. Unfortunately, every single day, their livelyhood is under constant attack by the powerful and deluded copyright holders who view Fair Use Businesses as no different as Piracy. This is because of the archaic way Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998 was writing, which never foresaw the evolution of mass media such as the internet, which is fast and constantly growing. It has been used not only to shutdown negative criticism, but is used in a way the Fair Use Content Creator is harrassed, silence, threaten with legal action (even tho the law protects him/her), and shields the false claimers everyday from criminal ligation even when the law states filing false DMCAs is illegal. Quite often these situations don't go to court, as the false claimer will actually steal money from a Fair Use Content Creator for weeks until the claim is removed and the money never return to the Fair Use Content Creator. Google and Youtube have to deal with 100's of cases everyday, difficult for such media tech giants to handle.
This has become practicly a ritual to make an easy buck by false copyright and DMCA claimers, because the way the law is writen, gives these abusers protection, even some of these abusers have admit to the intent of filing False Copyright/DMCAs is to harm a critic or down right control free speech, knowning no form of charge will come their way – and all of this is the government's fault (Lawmakers, Media Lobbyist and You the Copyright Office). By been in the pocket of mass media at a daily basis to pass laws that benefits them exclusively, you have created an unfair situation that leads to rampant Abuse and Harrassment to the indipendent Fair Use Content Creators. The time has come to make much needed chages to copyright law and DMCA by taking above all else Fair Use in mind. However, I'll do something that is different – I'll help you by having you hearing from these people in these four situations.
Note, these people do have a way to say things, (which can line on the vulgar) but I think is an excellent way to get the attention as they explain the situation, since you, the copyright office, created this problem for them in their first place. I'll give you three situations in where the DMCA/Copyright claim system has been use to do harm.
First – John Bain, runs by the name of Total Biscuit on Youtube, he is a british born residing in the U.S. And he produces various content on his channel in where he reviews video games in a series called “WTF Is...?”, where he comments and reviews PC video games. One such video that was claimed falsely is his review of “Day One Garry's Incident?”
The Review of Day One Garry's Incident
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjTa_x3rbJE
Mr. Bain's video get shutdown by the developer, and proceeds to show evidence of the developer's lies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfgoDDh4kE0
Second - James Stanton (Aka Jim Sterling) runs a series called the Jimquisition, he comments while playing video games and trailers. He has been hit with many times with false DMCA's and Copyright claims, but in the last two years he has been embroiled in a fight with Independent Video Game Developers and brothers James and Robert Romine of Digital Homicide Studios, after the Sterling gave a negative review of one of their games. This evolve then from a series of insult attack against Sterling and the nature of the fight dragged everyone's attention to the Studio's questionable business practices that led to the developer to so a takedown strike on the review. Thei fight of Free Speech vs Speech Control has evolve into a class action $10million lawsuit by part of Digital Homicide against Mr. Stanton, a lawsuit, that if allow to win, will destroy free speech forever. These developers really believe Mr. Stanton doesn't have the right to critizice their product because they are taking a literal approach to the word Fair Use.
Jim Sterling's Let's Play/Review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfI7pAaOH9c
Digital Homicide proceed to attack Mr. Stanton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT0GSPxf0vw
Digital Homicide's 2nd response using the previous video for nearly 3 minutes – before the takedown of the review.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXcPiy9g4UQ
After the Takedown was lifted, Mr. Sterling responds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0Wpn1zmU
Mr. Sterling and Mr. Robert Romine have an almost 2hr audio interview (its in its right cringing and shows the developer's motives to threaten Mr. Sterling)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhjXfAikKaY
The Jimquisition, showing the history of questionable actions by Digital Homicide, this the last video before Mr. Sterling was hit with the Frivolous Anti-Free Speech lawsuit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbqxPgK87dM
Third case - Alex (that's how he presents himself) has two shows on his Youtube Channel call I Hate Everything, one show is, of the same name, I Hate Everything, in where the commentator (an angry cartoon head) comically expresses frustration and anger with any given specific subject, and the other “In Search for the Worst” 100 movies on IMDB (Interner Movie Data Base), where reviews and comments on bad movies. One such movie , Cool Cat saves the kids, a video about Online Harrassment, was hit with a copyright strike by the Director Derek Savage who began an to harrass the Youtuber and was trying to force him to remove the video of the subject and demanding a public apology and recant his negative review of the film.
The Review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoTZZYm2HZI
Mr. Savage takes the video down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0qoD3viXL0
Mr. Savage's harrassment of Alex continues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0qoD3viXL0
Takedown lifted, Mr. Savage's actions get expose in full.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzXSQ5f08sA
Fourth Case – Doug Walker, from Illinois, plays the role of the Nostalgia Critic – an Critic who reviews old childhood movies. He uses both Parody and Commentary for his video series. For years, his review had been constantly hit with DMCA's, even on videos where he doesn't show footage, but where with a group of actor reenact in parody way movie scenes in his reviews. This has force him to express his situation about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
It is clear, by looking at this situation, the law is completely out of date, and is intentionally been used for the purpose to shutdown, harrass and silence free speech. We have now enter into a situation a Developer is taking a critic's negative review of his product so out of control, it putting the first admedment on the line. For the love of, God, Save Fair Use, and write laws that imposes fines agaisnt these false claimers. False DMCAs are illegal and that should be reminded, and in the same way you want to upheld Copyright Law, there are also other laws that attached that help independent small business and their transformative works.
Finally - I myself, create comics and art online, and for years I'd been trying to find a job with my ideas. One thing that has stop me to join a company is that pretty much I'll have to lose my ideas to them for a paycheck - you could say "do the copyright yourself", but the way the Copyright law is writen is meant to give easy access is to the big corporation, but problems to the small independent creator who has to read clause. Is time the laws are update to show the reality of the situation, without any further attempts to stop Fair Use transformative work nor control Free Speech, or force people like myself from been drag into a corporation I don't want to part of. The Abuse needs to stop.
Where's the fair use, Copyright Office? #WTFU #FreeandOpenInternet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k0SmqbBIpQ
It's time to stop guys
There needs to be a change. we need videos to be evaluated as defendable by fair use by judges.
nternet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I've been dreaming of starting my own YouTube channel for a long time. If DMCA takedowns are not evaluated, then YouTube will become too hostile for new talent.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs to be repealed.
The notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside the DMCA have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use, that they don't even own, or that don't even contain the copyrighted material in question, should be held liable for violating the rights of the individuals whose content they are attacking.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they are incompatible with free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
DMCA law that was made to be a protection tool is now used by copyright owners as offensive weapon on the internet. Weapon that they shoot blindly in anything that looks even remotely like their content even if it has nothing to do with it or used within the free speech law normative. Thanks to this one-sided law abuse genocide many reviewers, comedy righters and even let's players find their content removed or being abused by original copyright owner for their own profit, leaving the actual creator of the parodies and reviews without any profit at all. Because of that I find it harder and harder to find a good movie/music/game review. Because many creators of those had fall victims of this unfair use of a copyright law.
The law that was made in 1998 for the internet of that time needs to be updated for creators to freely express their art. With the current law, abuse from large companies are rampant and suffocating many creators and artist to create new masterpiece to the public. Please consider updating this copyright law to balance the power to the people to have a flourishing environment for artists.
Also the template of the original comment summarizing my intention including the details of legal case evidence:
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The Internet is used for entertainment, news and above all else is a place to connect through sites such as YouTube and various news sites. Don't be stupid. Give us our rights. Fair use is real and is here to stay.
With the way the DMCA is today, copyright claims are used to stifle creativity and free speech on the internet instead of its original purpose (to protect copyrighted material). The DMCA was made in 1998; it is far too outdated.
Many Youtube content creators in particular clearly use copyrighted material according to Fair Use (by making movie reviews and such).
However, because a claimant does not have to go to court even if the Youtuber disagrees with the claim, copyright owners have the upper hand in the situation. Copyright holders are also unfairly favored in many other ways:
• Copyright holders can make as many strikes against internet content creators as they please, while on many sites, channels/profiles/pages can only receive a certain amount of strikes before they are penalized, suspended, or banned. (Because many people support themselves on the internet, simply getting banned can destroy lives.)
• Copyright holders can claim against a single post MULTIPLE times—were they to do this in a court scenario, that would be a Double Jeopardy (or triple…or quadruple…). They use this power to harass internet users for months.
• Often, while a copyright claim is being processed or handled, the user loses revenue they WOULD be making on that video. In 1998, this wasn’t a problem, but many people’s livelihoods rely on the internet nowadays.
• Copyright holders do not have to provide much (if any) evidence of a Fair Use violation. This means that a copyright holder (or even an unaffiliated party!) can make a claim—often simply to harass a creator or silence them. This is often used by directors whose movies receive bad critiques or even by corporations trying to hide information and squash opposition.
• Automated takedowns—the copyright holder simply clicks a button and lets an automated system handle the rest, while the creator receiving the copyright claim has to futilely navigate a system with little access to human contact. When human eyes never see that the content is clearly following Fair Use, legal videos get taken down.
Copyright claims are used today to harass a growing medium, reduce competition, and extract money from small businesses, not to protect copyrights and trademarks. Currently, Fair Use is applied only to internet creators and not those making claims to take their works down. Law professors note that human review would benefit Fair Use greatly.
Please revise the DMCA so that:
• Repeated false copyright strikes are punished.
• Content creators who receive copyright strikes can fight back through simpler means instead of being at the whims of corporations.
• Only the copyright holder can make a claim against material they own (preventing harassment by unaffiliated people and corporations).
• Copyright strikes stop becoming a way to attack users’ beliefs and critiques.
• Automated takedowns become difficult to achieve or outlawed altogether.
Please, stop empowering large corporations and start allowing small internet businesses and other internet users to defend themselves. Thank you.
With recent changes within the online community, many large and uncaring companies have been breaking the law in every way they can in order to make life difficult on the world wide web. We need your help to re-interpret the way companies can "claim" other people's hard work to make pennies off of them out of the millions they make in a day.
This type of arrogance is sure to be expected
From men who speak of governing freedom of speech with no clue of what freedom of speech is.
You lawmakers are sloppy, needing discipline in life
You lack control of yourselves, and of the mic.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
(I run a YouTube channel myself where I share my talents with the world. My talents are hampered by false claims of copyright by companies that don't care about free use. Sometimes my videos are flagged by companies not even related to the one that directly owns the copyright! This isn't right. Fighting online piracy is important, but that fight should never lead to the destruction of a creator's right to express themselves. Content creators have a right to use copyrighted materials if they fall within the aspects of the Free Use laws without penalty or silencing. We are not criminals; we are artists. Free use laws were designed to protect us as well as the copyright holders; please make it so that actually happens. Thank you.)
As a somewhat dedicated fan to many youtubers it's becoming more and more apparent that fair use is a system under complete abuse for copyright strikes. Good, hardworking youtubers put in so much effort everyday, and to have their channel taken down in an instant because of a miniscule law stating that this small piece of media belongs to someone is ridiculous. This is their livelihood! Fix youtube, it houses some great people who deserve more.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is pryotected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Please take steps to stop the abuse of the DMCA and copyright systems.
also fuck you
In addition, on YouTube in particular, copyright holders can use takedown notices to take money that otherwise would be going to a content creator using copyrighted material under fair use, without being forced to prove the copyrighted material is being used in an illegal way.
Please change these laws. As time changes so must the laws change as well. Countless videos have taken down or attacked even though they're clearly under copy right law. Many of those videos are the very livelihood of various users. So please change these laws so that the future of these users is not in danger. For crying out loud these laws haven't been updated since the 90's and a lot has changed since then. Change them so we may have a future.
Personally I have had multiple videos take down and refuted. Over and over it has been a probable that is non sense. I understand that there is a need to protect those who make content but there is a different between staying within the boundaries of fair use and just using material. Fair use has seen a lack of attention in the consideration of these claims. The current laws in place over copyright and rightful use are out dated.
DMCA is regularly used and abused by copyright holders against creators operating within the bounds of fair-use. There is no effective consequences for a false claim issued by a copyright holder, and due to this loophole, it is being actively used to suppress unwanted criticism or negative press of a product or piece of media. The DMCA is now being used by both copyright holders and shell companies operating at their direction to threaten businesses without extensive legal teams in order to suppress the free speech of these businesses in favor of the copyright holder via suppressing negative press or valid criticism. If small business is going to continue to grow, especially within the internet, there needs to be serious consequence for false claim under the DMCA. There needs to be a protection of fair use and free speech in order to keep the world of media a place of active expression and growth.
Project Voicebend, Cinema Snob, Jimquisistion, ThatGuyWithTheGlasses/Channel Awesome; these are just a few channels that have had their rights violated by big corporations and their abuse of the DMCA take-down system. Most of them have by now put up videos explaining their predicament in more detail, but the jist of it is that their content is made under the protection of fair use, and then promptly and illegally taken down by media distributors or their "shell companies" (groups that issue take-downs on behalf of a company to prevent any direct back-lash). This is incredibly damaging to the content creators' livelihoods, and cannot continue.
O.K long story short, a lot of content is being taken down from sites like Youtube by companies who are unfairly making copyright strikes and we need better terms of fair use! Please update!
The DMCA is easily and frequently abused on the Internet. Websites like Youtube have legitimate content creators being hit with verifiably false DMCA takedowns on a regular basis. DMCA takedowns are being used to harass, threaten, stifle, and ruin the business of small content creators who have done no wrong. Many of these people have to fight DMCA takedowns on a weekly or even daily basis, some simply give up after being bullied into submission.
This system as it stands is being used to punish content creators, while giving anyone free reign to harass them without consequences. For instance, on the website Youtube, there seems to be no limit to the number of false DMCA claims one can file, but a set limit on the number one can fight before their content is taken down in its entirety. This makes it easy for someone to ruin an honest person's career and gain ill-gotten revenue off of it in the process.
Many DMCAs are filed by people who know full-well that they do not own the content they are claiming or who intentionally ignore Fair Use law (such as in the case of reviews or parodies). Many DMCAs are filed for media that can easily be shown to have none of the content claimed. This can result in a portion of a business' income being stolen for months at a time until the claim is finally shown to be false, with absolutely no repercussions for the claimant - they simply get to walk away with someone else's revenue after a fraudulent claim.
People and companies need to be held accountable for the false DMCAs they file. Until there are real consequences for abusing this system, people will continue to abuse it. An entire industry full of up-and-coming content creators is floundering because of dishonest persons and companies blatantly abusing the DMCA system to stifle competition or steal income.
Copyrights should be protected, which is exactly why something needs to change. The current DMCA system is being used to violate the copyrights and intellectual property of small content creators every day.
On a more personal note, I go on youtube frequently. I'm tired of seeing all of my favorite content creators getting taken down for false DMCA claims. In one, it was a movie review, which had literally 0 clips from the movie, it used images that were essentially clip art. It still got flagged, and it was still taken down from a false DMCA claim. If people can do that, and hurt someone's livelihood like that, with absolutely no repercussions, then it is clear that this system is broken, possibly beyond repair, and needs to be either fixed or replaced.
For an analogy on what these companies have been doing, imagine that you go to work. You get to your workplace, and it isn't there. Just straight up gone. All the blood, sweat, and tears that you sunk into this job are wiped out in one fell swoop. This happens every time a company files a false copyright claim or strike against a channel, which, by the way, is ILLEGAL.
I've seen many Youtubers get their videos taken down even though they are fair use, especially reviews and parodies. People make a living of of this content and they're getting flagged for copyright multiple times on one video, getting their channels deleted of YouTube, and are even getting flagged by companies who have created the DVD of the show instead of the actual show itself. Dr. Wolf, The Mysterious Mr. Enter, Channel Awesome, and Joshscorcher are just some of the Youtubers who have gotten they're monotization taken, away. It has gotten to a point where people are actually afraid to upload their own content and are possibly wasting the chance to start their own career right on youtube.
I subscribe to multiple people who produce content on YouTube in order to make a living and they are often censored worldwide or claim-spammed constantly for claims that are tenuous at best. Stop it.
This abuse of the DMCA has gotten to a point where content creators online are being threatened from uploading their own creations. Companies can send out takedowns if they please to their own advantage over content that has no sort of copyrighted material. The DMCA greatly needs a rework and has to be updated to accommodate for today because its current state is far too abusable and does more harm than good.
The DMCA is used to harass and threaten people by taking videos down or entire channels, ending sources of income for people who use YouTube to generate revenue as means to live. These people make content that is protected under fair use and individuals and companies who do not understand Fair Use are able to abuse the system and file unlawful takedowns. This type of harassment needs to stop, now.
People are claiming content they do not own and videos are being taken down with no copyrighted material. Videos that are protected by fair use are being taken down by strikes by the same company after they have been disputed and cleared and then reuploaded.
This issue is important to me and needs to change.
The fair use system is not only in shambles, but also creates unneeded commotion between creators themselves. It is astonishing how easy it is to take down someone's content on sites like YouTube, whether you own the sources or not. This creates many problems than the average viewer can see.
Where's the free use?
The dmca claim system is a system that is constantly misused to falsely benefit people other than the creator of certain content .Mainly because of content they claim belongs to them which in many cases does qualify for fare use. People mostly use the dmca claim system to attack content that they do not like or to collect revenue from it.
This law should be updated in a way that it is not possible for people to be wrongly accused of theft of content when it is in fair use.
While I won't edit this pre-written letter at all, I fully stand by and agree with what this says.
Youtube has been having problems with false DMCA claims for years, while noone does anything. The current law is heavily based on favoring large companies, when they do not deserve it.
Should anyone be punished because a movie studio didn't like our review? Should we be punished because a game developer didn't like what we said about the game?
Are we not allowed to have free speech anymore? It's not too late to put a stop to this. Every citizen has the right to speak out what they want, no matter how much money they have.
The current laws in effect are stiffling the creativity we are allowed to have. If I do a video about something, I can spend hours, days and even weeks doing that, just so someone can take it down with just a few clicks in a matter of minutes, without having it checked for validation. Taking down a video on false claims, is not only an incovenience, its also a violation of my rights as a person and breaking the law.
Stop this. Please. Stop putting power into greedy coorporations. Even people with no money are people. The system is broken, and everyone knows it.
I am not asking for Copyright to disapear. It's necessary to protect people that create any intelectual property. What I am asking for is to change the system to be fair for everyone.
I don't think we are asking for much.
Thank you.
- Marco "Foxlift" Roberto
The following is the form letter that does a great job of summarizing any points I could make, but I would like to point something out as a software developer. Legally mandating that technical platforms be implemented by site owners, *BEFORE* that technical platform is fully vetted by the online communities, is *INSANE*.
What I've noticed in the last 10 years is extremely poorly implemented systems, at great costs and expense. These systems are NOT mature, NOT fully vetted, and filled with TOO MANY FALSE POSITIVES.
I would take my website out of the United States instantly, as requiring me to expend resources on unproven, unsubstantiated platforms is an unsound business decision.
My name is Desmond Haskins, and while I may not know everything about DMCA laws, I do know enough to see that they are hurting innocent people. More often than not DMCA laws are effective in taking down the content its supposed to, and that's great. However problem with these laws comes from the fact that the system assumes that the accused is guilty without requiring the accuser to provide solid evidence, often resulting in harm to innocent people, because of the current systems habit of administering punishment and requiring the accused to go through a complex and confusing process to prove their innocence. Fines should be put into place, for those who try to use DMCA laws to censor peoples freedom of speech, by taking down content they have made though their own hard work and fair use laws. The internet is a beautiful, place where people can find other like minded individuals, and i want it to stay that way for many years to come.
Thanks for taking the time to listen to an average citizen.
Sincerely, Desmond Haskins
Stop the abuse now and change the DMCA for the better, help fair use and stop the abuse of companies taking income of people without just cause when they are following fair use.
Without this copryright becomes copywrong.
In the past few months, corporations have begun abusing copyright laws, seizing fan and community projects as their own and claiming the revenue as their own, this is something that needs to stop. In its current form the state of internet copyright law gives no defense to those simply wishing to make a living doing what they enjoy, putting them at the mercy of whatever company owns the displayed content, and in many cases, just any company who claims they do. It's time to put an end to all this, anyone who even glanced at the current state of YouTube could tell you how bad things have gotten. So I ask you to please do the right thing and revise the laws of the past for the world of today, thank you.
The DMCA takedowns have taken down so much content all over YouTube due to unfair reasons such as "copyright issues" (even though the content is used under fair circumstances) and even people claiming to own a video they had no part in and didn't own! Taking down content means so much to the uploaders who produce them and if these takedowns aren't dealt with, it'll eventually lead to an internet where content and creativity won't be as expressible! Uploaders are also willing to downgrade their content in order to get a video up and running without copyright issues and even then, will STILL be taken down! If content creators are willing to take time out of their day in order to get around a takedown, then shouldn't they at least have the opportunity to invest more time into producing content rather than worrying about copyright strikes?
Copyright hurts people more than it helps. It no longer works for today's Internet, and seriously needs updated to factor in the scope content created today, and needs to acknowledge Fair Use a lot more. Please fix it
stop bogus DMCA takedowns and protect free speech!
They can even place claims on content they don't own, including content that has no copyrighted material in it.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
My comment is strictly my thoughts on some/most of TeamFourStar's videos being taken down temporarily and a smaller YouTube channel known as Anime America getting hit with copyright strikes on some of their videos. Parodies/Abridged series have been pretty popular and technically don't break or mistreat any guideline. Watching an Abridged series will get a person interested in what the actual show is like. Not only that but it's also a part of some viewers lives, take that away and you take away part of their life. On top of that, companies going back and claiming strikes on an uploaders older videos even though it may not contain any material related to that company is wrong. YouTube is actually a job for most, take that away and guess what? You're taking away the only source they have to provide for themselves. This is what happened with Anime America. YouTube, in my opinion anyway, should be more like Bethseda and worry MORE on the welbeing of its users and consumers rather than on their own profit and issues with other companies.
Recientemente en youtube se ha visto un aumento en los recleamos de fairuse, no debido a que estos esten siendo infligidos pero por que mcn reclaman contenido de los que no son dueños solo para tomar dinero de los pequeños creadores de contenido.
the DMCA laws affect ordinary people who simply want to share content with others. ThePrimeCronus has put up several videos on YouTube involving music from artists with original compositions. In the description, he actively notifies the system that the music belongs to the rightful owners. And posts the artist in the title of the video as proper citation. But his megamixes involving music from various anime shows have been removed due to false claims, even though there is proper citation in regards to the show's name and the title of the track. If someone cannot even share music that people like, then where is the fair use, especially when the mixes are not for profit. Team FourStar with their nonprofit fan based paradise with Dragonball Z was taken down due to false claims. Companies hire third parties, so disable these third parties so companies themselves are accountable with false claims. I am asking Where is the fair use?
The current process needs to change. There are countless videos that get strikes despite obviously being fair use. The biggest issue is that false copyright claims give no penalties, while the one being targeted suffers during the entire long, drawn-out process to get the claim removed. The system is automated which is why it is so easy to abuse.
The problem is not trying to prevent piracy. Than in itself is a noble cause. What is going on here however is wrong. I will site two cases here: The case of ihe vs Derek Savage and the many cases of themysteriousmrenter. What happened between ihe and Mr. savage was that ihe posted a review of the movie cool cat saves the kids. The review was extremely negative against the movie and Mr. savage did not want it to exist. He ended up going as far has impersonating a legal firm to try and stop him going to court. In the end ihe won and kept the video up. What happened with Mr enter was mainly related to his family guy reviews on his show animated atrocities. On this show he gives negative reviews and talks about things that can make a show or episode unenjoyable, offensive and unfunny. Every one he put up was taken down by fox and he ended up putting them on alternate sites and posting audio only reviews known has fookyufox episodes. Where is the fairness in all of that. With this thought I end my dicussion.
While I did not write this, I have read and agree with it.
Several of the content creators I watch on YouTube have been under attack for fair use. Nostalgia Critic I know goes to great lengths to edit his content to fit with the law and his channel is still attacked. One of the lets players I watch after getting a video taken down on a series of his, because at the time he had no support, took down the whole series to be safe for his channel. Please do something about the take down notices that ultimately amount to hurting the content creators and us viewers.
Society is expanded by the ideas and critique built on existing content. By shutting down this freedom of speech to critique, comment, or provide new ideas from existing material, culture and society would be harmed, especially from limiting such a large and expansive platform as YouTube. New ideas spring from old ones, and giving favor to those only invested monetarily in the content, and the ability to remove content they disagree with, (regardless of validity) only hurts us all as a whole, not just content creators.
As I look back at this past year I remember how much stuff some of my favorite content creators have had to go through. I remember how happy I was when I saw a video that I new would be taken down in a matter of hours because I got to no what great evil they are committing when I saw the video it was just some guys playing a game for and hour it wasn't story based it was mario party. some of my favorite critics have been threaten had take down notice but never do anything often just using it as a way to silence a critic or as a way to punish the critic for giving them "to low of a score". in fact it has gotten so bad that just talking on a camera can land you a take down. the worst part is that they can take away your income imagine that in any other business you say something bad about the new superman movie and now bam no money for the next month. the bigger channels can fight these off but the little channels his is a death sentence. o have watched many channels have I was there when game theory's view count was only in the thousands back then a single take down and we may not have the titan that is game theory. the jim sterling has have had many problems with companies who have no idea what the law means and think that saying absolutely warrants a take down. or that the old videos without actual clips but instead just a logo. these laws were made for the internet of the pass with a hundred hour trials not the millions of people signing o to watch cat videos or why a helicopter kick works or watching a recreation of mad max with a guy who fires shark explosions out of his eyes in fact the only way I now abut this is that a because a critic put it p so I have one question. where is the fair use?
I DONT GIVE A FUCK STOP ABUSING THE DAMN INTERNET
The Internet flourishes because all of the stuff people make and share. But, there's a force that has kept works off the Internet entirely, making it so that there's a whole host of content that most us never get to see or hear. The current notice and takedown system for copyright unnecessarily allows for abuse. With the current DMCA rules, copyright holders can censor and takedown practically any online content, just by saying that it infringes their copyright—no court order or oversight required. It's time to bring fair use back to the Internet.
The DMCA was created to help curb piracy, but all too often it is abused to censor content with valid free speech or fair use rights. Video and music creators are having their work taken down and their income stolen by big corporations who bet that nobody has the legal resources to challenge them. And even when people successfully challenge a takedown and get their work restored, oftentimes there is lasting harm done to their reputation or income.
It's time to take a hard look at the DMCA. A clear fix to the current system is to impose penalties on corporations who abuse the DMCA by issuing false takedowns.
The DMCA system has been abused to an extreme extent, and has gone as far as to allow the removal of instances of fair use to be COMPLETELY bypassed, resulting in the removal, and direct harm toward small content creators on completely invalid basis'.
In short, it's a blunt tool that crushes everything in it's wake regardless if it's warranted or not. It needs updating and it needs to be fair.
These are used to harrass, abuse, threatened, and artists on youtube looses their way of life
As a regular user of Youtube and other websites that put forward the work of small independent creators, I am regularly disheartened to witness the manner in which copyright law is used against them. The current system entirely stacks the deck against creators and allows for bullying and theft of completely legal revenue, since claimants often are not required to prove ownership of copyrighted material and are never forced to consider whether or not the use of said material falls under fair use.
Hi,
I am not a content creator on YouTube, but I am an avid viewer of YouTube. Although I have not been personally affected by the DMCA takedowns, many of my favorite YouTubers have been affected by this. I enjoy the videos they make, and I find it very unfair to see their videos being taken down for no reason. In most of the videos, they do not even have copyright content, and all they do is talk about a movie, video game, etc. Yet, their videos are being taken down. Some random company claim that these videos have copyrighted content and there is absolutely no way to check whether this is true or not. Sometimes, these videos are taken down simply because the company does not like what is being expressed in these videos. This is a violation of free speech. All these YouTubers are very creative and passionate people and they do not deserve to be treated like this. Stop bogus DMCA takedowns and protect free speech!!
Hello I`m from germany so excuse my not so perfect english. I support this totally and hope I can help make a change to this. So please let the people who are not accept the change see that we, as people all over the earth, know that do not take this anymore!
Howdy from the pirate seas of the everywhere-except-USA.
As a Canadian, I am forced to find unofficial sources for American content being barred from export due to companies abusing the DMCA and it's heavy handed and often automated take-downs implemented by USA based companies.
These take-downs have been abused since the beginning of a global internet, be it companies reporting abuse against fair use, or reporting simply because they do not like the poster or what they are saying.
While the automated take-downs and resulting lost revenue are creations of the companies hosting content, these policies only exist due to hosts fearing the heavy hand of the DMCA punishing them for being a host of user generated content.
Currently, if a content "owner" wants to "fix" piracy, all they have to do is restrict their content from the total of 3.17 BILLION people, down to 319 million.
Instead of 3.17 billion potential content consumers you have 319 million which are unable to even speak about or review content freely due to fair use abuse, and 2.851 million that can only access content via piracy.
Copyright should be settled in court, not through a report button.
Let content flow, let me buy it/view ads on it. Stop the abuse of content creators.
We are not trying to spam you. We just don't want to see our favorite creators get taken down because of companies abusing the system so a negative review of their product can't get out.
The DMCA has been used by many companies, large and small, to make money off of content creators by claiming their videos. They have the power to do so under the DMCA, even though many companies don't even own the material they copyright. And for 30 days, all ad revenue goes to them. Stop these greedy companies from taking advantage of a broken system and preventing content creators from making quality videos that fall in line with fair use.
It's not just the content makers who are affected by false copyright claims. Consumers and/or audiences are denied different interpretations of a work of art. There's enjoyment in seeing a fresh and interesting perspective in something. Creative works (content based on someone else's material) are reflections of the artist's admiration or detestation of the original creator's work with their own interpretations thrown in, whether it be a story to enhance character development or a video critiquing a flaw or merit of the original work. Many times these creative works are used to build upon the original, to make it better than what it once was.
For companies to take these creative works away is a metaphorical crime. To continue to allow companies the right to make false claims hurts everyone involved BUT the companies purposefully making inaccurate accusations. The solution to this problem won't be simple to reach, but many believe the answer should involve some, if not all of, the following:
Have companies find a legal reason to make a claim (e.g. a video contains more than ten seconds of unaltered footage). Once a claim is made, an automated bot may flag or even temporarily remove the content, but a human must look at the flagged content and determine if it's breaking copyright laws. If laws are broken, the content must be removed and the guilty party may be required to pay an additional fine depending on the severity of copyright infringement. If the content adheres to the laws then it may be restored, with the company perhaps having to pay a fine depending on how many false claims they've made against that party prior (the number of false claim "graces" can be dependent on how many copyrights they hold; proof of copyright holding may be required to deter those who falsely accuse and have no copyrights themselves). For those making money from such content, during the time period of the content being flagged and the verdict, all earnings generated can be detained in a temporary third-party banking account, with the winning party of the copyright suit receiving the earnings. Similarly, the generated earnings could be put on hold, and the losing party would have to pay whatever earnings would have been made during that time period in addition to the fine.
There is no easy answer for combating false copyright claims, but the biggest issue that must be fixed is copyright holders abusing the system. Many times these claims against creative works is merely to make a profit off of them. The internet allows people to connect and share ideas , many times those ideas originally belonging to someone else but shaped so differently it might as well be new. Please don't let these companies continue to stifle creative interpretations solely for monetary profit. Consumers, audiences, and creative artists simply want their works back.
My thoughts: Listen, if this continues, this will harm the growth of the internet and online technology as a whole if we continue to allow people to bully others with copyright strikes, there are even people making businesses just to file a copyright strike and earn someone's hard-earned money! This is not something to just ignore this time, it's time to fix this system and pave the way for a better future.
Get it together, we are entitled to fair use, and will not stand down.
I follow countless content creators on Youtube who have fallen victim to the archaic rules of the DMCA. I've seen people who do reviews for movies and video games have their reviews removed, when there's no actual footage ever shown. People sitting in their car or at their desk just simply sharing their thoughts, their free speech with their followers. I've seen videos like that removed, silencing the voice of people who have done nothing wrong.
I have seen music creators have their own music removed, their own music that they created, that they made themselves, removed because of false claims that can easily be filed.
Creators and companies use the poorly worded laws of the DMCA to silence and threaten the voices, aspirations and talent of anyone who disagree's with them.essentially saying "You don't like that movie, or game, or other piece of media. Then I'm going to have your video taken down!" and that's just wrong.
The DMCA needs to be reworked for today's internet, it's rules which were established in 1998 don't account for today's internet and for today's media creation and consumption.
We Need this to be fair, where the fair use or else we won't have what we thought for.
Fair Use needs to be saved, HOWEVER there are too many people abusing it for profit. Many people on YouTube and elsewhere who refer to themselves as "creators" are making their livings from others' work without reimbursing them for using said works. When confronted about this, they claim their videos are reviews, despite the fact that the videos show a substantial percentage of a film sequentially and then give away the film's entire story from beginning to end. These videos are monetized and considered to then be original content, and the channel publishing the video can profit without the creator of the original film ever seeing any money or ever having given permission for their work to be used to begin with.
So, now we have a situation where people are happy to claim they are creating original content when they are making money from others' works, only to revert to the defense that these videos are only reviews when they get caught out.
People who invoke the defense of Fair Use should only have a ground to stand on when they are not making any money from their content without the permission of those whose work they've appropriated. Fair Use should not be an excuse to profit off of others' work.
Please save Fair Use laws for non-profit uses.
Fair Use is supposed to protect creators in cases like parody, critique, education, and so on. Unfortunately, especially on sites like YouTube, corporations can abuse the DMCA system that's been in place since 1998 to censor opinions they don't like or claim revenue that shouldn't legally be theirs. I work with many high profile YouTube creators and have seen this happen over and over. A video that is well within the protection of Fair Use will get a DMCA strike regardless of that protection. The scary thing is the companies have weeks to respond to a counter claim on the DMCA claim, meaning the penalties associated with it will remain on a video or channel even if the company is wrong in filing the claim. This can mean weeks of lost wages for the creator or restrictions placed on their accounts. Keep in mind that in 2016 the world of YouTube has evolved into a career for many creators. These are people's livelihoods and primary sources of income being put on hold here simply because an automated system that appeals to an 18 year old law favors the company over the individual creator, regardless of who's in the right or wrong. Nothing's stopping companies from issuing and reissuing these DMCA claims on legally sound videos to restrict their income or growth.
It's also a huge restriction on creativity since it bullies creators from making the kind of content that they SHOULD be free to make under the defense of Fair Use. They know this kind of content would result in a false DMCA claim, so they avoid it entirely and the potential for artistic expression shrinks.
Often studios will issue a DMCA claim to censor a review that critiques their show, movie, or game. This is blatant censorship of free speech as these claims keep videos from reaching their audience.
The DMCA allows companies to target videos through computer algorithms and programs. With the way videos can be edited to critique or parody, it's understandable how a computer would flag a video as having its company's content. For example, a review of a movie would understandably use footage from said film to demonstrate its critique. The widespread availability of editing software makes these kinds of reviews the norm. This is why the DMCA process needs to REQUIRE human review before issuing the claim. And for companies that repeatedly abuse the DMCA system, there needs to be legal repercussions against them, just as there are legal repercussions against individuals who actually are infringing on copyright. In 2016 the line between media creator and consumer is blurred. Anyone can create media, that power's been equally spread among the masses now. The law needs to expand to protect everyone equally. It's not the "Studio vs Consumer" landscape it was in 1998. Media has shifted immensely as the Internet and technology's grown. The DMCA law and process needs to evolve with it and protect the rights and creativity of American citizens.
Note: As a professional musician, I am well aware that the rights of creators need to be protected. However, the system as it stands and the mechanisms currently in place disproportionately favor corporate interests over those of creators, and are often abused and repurposed as a legal cudgel with which to beat individuals and small teams who, despite stringently observing the laws behind fair use, are forced to back down as they lack the financial resources to protect themselves in court. Copyright law is about enabling and protecting creativity, but creativity is being stifled. Please, do the right thing and stand up for the small guys who are trying to do the right thing. Thank you.
I personally 100% agree that the DMCA is broken in favor of corporations who don't give a damn who they hurt with takedown notices for videos that fall under fair use, and repeated wrongful takedowns should be punished.
Quote:
I feel as if it is extremely important for content creators online to be able to freely create their content without ridiculous and unreasonable rules prohibiting them from doing so.
I hate how the youtube system is so biased as people issuing copyright complaints get so much more power than those who have to defend against is especially as in how anyone giving the copyright complaint can do so without punishment while content creators are instantly punished for the copyright claim even without evidence and just by looking at the flaws should be enough reason to rethink the system
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright abusers who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
While I am on the same boat as I am sure a flurry of comments are also saying, Imma keep mine not copy pasted. The internet must remain a place for people to share content with out fear of repercussions. Free speech is a necessity. Unlike TV, radio, and other old media, the internet is largely free from coorperate interference. "fair use" takedowns and copy right claims infringes on that freedom of speech and to share an idea not dictated by those in power. The internet must always be a place where the little guy has as big as a voice as the Goliath. Thank you.
Not only this but Fair Use is used a lot in YouTube and we are being treated like criminals. The DMCA was missed in 1998 and that's when YouYube never existed. Please make this known, make a change! Maybe a punishment for people who wrongfully strike YouTubers would make a big difference in today's internet. Please let the change happen and happen soon!
Now I love doing movie reviews on my channel Massive, but I don't want it to be where any movie studio or famous person can take down my video just because "they don't like it" even though I have followed every guideline in the book.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I personally have known several content creators, specifically on the website of Youtube. There they make their living. Often their channels are attacked with false claims. One guy just makes videos where all he does is talk, but because it has "Star Treck" or "Star Wars" or "Legend of Zelda" or whatever in the title, a false claim soon follows. This cannot be allowed to continue. People's livelihoods are regularly put in jeopardy at a whim. There's no justice with these people, ultimately the source of money is the source of authority at the current moment. This is wrong and needs to be corrected.
the system is broken it is being used to abbuse people on line not protect them a quick youtube search will tell you all you need to know
yo thats fucked up man
We should have the right to make original content on the internet, especially in YouTube. False claims and unfair limitations is something we viewers and subscribers do not want happening to YouTubers who don't deserve it. I've, as well as many, have noticed when watching claimed videos that there are cases in which the creators have done nothing to deserve that claim since they mostly sat in front of the camera without footage or copyrighted music. People who own properties attacked YouTubers for just criticizing their work when people can freely express their opinions. DMCA must be dealt with so that the internet can be a better place for all users to feel safe. #WTFU
To whom it may concern,
The current management and oversight of the usage of the DMCA is poorly handled.
I agree in that there should be a way in which content creators, whether that be individuals or business, should be able to monitor and control how, as well as where, their content is distributed, and the DMCA can be use to do this, as shown by theDmitry Sklyarov incident. However, the current system is inadequately, if at all, controlled, harming; content creators, viewers, average citizens, business and, most importantly for you, the government.
By allowing anyone to send "bots" to censor and cease content without human oversight leads to a corrupt, dystopian future where power is controlled by false flaggings and claims. For explain, the YouTuber "I hate everything" has unjustly been subject to the false use of the DMCA due to no clear authoritarian control over the use the DMCA. A continuation of incidents like this will force content creators to stop making videos. Many others, such as h3h3Production, have been affected by this and I believe that there should be more control of these kind of situations.
This further harms businesses as, without content creators, businesses, especially small businesses, will have less options to promote their business and products. This decreases sales revenue for businesses which stifles a businesses' revenue thus decreasing the exprots of that business which then harms the economy as a whole. The prime example of this is YouTube with Ad revenue, roughly 2rds of a YouTubers video's ads are seen which means, especially when referring to larger content creators, leads to a substantial amount of income for the business. One example of this is the largest subscribed YouTuber "PewDiePie" with deals with companies such as Sony and Crunchyroll, which encourages viewers to view and buy products from the stated companies. This shows why business would want an overseer for cases about the DMCA, as it can restrict their income as well as the YouTubers.
Even the average citizens is affected by the false claims of DMCA as this restricts the, usually helpful, information released by websites. One display of a YouTube channel helping society and businesses is "Extra Credits", who have helped inform of a variety of subjects, such as politics and business, as well as helping people get in to jobs, which increases government income. This shows how small YouTube channels can impact the average citizen and inform them on information that is important to them, but was unable to be taught in the education system. An oversight of this the increases education and training at little to no expense to the government, which thusly improves the standard of living.
Finally, the government will be heavily affected by an uncontrolled DMCA system. Less creators means less income for a business, which means less government income, which then leads to less government income to spend on sectors such as education and training or infrastructure. This then means a lower standard of living which likely leads to less foreign interest in trade and travel which, once again, lowers government income, indefinitely repeating the cycle. This will slowly lower, and destabilise, the balance of imports and exports, which will force the government to subsidise, mainly, agriculture in order to cater of the ever growing population. Without proper control of the DMCA by a government authority, it will harm the ecomomy and standard of living.
In conclusion, whilst the DMCA has a huge potential to benefit everyone, the current handling of the system is harming everyone, not just in the US, but globally through; Trade, standard of living, jobs, training and education and, culturally. I hope this helps to fix the problem of the DMCA, and create a better system which caters for the needs of everyone and stops unfair usage of the law.
Sincerely,
Oliver McLennan, 14
THE DMCA IS BROKEN. It has been awful for the internet.
This is an awful law. It NEEDS to be changed.
We have a serious problem here. The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use, such as commentary, satire, and other styles of videos. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet, especially on sites like YouTube where there is almost no way to contest these claims. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse, and companies or individuals that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible, as false claims can seriously impact a person's livelihood. And that's only what the study covered, there is probably even more rampant abuse against smaller individual creators.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone, and has very serious impacts on people's lives. You shouldn't be allowed to use a crappy loophole in a law to hamper opinions or prevent new media from entering the world.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works. Companies need to be held accountable for their actions, people's livelihoods and constitutional rights are at stake.
"say say say" - mj
The fair use laws are extremely unfair to content creators such as myself, especially to people who make sports highlights. Even if the footage is used in a video that isn't monetized in any way, shape, or form for entertainment purposes or archival purposes, it can still be taken down by companies for no good reason.
Videos by companies like Channel Awesome and others are being unfairly taken down. When free speech is being tested by the DMCA by taken down videos and reviews used for the purpose of education, satire, and criticism, there is something wrong with the DMCA. Seeing big organizations or individuals unfairly strike videos and take down entire channels on YouTube because they're either angry about the criticisms of their product, or because they want to do this to bait a trial, and maybe gain attention or profit is just sickening. Please keep the first amendment strong by fixing or abolishing the DMCA!
(Censorship is ruining our social media.)
DMCA's are being sent to everyone across YouTube. No Doubt this is unfair and needs to be rectified. Filmmakers and owners neglect to acknowledge Fair Use's existence or state that they make the law. The DMCA was signed into law in 1998 for a 1998 internet. Content creation on YouTube and various other sites is and has now been forever changed from that many years ago. Strict and regimented punishments should be put INTO LAW by our United States Congress to punish those who would wish to take away the free speech that our Constitution has seeked to provide us. These people are making their content to acquire MONEY, something in this day an age is necessary to survive. This is the career they've chose, and when these false claims are put forward by companies run by robots with their operators on a permanent coffee break, they lose their revenue.
The Internet is NOT a tool for big business.
The Internet is free for everyone to use.
Please, do what's right and choose to stop these false DMCA takedowns and protect the rights our forefathers so desperately shed their blood and sweat and tears to secure all those years ago on 1776.
Thank You.
Please fix the DMCA by updating it to better fit into today's society.
Copyright laws on Youtube right now are cause very bad issues, the biggest issue being that false copyright claimers are not getting punished and the creators falsely accused of copyright get punished. It's crippling content creators online.
People are taking advantage of being able to submit false copyright reports without consequence so they can harass and threaten creators. They are using it to prevent free speech! They are using it to steal money from other creator's revenue! They are scaring people away from making content online! I'm even scared for my own videos safety from false copyright claims. Many people view YouTube as their full-time job, and people are stealing their money and/or falsely striking/removing their videos. There are criminals on the loose on YouTube! Please help stop them so the internet is a safe place to share content on again for future generations to come!
The DMCA is extremely outdated (it has not been updated since 1998) and heavily biased towards corporate copyright holders to silence and censor content protected under fair use. It has been twisted to silence free speech and is being misused every day to stifle the careers of many people who make a living on websites such as YouTube!
It's no longer protecting the people but harassing them! People are filing claims on content they don't even own. DMCAs are being used to inflict harm on individual creators! Even videos with no music or questionable videos are being taken down under this excuse and there has been no means of checking to see if these DMCAs have any sort of validity.
People are using them to threaten and harass independent creators. Videos are even getting hit multiple times after they've already been cleared. There are countless examples of this happening on a daily basis and it has to stop!
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review.
Please, for the sake of free speech and to protect content on the internet. Thank you.
I have seen so many creators, builders, modifiers taken down due to DMCA rules.
Furthermore hindering the modern American dream
Famous examples come under reknown Youtube critics such as ihateeverything, YourMovieSucks, The Nostalgia critic, Jim Sterling among many others. If consideration is given to the countless members of youtubers who have been abused by the system, then there may still be hope for critical analysis on the internet.
My interest in the blatant abuse of the Fair Use system on YouTube started when channels that I frequently watch such as Channel Awesome, I Hate Everything, TheMysteriousMisterEnter, and The Angry Joe Show, started getting hit with false Copyright Claims by corporations in order to either unfairly monetize videos that are within Fair Use or are having their negative reviews taken down because companies and individuals do not wish to have those negative reviews about their creations online, which in itself is a violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitiution. The channels which I referenced earlier all abide within the Fair Use Laws in the United States, which has a caviate for works being protected if they're transformative of the original work. However there exists a group of Youtubers who consistently violate Fair Use and never encounter reproductions for their blatant abuse of fair use. These are reaction channels. Reaction channels are, for the most part, non-transformative, and consists of a YouTuber uploading an entire video and not changing it at all. To use a modified quote by Ian Malcom If I may... Um, I'll tell you the problem with reaction channels on YouTube. They don't require any effort to attain sucess. They saw what others had done and you took the next step. They didn't make the video themselves, so they don't take any responsibility for it. They stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before they even knew what they had, they patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now they're monetizing it! Please, listen to us, all of us.
I'm damn tired of having my favorite videos taken down for no good reason, or because they used a short clip of a work or had a song in the background. The current laws infringe on the free speech rights of critics, satirists, and commenters by forcing them to jump through hoops to do things they have every legal right to do. Please fix this.
Literally the entire internet is built on fair use content, taking the ability to use such content would essentially cause the entire thing to collapse in on itself.
In my case, I need to keep my internet free. I post my art online, most of which is fan-related. I live in fear of my work getting forcefully taken down simply because I drew a copyrighted character. I don't even do it for money, I just like to draw.
Every day I see more and more videos on YouTube being taken down for little to no reason. It has gotten way out of hand and it is bordering on resembling some dystopian future novel. You might as well be putting a leash on people's thoughts and ideas since that is essentially what gets put online.
As described in the Nostalgia Critic video about this issue, the DMCA law was put into place in 1998. That was eighteen years ago. The internet has become a lot more advanced and sophisticated. We as a whole need a new law that keeps up with it. We need fair treatment for fair use, not a excuse for corporations to bully people.
The following is a copy paste. My personal opinion is fuck the DMCA flaws. Fix it.
Just so you know that I'm still at least somewhat invested, I'll append a small statement to the effect that, if the DMCA is not superceded, it will be circumvented and rendered useless. It's not a threat. It's an emergent sociological property that you cannot prevent. Your office has to recognize the dangers this poses with regard to actual copyright infringement and piracy.
Only signing this because all my favorite internet personalities are being sued and taken down but people who literally steal videos and react to it playing it in it entirety should be the ones taken down
This system is not working. Something meant to make user generated content fair as it relates to products is not. Instead of allowing anyone and everyone to sound off on products, it is used to silence negative criticism. This is unfair. The consumer has a right to know about what they are purchasing.
People have a right to discuss products and using b-roll or showing the content is fair game so long as the commentator actually adds something that a consumer finds valuable.
Instead, companies use loose the fact that music sampled for a few seconds is somehow the full experience. Utter nonsense. No one in the world is going to refrain from purchasing a song just because a few seconds of it plays in video.
DMCA needs to be changed to a more modern version. Currently on youtube there is a HUGE problem (looking up the hashtag WTFU will bring up some of these). people are filing false copyright claims in order to stop free speech. They are being used as a threat, and occasionally, it means multiple FALSE claims after the claim was first cleared. One video i recently have seen by someone i watch named "DocReviews" who made a video on thegabbyshow. Here he made a video talking about how she steals content and uses it to make money. Well she didnt like it and filed a false copyright claim saying his WHOLE VIDEO was in fact hers. There was a huge problem recently with thefinebrothers who were filing claims on reaction videos. These are the problems with the current DMCA laws because it makes it possible for these things to happen.
As a content creator, I am actually scared to put up content to the site due to these false claims. So many of my favorite channels have been taken down even though the content was fair use. Where does that leave us? Stuck in the past when we need to be moving forward.
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Hello, this is where I start to express personal experiences. I'm not a content creator, but I have seen a lot of the material I personally enjoy be slighted and inconvenienced by the current law surrounding this issue. A parody group creating a gag dub of an anime series has been hit with takedown notices despite their activity being supported by the law of fair use. The same could be said of many of the review YouTube channels I like to watch. All in all, it's a big reason why I want the law to be updated.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be abolished as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
This is a serious problem, DMCA is used without taking fair use into account.
More often than not, no human is involved i the process and that means that even when Fair use is followed a person may be hit with a take down and never have their case reviewed. The process is so automatic that even cases of people using content with permission are hit with takedowns. Also in the case of video games content ID has been used to surpress reviews and criticism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
There are many content creators on the internet that have been falsely accused of copyright infringement, especially on YouTube.com. A lot of their content, if not all, falls under fair use, but the people claiming to own the material can take it down effortlessly. They barely even give a reason, but the content creators are only allowed the character length of a Tweet to make a counter claim. These are people's livelihoods that are being messed with here.
Nappa cabbage is pretty sweet.
Extra note from commentor: Although I'm not a content creator on Youtube myself, I'm a huge supporter of the channels I like. Right now, I'm a little tight on money, so I can't really directly donate to those channels right now. Really, the only way I can support them is by viewing and liking their channels. However, I'm unfortunately unable to do that if malicious and greedy companies are consistently applying false copyright takedowns to their videos. Not only can I not be able to support my favorite Youtuber by watching their videos, but it enables ANYONE from viewing them, too, thus the content creators get no support from said videos. Then, to add insult to injury, these companies also steal their revenue as well in the process on those takedowns when they are being able to be viewed by us WHICH IS COMPLETELY ILLEGAL TO DO. Imagine working for many hours on a project that you poured all of your heart into and then suddenly, just like that, all of that hard work is for nothing.
This absolutely TERRIBLE copyright system that's being implemented on Youtube is BROKEN. Channels that create great content that fall under Fair Use are being punished tremendously that either get their revenue taken away and/or have their video taken down usually either to illegally gain more money than they already have for their product, or to cut down criticism. Seriously, there's a man known as Jim Sterling on Youtube that LITERALLY had his channel struck with a copyright strike (which inhibits him to many different privileges) all because an angry indie video game developer threw a tantrum due to Jim's criticism to his game? That was over a year ago, and now the SAME developer attempted to sue Jim for $10 million (yes, you saw that $10 MILLION), because he felt that Jim was being unfair on criticisms on the game that the developer made and that it "destroyed the company and lost sales" because of it. THIS is the type of garbage that these content creators are dealing with.
It's already hard enough to deal with real life sometimes, and how even more strenuous in how difficult it can be to sustain yourself in every aspect. Youtube is often considered to be a safe haven for many people that may have hard lives in the outside world. When they feel like there's nobody to turn to in their time of need, they sometimes turn to their viewers for love and support. In several cases, it's the only thing they have. For example, there's a content creator known as the Cinema Snob (who's also one of the users that has been a victim of false copyright claims) who recently uploaded a video revealing his past history of chronic depression from the time he nearly ended his own life via painkiller overdose to his recovery from depression. Near the end he stated that one of the best ways he's able to keep himself out of his depression is to keep himself busy by doing what he loves, and makes a living off of: Creating his videos for all of his fans to see.
Content creators such as Jim Sterling, the Cinema Snob, and many others are currently under a the mercy of Youtube and these other large companies making these false claims, and many of them had been punished with dire and unfair consequences. One of my favorites that's known as I Hate Everything (or IHE) had his channel DELETED within an instant due to only ONE falsely flagged video. If it wasn't for the voices of his fans and other much larger content creators, his entire livelihood and way of making a living would've been GONE forever. Imagine if you were working at this job that you spent years establishing and earning that position, then suddenly you woke up and went for work the next day only to have your boss leave you a pink slip at your office door with no explanation why you got it. If that were me, I probably filed a lawsuit to that company if they ever did that to me. Here on Youtube, however, there is little to no way to directly communicate with the THOUSANDS OF EMPLOYEES working at the company. All of it is done by lifeless bots, the only form of so-called "communication" is being the automated messages that they send to their users. There's practically no means for content creators to defend themselves over these situations. Not when they're standing against these companies, and third-party companies, that are constantly harassing them and preforming these illegal actions. The Youtube company itself has neglected to do anything about this crisis, and if it doesn't get resolved soon, then it will only get worst until it inevitably climaxes into something awful. I can't tell you really what it is, but it won't be good at all.
The only thing we can do now is turn to you, the ones who can be able to fix this crisis and revise the DMCA so that it is able to fit the needs of not only the content creators on Youtube, but all others outside that are being affected as well. Thank you for your time in reading this comment...
I am not a content creator; however, I planned to be one, but I have seen some problems with a whole as people have made false claims towards videos that does not even have copyrighted material in it. Most of the time the false claims are for material that they do not even own. There has been a point where a video that contained people just speaking on camera, no music, nothing except for their physical bodies and the voices and it has been falsely claimed. I have witnessed many channels have some of their videos hit by these false claims, to the point that they were even taken down for these claims: Lost Pause, TeamFourstar, ChibiReviews. All of these people have used the Fair Use Policy properly, yet they have had either videos removed, or had their channels terminated, only to be reinstated weeks after termination. In my opinion, something has to be changed, especially if it is a law made in 1998. Things have changed so much in the 8 years since the creation of the law, as the internet has changed so much in such little time.
This needs change content creators such as IHE and Nostalgia Critict are being bullied by unfair standards enforced by this law
If Fair Use doctrines are to remain viable, action must be taken to protect it from the unchecked abuses currently being committed against it.
A system without a means to verify and execute those protections, or protect from abusive workarounds to those protections, is a system that might as well not have those protections at all.
Protect Fair Use. It is that simple.
DMCA's notice-and-takedown process has not been outdated for the 21st century, for the internet that now provides careers for countless content providers, and as a result it allows people to claim ownership of videos that they have no claim to. I myself make roughly a third of my income off videos I create online, and I have had my revenue stolen by people claiming I'm using their videos, when in actuality I'm merely talking about their videos in a review or an analysis or reporting on it, without showing a single second of footage. But they can come in and take all the money I would have made off this video, a video that took hours if not days of my time to make, and I'm not allowed to come in and protest or get that revenue back, and in a day in age when so many people's income depends on videos like this, that is not something we can ignore any longer.
There are countless cases of companies abusing this process with no repercussions and it is time that this ends, it is time that we acknowledge Fair Use, it is time that we realize that the internet has changed.
Thank you,
Thomas Hairston
I am tired of youtubers that I enjoy getting copyright strikes, or even having their accounts taken down simply because they talked over small clips of a movie, even though they're movie critics, or because they are using five second clips of a show simply because they are a listing their top tens. This has got to stop.
It heavily favors big corporate interests. It allows them to abuse it with automated take down requests which can take days or weeks to contest, and when you contest them, they can just deny your request and pretty much have little recourse. It allows them to be very heavy handed about not allowing for any legitimate fair use, and in some cases can cause the actual rights holder to have to spend inordinate amounts of time on their claim. For example, NASA had video taken down by DMCA because a youtube news video used their free to use footage in their news article and their bot detected a match in NASA's video and issued an automated DMCA takedown on it. Its so easy to abuse like this and contesting a takedown is orders of magnitude harder and more expensive than the takedown itself. And guess who has a bigger legal department.
A majority of this comment is predone, and I have decided to leave it that way since it states things in a better way than I can. But I will add some of my own feed back to supplement it.
I also cannot emphasize how much this kind of abuse has affected some of my favorite content creators. Some of my favorite kinds of content have either had to be completely changed for the worse to prevent against claim attacks, or have been removed completely due to DMCA abuse.
Short version: Fuck 'em. The DMCA does 90% harm, 10% help.
Long version:
When I'm going to be voting in the next midterm elections, I find it shocking that these laws haven't been updated since before my mother was pregnant with me. Things need to be fixed:
The examples of the DMCA system being abused are everywhere. From SEGA attacking videos simply for speech mentioning one of their products, to reviews of movies, games and television shows being brought down without thought or explanation, such as Viacom and Nintendo destroying all reviews of their material. And parody and derivative, material fares little better, like abridged series lets plays and reaction videos. Critics like The Nostalgia Critic, TotalBuiscut, Jim Stirling, RebelTaxi, MistyChronexia, and more are targeted by the abuse of this system and because they do not have the money to hire the lawyers to fight these corporations they have no recourse.
Whats more, many of these individuals make their livings as reviewers and critics and thus this hurts their business as well as the livelihood of those who work under them.
Adding to this is the fact that because the offending parties need not fear any repercussions for abusing the system, people online will do so to attack opinions they don't like, steal money from ad revenue they did not earn, and again hurt the creator of the content, even if the videos have no copyrighted material in them and is completely original material!
This is in defiance of free speech, online entrepreneurship and the ongoing zeitgeist of a growing culture that evolves based on sharing and expressing in an open space.
Please change this. We need repercussion against those who want to silence criticism and expression and we need protection for those who make the online space what it is.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from honest, serious human review under with the full knowledge of information upon the rules of Fair Use.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims, which has become a problem that is quite severe in the field of a medium used professionally by both creators and critics, both being attacked by same said corporations indscriminately.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works, and have the capacity to outright quash free speech and fair use entirely if left unchecked.
I have seen far too many creators having their works removed due to the outdated laws. Seen shell companies attack and harass users on behalf of those who say they own everything. It needs to stop. There is no fair use in play here. Just greedy corporations who believe they are untouchable. This needs to end.
Copyright protection is still needed and very important, however the DMCA needs to be updated to provide consequences for false claims that affects wages of content using Copyrighted material under the fair use clause, provide more sophisticated programs with expert supervision to analyze whether content using copyrighted material is indeed in fair use, and to have the DMCA regularly revised to keep up with emerging trends in technology and culturally.
Thank you for your time and have a nice day.
This law severly needs to be updated. The DMCA was written for the internet back in 1998. The internet has vastly changed since then, as people now save things on a digital cloud instead of a floppy disc. One of the major laws for the internet to protect it is now being used to abuse content-creators. This needs to be changed for the better.
The current system is one of "Guilty until proven innocent" and offers only incentives for those bringing false claims. While there absolutely does need to be a system in place to protect people's personal property, the system we currently have is grossly out of balance. We have an unprecedented opportunity here, to create a new system of copyright balance. The last thing we need is to continue down the established path of "If you have money, then you're free to do as you will." There need to be real deterrents, that SCALE for larger corporations, to prevent copyright infringements, and real deterrents for those who would bring false claims against actual content creators.
I have seen copyright holders file multiple claims against the same content even after their initial claims were cleared and the content was deemed fair use. I have seen copyright holders go through third parties whose job is simply to make claims on their content so the copyright holder is protected from responsibility in the claim. I have seen copyright holders use intimidation and threats to convince those they make claims against to give up more of their rights than they are legally required to when they can legally take action on a DMCA claim, but that claim would never hold up in court. I have seen copyright holders in other countries make claims on content produced in the USA and uploaded to servers hosted in the USA, and they have used our current laws to make the claim, but then they tried to hide behind their own laws to avoid responsibility saying that our laws (which they filed their claims under) do not apply to them. This needs to change.
Also a few content creators on youtube (who will remain anonymous for their own protection) are not only getting false claims and strikes, but are being blackmailed by the fraudulent/greedy companies, and even starting to get death threats from said companies! Saying they know where we live and will kill us if we don't pay them. THIS STOPS NOW!
As a personal note, here's a personal story of how the DMCA and copyright claims are abused in the most ridiculous ways. Right now, there is a video on YouTube of the performance art piece "4'33"' by John Cage. The audio was removed from the video due to a copyright claim. In the piece, John Cage sits down at a piano in total silence for 4 minutes and 33 seconds. Copyright claims have gotten to the point where people can delete the audio from a track that is nothing but silence.
I am Pragmus Omega of Pragmus Media, we review movies and discuss what is both good and bad about them, to recommend which movies are worth watching and buying. We have had both bots and people make claims against our videos, despite the fact that reviews are protected by fair use and showing short clips is a part of that review which is protected by fair use. We have lost youtube revenue due to the paranoia of certain copyright holders and unbalanced, unfair system set up by youtube which allows false claims to be made with no regard for fair use or review, and no punishment for making false claims to take revenue and silence critics of their brand.
My friend and I made a video praising Studio Ghibli's Grave of the Fireflies and theybmade a copyright claim, despite reviews being fair use. We also had to edit down a section of our Khan review for using a sample of the James Horner score, even though I gave credit in the end of the video that the copyright belongs to Paramount and not us.
I've just recently started my YouTube channel several months ago, and because of the unfair copyright strikes other channels have been receiving, I have become afraid to post any of my reviews for fear of them being taken down. One particular incident has caused me to be wary of uploading my reviews:
A Youtuber who goes under the pseudonym "The Mysterious Mr. Enter" has received multiple copyright strikes from Blue Rocket Productions, the studio behind "Pixel Pinkie," a series he was reviewing an episode from. The review only features several short clips from the episode, most of which had his own, original commentary and narration over them. After the video was taken down because of a copyright strike multiple times, even after being resolved. It is unacceptable for a company to continue to take down videos when Fair Use is not violated.
This has made me very afraid to upload my own videos.
Many content creators and content watchers, such as myself, are effected negatively by this issue. We need to get together so that these Youtubers' livelihoods are not at stake.
I personally know someone that has had multiple issues regarding DMCA, and as a result, that person has lost potential gains in both monetary and recognition.
I have seen dozens and dozens of videos being unfairly taken down for a plethora of reasons. Some were taken down by production companies for a negative review of their product, others taken down by record companies for containing a small portion of their song in the background of an unrelated video (such as a vlog, for example). This is absolutely, undoubtedly exploitation and abuse of the system and these copyright holders are bullying the little guys. Enough is enough. Fair use laws need to be changed, and they need to be changed for the better.
There are absolutely no consequences for false 'claims'. This means that a company (not necessarily a legit one) that has enough resource can bully a lot of individuals and file claim on them. Since there are no consequences for false claim, there is really no deterrent for any company to stop filing them. An individual, however, has very little resources and most of the time would not want to spend too much effort in fighting the claims.
Most of the claims files follow a "guilty until proven innocent" approach, which favors the party that has filed the claim. It should be the opposite and it should be a "innocent until proven guilty" approach coupled with serious penalties for falsely placed claims.
I am a young youtuber right now,only 16 years old, and I feel like I can't express myself. I feel like someones going to shut me down every day because I use copyrighted characters in my videos. I feel like I have to kill my own voice so I won't get in trouble. I'm scared that my voice will be killed because of how copyright is right now.. I've seen some of my favorite youtubers be killed off, then revived only to be killed off again. Even though they didn't break copyright. I've seen people abuse copyright to there advantage, even taking down people criticizing there content because they didn't like their opinion. People have been threatened, even though they were innocent. I've seen a lot of people that have been wronged, and I'm just lucky that no one has noticed me since i'm so small. People have been taken down by people that don't even own the content themselves. Pretty much anyone can take down someone on youtube very quickly with absolutely no punishment. Not even a slap on the wrist. Not to mention that those people can even steal there ad revenue, and when the thing is over and done with they keep the money they stole. It is unfair, and injustice like that should be punished, but nope. They get off scott free while the channel they almost ruined is the one that really gets punished in the end for no good reason,even though they were proven innocent. It's awful,and it should be stopped. Why no one innocent should be punished for stating a unpopular opinion or have there lives ruined by it either. Help make a better place for the content creators of the world. Because right now no one will. Thank you for reading,have a great day.
I've witnessed unfair copyright claims for months and months now from many of my favorite content creators on YouTube, and I think it's time that we improve the way the system works so that it's not unfairly put against the content creators. Please help to stop the unfair takedowns!
As pointed out by a man named Doug Walker, videos all over the internet are being taken down due to copyright claims. These claims are based on a law written in 1998, when the internet as we know it today did not exist. Please, consider revising the DMCA. Fair use needs to be taken into account and it needs to be dealt with.
Lol how can I start....
Literally no music in my YouTube video...
Copyright claimed.
Sorry.
How can I become popular when I'm getting copyright claims on videos I make...
I' month even able to get more than 20 views per videos and 2 people disliked most of my videos...
I won't stop.
.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
Please, change what is going on for fair use. When people get copyright violations that are false, the people that charged the violation don't get any punishment. They also get all the moneyprocess, so they can take revenue. If you dont want to change a ton, at least make it so the money goes into a seprate account and whoever wins the strike gets the money.This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I've been on YouTube since 2006 and I've watched it grow from a small site to one of the biggest sites in the world. And to be honest this isn't just about YouTube itself, its about content creators getting screwed over because of something that was broken from the start and whenever you don't take care of a wound it gets infected and that's what has happened to the way copyright is handled on YouTube.
I have posted a video I have since deleted on youtube which was flagged in seconds of being posted by someone who made a content claim on music that was not only NOT THEIR MUSIC but was well within copyright law.
This has happened on a bunch of my videos that I do reviews in. They are claimed even though I am doing a review which falls under the fair use law. Please update this law and get it to a point where we all can have the right to free speech and let the giant corporates know they are not above the law.
First, I would like to say that while I am not in favor of blanket approvals of anything goes. We desperately need some sort of fairness to the system. The system is broken and needs desperately to be fixed in a way that does not put the burden of proof on the defendant. As such I whole heartily support the message below that we REALLY need some sort of mitigation of a diverse and unbiased group to look into claims. People NEED the ability to criticize and debate things, make transforming changes to works. We currently have a system where people can shut down criticism they don't like and take away the money from content made just because it had 30 seconds of a trailer in a hour and a half discussion of the lore/backstory.
Once again, As such I completely support the message that this organisation is putting forward.
I don't currently create content on the internet, but part of that is because I am afraid of what would happen if I made a review. I want to make videos telling people about I love (such as why the video game EarthBound is a masterpiece), but I'm afraid of what would happen if I tried to show what's great with a couple videos or clips.
And on a further note, the DMCA is a well intended but unfortunately outdated piece of legislation. However being able to see that this has become the case means that it is time to update this and bring back fair use to the common man and stop large companies from being able to harm those who do the best work on the internet.
Such companies are using this legislation to bully and destroy the hard work of others when they should have no right or ability to do so. The government needs to update and make this right to protect free speech and foster, not hinder creativity
For the love of God, please take this seriously. People's livelihoods are being ruined.
I Paul Cunningham admit these are not my own words but I've read and believe what is said in the comment is the right step needed.
I am here to tell you that the copyright system is broken. As it were, I have been laid a copyright strike for a short documentary film I made about the impact of the USSR ICBM program and computer network design. I used 43 seconds of the National Anthem of the former USSR as sung by the Soviet Army Choir. National Anthems lay within the public domain as do recordings, upon the composer and or singer(s). In this case, it was a defunct nations military choir. I used 43 sec and was as such was penalized from creating my film due to a false copyright claim that did not have to prove to be valid at any time.
^^Shit's real, yo. Take it serious.
It's not fair to take away are first amendment right. Stop the industry from taking it away from the internet.
I'll spare you the lengthy pre-written essay and provide my own personal two cents on the matter.
If we have the right to use material under fair use laws, we must ask ourselves if the burden of proof lies in the hands of the claimant or the defendant in the matter.
More often than not, the claimant is a multinational company for whom the means to protect themselves is well within reach, but frequently fair use protection is necessary to defend smaller content creators from those who are actually using their content illegitimately.
Regardless of your point of view on the matter - something has to change here. In the current system, we allow an automated process to resolve all of these issues and simply put, there's too much room for error. Furthermore, we invariably favor the claimant by default as income can be stopped or diverted in the period of time before any strike is fully resolved or properly contested - this leads to lost income on the part of the defendant and is a massive lawsuit waiting to happen.
Copyright strikes should not be used to stifle free speech, and they certainly should not be used as a form of corporate harassment.
To protect free speech, the consumer's right to an informed decision, and to protect the rights of legitimately held copyrights, something must change. There is a duty on the part of content hosts (such as Youtube) to protect the rights of both parties equally, and by leaving decisions on matters of copyright protection and fair use in the hand of automated processes with minimal human interaction, especially given that the host typically benefits regardless of the outcome, that duty is breached, which results in the loss of free speech and the loss of income to content creators.
Something must change.
The DMCA was enacted on October 28, 1998. The Internet has vastly changed since then, with new content being available as years went by. The conditions for Fair Use have had to have been altered to fit with more modern content. The DMCA, however, has not been changed, and copyright holders are using eighteen-year-old laws to take down content, particularly on YouTube, that has anything to do with their copyrighted material. Even the slightest verbal mention of the material can count as copyright infringement.
The YouTube copyright system involves a channel user gaining a "strike" every time he or she infringes copyright, three strikes resulting in the channel being taken down. These strikes come with penalties, which includes loss of monetization. A number of people use YouTube's monetization system to earn a living, and copyright holders abusing the DMCA to give users strikes affects the revenue that channel users gain. Other websites are used to gain revenue, and the same situation can repeat itself, and it most likely has.
The concept of Fair Use is meant to allow people, under certain conditions, to use copyrighted content without gaining permission or requiring a license , such as using it in a critique or satire. The abuse of the outdated DMCA by copyright holders is affecting content creators by claiming Fair Use content as copyright infringement. This affects what can and cannot be posted on websites that are used as creative and intellectual outlets by many people. As previously stated, this also affects the revenue of content creators that use the Internet to earn a living. The DMCA was meant to protect content creators and copyright holders, but because it is as outdated as it is, it fails to serve that purpose. The DMCA should be changed to accommodate the current status of the Internet in order to protect content creators from copyright holders who want to abuse copyright laws.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I haven't made that many YouTube videos, but I made a video over a year ago, which detailed my favorite songs in the American cartoon, "Steven Universe." The clips I used were lightly edited, with portions of the video and music. The video had then received a copyright claim by Turner Broadcasting a week later, which wasn't a huge deal for me at the time because I had not monetized the video. Then, nearly 3 weeks ago, the video had recieved eleven more claims by Turner, which had blocked the video in 137 different countries. This is when I decided I had to put the video in unlisted mode until I could get the claims removed from my video. My video was made for a non-profit use, and I even have credit at the end, and said to support the official release. It is really scary for me, because I had plans to make more videos a week before my video was claimed, but with the state YouTube is in with copyright abuse, I haven't touched my scripts or video editing software since my video was claimed.
So you've gotten a lot of form letters on this.
I've decided to remove the form letter and put this plainly.
DMCA is a broken process. It's rules and prescriptions heavily favour major corporations for take-downs and leave small creators; of which there are more and more these days, left with a broken process. Fair use is generally hard to defend, spurious copyright claims (often on content which is covered under the fair use clauses, not even owned by the companies themselves or both) are extremely common on major content sites and small creators have an EXTREMELY difficult time using mechanisms to prevent the freebooting of their own content, for profit, by news agencies, "aggregation" sites and social media sites (Facebook being a particularly pernicious violator).
Given that I live in Canada it's probably hard to understand why I'm writing, but your laws affect me. Your laws affect the entire world because your media companies and your internet companies dominate both the discourse and the landscape of modern, English Language internet media.
Please take independent creators' input into account and start favouring them over the large companies that abuse the system. If it is not already I would suggest making fraudulent use of the DMCA system a crime punishable by a fine or (better yet) jail time and see what can be done to make it serve the new digital media better.
Yours Sincerely,
Michael Huntley
We need fair use to be protected! Stop false take downs, there are so many holes that put even completely original content or content with proper fair use.
These actions are heavy handed at best, offering little explanation to the victim while restricting the content sometimes indefinitely.
Copyrights are being abused by companies on Youtubers who have followed the Fair Use Law. People who use YouTube that make videos such as reviews are taken advantage of as they make money that the companies are taking away just because they've used content that is clearly being used fairly. It is completely unjustifiable for companies that don't want anything 'stolen' by those who are only using their content for either a review, a parody, or even advertising to take not only punish those people, but to also take away their freedom of speech this way.
That is why things have to change so that companies not only allow people their right to review and share the content that is theirs, but also prevent them from stealing away their right of speaking out freely.
It's even so broken to the point that the person who gave the copyright strike couldn't remove the strike when they tried.
The companies abusing the DMCA must be punished!
Content creators have the right to share their content
I myself have been the victim of unlawful takedowns in the past, uploading parody videos that fall within the lines of fair use and yet I have had videos taken down. Fair Use was never even taken into consideration before the videos were removed and I use these small projects to keep my video editing skills sharp as it is apart of my career. I just want the law to be considered before I need to go through the motions to get my video up on YouTube.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
and should be ilegal to false flag fair use content on the internet
We'd like to share our story about how the copyright system of YouTube screwed us BAD.
Our channel is an electronic music promotion channel. The difference of our channel, compard to most promo channels, is that all of our videos have the music embedded into an accurate replica of the music visualizer a popular EDM label uses on their YouTube channel. The visualizer is catchy and bouncy and well-done, and since so many people like it, we started the channel to put songs in the visualizer that weren't from the label, to show everyone how they'd look like, and sharing music we like.
Shortly after we started the channel, the CEO of the label got in contact with us. He didn't like the channel, and his argument was that the thumbnails of our videos (which were pretty similar to theirs) deceived viewers into thinking it was their channel to gain views. He also didn't like that we were using their layout. So, to avoid problems, we put a mark on the thumbnails to differentiate ours from theirs.
The thing is, one of our members made a joke video about the CEO of the label on his personal channel some weeks after that, just for fun. The CEO got pretty angry and got him banned from the Reddit subreddit of the label. We moved on and continued doing our videos.
Now, the label allows use of their music on YouTube with the condition that the videos can't be monetized. Although the purpose of the channel was uploading music that WAS NOT from them, we uploaded a couple mixes that included some of their songs, and an acclaimed remix of one of their releases.
One day, we wake up to find THREE STRIKES in our account. One claim corresponded to the songs on the mixes, another for the remix, and another for other songs that weren't from the label. The label was part of a label and promotion channels network, and the third strike was from a label that belonged to the network.
We got in contact with the other label, and they told us they never issued a strike. Our assumption is that the CEO logged in to the network account and issued a strike from it, EVEN THOUGH HE HAD NO RIGHTS TO THE SONGS AND THE LABEL WASN'T HIS.
So the channel got deleted and we made a new one. Mind you, we have tried to get in contact with him multiple times and we received no answer. We would be willing to change things about the channel in order to keep him happy and away from the channel, but he never told us explicitly what to do.
As far as we know, you cannot copyright a visualizer, and even if you could, this one isn't copyrighted. We got in contact with the creator of the original layout and he told us this. Also, on the old channel we made sure to say everywhere that we weren't affiliated to them.
So well, now we're here, from 17K subscribers to almost 8K. We have to protect ourselves from most Content ID claims to avoid risking the channel. We have some videos with Content ID, but we don't mind them, since we got in contact with the people who issued most of these claims and they said they'd never strike us, they just wouldn't let us monetize the video. We agreed and let the videos be. And so far, nothing has happened.
However, it's been a while since we created the new one and we got three unpleasant occurrences, that prove further that the copyright system of YouTube can, has and will be abused.
The first one was when we uploaded the track Mssingno - XE3 (Wheathin Turn). When we uploaded the song, we received an automated Content ID claim from a different songs. We looked it up, and it turns out it was the same song, but stolen and renamed. We got in contact with Wheathin (the remixer) and they helped us take down the claim and the one who stole it.
The second one was when we were uploading a song belonging to a label which we had full permission from to premiere the song. We received an "Audiovisual content" claim from the label we had issues with, for a small section of the video. We're still not sure how it happened, but we reuploaded the video and it was gone. They DO copyright their own videos, but we don't use them, we use a replica of the layout. So far it hasn't happened again.
The third one happened when we received a manual claim on a joke video we did, putting a remix of the Kazoo kid on the visualizer. We got a claim from "Studio71_2_1" for the whole video, after it had gained a couple thousand views. We contacted Mike Diva, the remixer, and he said he had never issued a claim, and gave us permission to use his remix. We disputed the claim, and they REJECTED it. So we got in contact with our partner, and we got informed that Studio71_2_1 had been issuing claims everywhere, and that they didn't own the rights to anything. Hell, they CLAIMED A VIDEO THAT WAS 100% ORIGINAL CONTENT FROM A HUGE YOUTUBER. So they got quickly shut down and our claim was revoked.
As an extra, we received a manual claim on one of our videos by "One or more music publishing rights collecting societies" for the "Music composition". This is the strangest claim we have got so far and we're not sure what it is, so we're leaving it be for now.
So guys, maybe this was helpful to show you how stupid the copyright system of YouTube is, and how it can be abused. Thanks for reading.
-E, -D, -c, and -S
The notice-and-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
We need to have consequences for those that file false claims. There needs to be a process, and not one that is guilty until proven innocent. Our laws are outdated, and hurting content creators.
I'm in.
The current system of DMCA provides an easy, low-risk way for copyright owners to forcibly remove content they don't agree with or don't wish to see public. Despite much of this content being Fair Use and eventually being proven as such, the ease of filing a claim and lack of repercussions for false claims makes the system ripe for abuse. It's a guilty until proven innocent system, it wastes the time of content creators and it is detrimental to the greater media industry in the long run.
It is important for copyright holders to be able to maintain control of their property. But it is also important for anyone else to be able to express their their opinions on copyrighted materials, or create transformative works, as is their right under the law.
The DMCA needs to be updated to reflect the realities of the modern internet and modern content millions of people worldwide consume every day.
(Text provided by Fight for the Future below)
This is coming from a man who wants to create works of art on the Internet and not be harassed by companies to take down art I made myself because someone in Hollywood was greedy and wanted revenue for my work, despite that it is imperative that no one gets harassed for doing something that they love, because Hollywood wants to call the shots and strangle the average person
Please do what's right and change the DMCA to account for today's Internet.
I'd like to share a personal story:
When I was younger a friend created a video that was meant to serve as tribute to a fictional character. He spent about a month and a half working on it. He even intended to play music in the background, which he got from a ripped CD that he legally purchased.
However, the audio was taken down.
He later removed the video after getting only 112 views on it.
This was in 2009. He was only 12.
He was a rather creative person and was excited to use YouTube as a platform for creating videos, but after this incident he never made another video.
I don't know much about the law honestly, but I do believe that a video created by a 12-year-old that only received 112 views is a very trivial and an audio muting isn't warranted.
This current system isn't hurting just "e-celebrities", but rather every day people as well.
I understand you have lobbyists from these big media outlets that are of a higher concern to you than me, a string of text on a screen, but I implore you to listen to concerns that I and 100's of thousands of others share.
Many people see the internet and popular websites as a way to express themselves. The internet as grown from a limited tool for business to a mass network that connects everyone on the planet. Although I'm a single viewer I feel that the internet is one of the greatest human innovations.
However with that said, with the The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in place it has created a state of not freedom but one of fear. Fear of corporations trying to censor critics by filing take-down notices. Fear that a home movie or an original work will be flagged by some non-existent organization that "claims" that your work is theirs. This fear has prevented common users like me from joining the ranks of the creators. If a single creator who is massively popular has a hard time fighting off false claims then how will a common user even have a chance to fight back. Smaller content creators are bullied by larger corporations into playing by their rules. The DMCA was designed to protect content creators in 1998 and much like the world the internet has changed too.
So I ask that the laws that were made for protecting the voice of the people be updated for a new world where the people's voice carries farther than before.
Please go watch the I'm sure it's hundreds of videos on YouTube about "Where is the fair use?" or WTFU. There are so many content creators who are being punished for no reason. YouTube is the only source of income for some people therefore the law that affects their livelihoods needs to be addressed.
Also, I'm personally a member of the Anime Community and our community has been hit pretty hard by copyright laws. Every anime review is struck even though everyone has the freedom of speech to give a critique on a show. As someone who has been in the community for a long time it is vitally important that these anime reviews are available for public consumption so that young people can find their start to the anime community. If copyright strikes continue to affect the anime community I'm afraid that the community will shrink.
I personally found my love for anime by watching reviews and abridged series so this is a topic that is dear to my heart.
Honestly, this process is just absurd. Please, let us have our freedom of speech online again.
Dear Copyright Office,
I would like to tell you about a problem I have with the DMCA's outdated system. A couple weeks ago I posted a video named Captain America Civil War Trailer 2 Reaction and about a day later it was taken down. This has never happened to me since I had always put the link to the original video in the description when I did reactions. I checked the video and the claimant was Viacom a company that was not involved Marvel or Disney (The companies that produced the original video). The real problem I had was Marvel Entertainment had never taken down my videos but Viacom did, a company who had no control over the original video. It took two weeks to get my video back and I was happy but also very angry at Viacom for taking it down in the first place. Thank you for reading my concern and I hope you do something about the law.
Sincerely,
MightyQuester
The rest of this is a form letter, that I agree with, but I personally wanted to say, that the DMCA as it stands right now is incredibly broken and outdated. Piracy of copyrighted material is wrong, but the the DMCA is regularly abused either by copyright holders who disagree on matters of fair use, or by particularly corrupt individuals or companies filing claims on material they don't even own, which forces content creators to waste resources in a fight they shouldn't be obligated to fight.
Many of the DMCA take-downs are false claims made by people who don't even own the content. They hardly ever take into account fair use. Many people on Twitter and YouTube get their videos and tweets taken down. With YouTubers their videos getting taken down is stealing money from them. They use YouTube to make their money!
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedownss process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The Internet has changed how media is created and enjoyed in a way that cannot be reverted. Content that appeals to the majority, as well as a swirl of niche content only a select few will enjoy; all of it is important. A great deal of content found on social media and YouTube is transformative: it involves taking existing content and attributing new meaning to it via commentary or demonstration. Similar to a parody, this content takes inspiration from existing work to create value otherwise unseen in the work previously.
This isn't just about the content however, it is also about the communities that form around this content. Incorrect, unlawful and impossibly strict DMCA takedowns harm the creators who don't have the funding or protection to stay safe from anyone with malicious intent against their work. In a blink, a YouTube channel can be taken down without any chance for appeal over issues that should be covered under fair use, sometimes even from shell companies that have no real claim over anything! How can anyone trust in the stability of their future, working with Internet content, if it can all be swept away without any reason?
The Internet is too big, too amazing, and too global for us to allow a single country to decide what should and should not exist in it. Copyright law needs to change for the Internet of the future, to bolster and empower the individuals, the independent; the communities and creators across the globe.
The amount of people that have been abused by the current state of the DMCA rules and regulations is ridiculous at this point. Content creators on sites such as Youtube are unfairly treated from others who are aiming to deal them harm. These abusers can damage someone else's channel easily just by setting up a copyright claim. This needs to be fixed due to how much the internet has changed over the years. The DMCA takedown process is dated and people are taking advantage of that by violating fair use and free speech.
Here's the deal I am subject to copyright notices on my YouTube channel even though it should be protected by fair use and it is absolute Neanderthalic that, that law is violated by huge company's and by "trolls" who when copyright my review then either take down my video or take away my well earned money it in all sense and seriousness is awful that this law is violated more then any law to the point of the internet especially YouTube has become a fascist dictatorship at worst and at best N. Korea
To balance the fair use of copyrighted works.
http://youtu.be/K-KHqmhWmpg
The DMCA is incredibly dated and really needs to be revised for today's standards. It has been used to harass and even destroy beloved content creators who were doing nothing wrong. It's so frustrating as both a viewer and a content creator to see people file claims on content they don't own, stifle free speech, and harm individuals who just want to contribute something to society. The internet should be a place where people have the freedom to express themselves without fear that some large corporation will stop them from doing so. False claims harm content creators and many companies think that they should be getting away with taking down fair use media with no repercussions. Many use shell companies to do this just to shield themselves repercussions or use DMCA as a way to threaten people, meaning that many clearly know what they're doing is wrong and they're going to keep doing it for as long as they can despite knowing it's wrong.
This has to stop. Fair use has to stop being claimed. Content has to stop being claimed after it's been cleared. Please fix the DMCA so that content creators and regular people alike aren't having their content censored and their free speech taken away. Let's bring the DMCA into this century. Thank you.
My video was flagged by a company called merlin before I even had the chance to publish it.
I put a song from a soundcloud artist that offeted a free download, they claimed that the flag was on behalf of the artist.
I reached out to the artist, and they claimed they had no idea what was going on, or why their name was being used like this.
So ... yeah.
I grew up getting most of my information from television. However, over the past 20 years I've noticed just how much filtering and exclusivity standard media presents to us. Now I hardly ever turn on a television and I find using the internet a much more broad and limiting form of media. Whether for news or for entertainment purposes, it is the next advancement in communication.
However, many older companies that are not accepting in this notion have made many attempts to put producers in this new medium out of business, or at least harm their business. Some claims are justifiable but most others are merely doing it to spite and harass the new competition.
Fair Use Laws need to be updated. Just Look at the many content creators making works that are almost never used for harm of any kind. The Laws just need to be updated to fight the ones that abuse it. Help protect the good content creators of the internet.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments and mass revenue can be stolen from content creators with false copyright strikes at a time when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review and in content thieves that steal other peoples hard work and are able to flee with the revenue before they are provided a takedown notice from the original creator. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I've been charged on something that I've had permission to use from my sibling.
The current handling of DMCA takedowns is in a inexcusably backwards state that fails to protect those whom it should truly be meant to protect, and instead favors corrupt and mischief elements who utilize the system to harass and prey upon the intellectual and creative properties of many internet-based artists and creators without just cause.
1. Many who file DMCA takedown notices are not even the legitmate owners of the content in question, and are merely utilizing the system as a convienent manner of harassment, as there is no penalty in place for a party filing a claim without just cause or proof of ownership of the material in question. In numerous cases, many videos that *do not even contain a single trace of copyrighted footage whatsoever* are still, nonetheless, taken down as a result of these fraudulent and mischievious DMCA takedowns.
2. Many companies and individuals merely file claims out of spite against certain internet personalities, not because the personalities in question have truly stolen or are misusing content of theirs, but because they wish to threaten, intimidate, and even censor and silence the personality in question (often in a direct attempt to stifle their right to free speech) and they know that the personality will have their ability to post and display videos greatly curtailed until they can manage through the lengthy legal process of rectifying the claim. Again, there is absolutely no penalty in place for those who file fradulent claims in this manner to diabuse them of this tactic, while the aggreived paty who is the victim of the fradulent strike may suffer greatly from loss of views and revenue before the situation is cleared up.
3. The current system is only too easily twisted to favor the interests of many companies that hold to the belief that they *create* the law, and that it exists only to serve their benefit. Thus, the current DMCA system, as written, is only all too easy to exploit to serve those ends. Many such companies will also often utilize shell companies for the purposes of issuing the DMCA takedowns, in order to shield the parent company.
4. Many DMCA's are written and issued without factoring in considerations of Fair Use.
The DMCA legislature must be rewritten to be more mindful and considerate of Fair Use, as well as the creating of penalties for those whom abuse the system for fraudulent and self-serving ends, or further abuses are not only likely, but outright inevitable, and many innocent web-based content creators - as well as free speech itself - will only suffer needlessly and grievously until the situation is properly rectified.
As a person who plans to create content in the near future, I fear that the current system under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) will prevent me from making the content that I want to, despite its legality and the right to do so. Automated takedowns of honest content, despite said content lawfully falling under fair usage, are commonplace, much to the dismay of thousands of creators.
If the system is not changed to reflect the present day, rather than to fix the problems of nearly two decades ago, unjustified and unfair actions will continue to be taken by others and they will often be able to walk away from it with no repercussions. If people feel unsafe creating new content for others to enjoy, chances are high that they simply will not create, and so fixing the system under the DMCA will help creativity to flourish for hundreds of thousands of individuals.
The notice-and-takedown process under the DMCA is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Free speech is a right, it's only exists if you defend it!
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted work
Not only that, but these people using certain content under fair use, and even some people who are not even using any content like these at all, are not being treated in acceptable way by this system as they legally should.Many creators who have posted their content like videos under the fair use norm have been illegally chased down by the system.Not to mention that because of it,people are being even more restricted to their dedicated creations than ever before with this massive problem.Even some companies can be the reason for some occasions as to why the blame is illegaly pinned on the creators,and at other times,they get the blame when it doesn't even meet to the law and the general fair use thing at all.I don't hate these companies(The ones I'm mentioning here I actually really like their content),but companies like Viacom and Nintendo are being way too strict as to who may use their content within other creator's projects.Yes,not everyone in the Internet will put the system to good use,and instead use them for threats instead,but for those who just want to bring their own projects for others to see while expressing themselves,whether it's informal or for entertainment;they don't deserve this madness.And some content are even getting more than one copyright strike,even after they're cleared.
I just wish for the best possible future for the internet,with a humongous group of people willing to share their staff and content to the world and bring something unique of their own for others,and I do not want this madness to continue.All I hope is that we can get help so we can end this battle with a glorious victory,so that these creators can continue to post their creations with will and freedom,whether it uses copyright content or not.Please,hear the public,and I hope you'll be able to give us great support for what seems to be the decisive part of this fight.Thank you, for taking your time to read this,and generaly offer your help for us to stand up against this issue.Good luck,and godspeed. :)
Fair use is a right that stands for the capability of making comments and analysis of products so that people aren't scammed by companies trying to sell products with a below the minimum quality for good quality products, the problem is that reviews and other analysis help the customers see if the product is good or not, but some companies stop reviews from happening to protect their low quality products and also to keep the scam happening, this applies to almost everything: books, movies, games, series, and so on...
DMCA is ruining internet for content creators on sites like YouTube mang. This is a violation of fair use and freedom of speech and its just wrong yo. Quit holding these restrictions against our brothas and sistas and let us CREATE! Peace out, Government.
I have noticed the DMCA being abused on websites, such as Youtube. One instance was developer called Digital homicides, who sued to to take-down a video that harshly criticized their game. Another instance, is that DMCA's are being used to threaten content creators. One creator, simply had a camera on him while talked about Japanese animation, and he was given a strike on Youtube. This strike took his money revenue from him and gave it to the studio. When he got his monetization back, the money that the studio was given during that time, was never returned to him.
The system is flawed, because there is no punishment on false claims. Channel after channel gets flooded with claims, by studios. They even have a shell company that just continuously files claims on youtube channels, it has almost become a joke of a system. I can understand companies wanting to protect their products, but it seems even a minor video from a public trailer could cause said video to be claimed. This has gone for far too long, content creators and critics should not be punished. What I have seen claimed, should have been protected under Fair Use.
#WTFU
Companies are using false claims to take down video's and also steal monetisation. Youtuber's such as I Hate Everything, Nostalgia Critic, Anime America, YMS and Chris Stuckman among others are having monetisation taken from companies that do not even own the content, and all their content falls under fair use guidelines meaning that even if the company that owns the copyright brings up these claims, it still falls under fair use. Many youtuber's are suffering because nothing is being done about false claims, and it's about time things changed.
Honestly, this needs to change. How can people who try and make a living in compliance with fair use do so when they aren't properly protected for their efforts?
On a more personal note, I am a YouTuber and frequent user of Facebook and Twitter, along with other social media sites. Some of my favorite content creators are often the targets of this outdated system. These content creators are typically, but aren't limited to, critics and reviewers, animators, comedians, artists, and online journalists.
It is not uncommon for these people to have their content and their businesses targeted by larger corporations or, in some cases, angry producers of the content they critique/discuss. This seems to be especially common for various film and TV reviewers, who are often threatened with lawsuits, defamation, and loss of property simply for voicing their opinion about various media. (For examples, refer to cases concerning The Nostalgia Critic, I Hate Everything's review of "Cool Cat Saves The Kids," journalist Jim Sterling's ongoing legal battle with an irate video game publisher, and various "reaction" videos on films and television shows that don't even show footage of the media being discussed.)
Responses from sites such as YouTube have been severely lacking concerning what is being done to help protect these content creators, and to prevent abuse of a system that has infringed upon these peoples' right to freedom of speech. It is clear from the cornucopia of cases taking place at this time that there is significant confusion surrounding the DMCA, what qualifies as "fair use", and what is being done to protect the right to freedom of speech that all humans share.
The DMCA is in dire need of review and reform. We implore you to do so.
FREE USE for FAIR USE
"Where's the Fair Use?"-- Doug Walker
"Where's the Fair Wiener?"-- CR1TIKAL/penguinz0
"Where's my Freedom of Fair Use?"-- Me
LET'S DO THIS!
There has been consistent abuse this this law that blocks creative expression and censors various forms of critique. This needs to change.
judgements to be made about possible fairthe censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I've seen many youtubers that have videos taken down with little to no reason behind the video being flagged. Once the video's been taken down it seems almost impossible sometimes to get it put back up because the process is so ridiculous. If someone is full on pirating content by all means it should be taken down but those creators that are full within their rights of Fair Use should not be punished so harshly by this stupid system. Especially when there are no penalties for those trying to remove the videos.
The purpose of the DMCA is totally understandable in that it is supposed to be used to protect people's intellectual property. Sadly, it is an outdated standard and has ultimately been serving to hurt the internet.
First off, corporate copyright trolls are using the DMCA to attack people who should be protected by fair use. The DMCA is so strict and harsh that it is hard for somebody in the right to defend themselves. Furthermore, corporations have been using the DMCA to issue "intimidation takedowns", as I call them, in that they are attacking perfectly legal users using the DMCA, knowing that such users will not have the means to defend themselves even though what they are practicing should be completely protected by fair use.
This has gotten out of hand in recent years, with even big and (what seem like reputable) companies bullying innocent users, whether it was because they created negative reviews of products after being granted permission to make reviews, flat out suing people who don't infringe in hopes of extorting something out of them, or pretty much any other form of legal abuse imaginable.
The DMCA is severely hurting those who do creative work, recreate legacy software for historical purposes (which is allowed under fair use, but these people in particular have been targeted a lot in the gaming industry in specific), and any kind of online journalism. This is especially horrible for those whose livelihoods depend on the internet - people who make and post online videos as their full-time job, or write for popular websites as their job, for example, are brutally victimized by the DMCA.
What's worse is that foreign companies are the most guilty of abusing people through the DMCA, issuing takedowns for ridiculous reasons and getting away with it far too often, with victims having no tools to fight back against these foreign megacorporations.
ANYONE who staunchly defends the DMCA has absolutely no understanding about how the internet works in the modern day, what it is used for, and what greedy business owners have used it to get away with, or they themselves are interested in preserving this unfair power for themselves.
I am not saying we should not protect peoples' intellectual property on the web - the Issues are that the DMCA has been abused far too much, that fair use isn't broad enough and isn't enforced, and that there is far too much corporate bias in courts and the legal systems in not just the united states, but around the world where people are using the DMCA as a tool for extortion and profit instead of what it was originally for. The DMCA is both a huge laughing stock for the rest of the world and a burden all of those on the internet who are not using it for some type of abuse.
Making changes to this 20 year old standard (especially given how blazing fast both the internet and computer technology has come since then) would be a huge step forward in making the DMCA enforce the ideology that it originally stood for - the PROTECTION of people and their intellectual property, because since 1996, people have twisted and warped the term "protection of intellectual property" into something that it is really not. People have forgotten that the point of copyright is to stop others from passing one's work as their own, and claiming whatever benefits that entails. Anything else - use of content for review, non-profit, personal use, historical preservation, in reference, data mining, reverse engineering, study, and quotation should all be legal on the internet, just as they are in the real world. Sadly, the DMCA is currently abused to impinge on these civil liberties of consumers, scholars, students, content creators, artists, etc. on the internet.
Please don't side with the big coorporations on this one. Despite its flaws the internet remains one of the best places to find positive interaction with all sorts of people, mostly due to anonimity. Each step in the direction of profiting and controlling its venues (such as Youtube) is a step away from the wonderful thing we grew up with: a free, open-minded community.
It is my belief, and the belief of so many other people that the DMCA has become a relic of a bygone era, created in a time before social media or YouTube or indeed just the internet as we know it today, the DMCA in modern times seems to only serve as a guilty until proven innocent policy that allows corporations or anyone claiming to be the copyright holder of a specific work (they don't actually have to be the copyright holder in order to get a notice through) to take down content without any form of due process.
This has led to a scenario where it doesn't matter what the actual content of a given work is or even if the person claiming is the copyright holder themselves, for as long as someone says that it is infringing, the work will be automatically taken down, all revenue suspended and that person's YouTube channel might even be suspended or permanently taken down, the last scenario only being reversible if the person has a considerable following and has them speak out on their behalf.
This system has stifled creativity, lost revenue for people who are making a legitimate living of their content, and is scaring away potentially new and innovative talent out of the fear of the legal drama that even saying the wrong thing could cause. You can't even create a video talking about a specific product with zero visual references (trailers, images, etc) without still being at risk of a copyright takedown
This has to stop! We need a system that reflects the times, that allows for creators to have an equal chance to make their case; to open a dialogue and not just get bullied by people or corporations that don't like their content.
One of the principles that the United States was founded on was the acknowledgement that laws, acts and even the constitution itself must change to reflect the times, and if there was anytime where this way of thinking would apply, this would be it.
Another principle that this country and the justice system that lies within is founded on is innocent until proven guilty, and the DMCA is not representative of that. Not anymore. We need balance. We need to be able to defend ourselves as content creators, not just hope that the automated system will shine in our favor this time.
Please, I've seen my favourite content creators affected by the takedowns, content that was brilliant has been taken down for no really fair reasons, so please, I, WE beg to fix this
There have been multiple accounts of false corporate claims of online material not following the fair use policy; flagging material that simply critiques media, satirizes it or simply makes some form of observation with or without short clips of the material is question.
i personally have heard this happening too often, so much so that there have actually been cases of false companies making money on taking down other peoples content, of which these, false companies don't own, in other words, its created a business in abusing this Outdated system, and they can just walk away unscathed, same with actual ligit companies who use puppet companies to sheild themselves from any reprecusions from taking down content that falls under fair Use, The DMCA needs updating for the modern Internet
The system is heavily weighted towards the people that make the copyright claims, to the extent that they can take down a video of two people in a car just talking. That is not their content and they are destroying free speech.
FUCK YOUTUBE MAAAAAAN
The copyright system currently is very dated and broken. Various Youtubers and movie/film makers can attack any channel that reviews their work negatively. Even third parties that don't even own any content in the video can still take down or take all the money made from the video. This should be illegal. Please fix this #WTFU #MakeYoutubeGreatAgain
Not only this buy my video's are claimed even though they are MY THOUGHTS on shows that people requested me TO VOICE MY THOUGHTS on. As one musician created a entire song with no instrument playing to ask where is the right to scilence I ask were is my rights to my thoughts on any piece of work I'm Review, I'm a Critic, I'm a Annalist. I work on Thoughts who own's them it isn't companies its ME.
Time to rewrite DMCA with penalties for false claims.
TAKEDOWN THE DMCA AND FUCKOFF WITH FLAGGING CHANNELS FOR COPYRIGHT.
#MAKEYOUTUBEGREATAGAIN
There is no balance of the copyright holder's power against the modern user of the internet, where fair use is a deciding factor thereforth of their careers. Reviewers whom's content falls under legal fair use needs protection from the big-business or any content creator, as in anyone who makes a source material (Like Movies, Games, Literary works, and Audiological works), that abuses the DMCA and Ignores fair use law. Someone can take down any negative review or criticism, that falls under the protection of fair use, with no consequences, and this is a VERY common problem in websites such as YouTube.
Those who make legal fair use content needs the protection from illegal and unlawful strikes. Having repercussions against false-flagging or any actions of the sort will help severely as people and companies will not have the will to take if down.
#WTFU
Where's the Fair Use?
People are losing money over original content they created and someone is always trying to beat them down. This needs to be changed. This affects everyone. This will affect you.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and fraudulent imposters of copyright holders, and is too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ freedom of speech need to be held responsible.
( My own two cents: Hello, thank you for your attention. After seeing how easily the copyright system can be manipulated and misused, I feel it is very important that it gets updated and with fairness for both sides in mind. Being a creator myself, both rights to my own work and rights to show other's work are equally of value and neither should bring fear with them that everything could be lost due to a false claim. I humbly ask that this error is corrected.
Thank you,
-SOH)
In addition, there is no punishment upon the accuser from a false copyright strike. There should be a system for the victims who used copyright fairly to gain compensation for revenue lost and additional negative impacts against them. Companies also should not be able to file a complaint multiple times and severe repercussions should be enforced upon repeat abusers of this system
This message is for people like The Mysterious Mr. Enter, Channel Awesome, Cinema Snob, I Hate Everything, Nostalgia Critic, and many of the other awesome content creators on Youtube. They have all been wrongly accused of copyright infringement and harmed because of it. Many of these claims are false and the claimant is NEVER HARMED with these false claims. Because of this, many of these copyright claimants just repeatedly send copyright claims over and over again until the user gives up. In addition to this, the claimant gains all monetization and revenue from the video. This means that companies can falsely claim videos whether or not they are infringing copyright, do this multiple times, and make money from the video. This is CLEARLY unfair. People like Derek Savage are flat out abusing this system and the Youtube content creators are being bullied by these bigger corporations with almost unlimited power. I'm not the only one with this opinion. The internet won't stand up for this much longer, something has to be done.
There are several people that relie on websites, such as YouTube, to make a living. A particular group that faces the most scrutiny are content creators that review different entertainment mediums. I've been watching these people since I was a kid. Now as an adult it is quite disheartening to see people face harassment, when all evidence proves they are not breaking any rules. Examples include IHE having his livelihood put on hault because someone took his content as a personal offense and claimed it to be CopyRight infringement. It was clear this person was mistaken on what fair use is, and he was still able to abuse DMCA laws. I'm afraid of where this could lead this could lead so please update this outdated system.
Nintendo of America had single handedly destroyed my business and almost my internet career a because of one video that I had posted of the Nintendo game The Legend Of Zelda Ocarina Of Time. I had every single right to post that video and shouldn't had to have my livelihood almost destroyed because of a video that I made. This DMCA needs to change and it needs to change quick
I respect what DMCA does. I do think we need safeguards in place to protect copyright infringement. And I know that with modern technology it makes i extremely difficult. However, the system needs to be improved. Copyright needs to protect IP but at the same time it needs to be loose enough to allow new content to form. Let us revise our current system so it takes into account the new Internet. The internet is not going away and our laws need to start recognizing it.
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DMCA is messed up, it allows content that doesn't break any copyright laws to be taken down unfairly. Many of my favorite video creators on Youtube have been hurt by this system and it needs to be fixed.
THOSE, and it's pure BS. It's just making sure nobody can say anything negative about something that sucks.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digitally Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I want the government, Columbia, and copyright strikes and laws to stop taking down videos I like to watch and listen to, and so does everyone else.
According to a recent blog post from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, pfarticipatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In pfarticular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
It affects people who didn't do anything wrong and who are respecting the copyright laws. Something needs to be done about this.
In addition, the lack of any review process whatsoever means that content without any copyright footage at all can be taken down, and this can even be done by individuals and companies who don't own the content to begin with.
I am a YouTube content creator that has experienced abuse of the Copyright Takedown System. One of my videos was recently, and unlawfully, taken down and claimed by someone who was impersonating a large business. This individual's claim affected my use of YouTube's features, because Google legitimately thought that I had violated copyright by publishing a video that only contained my original content (screen capture of computer desktop and audio recording of my voice). I reached out to Google, the individual, and the company being impersonated multiple times, and they all either never got back to me, or told me that there was nothing they could do. I expected this from the individual, as his intentions were to take down my video, but I did not expect this from Google or the impersonated company. When Google got back to me, they told me that they did not have enough evidence to investigate the claim.
I was able to get my video back online, but this whole incident could have been avoided if Google had looked over the DMCA claim in more detail before allowing it to have affect on my YouTube channel. There were many parts of the claim, such as the email address used to file it (which came from a Canadian public school), that anyone could see are not right. If this was the actual company filing the claim, they would not use such an email address to file it, they would use one hosted on their company's servers.
I feel that there needs to be more regulation of the DMCA takedown system, which would involve thorough examination of all claims submitted to avoid takedown abuse in the future. There should also be strict laws punishing those who abuse the takedown system to discourage people from doing so.
I am a firm believer in the First Amendment. Out of all of the different parts of our Constitution, it is bar far the most important part. The First Amendment is what allows us to tell our gov. what's important to us and what we believe to be to be right or wrong. Heck, the fact that I can type this comment is a perfect example of free speech and its importance. Don't let a small section of our country take away what truly makes us who we are as the American people. Thank you for your time.
Most of the content that I enjoy on the Internet, specially on YouTube, are reviews and analises of various forms of entertainment, specially movies and videogames.
Over these past 4 or 5 years I have witnessed innumerable examples of the inefficiency, and prone to be abused, that current laws allow.
It is to me inconceivable that a law, The DMCA, made almost 20 years ago can still be applied in a world in which technology advances so quickly. This law is damaging the XXI century creators, IT NEEDS to be revised and updated, or being thrown away and make anew.
PLEASE, it is necesary to create a new, more fair and balanced, legal framework in which freedom and creativity may flourish and thrive.
With my best regards to everyone involved.
Fernando Garmendia A.
Mexico City.
*** *** ***
I am just a common content consumer. I have no fancy words or statistics to reference. However, over the years I have noticed that corporations have either become far more greedy or far more petty than I would have thought possible even in the days of Napster.
I would also like to add to this that some people have completely original content and are still falsely taken down through DMCA. As a person with interest in posting a webcomic and getting revenue from it, it sincerely worries me. I'm trying my best to keep from infringing on copyright, going so far as to rename certain things to avoid it, even at the expense of some jokes, but I still worry that someone will try to falsely copyright my material without repercussions. I'm not rich and I can't afford a good lawyer. But that's just a worry of mine.
The world is a different and updated place than it was twenty years ago. There is a constant fear involving harassment and fair use. Most of us know what is happening isn't how it should be, and we're not here to blatantly riff someone else's profit. Let the creative works continue. Make the rules updated and clearer in terms the common person can understand, and corporations don't abuse.
In the past 5 years, and stretching back further, I've seen countless accounts, videos, and works of art being taken down or altogether deleted because a big corporation that has a ton of money can just claim 'Fair Use' and then can either get money that's tied to that art, account, etc. just because they can. The artist or creator suffers because 'Fair Use' isn't properly defined in this time. It's wrong and needs to be remedied. Hopefully, when this issue is resolved, I hope that those creators no longer need to be afraid of their content being taken down or taken over. Piracy happens, but that's no excuse to silence the critics and creators.
The simple fact that anyone online can be censored even if they are in legal terms is ludicrous. Fair Use is a real thing and should be treated like it actually exists. You want the internet to trust the U.S. government? Then protect the internet from DMCA abuse.
Government, you need to update the DMCA now.
People are using this to silence critics of their content, and because videos and the like hit with DMCA claims have to be taken down immediately, people are silenced and presumed guilty before they even have a chance to declare themselves innocent. That's not how the real world legal system works, and I see no reason for the online legal system to work that way either, seeing as the DMCA is law.
For example, on YouTube, hundreds if not THOUSANDS of videos get hit with false DMCA claims all the time, and the law does nothing to prevent this. Sure, it says that fair use must be factored in, but these people don't care about fair use, and they're allowed, if not ENCOURAGED, not to care seeing as there's no punishment for false claims, even repeated ones.
This law needs to change and it needs to change now.
The outdated terms of the DMCA are making content creators on the internet a target and blatantly disregarding fair use. Gaping loopholes are being abused by companies and shell companies to bully people into silence or make a profit off their hard work. Please update the terms of the DMCA to suit our modern technologies and practices, and make it so that companies who are taking down content without rightful cause or are leeching off content creators’ revenue have to face the consequences.
As someone who has been using the internet for a long time, I have witnessed how abuse of DMCA takedowns have affected content creators I watch and listen to, especially on sites like YouTube. The copyright system, as it stands on the internet, is unfair and broken and people are being silenced just because the opposition has more power. Not only that, but they have been manipulating the process by taking down a user's work multiple times using shell corporations and gaining profit from their content. Please, on behalf of everyone fighting for fair use, put a stop to these false claims. Create a system that gives us a say in what we are allowed to create, and treats the law seriously.
I am constantly worried when i create a video of being slapped with a copyright law for just reviewing a TV show or playing a video game with commentary. Not only have I been hit but several many great entertainers have been hit with such unfair attacks. Just look at IHateEverything on youtube as well as The Nostalgia Critic who were attacked for reviewing movies just because they gave them a bad review.
I myself have had my videos taken down for just having a less than 30 second snippit of music that was copyrighted in it. It scares me away from making content cause I'm afraid of having my profile deleted by youtube. Or have any monetized video making revenue for somebody that doesn't deserve it. I have seen this happen with several channels on youtube. People filing illegal copyright claims just to get other peoples money
The people I enjoy watching, and even my friends, are being destroyed by misuse of copyright claims. It kills their motivation when all their money, every scrap of revenue from all their hard work goes to someone who doesn't deserve it, legally or otherwise. It isn't protecting copyright holders, it's being used as a weapon to strike down those trying to make a legal meager living.
To restore the internet to the creative platform it wants to be, the rules need to be re-written, so as to allow people within legal boundaries to create, without fear of being robbed by a broken system.
Please, let my friends pay their rent. They have done no wrong.
PLEASE WATCH THIS FIVE MINUTE VIDEO!!!: https://youtu.be/NoIL5qUI1p8
As a consumer of online entertainment, it would mean a lot for the DMCA to be brought into the 21st century - Many content providers, including those that I personally enjoy watching because of their wonderful content, are being frustrated on a regular basis by businesses small and large, that abuse the takedown system in place to silence critiquing of their work, which means that they are essentialy being CENSORED by way of a system that reinforces the idea that you are Guilty until Proven Innocent, and that someone is being unfair or even libelous towards you just because they say they don't like your product -
And that's just wrong.
THERE ARE SO MANY OTHER WAYS IN WHICH THIS SYSTEM IS ABUSED, TOO MANY FOR ME TO MENTION!!!
And so I'm hoping that you can spare five minutes of your time to watch the above video, as it perfectly describes the many different forms of abuse carried out against the people and our right to free speech (Which, as comments can be left on video pages by viewers to support or refute the views of the content provider, could be construed as critical thinking and discussion in a public space, and the removal of such internet "pages" or "locations" an obstruction to the right to assembly).
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
For the sake of the rights and privileges of content creators, this must be said. In this modern world, there will be those that abuse it for malicious and selfish reasons. Any and all abuse of this legal system must not be tolerated in any way, and these fraudulent claims must not affect the content creators.
Where do I start...
These DMCAs are not a law by this point. It's just a statement. People who post videos on the Internet with only them talking and no background music no nothing, are being copyright claimed. Someone posted a video of their baby's first steps, and posted it on the Internet so it could be remembered forever got claimed. Where is the justice? Please, update the DMCA. It may not seem much to you but it is for a lot of us.
Thank you.
I do not think that content creators on YouTube who have had their videos or channels unfairly taken down should be mistreated like this. They put hard work into their content that I and many others enjoy.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Before we get into the general notice that I'd like to send, a note first: I am a copyright holder, and I do understand most of the protections in the DMCA and why holders aggressively defend their copyrights. One issue I'd like to bring to light is the shell and otherwise unassociated companies that make copyright claims today without much thought or through a computer algorithm will eventually hurt small copyright holders like myself that do not have much in legal support to create or defend new content.
Copyright law is one of those subjects where until we have actual artificial intelligence or more human oversight to put human consideration into fair use laws, there's going to be gross errors and vagueness in copyright law that in the end will hurt everyone big and small. Smaller creators will abandon work due to the legal risks and expanding area of copyright and larger creators will have to live with the reputation of being anti-creative to others which will damage their bottom line in ways that they may have never considered.
The hope that I have is that issues like fair use and copyright protection are more closely monitored and considered. There also need to be federal monetary penalties for companies that make false claims. These false claims are a major part of the issues that many online creators and legitimate copyright holders face in making content in today's Internet and smaller creators like myself are affected financially and socially by the issues that are going on with DMCA. It is long overdue to have not only a discussion about the DMCA and its' role in today's Internet, but to discuss copyright law as a whole and look for ways that all copyright holders can be protected in this digital age.
I also agree with the message below, and add this to my comments above as a good summary of what is happening.
I'm Jeremiah. I run a legitimate channel on YouTube where I review anime and do top 10s. I am new and only have 10 videos but 2 of them have been taken down. I've only been a youtuber to r a couple months. So I ask you. Can you please update the fair use to protect us from unfair copyright claims? Even though I got my videos back it shouldn't of happened in the first place.
Dear Copyright Office
I am not a you-tuber. I do not make my income off of the internet, I do not entertain inform or criticize , and I do not make online video's.
However.
It has come to my attention that many you-tuber's have lost their channels, their income, and their ability to speak freely and without fear over the course of several years.
You see A certain copyright infringement policy known as DMCA has been "exploited" by several companies, artificial programing, and "troll's" to take down the channels, and video's of respectable informative and legal you-tubers.
This upsets me, and for good reason.
Know I do realize that not all people affected by copyright clams are free from blame, there are some who abuse their freedom to commit illegal actions, but I would not be sending this letter if they were the only one's being silenced, if they where the only ones having the mouth stitched, there throat gagged, and there freedom's violated.
I am particularly unhappy with the amount of people who actually abuse the copyright system. I am sick of the corporate slime, the ignorant morons, and the strait up cruel, horrible people who use this system to silence critics, comedians, and really anyone they don't like without any remorse or repercussions.
I am not claiming to be a genius, but I have eyes, I have ears, and I have enough common sense to know when someone is being oppressed.
So I ask, please, please help the DMCA be improved, be fixed, to help content creators who create there lively hoods off these video's, inside the law. Help the people of YouTube so that they may practice their freedom to criticize, to parody, and to inform.
please,
With regards to whom it may concern,
Ben from New Hampshire
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs Copyright new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I am a creator and I am scared. I want to be a critic and this is scaring me to be a reviewer. I shouldn't be afraid to create something! It is hindering the freedom of speech! They are stealing their art! They are abusing the law and stealing their revenue! And they are getting away with it! I want to create material to entertain and I will not stand for this attack. We will not go away.
Many content creators have been hurt by the laws that are currently in place. These people are insignificant compared to the corporations fighting against them, but when they get their unique content taken down by corporations they lose a lot of money. The system has to change. People who are clever and spends many hours making videos and scripts, even skits, in reaction to movies or books are incredibly hardworking and talented artists. They have been given the chance to do what they love for a living, but copyright strikes are making it impossible for their work to be seen, or any profit to come out of it. They are getting videos on youtube taken down simply for being negative. People who own the rights to movies are removing any negativity online and only leaving the good reviews. They are limiting free speech, abusing their rights to make propaganda for their movies. The people online using these movies to make reviews or comedic skits are not trying to harm anyone, they just want to make a living by entertaining people. The amount of truth that is taken off of Youtube to make movies seem better than they are is ridiculous. The world deserves to know the truth, not a biased version. Some people don't even use clips of a movie or anything like that but get taken down anyway. People are losing tons of money to big corporations that already have plenty. The system we have now is completely biased in favor of the one percent and doesn't give the little guys a chance.
Please read this message. I create content on YouTube and my work is constantly badgered and attacked by people who abuse the DMCA and blatantly ignore the legitimate protection of fair use. I fully take advantage of fair use, but it isn't working anymore. PLEASE! I beg of you! Revise the DMCA to account for the internet as it is now and for the future of how content is handled on the internet. We need fair use. Without it, my livelihood, and millions of others livelihoods, are destroyed.
~~~~~~~~~~~
I have personally seen many online creators steer away from legal fair use applications simply because they did not have the resources to fight fraudulent DMCA takedowns.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The next generation cannot live in a future where free speech is not protected!
On YouTube anyone can make a claim no matter who they are or what was said in the video. There could be no copyrighted content at all in the video. The channels of critics and musicians have been taken down for covering the song or just stating their opinion. Also anyone who gets their horns twisted can take the money these YouTubers are trying to make a living off of! If you want more information please visit this video "Where's the fair use? By the Nostalgia Critic (YouTube.com)"
These barbarians must be destroyed and cast done.
Please stop this unfair abuse of the DMCA.
this needs to be updated because people's livelyhoods are in danger and leave people feeling unsafe. Updating this will help people feel safe posting their videos online without the threat of unfair copyright strikes.
I know a guy who put up a video on Youtube of his t-shirt printer at work. The only sound it was making was machine sounds as it worked. The video was flagged and taken down within hours by a copyright bot. It was claimed as having copyrighted music playing and so was taken down.
A video of a machine making machine sounds was taken down for music infringement. There was no music. It wasn't cleverly playing a beat with machine sounds. It was just working. Nothing else. This is how broken the DMCA is on the internet. Furthermore, there is currently no downside for issuing a takedown notice. Anybody can claim something is infringing on someone else's property and then face no repercussions for lying and harming someone's business.
WHERE'S THE FAIR USE!?
If you stop bogus DMCA takedowns, you're going to not only protect free speech but help protect content creators and their livelihoods.
As a animater and artist I understand that people may take some of others work and pass it as their own, but that doesn't mean it's OK for others to abuse the system and shut other people up for making comments about there work. I believe this needs to be taken issue by people and not just large companies. Thank you.
So many of my favorite creators have been viciously attacked by corporate entities that abuse the fair use bias. Creators have little to no means by which to defend themselves and/or their work. The fact that this gross favoring of the attackers has gone largely ignored is deplorable and pathetic. Abuse of the system is unacceptable, and needs to be addressed.
For years now, all the media I watch has come from internet based creators. The laws need updated to stop the bullying of these people.
Although I have yet to have had any videos be taken down this has mostly been because out of fear for what could happen I have not of set any of my videos to be monetised. The fear that all that effort I put into something can just be cut off from people scares me would just leave me to almost resent any urge to continue video production. Even though all my content is checked out and is completely under fair use, the fear is still there for me and many others. Something needs to change.
i can't express how much this is going to destroy internet, sure the ARE bad things out there but this is the same with everyone, the are bad people but there are good people as well, people who, if this is approved, might end up in the street for companies (like indie games), trying to take away other poeple right to share and spread wonderful work might actually HURT the economy, youtube,twitter,facebook, all site like these will lose the freedom to express and this is what make them unique,
if this gets approve, its not going to help everyone, its going to destroy everyone and this law, will be the most hated one in history, you might not going read this but if you do.....
please don't destroy what the internet is supposed to be....
a place to share,help and be able to do so many great things!
plase....don't.....
Oeu
I don't want to see my favorite content creators abused by this take down system. People do it because it is an easy way of harassment. Some people do it because there's money to be gained in the hard work of another creator. This has to stop or else this new creative medium will be tainted and destroyed.
Alright so the fact that no one has taken the time to fix one law is starting to get a little ridiculous. It may not be seem like a problem to the naked eye but when you start delving into it you really realize the problem that is going on. The fact that fair use is becoming this corrupted is becoming a massive problem. Tons of content creators and people who make there whole job making there own works of art are being unfairly copyright struck by money hungry corporations. If I were too simply name a few content creators online that have to deal with this then I could go on for hours. Content creators big and small are all dealing with the issue. "Channel Awesome" a channel on the popular sight you tube has a fan base of about 500,000 fans. They make satire reviews and videos and either promote or demote movies. They get constant copy right strikes and have claimed they have never felt save uploading a video (Where's the Fair Use? - Nostalgia critic). This hurts innocent content creators by not allowing them to create the videos the love to make and millions of others, even if its supposed to be entirely protected by law. Also small channels like Elite3 (Nowacking) are forced to deal with this sort of problem. Elite3 is a mini creator group that is starting to really launch its position and think about making it full time. Though not too long ago one 2 of there parody songs. Sony copyrighted there songs because they supposedly have rights to the parody song because they had the original. That would only be true though if the parody song was heavily inspired by the original and borrowed some of its features, which the song "all about that bass cannon" didn't. They created there own instrumental made from scratch, they also transformed the instrumental to make it more like pop. And it wasn't an automatic take down, a human being saw it and claimed it even though it was entirely protected by fair use, and got away for it because the small channel that could barely sustain itself can't afford a lawyer. And if they tried to fight it and lost they would lose heavy access to many of the features that they have present to them to make a living like longer videos and monetizeing of said videos.
In short these large corporations are taking advantage of creators small and large that bring legal enternatinment to millions across the world just like myself. And this all leads to one question.
Where is the Fair use?
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
DMCA take downs screw over smaller content creators affect the content they bring me and many others.
You need to fix this law
I second this immensely.
Multiple content creaters that I follow have had false takedowns issued to them, making it more difficult for them to create and monetize their fair use content. Some have even had their monetization stolen from them on completely original content thanks to flawed copy-right rules. These creators have proven the claims against them false once they were heard, but many smaller content creators will not have the chance. Start up creaters simply can not afford to be hit by these claims. I send you this on behalf of those content creatos.
Although I am not a U.S. Citizen, I am a citizen of the United Kingdom, and I have been heavily affected by this law. Rather than protecting original content creators and innovation, U.S. copyright law has become something which has been used to harrass and destroy them.
This results in lost revenue, and lost earnings for content creators worldwide. This needs to be fixed, and has gone on for long enough.
This law has been used to stifle free speech, silence criticism, and hold back innovation. It is shameful.
Even as a non-US citizen, I have been heavily affected by unlawful DMCA takedowns and would appreciate a revision of these laws.
It's time for you to take action. The world is watching.
Thank you.
Where's the Fair Use? Why is it so easy for others to wipe away the work of my favorite content creators, causing them to lose revenue or worse? When you're under a laws protection, you expect to be protected. So why are we being attacked with little to do against it?
We live in a new era where old processes can no longer uphold the new ones. This must be looked into as more and more people begin to create new content that could so easily threatened under our "supposed" protection law for said content.
This is a violation of our civil liberties. This is costing consumers valuable information and costing content creators their livelihood.
People all over the Inet et are being treated unfairly when it comes to unjust copyright this needs to change for the people benifet
Hello there. My name is Lucas. For the past year or so, many YouTubers have gotten false copyright claims for their videos.
When the Copyright laws were first put into place, it was a way to keep people safe from big corporations, as long as the footage used was transformative in some sort of way.
However, on YouTube, now it is a way for corporations to take people's money, even if the YouTube did nothing wrong. It's gotten so bad, that now parodies, and videos with no footage from a film can be flagged.
Now, it's just become bullying.
I am tired of seeing all of these people, who work hard on their content and make a living off of it, having to suffer because of bigger corporations. Something needs to change. Please. Whether it's YouTube's Copyright system, or copyright laws themselves, we need to make things right, and make sure that no one gets taken advantage of again.
So I beg you, we beg you, to make things right. We would be eternally grateful.
The DMCA takedown system is severely outdated. The internet has changed and the DMCA has failed to keep up to date. The DMCA takedown system needs to change and it needs to change soon.
My opinion: I believe this has gone for far too long, as there have been FAR too many cases where in YouTube content creators have received copyright strikes and claims even though their videos fell under fair use.
Because of this people that live off of YouTube and making videos have suffered, some channels have even been taken down for false copyright strikes.
The internet has changed quite a bit from the old internet in 1998, this is why the law that was made in that year for copyright is now obsolete and broken, so please do something about this, so content creators don't receive penalties for false accusations.
Doug Walker makes a good point. Watch this video first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
I love watching youtube and there are many creators that make great contain that are not only funny but educational as well. I am one of those people who don't watch tv so I get most of my news and entertainment from youtube. It is sad to know that some of my favorite youtubers have been abused by big companies even though their are playing with the rules and NO ONE, not even youtube, would even give a helping hand. It is sad to know they can't freely do what they want or express how they feel without someone coming in claiming copyright. So really think what is best for the people and not for the companies, Please!
Due to unfair copyright claims and strikes for relatively innocent content, many of my favorite YouTubers have been harassed, almost to the point of having their channels permanently deleted for reasons beyond their control. They are careful about keeping any and all copyright material to a minimum, and yet they receive strikes or claims despite their best efforts, from companies that may not even own the content they claim.
YouTubers in general fear for the life of their channel constantly, due to any risk that someone can claim content in their videos, even if their innocent of any possible transgression. A video was claimed for literally one second of audio, in fact.
They don't deserve this level of stress. The content creators are what keeps YouTube alive. If they continue to abuse the people helping them the most, they may find themselves in a similar hole if many of them begin to turn their back to YouTube and boycott them in some way.
there has been a number of channels on YouTube that have had false clams like useing a picture of a character from a show to talk about the show or use of a song and it follows fair use but it still gets taken down and the people that took it down say it dose not but it dose. There has also been companies that has even take down videos because they did not like what they said about the shows they made even a video were people just talk about a movie they just watched without a picture and it even got taken down even though it followed the fair use law
Please, where's the fair use?!
Now for my personal comments on the matter. Nintendo has been abusing the DMCA as a means to siphon more revenue out of YouTubers as a means to line their pockets even more. I have seen some of my favorite YouTubers either go out of their way to not have to put up with the hoops Nintendo has set up (deleting all non-Nintendo videos and forcing YouTubes to give up almost half of their revenue) or stop doing Nintendo videos all together. I've seen them shut down channels just because those people decided to dig around in the code and hack a few things into their copy of the game.
How do they do this? They abuse DMCA takedowns that YouTube turns a blind eye to. This concerns me as rumors are circulating that the new mechanic for Pokemon Sun & Moon could revolve around fusing with the Pokemon into a human/pokemon cross that resembles some fan art. This could allow Nintendo to abuse DMCA and free speech to shut down artists who are creating fan art or trying to make a living out of commissions. I am one such artist and I can't risk Nintendo ruining one of my sources of income.
--------------------------
Now for my personal comments on the matter. Nintendo has been abusing the DMCA as a means to siphon more revenue out of YouTubers as a means to line their pockets even more. I have seen some of my favorite YouTubers either go out of their way to not have to put up with the hoops Nintendo has set up (deleting all non-Nintendo videos and forcing YouTubes to give up almost half of their revenue) or stop doing Nintendo videos all together. I've seen them shut down channels just because those people decided to dig around in the code and hack a few things into their copy of the game.
How do they do this? They abuse DMCA takedowns that YouTube turns a blind eye to. This concerns me as rumors are circulating that the new mechanic for Pokemon Sun & Moon could revolve around fusing with the Pokemon into a human/pokemon cross that resembles some fan art. This could allow Nintendo to abuse DMCA and free speech to shut down artists who are creating fan art or trying to make a living out of commissions. I am one such artist and I can't risk Nintendo ruining one of my sources of income.
DMCAs are not even working toward the owners. Several items that are in the public domain, such a classical works prior to 1921, have been claimed and taken down due to it sounding like a copyrighted recording. As the takedown computer programs cannot tell the difference between a rendition of a public domain piece and a recording of a public domain piece that has been copyrighted, DMCA should be changed.
There is a clear difference between a song being used illegally and a song being used non-maliciously. A song playing on a speaker somewhere in the background of a video in all its terrible tin laden quality would never prevent someone from paying for the actual song.
Parody and education has also long fell under fair use laws, but the current computer algorithm-only systems in place on much of the internet does not allow for proper analysis of the law. Unless a human of a third-party recognizes a breach of fair-use, it should not be taken down.
The DMCA will end up hurting the economy, as the creation of monopolies in the music industry and exclusivity of creative outlets will eventually lead to backlash, and will end up costing the government more to disassemble than it would to stop it before it happens.
Companies are taking down many videos on YouTube that are under fair use and when people dispute some of those claims they have other companies copyright the same videos for example reviews people like MrMysteriousEnter and Nostalgia Critic are reviewing movies and cartoons and getting copyright claims despite that under fair use you are allowed to review other people's work
YouTube is a place were people can post videos about whatever they want for the most part just for fun. That's how it started out. As the site grew people on the site were able to gain money through their videos. They are supposidly protected under fair use however a lot of companies have been posting false claims saying that these people are stealing there footage and taking the content creators money in a way. Basically all the money they make starts to go to the company that made the false claim. Since a lot of people's living is making YouTube videos it's not just effecting freedom of speech and censoring people it's effecting lives. If a review video is made and no clips from the movie are used companies can still file a claim even if the only thing the content creator did was talk in front of a camera. To make matters worse there's no penalty for false claims meaning they can do it for as long as they want while content creators suffer. This is censorship and it needs to stop.
Many of my favorite critics and other content creators have to sit through a ton just to keep their video on their channel. several of them have to constantly fight a losing battle to keep their videos, non of which that violate fair use, on their channel. Many have also had their channels taken down temporarily, due to it, and because of the system had to wait for a chance to defend their work. Reviews, either positive or negative are being taken down, sometimes not even by the companies abusing the system. A critic I watch once had his channel temporarily suspended due to copyright claims by someone who didn't even own the content he was criticizing. A few times, similar things have happened with the copyright abuser claiming they owned a song or small clip used. Many of these content creators do what they do for a living. They need to keep their channels up so they can make money doing what they love. Creators and Critics should not lose money over copyright claims that are rarely accurate. Please do something to fix this system.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is absurdly biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for their disgusting violation of free speech.
I can't say much but please give back our fair use back. It's not right at all and I don't want the our country to take a step backward. You've come long way and don't let anybody down because of this law.
The DMCA needs to be changed because the Internet has changed from what it was in 1998. Instead of protecting original creators it instead is used by giant corporations to steal, threaten, and potential ruin the creator's life. Despite majority of the videos of Youtube being protected under Fair Use, or is obviously original content, DMCA is used to steal their revenue on a daily basis with false claims. These False Claims threaten original content creator's livelihood as their only source of income is their videos and when the only source of income is constantly under threat of being taken or terminated altogether, despite if taken to court they would win any lawsuit against them due to Fair Use, you CANNOT call that justice. This abusement needs to stop so I ask of you to please change the DMCA so that it fits in today's world and to protect the people who really need it.
For the past year I have been seeing many Youtubers not just my favorites getting ridiculous copyright claims and strikes for things that are perfectly legal. Most of the time its not even the studio, its bogus third parties and trolls for one reason or another want to throw around claims just to have some sense of power. Please fix this. Too many people do great work on Youtube and its a shame that they get falsely punished for things they did not do.
I'm addition I am a content user and have been hit with claims from the robot YouTube uses to "enforce" these claims. It is a terrible system and something needs to happen to change it.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged if not outright eliminated and replaced by an alternative notice-and-human-review system that is less prone to inhibiting free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The existing notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is fundamentally broken and needs immediate reform. As it is, the system is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and frequently gets used to censor content that is protected under fair use. There are no penalties for false claims and no way for content creators to recover the revenue that they lose to false claimants. This is patently unfair, and has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse.
Under existing case law (see the case of Lenz v. Universal Music) companies can automate the process of seeking copyright violations, using computer algorithms to scan the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error, since no human being ever reviews the results. But since there are no penalties for false claims, there is no reason for copyright holders to make sure their claims are legitimate. It is no surprise that the existing rules have led to the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from the University of California at Berkeley and Columbia University, about a third of takedown notices are of questionable validity and only get implemented because, incredible as it may seem, no human being reviews them.
And it's important to note that , as outrageous as it sounds, the existing system actually creates monetary incentives to file false claims. This completely skews the copyright holders' priorities. Fairness and legitimacy are seldom even an issue when your business model is based around filing as many dubious claims as possible as fast as possible. And there is no process for recovering the revenue lost to false claims. Even if the claim is proven to be an outright lie, the claimant gets to keep all the revenue from it.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance would be to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
When I upload content I am always under fair use but I still get copyrighted.
Let me make it clear that I am not a content creator on YouTube. I don't have the time, money, or resources to be able to do so. But even with that in mind, I WANT to do so. I want to make videos on YouTube because I see it as a great opportunity to have my imagination flourish and present my ideas to anyone willing to listen. The thing is, even without my lack of the previously mentioned factors, what would prevent me from even trying to make YouTube videos is the outright broken copyright system in place.
The copyright system in place now was, is, and will continue to be abused. There are many great YouTubers that I love and respect that are being wrongfully affected by the system. The Nostalgia Critic on Channel Awesome has had to fight off a new claim every other day for his Fair Use-adhering videos, which has forced him to alter the way the videos are made just so they make sure they follow the rules set in place. He has made reviews of films, television, and even video games, and has used footage to present his points. This is a clear case of Fair Use, but due to the robotic copyright claims, not only has he been forced to make reviews without footage, which not all his viewers are happy with, but he is losing money for his videos despite them falling under the lines of Fair Use.
It's not just the Nostalgia Critic, either. I Hate Everything and YMS had their reviews of the film, Cool Cat Saves the Kids, taken down purely because the director of said film couldn't handle negative criticism. Others, like the Mysterious Mr. Enter, have had their channels deleted in the past due to false strikes, or even had some of their videos claimed multiple times even after they are said to be in the clear. There are parody artists and musicians that have been copyright-claimed and striked, despite their work being entirely original.
The system in place now was created in order to stop piracy, but now it's only being used to prevent content creators from producing great work. Those who send claims that are proven to be false or wrongfully take down videos have no penalties put on them, even to the point where they get to keep all the money they made on the video they claimed, even if the claim is false. One of the main things that needs to change is that there needs to be penalties for false claims and strikes.
Content creators need to be able to make and upload videos without fear of the robotic copyright system screwing them over. I'm an aspiring content creator, and I'd love to know "Where's the Fair Use?"
This is not to mention, all of this system that is trully dated.Much of the people that abuse this systen don't want change, but in order to head ito the bright horizon of tommorow, we must change. Not for what is,but what is to come, and like Martin Luther King Jr., we must risk what we have for a better cause, and only then will we be at the mountain top.
Its insane how bad this system is. Everyday people on Youtube get their content ripped and thrown on Facebook, and its completely unpunished and accepted. Along with that, the copyright system allows anyone to steal monetization on someone else's video, even if the strike is unwarranted.
The comment below covers the issues with the current DMCA in much further depth than I can do it justice. For me, the biggest issue is the ability for corporations and copyright holders to:
A) Claim copyright over materials, without said materials actually violating copyright law or possessing copyrighted content (this is usually done by bots).
B) Claimants are at no risk of penalties for making false copyright claims, meaning they face no repercussions for abusing copyright laws and harming other content creators.
C) Copyright claims can be filed against materials to silence criticism, even if said materials fall under Fair-Use protection. This is in blatant violation of the First Amendment.
Please read the below comment in full, as it covers the issue in much further detail than I could. #WTFU
""
Fair Use is often ignored and takedowns affect creators and their revenue with false claims from companies with no repercussions for the companies issuing these notices. DCMA is a fossil that needs to be updated or scrapped with a new plan for the new internet, with a review process for whatever is next on a bi-annual or semi-annual basis, so it can keep up with the ever-evolving web.
I have just started a web show with my fiance and the last thing we want is to run into problems regarding Fair Use. These DMCA claims that others have faced are typically baseless and do nothing but hurt those who make their living off of entertaining others. There is too much system abuse on YouTube and it has to stop here and now. Please, consider the rights and privileges of people who follow the requirements of Fair Use and stop allowing them to be punished for false reasons.
I am a writer, blogger and podcaster and don't want to lose the right to legitimate "fair use" of copyrighted material.
One time a friend of mine uploaded an anime review to YouTube and it got claimed by a company in italy who had nothing to do with the Anime. This company is also known to file fraudulent claims. Youtube said that in 30 days they would release the claim but 30 days didn't even pass and they released it anyway shortly after the dispute.
I am a student who is afraid to post anything on the internet, and I would like to, to explore it as a viable career option, but with the laws as they are, I cannot.
People of the Copyright Office, I am very happy to hear that you guys are considering making revisions to the DMCA because we need to give it extra regulation. By giving people the right to take down other people's work, the DMCA is now being used for its opposite intention. Instead of protecting copyrighted work, it's been used to bully small creators to taking down their own work. Whether its to keep competitors from entering the market, silencing criticism or informative news, or a fake account trying to pose as a company to steal ad revenue, the DMCA has been abused far too much.
Whether the world wants it to or not, we're reaching a new age of entertainment thanks to the Internet and the law needs to be revised to reflect that. Having the DMCA changed so that it can't be used to lambaste smaller content creators will help them grow so they can contribute to the entertainment industry. I'm sure that you guys enjoy some of the videos and articles you've seen on the web; letting the DMCA stay as it is puts them at risk for being taken down, even if they have no copyrighted material whatsoever.
Please take a good look at the law and give it some much-needed changes. The future of the Internet and the entertainment industry depends on it.
The current processes for copyright reporting and takedown under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is grossly biased in favor of corporate copyright holders. Again and again we've seen it used to censor content instead of protect it. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
As a small, but personal, example of how these biased rules are stifling the very expression they were designed to protect, I can submit my story. I have written and designed numerous projects, both film and music, that I had hoped to build an online business and community around via Youtube.com and similar sites. I am passionate about these projects and was thrilled to work on them. However, as I watched original content creators targeted illegally and unfairly by larger corporate entities, saw trolls and scammers manipulate the system to steal advertising revenues, and witnessed similar projects destroyed as the subjects of poor reviews and satire using automated DMCA takedowns as a form of censorship, I became unwilling to participate in what might have been a life changing forum as the risks to my own financial situation became impossible to quantify. Small and large teams of artists have been impacted by the abuse, to say nothing of the dire political or free speech implications. Though I never anticipated particularly wild success with my project, it became clear that small producers, not the large ones, were counter-intuitively the targets in many cases of DMCA abuse. It was enough to stop me. I know it has halted others. Please protect this new, remarkable forum from those entities who would abuse it for the sake of protecting themselves from fair competition and criticism, as well as those who would engage in outright theft. We can achieve a better balance here.
No longer must every content creator live in fear
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The fair use is completely abused on YouTube and needs to be fixed
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns mst be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
IF IT IS A REVIEW VIDEO THEN LEAVE IT BE! WHERE'S FREEDOM OF SPEECH? WHERE'S THE FAIR USE!?
I have found that intellectual property laws in the United States are extremely strict. Intellectual property rights in the United States are designed in such a way that creators can reap 10's or even 100's of millions of dollars in wealth. While creators should definitely be paid large sums of money, some creators take it too far. In pharmaceutical industry, this corporate greed can even lead too the exploitation of the United States labor force for corporate profit. With no competition, patent holders can charge whatever price they want for medicine, which negatively impacts the lives of many American citizens. These corporate monopolies are left with complete power even after the original creator's death. The DMCA is by no means an exemption from this issue. That is why I believe that all private intellectual property should become public intellectual property within 2-5 years after its release. Not only are intellectual property laws over-extensive, they are also very hard to enforce properly. The DMCA is the perfect example of how intellectual property laws are hard to enforce. On YouTube, the DMCA is used by corporations to take down works protected by the DMCA's fair use clause. Sometimes, the DMCA is used by corporations to take down work that isn't even theirs. Please do the right thing and make adjustments to the DMCA to prevent the abuses listed above.
Before I get too far into it, I plan on becoming a content creator myself, but the recent issues surrounding the DMCA in today's internet environment have been making me stall quite heavily. I'm afraid of the abuse, quite honestly.
The Government of the United States is supposed to work for the people and support their ability to express their opinion as stated in our founding documents. Our Founding Fathers and our ancestors came to this country to be given an entitlement to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To have these entitlements taken away at such a prosperous time for communication and technological advancement will not only cause the Internet to suffer greater harm in terms of free speech, but it also means that we as citizens of the United States have failed to uphold the ideals that those before us wanted. The many men and women who have given their lives for hope that they have truly protected all American freedoms and values will have died for naught as we continue living our lives while heinous people attack and silence others simply for expressing an opinion that they happened to disagreed with and not appreciating the gift that those who died gave to us.
The fact at present is videos on YouTube can be taken down by any person, organization, or company for more or less any reason or sometimes, for no reason at all. Videos at present can be taken down multiple times by the same company by continually making false claims under a different name or through other people or companies who don't even own the product. On top of that, certain claims allow the claim holder to take ad revenue from the video holder and even if that claim is proven false, the claim-holder gets to keep the falsely gained revenue. There have been review videos copyright claimed that have used heavily edited clips or had no clips at all and just discussed the film through dialogue alone while users who upload full episodes of shows or even full movies are often allowed to continue doing so unscathed.
The people of the Internet need to be able to express their opinions and be able to debate them and not a place where anyone can block anybody's opinion that they personally believe is offensive. If this is allowed the flow of great content or ideas from those who use the Internet will cease and we as a society may lose a great number of potentially great leaders, game makers, inventors, filmmakers, etc. Please make the necessary changes to DMCA and uphold the wishes of the United States citizens of the past, the present day, and the future and allow the Internet to prosper.
While some interest groups, media conglomerates or others will undermine the importance in this issue; it is of utmost priority we hold our core values for freedom of speech, expression and art as it was guaranteed by the constitution. This may be a new medium and frontier for art and entertain, but the issues of old remain persistent. This needs to be addressed tactfully and respectfully before we reach the critical point in time were we cannot return from. Take the time now and do the justice that is needed.
I have read and endorse the message below:
Claims are not real DMCA claims but fake youtube claims and there is no punishment for whoever is making false claims.
The DMCA is a disturbing issue, and one that has to be solved. The amount of people who go around abusing the powers granted to them by the DMCA is beyond appalling. There are people who launch copyright attacks on youtube videos that contain no content they own. I repeat, that is how those people make money. They go around, come up with a fake company, and make money off of other people's hard work. Possibly the most unfortunate thing about this is that so many of the people affected can't fight back. This comment is only one of many, but I hope it does something to set things right.
Content creators I consider favorites are being removed by greedy companies and while they may lose the companies can never receive penalties.
I have recently been made aware of America's request for feedback on the current copyright laws, and I feel it is important to re-examine them. In my opinion, they are woefully outdated, having been written for the internet as it was before the turn of the millennium. I believe it would be fair to say that the internet is a very different place now, and that modern sources of entertainment have made a dramatic shift from television and radio to online sources. Because of this change, I feel there should be more done to protect the rights of entertainers who do everything they can to follow the established laws but are nevertheless harassed and bullied by companies who erroneously make claims against them, either through ignorance or through an intentional attempt to silence those whom they disagree with. There are a number of established entertainers who face these damaging claims on a weekly basis.
One of the loudest voices against the DMCA as it currently stands is Mr. Doug Walker, also known by his online alias, the Nostalgia Critic. He is aware that not everyone who enjoys the benefits of online entertainment is well-versed in American copyright laws, and so he has written a message to help put into appropriate words the concerns of many people who disagree with the practices enabled by copyright laws. After reading his statement, I find that I agree with everything he has said, and so I will reproduce it here:
"
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not [sic] be undone.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works" (Walker, 2016).
It is my hope that these concerns will be taken into consideration. I understand that copyright is an important aspect of creativity and I believe that we should have laws to protect the rights of artists and the companies that back them. This does not mean, however, that those companies should have the right to attack smaller or independent groups who have followed the laws as they currently stand without restrictions or consequences.
Thank you for your time and interest in this matter.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I've seen SO many videos on Youtube get taken down for "Copyright" when, in actuality, they were 100% in Fair Use. Some companies even take down videos JUST because it holds a negative review of the works it's unfairly being accused of stealing from. I've seen it much, much, much too often.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) cht violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Many companies, such as Viacom and FOX frequently take down reviews of their shows, and I am sick and tired of it. I want to see something done.
Youtube's system is unfairly taking down innocent channels that did nothing wrong! Its ridiculous! Example: I Hate Everything, he did nothing wrong, he followed all the rules of Youtube, and his channel got taken down for a unknown reason! This needs to stop now!
Thank you for your consideration.
Hey. This is me now. Fair use is an important part of pretty much all the media we view online, and a big part of the media I hope to one day produce. Save fair use, stop the bogus takedowns. Please.
The DMCA? Why would we have something like this to begin with? We live in a technological world that relies heavily on websites, applications, music... So many things that keep so many people of the world happy. We go on YouTube everyday to listen to songs, watch How-To videos, showcasing talent among the public... How can the DMCA be created when the people will lose something that is so precious to us?
YouTube is already being terrorized by this act by trollers and people who just flat out don't like what they see. People who are so passionate about what they live for, what they create, showcases who they are on their own channel. The DMCA will block that and in return? It will make the people angry that they can't be who they want to be. Their Freedom of Speech and the right to Fair Use goes out the door. They can't be unique and show off what it is that makes them the person they are today.
With this act, people will go about trying to remove videos on YouTube all because "they don't like it" or just to trickle down the competition so people can showcase that they are better than everyone else. Yes, I keep going on about YouTube. Why? Because a place like YouTube is where I go when I am depressed and lonely. It is a place I can go to watch my favorite YouTubers that make me feel happy. If the DMCA comes into action? Guess what will happen.... Yup. My favorite people I like to watch will disappear. And my depression will only worsen.
The Internet is the place I can go to relax and let myself chill with friends out of state. It's a place I can go to learn how to do things or learn more lesson plans for my classroom. If the DMCA comes into fruition? I won't be able to better my classroom by the ideas and help from outside sources. I love learning new ways to do things... I love using those ideas to better my life and the children in my class... But with the DMCA? I cannot do so. I will not be able to do so...
People complain about content they don't own. People complain about things that "disturb them" or that "they don't like." While all this is occurring, people who videotape themselves, in a car, with no music on, is even being affected and taken down off of YouTube... How can we let something as cruel and heinous as the DMCA out running amuck people who have found their calling and what they want to do in life?
People are also using the DMCA to tell people who make these videos to take them down. They are using it as a threat! A THREAT! I know I don't want to be a part of this world if we have to be censored on what we believe in.... what we have fun doing with other people. The DMCA will ruin morality in the people... that is, if it hasn't already... And the sad part is? It already has.
As mentioned above. People are using the DMCA to threaten, terrorize, slander and demoralize the population... It's already hurt YouTubers. Anything a copyright holder deems that whatever is being posted online infringes their copyright...? That company has the right to censor and take down... even if it is a good video about them or a positive one.
This is not a good thing, and many people will fight to get the DMCA abolished and abandoned... It's not good for the people of the World.. and it's not going to bring people together. All there will be are millions of upset people angry at the fact that they are being censored just because they are trying to be who they are.... And that is just sad.
Some of these people do you tube as a job & because of stuff like this they can't get money to pay bills, taxes, etc & that's just wrong
Fair use must be protected and the overall problem needs to be evaluted
While I am not from the United states and reside in Melbourne, Australia, due to the largely international nature of the World Wide Web political and legal decisions and actions have just as much of an impact in countries other than the U.S.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor completely legal content that is protected under fair use law. This system has had dire effects on much political expression, creativity of content, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.As well as a complete revamp on what considered fair use by the DMCA, if the DMCA is to be fair to all us content creators
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns that have not only taken down videos, but have destroyed entire networks and channels that produced revenue for the very people who worked so hard to make this content. This process is extremely vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions such as parody or criticism, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet. And nearly none are with a good potion of COMPLETELY LEGAL videos being deleted.Videos that even lack any content of the copyright holder have been taken down, putting emotional stress upon people like Chibi of Chibi Reviews. And they leave people like me in terror of attempting to make sites like Youtube an actual job.
Without these changes, we are all harmed. Please, don't let them take down innocences.
This is all real and including all of that is the way the claim is instant but the counter measure is not is as well a problem for the claimer can and will be abel to damage with out any present threat. Please return fair use for all not just for the user's but the creator's as well
As the Internet and our way of life changes. So must the law. The copyright claims that have been given to content creators puts not only the content they create at risk, but also their livelihood. These people depend on the monetization that they earn from their content to live. However the current systems that are in place threaten these people. Some people have had their videos taken down by false corporations and sometimes this may be for no reason at all. In some cases, content may be people simply talking in front of a camera. However we have seen that content such as this has been a victim to this system.
This needs to change.
My comment: Though I have not been effected by my videos being taken down, many of the channels I view daily have had many issues with fair use. My viewing experience on YouTube has been hindered this way. I wish to help my favorite content creators continue their video-making career without ludicrous copyright claims being forced upon them.
My experience with YouTube has been upsetting to say the least. When I first started to use YouTube me and my mom used it to look up rides at Disney that I was nervous to go on so I wouldn't be so scared when it got time to ride it. YouTube back then seemed a lot simpler. There was no such thing as YouTubers to entertain you, people voicing there opinions on there, and there really wasn't a common concern about piracy . Just as I have grown up, so has this website. Sadly thought, I don't think YouTube has done well to take hold of its responsibility's it has gained to protect peoples freedom of speech.
There have been multiple incidences where people have been wrongly accused and punished for breaking the copyright law when they have clearly have not. People that do not agree with the content being made can go and stifle other creators by blocking there videos, take there revenue, or even get there whole channel taken down with little or no questions asked. To see something that at one time thought seemed so excepting and inviting to actually be really quite cold and suppressive. I have watch a video where someone was scared that they would loose there channel over saying "Hakuna matata " in one of there videos. Two little words from a common phrase that we pretty much have, as a culture, have excepted as normal to say, can get someone to loose there whole channel which they rely on for there income. The sad thing is that the person was perfectly reasonable since that that could very well happen to them and has happened to many other people.
I have wanted to become a YouTuber and create animations of stories I have created but am scared to because I could make something completely original and have it taken down and all the time and possible money would be for nothing. The fact that anyone can go and claim the video as there's and take all my hard work away from me in minutes is a horrifying thought. There's nothing to stop this from happening to the people with thousands of people behind them saying they are in fair use when they clearly are not breaking any laws.So how is there even going to be a chance for anyone else that might just be starting out.
Content creators such as Jim Sterling and John Bain have been harassed and made a fool of due to the actions done by supposed 'copyright holders'. Their livelihoods and entire means of revenue are put into jeopardy due to the actions of these people who use copyright claims as a means of getting what they want. Even I, someone who doesn't live in the US, understands that this is wrong and change is paramount in this modern digital age. Whatever change to these online limitations will be appreciated more than you will know, and that change can only come from action taking place now before it begins to get worse.
#WTFU
The problem of the DMCA is it's being abused to harass content creators on the internet especially YouTube. Even when the creator's video are in fair that doesn't stop people from striking the creator's just reviewing a product. Just look at YouTuber's like mr nightmare or I HATE EVERYTHING, they made reviews and used some footage that was in fair use. But derek savage harass IHE for a long time just because he said the movie wasn't good. Mr nightmare was strike 5 TIMES IN A WEEK, and only one was a valid strike. The DMCA needs to be fixed NOW because innocent people are getting punished and harass. It's even worst when the content creators depends on YouTube for a living to feed them selves then see their channels completely gone when they were innocent. THE DMCA NEEDS TO BE FIXED NOW.
To those whom this is relevant:
There are two possibilities. You already know what's wrong with these laws, or you do not. It is your job to know these things. If you do not know these things, then step down and let someone knowledgeable and qualified take your undeserved position of power.
The problems these laws have created are glaringly obvious. Clearly you no longer understand how the world works. Therefore, your time has ended. You are no longer fit for duty. Do the morally correct thing and stop yourself from causing more harm than you already have. Again, you no longer deserve your position of power, and the correct course of action is to remove yourself from this line of work in order to have your position filled by someone competent that inherently understands these easily-solvable modern problems.
I'm certain you've known this for quite some time. Stop delaying the inevitable.
The abuse of the DMCA by companies has become so commonplace and so ridiculously taken advantage of that I have been fearful of posting any videos that I want because I'm afraid that they'll be tagged or taken down by unfair DMCA abuse. I have subsribed to channels that have had their videos constantly tagged or taken down even when they prove that the video is in fair use. The lively hoods of some of these people have even been put in jeopardy because companies put tags on their videos to prevent them from earning income from the videos, and instead that money is given to the companies. Some videos are even tagged by people who don't own the copy right or even the distribution rights. They are stealing from our wallets and trying to smother our voices, and last I checked freedom of speech is defended by the constitution, and none of these people are trying to incite any panic or hatred. Please let these voices continue to be heard, because if they can't, then what's the point anymore?
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use, taking away the idea of sharing content, and criticizing content. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse, and from companies need to be held responsible on infringing on users' free speech.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgement to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech. Even in between themselves, as users in Facebook copy videos from YouTube and call them their own.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Not even mentioning the situations where people file claims on content they don't even own, how DMCA is used to take down videos only talking about content, no actual music or images of the content, some companies believe they create the law, DMCA being sent by small companies to shield bigger ones from public harm, being used as threats, videos being hit multiple times from the same source, even after proving they were legally using Fair Use, and harassment.
Today's culture is so reliant on remix, parody and content that anyone can create that the current system can not support it. The big companies of old media are abusing their power and restricting the growth of this new medium and because there are no repercussions for false claims, no proof is even required for someone's livelihood to be destroyed and no acknowledgment of fair use is taken into consideration.
Not to mention SOME people steal from everyone around them in order to craft "stories" on the "basis" of there being no more new ideas!
The internet should be a place were content creators could share their work with out being scared to have their videos taken down unjustified me and everybody who beilives in creativity and justice knows this is wrong and that times change and its time to change.
God bless freedom.
I prefer to keep anonymous, I have had false copyright strikes that had been used fairly, and as a small voice, I would like to speak out about this. A company named Merlin is copyrighting various videos with absolute no rights to the original owner, taking the money for themselves. The DMCA is awful and easily abused with nothing done to the false claimants
WHERES THE FAIR USE. THIS IS RIDICULOUS.
I don't care who pays you, lobbies for you, or supports your agenda, CORPORATIONS ARE NOT EXEMPT FROM LAW. THIS SHIT ENDS NOW.
Personally, I've known many creators who have been attacked and abused due to modern abuse of these outdated laws. This has made me more frightened in creating my own content, as I know that my original content could very well be the next target of corporations and programs that have been poorly designed and hurt many who are not outside of logical or ethical boundaries. My robotics team, even, has been abused in minor ways by these bots, which have targeted parodies that change the meaning of the source material, expressly protected under Fair Use laws. I believe that the laws should punish companies for false accusations, so that they will take the time to pursue true culprits instead of relying on faulty programs that hurt good creators.
Thank you.
Look, I get it. You're being pressured to keep the terms of the DMCA by largescale producers and companies that seek to keep things going in their favor. I get it. But this has become a form of bullying- its no longer about protecting the IP of companies- this is now about abusing a broken system.
You can fix it. That's something you can do- in fact, its kind of the mission statement of the Copyright Office. People are being robbed of their intellectual property, all under the guise of DMCA. So yeah, you might want to get on that.
re: for fair use and free speach:
DMCA was a good idea in general, especially when it was first enabled.
Today youtube, facebook and other sites are being impacted by people who right or wrong are claiming ownership.
the main problem is that there is no downside to claiming ownership.
in fact on youtube there is an upside to claiming ownership. if the video is being monetized, the money that would have gone to the creator of the video, instead goes to the person/company making the claim.
In fact there are have been some companies who specifically make a claim, they either withdraw the claim or let the claim expire and then through a shell they file another claim, thereby continuing to get the money.
Now i have never posted content online, but i am a consumer.
False claims (w/o considering fair use) is damaging not only the Internet, but is also a bad trend. Many of the claims are due to companies trying to stop people from posting bad reviews of their products and postions.
I am afraid in the near future certain groups are going to 'copyright' speeches and interviews, and manufacturers will 'copyright' the nature of their products so when people try to comment with videos on those political/business news, those organizations and companies will post take down orders. All to suppress the American citizens
It is bad enough that if one reviews something online with no or minimal content from the original property that one can be penalized, but if my fear holds anybody making a statement in video format or online, quoting a politician, corporate leader, or even a celebrity will be stifled.
please modify the DMCA so that news, reviews, commentaries, teaching and satire are all protected under fair use like the original DMCA says they should be.
Thanks,
Aaron
To whom it may concern,
The DMCA needs severe revision in order to protect people's fair use provisions as well as holders of copyright as a whole.
While much of how the DMCA is executed is dependent upon the online services policies, the DMCA is written in such a way that it leans far too much towards big copyright holders with little to no protection for those expressing their fair use rights.
The DMCA was written at a time where services had little if any enforcement for copyright. So services like Napster would turn a blind eye to those distributing music. It was necessary to bring about tools to protect holders of copyright. And as a creator, I understand the need to make sure one's work isn't stolen.
But there was no provision protecting fair use. It took a court case (Lenz v. Universal Music) to put any protection for those uploading videos. Sadly, this case barely has any real teeth to it since it doesn't really incentive service or holders to change their behavior.
What damage does this do for creators who use fair use material? It takes videos down partially or in their entirety, which means lost revenue and lost speech/expression. It also means inovation is restrictive. Let's Play videos, where people play videogames while putting in their own commentary, have recently exploded the last couple of years. But because of how new of a concept they are, owners of even minor parts of those games issue take-downs of the videos.
Then there's the outright abuse of the DMCA. People have issued take-down notices of works they don't even own. They can falsely claim a song is theirs, and have the revenue generated from that video transferred to them with no repercussions. It's fraud and one that even big holders of copyright would object to. After all, they want to control their works; yet someone else can use the DMCA to control who uses it or not. There's also a chilling effect on free speech since one can issue a take-down notice upon anything they don't agree with and have no punishment whatsoever.
As someone who is attempting to go into paralegal work, I have seen the complicated nature of intellectual property. It is, frankly, a mess. The law often isn't clear on what is right and wrong. But fair use developed because people's speech had to be protected. Critics exist to inform the public on what artistic works are good or bad; or help artists and creators figure out how to make better works. The general public now has the capability to make and distribute their own videos. People can transform works into new interesting ways. Parodies are more prominent than ever. We need to protect all of that for future generations.
The DMCA needs to be revised to protect everyone. There needs to be sanctions against those who blatantly abuse the systems. Or better, put tools in to prevent that abuse. Please, consider that fair use needs just as much protection as those who hold copyrights.
"ITS TIME TO STOP. THIS IS CANCER." -FilthyFrank
The freedom to censor work can be a good thing. But the crap happening on youtube is unacceptable for the fact that content creators can get their stuff censored or claimed FOR NO REASON is absolutely ****. Go look at the stupid "Merlin" company. Its not even a real company and yet they claimed hundreds of youtube videos for things such as 5 second clips that THEY DONT EVEN OWN. Fix youtube, fix the internet. Courtesy of one who cares about what happens to youtube and all the creators on it. #WTF
Sent by the critic
The DMCA needs to be updated ! Fair use is being prosecuted !
Multiple Youtube channels have their videos, even their channels, taken down due to "Copyright Infringement". Their videos are under the fair use, like doing a review of a movie, or a parody, etc. but the videos are called out nonetheless, and practically "steal" the money of the producer of those videos, and even worse, even when the claim is taken down, the money doesnt come back.
A video called "Let's Go Crazy #1" got a copyright claim due to a Prince Song playing in the background, that is just ridiculous.
This system is being exploited and its a win-win situation for the Big Companies. This needs to be fixed, and i hope this helps.
I know some youtubers who have been actually been using the YouTube rules that have been taken down because of false copyright claims. I am REALLY getting tired of this going on around YouTube. And because any one can copyright anyone's stuff, and YouTube's copyright system is automatic instead of being manually operated, people who did absolutely nothing can get taken down. And because your only allowed to use approximately 250 characters when you try to tell YouTube that you did not violate the terms of use, you can only write about two sentences, which is just STUPID. Please fix this. The internet needs help.
This is shit man fuck the DMCA I got copyright and that shit isn't cool fuck man I love you guys but legit why why
so as you can see the internet is still strong and we must never be taken down
please fix the problems and please don't take us down!!!!!!!
#WTFU #trump4prez we are america and we never accept defeat!
Personal Message: I have little personal experience in the side effects of DMCA, but creators I watch on websites like YouTube consistently have their videos taken away and lose some of their income. Their videos are taken down not to protect someones property, but to silence critique, and limit entertainers. These laws need to be updated to fit the internet of today so they can no longer be used as a tool to silence others.
What is wrong with the DMCA? It is old, outdated and has become more of a tool for big corporation bullies than it protects copyright holders.
Take YouTube for instance. How many times has a perfectly harmless and reasonable video been false flagged as breaking the DMCA rules? The most notorious one that come to mind is the video of the happy dancing baby. A mother filmed her child dancing along with a song. When the music would stop the child would cry and when the music would start the child would start dancing again like they had never been upset. Adorable right? Apparently the DMCA didn't think so. The video was flagged as infringing on copyright law because the song that the kid had been dancing to was one of Prince's. The video harmed no one, they were not selling the song in fact you could barely hear it, so why were they targeted so aggressively? Outdated law. In the end the judge in that case, for this was taken to court, rule that the DMCA had to take Fair Use into account before issuing take down notices.
I understand that Fair Use as a term has not been adequately defined, but isn't that all the more reason to reexamine the DMCA and its practices? We should find new ways of protecting copyright holders until the original creators death and then the copyright should fade away allowing freedom of information to flow into the public domain as it was originally intended. Companies should not be able to renew their copyrights indefinitely and prevent simple home videos from appearing on the internet. Make allowances for Fair Use.
People no longer require a big budget or a huge network to finance their content we have people who make their own internet news channels in their basements. They are getting hit with these false DMCA claims as well. People reviewing games and movies are getting hit because they did not like the script of a film or happened to have one 30 second clip of the movie's trailer to show what they are talking about. That seems unreasonable. The reporters on TV get to review products but no one else can? How is that fair or reasonable? The internet has changed the way we view television and programming and it needs to change the way the DMCA does business.
I know others have expressed themselves far better than I have but I had to comment and lend my support to the effort to reexamine the practices of the DMCA. Scrap the old system and find a better way to protect copyright holders without stifling free speech, freedom of the press, or attacking moms just trying to show off how cute their children are.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Please, just let content creators actually create content, and let them not have to deal with unreasonable companies and claims.
TL;DR - If I post a YouTube video criticizing SuperSoft, they Takedown&Notify claiming Copyright Infringment, I counter-claim and win, SuperSoft shouldn't be able to make further claims against my video using other entities. They had their shot - if I sued someone and lost, I shouldn't be able to sue them again for the same thing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
The biggest trouble with these take-downs is that anyone - absolutely anyone! - can issue a claim whether or not they have the right to. And any video that gets flagged is removed immediately without any investigation before hand to see if the claim is legitimate or even legal. There have been many, many cases where a video gets flagged and taken down even though the creator has gotten express permission from the original source to use their material and is using paid-for royalty-free music and/or images.
In addition to that, the odds of getting that claim cleared are stacked heavily against the creator. The video can be removed immediately with as little as one flag, but can take weeks to get it reviewed and cleared. And again, this is very frustrating when the claim was made falsely in the first place.
To make matters worse, even after a claim has been cleared, people can still flag content for piracy! The aggravation and time wasted investigating repeated falsified claims have got to be both staggering and useless.
What was meant to protect property is now being used to harass, threaten, and scare people for no reason. This policy needs revision. Perhaps content could be taken down for investigation after several copyright claims have been made by reputable companies rather than by one common viewer. And after that, once a video has been cleared under Fair Use, it can't get flagged again and again for no reason other than to badger the creator.
The original purpose of the DMCA and Fair Use Policies are being destroyed. This situation needs to be revised and repaired before it gets even worse.
I believe many companies utilize this system as a way to silence any all people/persons they consider a possible threat to the way they do business and frequently do not take into account if fair use has been adhered to. I believe that with this system in addition to vague and imbalanced copyright laws prevent the majority of not only severely diminishes the chance for free speech, but also any attempts to create any sort of media outside of pre-existing companies and business circles. There needs to be greater oversight over many things dealing with copyrights and fair use as well as repercussions for those who would abuse this or ANY system.
The DMCA is a broken, outdated system that makes browsing the web painful for creators and audiences alike. Large companies are abusing the system and taking down entire YouTube channels all for a cut into the cash, even though most cases of it fall into fair use. You can't post a video on YouTube anymore without the fear that someone will send a false copyright claim or strike in severe cases, which is not something that content creators should have to go through.
YouTube is a very serious medium. People earn real money from it, whether it is a hobby of theirs or a profession. YouTubers that create parodies, criticisms, or educational videos with clips or references to other content that is highly edited with pages worth of dialog and footage from the YouTuber are still being shot by false claims.
There is no more fair use to these companies. We're all really urging for you to change this because this is the last hope for content creators who struggle with fighting copyright takedowns on their videos that they put blood, sweat, and tears into.
People are getting their videos taken down from youtube by simply just talking about a subject. They can have no actually other footage in the video, but just simply talking about a movie can get their video copy right strike. This is an issue for someone like me, who wants to do youtube in the future but is to afraid to because of the copy right system. I should be able to play video games or make a movie review with out having the fear of my video taken down.
Fair Use NEEDS To Be Back On Websites Like YouTube. Companies Such As Viacom Take Down People's Videos Even Though The Videos Fell Under Fair Use. However, Reaction Channels Such As Jinx Upload The Video In Full, Sit There Doing Barley Anything, And They Don't Get Any YouTube Copyright Shit Shoved In Their Face. But When YouTubers Are Completely Innocent, They Get Claimed EVEN THOUGH THE VIDEO FELL UNDER FAIR USE
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I have watched videos, whose content creators have had to go to extraordinary lengths because corporations seem to believe in fair use only if they like what you are saying.
I have watched multiple film reviews that cannot even show clips of the films because companies are using the DMCA to stifle any review that is not positive in nature.
David Pemberton
It should go like this:
Innocent until proven guilty.
Not guilty then have fun proving your innocent.
Human review, not bots.
To Whom It May Concern,
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error (as well as abuse) and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review. These notices are often ever seen by human eyes before they are sent to content creators, critics, and artists.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and "copyright trolls" who seek to shut down legitimate competition, silence critics, and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone. Artists, businesses, and legitimate content creators lose revenue which they never get back.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works. The system is currently broken, and in desperate need of fixing!
Please, do not let "copyright trolls" silence their critics. Do not let real fair use get silences by automated content ID systems.
Thank you for your time.
This not only affects everyone in the US but worldwide, if people outside the US are powerless to fight DCMA takedowns and unfair claims people like us from other countries get totally ignored and are affected by false claims and unfair takedowns from big companies.
By just detecting a small clip of 10 to 20 seconds they take all the work of many people and make it their own with no questions asked.
I've seen many a people's 1st amendment rights infringed upon, and such trampling of our rights has caused much suffering for the many content creators that I have come to know and love. Whether their videos were taken down, or their channels mercilessly destroyed, none of it was called for, and this has been a trend that has been continuing and increasing in frequency for years.
Now that I have finally joined the youtube community as a content creator, I am sad to say that I have been experiencing the exact same tribulations that my Youtube peers have. Both of my channels have become plagued with copyright claims, for absolutely no reason, if only because the companies that send out these claims can do it without fear of repercussion. I've had videos blocked/taken down, if only because companies don't understand the doctrine of fair use, or just absolutely do not care.
My music podcasts show, and my ytp channel is a hobby/labor of love, and as of now, it is nothing more, nothing less. Working on these channels and putting out content makes me happy. But if people (no matter who or where) can abuse this power of copyright, or abuse the DMCA system, then that means I can no longer do the things I love, and that is wrong on so many levels! Please put a stop to these unjust actions, so that my partner and I can continue to spread the knowledge and joy of music, and so that we can continue to spread laughter to the world. This, so far, is my only true wish. To continue to work on my hobbies without hindrance or interference. Is that so wrong?
I'm in college, when I took a video editing class, as a project; we had to animate 10 seconds of a song of our choice. We had to give it to him on a flask drive because he told us not to up it on YouTube because we could get hit we a strike. I don't thinks that fair for a education to be suppressed.
While the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is important overall, the notice-and-takedown process specifically is biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and has commonly been used to censor content that should be protected under fair use. This system has had negative impacts on unique content that has been created in reference to, but is distinctly different from, stealing. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse, and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible for circumventing the concept of fair use.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. However, this process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, thereby resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate speech and creative expression on the Internet. According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have been disproportionately beneficial to corporate copyright holders who seek to shut down legitimate competition, as well as opportunists who can extract money from the content created by others.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. Sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, and so companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use need to be held accountable for contributing to the violation of an individuals’ rights to free speech. Without any incentive, these sites are encouraged to simply devise a system that pushes the burden wholly onto the two parties involved. Unfortunately, these automated takedown systems have often left these two parties on uneven ground, and calls for a third party acting to check the other two. While the judicial branch/court could act as the third party, most notice and takedown systems do not factor this in, and typically make decisions in favor of copyright holders without considering fair use.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
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I'm a music producer. I make my own music, and use various social media sites and content hosting sites to promote my content and gain a following. But it's such a shame that other companies are able to file DMCA claims against my original content (which I own the copyright for, because I created it), and monetize my original content. While I can dispute the claim, the video stays monetized for the claimant until they either release the claim, or they don't respond to my dispute in a timely manner. And when my video is released, they've kept all the ad revenue for that video. And there's no penalty for the claimant for not having followed through on the claim in any way.
Now, I've not made a name for myself. My videos haven't generated any ad revenue for me yet, and, by extension, would not generate any ad revenue for the claimant. But these tactics aren't the exception, but the rule, and are being used against content creators that *do* have a following, and are making a good deal of money. And, frankly, it's got to stop.
Now, yes, I don't disagree that, if someone is completely hosting something without the proper permissions, then there should be a way to make sure that the copyright violation is taken care of. But the DMCA has been and is still being abused to allow companies to bully content creators who can use copyrighted material under Fair Use, or try to steal money from creators who make original content. And they can do this without and consequences on themselves.
This is a problem. As a small content creator trying to get his name out there, it worries me. I've thankfully only had a claim filed against my original content once, but I worry about what happens as I continue to put out original content, specifically how much more frequently these claims may come in. Some of the larger content creators have said that they get a new claim as frequently as every other day. I can't imagine how much stress that must cause for those creators to have to worry about those claims, and how much it's stifling the creation of new content.
I'm very much for the government to make amendments and modifications to the DMCA to update it for the way the internet functions today: as a platform for individuals to post their original content. These content creators need protections and a way to fight back against false claims so that they can continue doing what they love and creating original content.
I hate seeing legitimate content creators getting the short end of the stick and having these abusive corporations and companies treating them as if their feedback doesn't matter. Positive press is the only press that some of these companies will let through, and it's time to show them that we've had enough. We deserve to express our opinions and express our creativity online.
This wasn't written by me but it 100% reflects my feelings currently. Copyright laws heavely favore big corporations and there needs to be some sort of penalty for submitting a fake copyright. Especially on sites like YouTube where anyone can put in a copyrite strike and take that person's monetization away. There are dozens of companies right now who's run on this shady practice.
Sincerely, Dennis R.
Fix this broken system!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This has happened to too many people, too often and this needs to end now. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. For example, I've seen videos with no copyrighted materials being taken down regardless.
I find that there is a lot of content that's taken down for containing things protected under fair use and I think that people should be allowed their rights. Thanks
And all of this is sucky, Yes I do want to be able to play a video game and post it onto the web, I want the fair use to be shown, I want to make my original content and not have fuckers flag it.. If it has become THAT MUCH of a problem I say fuck the DMCA and fuck those money hungry companies
I was witness to a lot of political censorship. Voices of reason crashed by currupted goverment. But with the help of Internet, with the help of modern technology, theese voices still linger. Internet is a haven, a foundation, a garantee for freedom of individual. And we all want it to stay that way.
A great, succinct video was published by the Nostalgia Critic on this subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
I love Project Voicebend!
What you are failing to see is how this is being used to hurt people livelihood, creativity by shell companies, by people who don't understand it. we are losing our fair use because of this outdated law. It is time that you stand up and change this law for the better.
Too many content creators have been affected by the abuse of the DMCA. Companies have been using these powers to takedown videos that have no copyright infringement at all. Videos of people just sitting down and talking about a subject have been taken down.
Calling the system broken might just be the biggest understatement of the century. When it was first introduced in 1998, this might have worked. But with the evolution of the internet, it has become outdated and too easy to abuse.
Content creators have been loosing revenue and have been restricted to creating bare-bones content. Even then the videos are taken down. People have been posing as companies to take down videos. No real penalty is in place to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Even when the copyright claims have been settled, people still attack the content creators. Hundreds of creators and millions of supporters of said creators have been affected by this.
Please fix what is broken.
For far too long, people online have been victimized by major corporations attacking them, flagging them, threatening them, and harassing them due to what they post under the Fair Use law. A change needs to be made to stop this immediately and allow freedom of speech to continue like it says in the Constitution. The internet is far from perfect, but it shouldn't be a place a fear of consequence due to those with big pockets attacking others for what they consider is their property.
People need to see the law for what it is and make changes to better position the internet and the users of it to continue free speech. Please, please help.
The DMCA system is being brutally abused on sites like youtube.com to overrule Fair Use Laws. Review videos who use clips of media within legal means are being flooded with automated detection services from companies that, half the time, don't even OWN the copyright of the media in question, and are allowed to get away with stealing the funds and rights of content creators who have the legal right to review the material in question.
Companies are allowed to use the DMCA to harass reviewers and content creators with repeated claims and threats to censor the public's opinion of their licensed material. After one claim is finished, people like MrEnter at youtube.com are hit mere MINUTES after the original claim is erased with a second one, despite it already being overruled. The current system does not punish copyright holders (and false copyright holders who abuse the system for profit) who abuse the system with repeated claims and who hire alternative companies to put multiple claims on single videos to raise their chances of the material used under fair use being removed.
This is not about those who post full movies on youtube and similar sites. This is about reviewers and entertainers who use short clips under fair use for the sake of reviews--sometimes, the videos don't even HAVE a visual or audio clip. Many of them simply go after those who MENTION or TALK about the media under DMCA law to censor public opinion over their content. The DMCA censors free speech and opinions in ways that are becoming insultingly illegal, but is protected by it's vast network of powerful companies who benefit and profit from censoring American rights.
To whom this is concerned: Please take a deeper look into the system to take down greedy companies who abuse the system to create bogus, harassing DMCA takedowns of content created using the material under Free Speech and Fair Use. Free Speech is one of the most important human rights that protects us from those in power from censoring our rights, knowledge, and freedom. PLEASE look into the abuse companies are manipulating the DMCA for in this digital age, and realize that a lot has changed since the internet of 1998.
A change has to be made in order for our American rights to be upheld in this modern age. Don't allow this outdated system to continue taking away the basic human rights of Americans to express their freedom, opinions, and make a living on the internet. Thank you for opening this subject up for comment.
As Internet content creation has developed from a novelty into a major industry, the DMCA safe harbour provisions have provided a vital safeguard for content hosts. Unfortunately, this very success has rendered the takedown process inadequate for the modern Internet in cases where content is misidentified or erroneous takedown notices are otherwise filed. For a casual hobbyist, having access to their content disabled for 10 days (and no real recourse, given the difficulty of proving that a takedown was knowingly misrepresentative rather than merely erroneous) is a minor inconvenience. For an individual or small business whose content is their livelihood, it is something far more serious.
Where a user is allowed to anonymously and instantly upload content, rights holders naturally need to be able to take down infringing content equally instantly. But when an established/major content creator hosts a piece of content online, and is willing to commit to a stringent identity process and take more direct responsibility for the content they have uploaded, a correspondingly higher burden should apply when taking that content down.
I urge the US Copyright Office to create a framework to allow serious or professional content creators to affirm that their content does not infringe, in addition to the counter-notice process - in effect, to allow filing a pre-emptive counter-notice, subject to providing the same information and submission to jurisdiction as for a conventional counter-notice.
I'm not a content creator, nor was I ever, nor may I ever be. However, I have seen the abuse of the DMCA law in action. Many of the content creators I enjoy have been taken down at least once, some several times. This needs to stop. It's infringing other's rights to create content. The DMCA needs to be updated so it's fair for everyone.
The DMCA is also extremely outdated. When it was created in 1998, it was intended for protection. But the Internet has changed while the DMCA has remained stationary. It is behind the times and needs to be updated. Regular updates should be required for the DMCA in order to keep it updated and to make sure something like this wil never happen again.
The DMCA, as it is now, is far too easily abuseable. Over the last few years, there have been more creators than I can count who have had their content taken down because of an error in the automated system or just plain maliciousness.
The first example that comes to mind is the fiasco with Totalbiscut, where the creator of the game Day One Gary's Incident had given permission,both publicly and to Totalbiscut himself, to make a review. Totalbiscut then made a highly negative review, which the creator had taken down for copyright infringement. And there have been other incidents, like the battle between I Hate Everything and Derek Savage, where the copyright law was used as a scare tactic to, again, try and silence negativity.
The only real solution I can think of is to place the creators and corporations on an equal playing field. The penalties for creators are harsh, understandable for people who are actually breaking the law, but very dangerous for people who are the victims of this misuse. Meanwhile, the corporations can take down the same video multiple times, despite it having been cleared by the DMCA as fair use, with no consequence. Install a penalty of some sort for the ones initiating the copyright claim. It will make companies accountable for misusing the system, and give creators a way to fight back.
DMCA strikes are unfair and biased. The system is being abused in favor of the corporations. This needs to be stopped, it violates fair use.
Granted that I'm no longer on YouTube, think about those content creators on the internet that don't even use copyrighted material. Even the mention of people that refuse to take criticism need to realize that false DMCA claims are against the law and can be subject for the following: perjury, fraud, and violating the 1st Amendment right Freedom of Speech.
False DMCA claims need to be taken into the account and whoever commits a DMCA claim should be subject to investigation. Whether it's by local authorities, state authorities, or the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We have a right to say what we want under Freedom of Speech if there is great cause for concern. False DMCA will be the downfall of the 1st Amendment if you individuals in Washington fail to understand how independent media works. Please remember that you are supposed to be the good guys that keep corporations regulated.
As of late, many groups and companies have been issuing wrongful DMCA takedowns and copyright claims on user made youtube videos that are legal under fair use but this does not stop them from constantly harassing these content creators, even down to employing third party groups to issue take down notices. As a content creator myself and a viewer to many youtube channels, i always fear that my work, as well as the work of many people i watch daily will just be stripped from them because a company doesn't understand how the law works or they do understand it and just don't care. It is insane to think that even videos of literally showing a person outside on their porch filming their backyard can be copyright claimed, even when it is impossible for there to be any copyrighted in the video.
This kind of thing is just not acceptable, especially when you consider many are now using youtube as their main source of income.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet. The system is relentlessly being abused.
I have observed to often false clames that hurt content creators and violate free speech. This law is in desperate need of reform.
Thank you.
YouTubers are being wrongfully taken down by unfair producers by claiming rights on videos that only involve themselves and their own opinions.
I watch YouTube videos on a regular basis. I used to watch TV all the time, but now the internet has become my primary source of entertainment. Youtubers need to be protected from these money-hungry companies that take away the wages that they live on. Being a youtuber is now an established profession. These companies are outright stealing from them and getting no penalty for it. If a company has been proven wrong in their copyright claim, they should not be able to keep the money that they collected from the youtuber. Videos that do not even feature clips are being taken down just because the youtuber talked about a film. That is ridiculous. Once again, the company that issued the strike gets no penalty while the youtuber must go through a painfully long process of getting his/her video back up. This needs to change. YouTube is full of people that have great ideas and only want to make a decent living while spreading those ideas. They are doing what they love and making people happy along the way. They should not have to wake up everyday worrying about whether or not they will get paid. They should not have to worry about having their account taken down and having their opinion silenced. The internet has evolved. It's time for the YouTube copyright system to evolve too. Because this does not seem fair at all. Where's the fair use?
I would like to add that I have personally seen videos of people talking to each other in a car with no added video or music get flagged taken down. There is obviously no copyrighted material in these videos but they still get flagged under this law, which shows clear abuse of it's letter and spirit.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The quoted comment has been pre-made by the generous people at takedownabuse.org, however I find it to miss key facets of the argument. If you've just seen several dozen unedited copies of these, please look at the bottom for my additions and modifications.
P1 "
P2 "Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
P3 "According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
P4 "While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
P5 "The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
P6 "To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
P7 "Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works."
The entire comment conveniently conflates official DMCA takedown strikes, which do have a punishment for abuse thereof -- that is, that abusers thereof are potentially exposing themselves to the possibility of purjory charges being brought against them by the state -- with 3rd party intermediary takedown processes, like those of YouTube, which are designed to prevent potential DMCA claims from needing to be taken to court in the first place.
3rd party takedown processes rarely, if ever, carry any substantial burden-of-proof requirements of the takedown requesters, and have a similar lack of consequences for repeated abuse of the system. This, however, is not the responsibility of the U.S. Copyright Office or any other government organization, but rather the responsibility of those 3rd parties.
The wording of the comment quoted above seeks to blame the government for the behavior of companies. It is disappointing to see that the target of blame for the unfortunate situations some content creators find themselves in when larger organizations abuse privileges granted to them by 3rd party media platforms cast needlessly on the law those media platforms are trying to head off the invocation of.
I believe that this law, this Digital Millennium Copyright Act, disadvantages both new content creators and extant content owners in equal measure, and is an example of government overreach. I believe, and have some evidence to show, that the DMCA's existence is what drove media platforms to contrive these easily-abusable takedown systems in the first place, and the relaxation of copyright regulations on digital media would be beneficial for new content creators as well as extant content owners, as it would prevent "copyright trolling," which damages the reputation of well-intentioned content owners as well as the livelihoods of the content creators whose works are "trolled."
Where is the fair use? Free speech is more or less irrelevant when it comes to the internet. This needs to stop. Fake companies abuse the DMCA and make copyright strikes on someone else's content and gain the creators profit from his/her own content that is rightfully fair use. Nothing is done about this, the content creator is powerless to do anything while some random people is raking in their profits. That is THEFT, and it is being overlooked! The DMCA is outdated and needs to be updated to account for todays internet.
Everyday I'm seeing more and more misuse with the DMCA and copyright system as a whole.
Channels on YouTube with legitimate claims to fair use are being taken down. Proper satire, reviews, even educational content is being taken down with little to no reason why, and it's often for reasons that don't apply and shouldn't apply.
I've seen reviews get silenced because the creator simply doesn't like the opinion. I've seen shows get shut down because someone claims they have a similar format, even though objective observation would state otherwise. I've seen informative videos of someone's property get hit with DMCA takedowns for no reason than what would appear to be to boost their own search relevance. These videos have shown varying degrees of content, from full coverage to someone sitting behind a camera simply talking about it.
Original content has been claimed as well by the DMCA and Copyright system, music, original videos, and varying degrees of original artistic creation have been victims of this system as well.
This isn't a hard system to abuse, little to no punishment is visible for those who use this system for ill intent. There are "companies" that go around claiming videos just to claim the monetary gain the author would have received, even though they are linked in no way to the content.
YouTube has evolved beyond its original design. Entire financial lives can now be centered around what they create on YouTube. The laws for copyright and the protections they apply are horrendously outdated and often seem geared against those who use the system fairly and as intended. We need to review and analyze the laws and the system put in place around them to adapt to an ever changing and evolving way of life for many.
There are going be many YouTube's in the future, sites who will do things we can't now begin to imagine. It's why we need to keep evaluating and adjusting how we approach copyrighted content to make sure those who use it fairly are safe, and those who will try and bend it to their own goals are dealt with adequately.
Thank you for reading, I hope you'll weigh what I, and everyone else has said; and do the right thing.
I will be frank in this message: the copyright system for sites like YouTube have becoming an atrocious mess, with obscure companies of little to no notice simply being able to whisk revenue and content AWAY from creators for a simple and quick buck. There MUST be an overhaul of this archaic system that is in place. We ned to protect the bright minds on the internet that simply seek to post their content for all to see and enjoy, while making a fair and honest earning along with it.
As someone who does not create content for the internet, but rather as someone who spents his free time watching said content from talented Youtubers, I can safely say that the fair use policy is being wrongly used. I'm sure many other before and after will point out this, but I still feel like I need to mention some specific cases of people whose Youtube channel and personnel carrers are being harmed by the fair use policy.
1 - Jim Sterling: Jim Sterling has been on an on-going battle against a game-developing company entitled of Digital Homocide where said company has been using the fair use policy against Jim for capturing images to use in a critical video. Footage of which was freely available online.
2 - Channel Awesome: Ran by Doug Walker (also known as The Nostalgia Critic) Channel Awesome has been the target for several unfair hits where Doug was simply using footage from movies in order to make satire reviews, nothing actually against the fair use policy.
3 - I Hate Everything: I Hate Everything, like all previous examples, has been falsely accused of violating the fair use policy for using footage from licended content, but not going against the fair use policy itself. The case went as far as having the channel being temporarily shut down.
I could go on with many other similar examples but it's always the same situation: Youtubers getting accused for violating the fair use policy when they're obviously not.
The DMA was made for the Internet of 1998, and needs to be drastically updated. Some copyright strikes are completely fine, but others, mainly form corporate companies, want to abuse the system in order to keep their content safe. What we need is a fair system that allows both sides to have a equal and justifiable argument, without one person have their content, and even Youtuber career decimated. Companies should have a window of time to justify their copyright strike and to 100% confirm that what their doing is legal and correct. If it is found justified, then, and ONLY then, should a copyright strike be placed on the content creator, and the content creator should also have a equal window of time to justify their point of view on the strike. Make this new system fair for Both parties, and have it evolve over time.
While i havent been effect yet, i plan on making a review channel (AVGN, Nostalgia critic, YMS, etc.) and i cant because of the copyright system. Youtube channels are being falsely claimed by companies. For example, I Hate Everything was Claimed by a man named Derek Savage. Derek Savage's movie was critizised by IHE and Derek couldnt take it. Theres a whole story behind it that takes to long to explain. #WTFU
There should be SEVERE penalties for copyright holders making invalid claims.
Abuse of the DMCA also results in silencing individuals whom have opposite opinions of a certain group of people. This should not be the case and every person should be allowed to say what they want to say regardless of who it may or may not offend.
Too many pieces of good content have been destroyed by DMCA abuse, and it needs to stop.
All of the above has been happening for far too long. Too many people have been victims of the abuse and have lost money and the rights to their own original content because of the abusers. If the large corporations continue these underhanded practices with no repercussions, it will only get worse. This effects not only the creator, but their audience as well. Until we take the first step in updating this ancient law, many creators will suffer and when creativity suffers, we all do.
I like people that have sadly been stopped by unfair Youtube DMCA so WTFU.
Lots of my favorite artists have had their channel's attacked and sometimes shut down, hurting the artists. As an upcoming artist this scares me. I want to be able to create content without worrying about a copyright system that is designed to be abused by people who have no apathy for this system.
They limit free speech, and destroy people who make their lively hoods off of the content on the Internet. One of my favorite Youtubers reviews a television show and he got taken down and harassed by the DVD creators and not the actual show executives.
And finally, the DMCA should be revised to allow for reverse engineering.
Legitimate methods of income can also be out right stolen, as when a video has had a DMCA take down the company can choose to instead of removing the video take the and money earned from it. This is increasingly problematic when some people make their livings of the internet and if the takedown is later proven false the company that issued the takedown keeps the money they stole from the creator of the video and is under now obligation to give it back to its rightful owner. This is Theft and this is Wrong .
The current use of the DMCA by companies to attack reviewers, commentators, and online personalities who use even a small portion of copyrighted material is currently a gross misappropriation of the intent of the law as many channels of the famous online video site Youtube are continuously harassed by copyright owners, companies falsely claiming copyright, and others who are focusing efforts not on piracy but on those who are true fans of the material they review. While yes there is a right of a producer not to loose money from people taking their creation and giving it away, that is not who is being targeted by this current legislation. Nothing published, produced, shown, or otherwise created should be free from commentary just because the individuals are not connected to a major cable channel only giving the official review, and the internet should not be used a sword to prevent those who do make reviews from making their content out of love of a medium. We need a more free internet with people able to voice their opinions and give honest critics and let the people decide who is the better reviewer without fear of repercussions from those who can't take an honest review.
The copyright laws in effect at this point in time are old and outdated. They no longer properly defend content creators on the internet. Thousands of people make their living on the internet and use this content LEGALLY and their livelihood is being threatened.
People are losing unfair fights. Companies are bullying small content creators and not being punished. Videos that are 100% fair use are being taken down. Something has to be done. Fair use and free speech is under attack and I can't sit and watch this anymore. The system is broken and outdated and something needs to be done. Now.
People have the right to talk about and review content. Big companies do not have the right to take their free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be prohibited completely. If no human being is involved in the process of sending the takedown notice, then who is going to be held liable for takedowns applied falsely?
here is a youtube link, the gentleman says it better than i could.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
Dear, Sir or Madam,
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Nick DeSimone
A great youtuber by the name of Mrsundaymovies had a whole year of hard work and effort completely taken down because of one picture in his video which was in fair use and he couldnt do anything about it. Hard working channels such as IHE, Yourmoviesucks, channelawsome and mrsundaymovies who put genuine effort and do everything they can to come under fair use are getting copyright claims all the time. while channels such as reaction channel who show a video or movie trailer in its entirety and do nothing to add to the content other then sit there and watch it and dont even get a strike. PLEASE from a lover of good content and movie reviews give these hard working channel what they deserve.
Hello, my name is Russell Kostal and I've been effected by this, had a channel that I had since 2009 and one day I found it was suspended, I sent them an email, but Youtube refuses to give me a straight answer to why I had my account suspended, I had no content and I always followed the Terms of Service and Community Policies, I find this highly unfair and I'm not the only one that has had this happen, I had high faith in my Government and I hope that you will take the time to help us, the Internet needs to be free, it's the next natural evolution of entertainment, just as the Radio and Television was, we can't let corporations abuse this law, please, help us and thank you so much for helping us.
This kind of law is not only stifling our freedom of speech but also our creativity. Millions of people rely on sites for entertainment as well as to give a voice to opinions and to make themselves heard in times of crisis. If it was not for youtube, we would not have the wonderful and vibrant personalities that make our days a little better or give us something to think about with their creative and innovative content.
As a lover of entertainment, please fix this law so we don't lose this content due to this unfair and outdated law.
Also you need to give penalties to those who file false claims. It's illegal
The DMCA Act was signed all the way back in 1998; way before the time of video sharing and uploading. Many people make jobs out of putting videos up on sites like YouTube, including gaming commentaries, comedy skits, and generally daily blog-like videos. The problem with DMCA is that it allows big corporations to shut down YouTube channels and videos for something deemed to violate copyright, but most of these claims do fall under fair-use.
Fair use allows for video uploaders to use copyrighted material if it is for criticism, parody, education, news, or art. Many uploaders follow these rules, but big corporations have been known to take down videos, not because of copyright infringement, but because it puts a bad reputation on the corporation.
Please change the DMCA act to more properly reflect on the modern internet and put an end to all of this.
Individual examples of such questionable validity are abundant in the YouTube community alone. One content creator, Brad Jones, had a takedown issued on a video in which there was absolutely no protected content. The video contained, in its entirety, nothing but a camera focused on Jones and another individual as they reviewed a movie. No footage or audio from the movie itself, nor any other copywrited material, was featured in the video. Nonetheless, the video was removed from YouTube after a claim was filed. Other examples can be seen in reviews being taken down simply because the creator of the material being reviewed did not want anything negative said about their work.
This is where the form letter ends and I put in my two cents. A one way street of copyright holders having all the power with no oversight on claims has given them a weapon to use as they see fit with no worry of repercussion. In this world of downloads and digital media, a copyright holder needs to protect their ip and content, but a better system is needed. I can go on a site like YouTube and in twelve seconds of searching find clear breaches of DMCA, like whole movies uploaded with the sound pitched up and a funky boarder throwing off the aspect ratio.
Fixing this is not easy, but at this time we have to fix it.
I think it's just completely unlawful that someone's hard work and dedication that they could have poured hours upon hours, day in and out, sleepless nights and skipped meals, can be just removed without justification at any time because someone doesn't like what the creator of the material made. It's chaotic and nonsensical.
...in short, stop letting these jerks get away with this borderline illegal practice because it's ruining people's careers who've done nothing wrong.
This is effecting not only the rights of average citizens to talk about their favorite content, but the very livelihoods of the thousands that make a living through mediums like YouTube. They are watching as their videos get taken down and their ad revenue is diverted for simply mentioning a copyrighted work without even using said content.
The outcome of this decision will have a lasting effect on the way the internet functions and the way we consume content.
PLEASE SUPPORT DMCA REFORM.
I have officially had enough of this.Im glad I am finally able to bring these abusers to justice.I have witnessed those such as Mr Enter GoKaiTitan and Nostalgia critic suffer this bull with love and hatred Kai Clarke
I work for a public domain database that catalogs music for the benefit of any who wish to use it.
The DMCA is currently being abused by businesses to create an unfair burden on both free speech as well as a financial burden of having to defend against spurious claims.
I'm trying to get into the reviewing business. I fear that what I post may get blocked or at worst taken down. I don't want that when I'm on youtube. I don't want my hard work get taken away cause the company didn't like how I was using and/or saying stuff about their product. I want to watch others post lets plays and reviews but if they get taken down for even the most dumbest of reasons then its not fun for anyone. I want youtube and the internet in general to get their act together. Nowadays movies, tv show, video games and even comics relay on the internet to not only advertise but to get feedback on their products. Please fix this major issue before its too late.
Copyright legislation is severely flawed. Various content creators are getting their products taken down for diverse reasons. Some of them are because big studios are so overprotective of their intellectual properties that they feel that only they (the corporations) have the rights to make money from the creations, and go as far as to take down videos that only mention their name or product once.
Other videos are taken down because scammers see the flaws in the Digital Millenium Copyright Act takedowns, and take the opportunity to steal money from the creators.
These, and many more failures, are what need to be changed in the DMCA as a whole.
https://youtu.be/zVqFAMOtwaI
All of my favorite content creators have either been hit with copyright strikes or outright have had their livelihoods taken. I want it to stop. Now. Make the internet great again. Except 4chan. ...Nah, even 4chan.
It also prevents many rising youtubers or internet critics to give their opinion on the content they are reviewing and it os a
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright fanatics who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
DMCA needs to be updated. (I will use youtube as an example, but it apples to the entire internet). Automated systems of flagging anything remotely similar to any copyrighted work (including reviews, which are protected by free speech), and people are flagging videos and taking all ad revenue from them even if they have nothing to do with the video or its content (there is literally a 'company' set up called 'AdRev for a 3rd Party' that just flags random videos and stealing the ad revenue). I made a video in 2011 which included footage from a video game, and it was later flagged by an automated system for including content from a game that came out in 2013 when that isn't even possible, and when i fought it, my dispute was immediately rejected. People are also making multiple false claims on multiple videos on a channel, enough to have the whole channel taken down immediately without warning or any chance to fight back and immediately stopping a person's livelihood (recent examples are: 'I Hate Everything' or 'Team Four Star'). This abuse has got to stop, and there has to be real punishment for those who abuse the system (and stop shell companies from protecting the main ones).
Below is the default form you've likely received from many others.
DMCA has been used to remove my own creations from the internet, despite fully being used legally under Fair Use. Music record labels have the power to remove any content that has some of their music in it, even if that is used in a creative way that expands upon it via remixing, which is supposed to be legally protected. As it stands now, competition and creativity are stifled by an almost 20 year old law that does not take modern forms of entertainment into account. Fair use has been expanded to protect these forms of media offline, but jurisdiction on the internet has not been updated to account for the modern world. Countless others have been affected in similar ways, in some cases losing revenue or even their entire livelihoods due to the unfair and illegal actions of companies. These claims are made even when they are not valid, as individuals are given no power to make a case for their rights against an automated corporation that threatens to sue despite having no legal standing to do so. It is up to the government to fix copyright law and protect the citizens, not encourage bullying corporations.
I am so mad that, "Fair Use", Doesn't work!!
Fair Use standards need to be addressed and upheld, with clear language, to protect both copyright holders and Internet content creators from unnecessary legal action.
People need money to survive, and people should be allowed to earn said money when they make content people want to see. They are getting robbed. Not cheated, not just insulted, but robbed off of their remuneration for their hard work.
And with the Trans-Pacific Partnership being talked about, one of the major concerns is their handling of copyright, and most of those fears are because of what's been going on with the DMCA takedown processes. People worry about how they could be falsely accused of copyright infringement and get into serious trouble for it while those who accuse them get away scot-free.
the DMCA is grossly outdated and in no way takes into account the internet of today. All the power is placed into the attackers, and they often have the ability to completely destroy those too small to put up a defense. This system has been abused to silence criticism and even collect 100% of the profits that would otherwise go to the person being taken advantage of. The bill passed in 1998 does not reflect how the internet has evolved and changed, and we must take into account the power it now has. The people are being denied both a living, and the right to free speech.
I have seen people's accounts taken down when any copyrighted material they use was allowed by the owner. I've seen people get copyright claims for their own original work. I've seen companies from other countries take down videos on U.S. sites because they don't seem to understand or bother learning that the site only follows the laws of the country their HQ is located. I've seen people lose their livelihood because the a company didn't like what they had to say. I've seen people lose it because companies who didn't own the copyright claimed it anyway. I've seen people make a living off of abusing Youtube by creating claims on a monetized videos. They get any money from that video for the next month whether or not they truly held a legit claim to the video's contents. Once they month is over and they have to give up the claim, while keeping the money, they find another video and do it all over again.
Those who did abuse DMCA never got punished. Some did it again right after the last claim ended. As in, the exact same day! The abuse only gets worse because of this. So I ask, where is the fair use?
Something's gotta be done. Fair use content is being taken down every day, people who's livelihood depend on their online content are being threatened to have it taken away from them when anyone can see that their content falls under fair use, or even has nothing to do with the person/company pressing the take-down at all! It is incredibly important to fix this, as time goes on more and more people are using the internet for their entertainment needs and we can't keep archaic laws in this changing environment.
Original letter from the 'take down abuse' website below:
Lack of Fair Use is important. Its what make America so great, and without it, our 1st ammendment is partially in jeopardy. Take down abuse hurts the media, rather then helping it. Ridding us of Take Down abuse means revenue overall
Long story short, the DMCA system has been abused and used to exorcise innocent videos and cripple bystanders. Fix it.
Youtube's copyright system is destroying YouTube and the content creators on the site. Videos with absolutely no copyright content are being taken down, youtubers are being harassed and everyone is afraid to make videos that might get taken down and get them punished. Content creators are in danger of losing their livelihoods and those watching them are at risk of losing the content hey love so much. So please do something to change this. It's unfair and outdated and needs to be changed!
I find the way copyright works right now (on YouTube in particular) is not very good at all, as content clearly under fair use is being taken down for the wrong reasons. The fact that the system for copyright is automatic is a major problem, as no matter what it is, it'll be identified as copyrighted material, and thus will be blocked in one country, or may even give the user a copyright strike.
The U.S. prides itself on its use of the "innocent until proven guilty" system, yet the DMCA is a system that essentially boils down to "everyone is guilty and you can't say otherwise".
What some officials may not realize is how art can change a person. Art is seen everywhere. Art allows us to creatively express ourselves whether that be through music, film, tv, parody, humor, or even just discussing it. Please allow us to do, watch, and discuss what we love.
Below is a standard form letter that I share sentiments with. On a personal note, it saddens me that this law is being used as a tool of extralegal bullying and harassment, so that the powerful may silence the powerless.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Having seen several channels I watch get hit, and taken down, with days passing before they can be brought back up as no one checks the takedown request is not fun.
The DMCA is an extremely unbalanced system, and needs to be reconsidered, if not scrapped all together. This system puts far too much power into the hands of corporations and companies, and doesn't at all factor in fair use. There are countless online content creators who take the content of others, modify it, change it, and put their own original spin on it, while still being punished for doing so. But since fair use is such a wobbly, unofficial term, it's quite difficult for many of these content creators to defend themselves, even when they're in the right. The entire system supports a "guilty until proven innocent" system, which is particularly notable on sites such as YouTube.com
But since some of these content creators are small, they can't properly defend themselves from massive corporations that abuse this "legal" system, and have lawyers to back it up. I've seen numerous examples of claimants saying content is stolen, because it involves some tiny piece of something they created, that's barely comparable in any way to the creators transformed version of that comment. It's time for this to stop.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professssors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
I mean come on.
I know of many film students (five I personally observed the take down) who wanted to use their video clips as a way of demonstrating the process and techniques of editing, as an educational tool. Yet, time and time again, every single one was taken down as a matter of infringing copyright.
My favorite YouTubers such as The Nostalgia Critic, IHE, YMSdotcom, and others have been affected by this catastrophe of a system. It needs to be updated for our current, always evolving Internet. Please.
The Youtubers I love to watch have problems with this everyday. From gamers, to bloggers, to reviewers, and so many more. I am not a Youtuber, I don't know how to make any of this content, but I do write fanfiction for fun and if these acts get any worse that might also be in jeopardy. So to the people who do this for a living and have the creativity to let them smile, please give them room to breathe.
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My Own Comment:
Not to mention that MANY forms of entertainment, fanmade and non-profit for the enjoyment of their own communities, are falsely getting removed due to bots and non-credible sources just to ruin said communities. They need to STOP.
The DMCA needs a serious overhaul for the modern internet. The lack of any consequences for fraudulent copyright claims is abused by corporations, and hurts creators far beyond the borders of the USA.
Please consider adding consequences of abuse of the DMCA. Uploaders of content should not be considered guilty until proven innocent.
Multiple creators I have watched on YouTube, such as Angry Joe, the Nostalgia Critic, and the Cinema Sins group have been the victims of false copyright claims. Companies are being hired to issue takedown notices on videos, so they can reinstate claims and thus achieve strikes against the content creators, which inhibit the creators' income and can take a long time to remove. Because of this automated system, Channel Awesome had one claim that cost them a month's worth of revenue.
Content creators who are starting out or are not very popular are at risk of unfair claims preventing them from gaining a foothold on YouTube. I want to be a content creator myself and plan to upload videos soon, yet I'm very worried because I plan on using images taken from the internet in my videos. Such use of images is protected under the Fair Use act because my videos would be works of criticism, but I fear that my videos would be unfairly taken down. I do not have an established fan base, so if someone unfairly instituted a claim, which they could easily do, I may receive a strike and lose my chance at receiving payment for my effort. Even more troubling, I'd lose any subscribers I had, and unless they find me again, I'd have to work really hard to earn back all the subscribers I had unfairly lost, which are vital to increasing my popularity.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a heavily biased and outdated process used by corporate copyright holders to censor content that is protected under fair use and the freedom of speech. All too often the use of this act is to stifle a weaker party's opinion and harm their work. Personally, I have seen corporations get away with issuing false DMCA claims for reasons that are not covered under the act. Even going as far as to issue take down notices to content creators that never showed footage of the copyrighted content, and only spoke about it.
This law is incredibly outdated. It was signed into law on October 28th, 1998. The purpose was to protect copyright holders of the time. Though the internet has changed to the extent that this law is used for completely irrational purposes because it was never updated or changed to fit the internet of today, where sites such as Twitter and YouTube are completely different in comparison to the sites of 1998, where the law could have been useful. But today, it is only used to wrongfully abuse content creators on such sites.
Freedom of speech and fair use are necessities in the internet age of today, and need to be protected. Users on these sites will not stand for the dated, biased DMCA takedown process. Entertainment on the internet has been threatened for far too long, and, with more and more people cancelling their cable subscriptions, the internet has become the largely preferred venue for viewers seeking entertainment. Keeping this flawed act will only deteriorate these content creators of the future.
The DMCA system has become nothing more than an attempt by Corporate interests to control small-time content creators for their benefit. This nonsense needs to stop.
My name is David Garry, better known as David J.G. Doyle on YouTube. I am a voice actor, singer, voice director and the proprietor of Voice Actor Magazine, which is soon to be launched on the web. However, we intended to use our YouTube channel to help build exposure for my future website, which includes news, reviews, interviews and more, someday including original animations and video games in some form, then have the YouTube channel work alongside the main site. However, due to so many people being hit with false claims, even channels being taken down I was too nervous to post any sort of video.
This has been going on for over a year with me. During that time I also heard many other creators struggling with all sorts of ridiculous claims. Anime America for example are being hit with claims across the board and have lost money because of false claims, so you can understand my reservations.
Doug Walker from Channel Awesome in his Nostalgia Critic video "Where's The Fair Use?" perfectly covered the problems, as well as provide fair solutions to the problems. Not to mention the original message that is automatically typed here is brilliant (hence why I left it in). So I don't really need to say much else other than please fix this outrageous issue. However, I would like to add something else which needs attention: Fan projects.
By fan projects, I mean things like fan animations, fan films and the like. As long as they are not for profit, they too should come under fair use. However, I think it's still fair those users be allowed to get some form of donation through places like Patreon. As long as they don't make a direct profit over something that wasn't originally theirs and they specifically say that the original rights belong to the original creators; they should be fine to make whatever fan project they want.
Star Wars fan films are a prime example. Because of a few fan films and parodies, some professional careers were launched. Most notably Matt Sloan with his Chad Vader series. Because of that fan series, Lucas Arts found him and gave him the chance to officially voice Darth Vader in works such as "The Force Unleashed" and "Soul Calibur V". Now Sloan is the official stand in for Darth Vader whenever James Earl Jones is unavailable. Another example would be the series "There will be Brawl." A drama-parody series based on Nintendo's Super Smash Brothers franchise. Because of that series, actors like Matthew Mercer got exposure and that helped to launch his career. Then there's THPChimera (Chimera on YouTube) with his animation "Crossover World" which gave his animation skills and voice actors exposure, same with his video "Naruto vs Sasuke Chapter 695 Fan Animation" which is on the verge of 10.5 million views as of right now. Another example, a golden example: Monty Oum... Who left this world way too soon. Because of his incredible fan animations, Haloid and Dead Fantasy: He got an incredible amount of job offers. Before his tragic passing: He worked on his own original series like RWBY, while doing fan works on the side. Which leads to my final example, the platinum example: Rooster Teeth. They started off doing the first successful Machinima: Red Vs Blue, which is based on the gameplay of the Halo series. It took a little while but when the developers at Bungie realized their potential, they actually allowed Red Vs. Blue to continue being made, even make money.
There are many other examples of fan works which I think can help launch careers. For example, the Qhimm forums are making a full voice acting mod for the original Final Fantasy VII game on PC and steam. Don't you think that will drive more people to buy the original game and install those mods? It means more money for Square Enix and more exposure for the voice actors, writers, even programmers from the mods. All of it is under fair use anyway but things like that should not be pushed down, taken down or threatened in anyway. If anything, they should be glorified a little.
Now I understand that the original creators hold the rights, and nothing should ever try to take that away from them. However, if you update and re-write the copyright laws that not only heavily supports fair use, but to also include a form of support for fan works (as long as they are stated to be fan works and that they don't own the product in any form); then not only will there be so much more exposure which will lead to sales in some form with the original works, it will help launch careers.
That's the way I see it. I hope there will be a greater change for the better. Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts and I now provide you with the original message.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Please this needs to be stopped don't let one of our amendments be taken away
Underneath its original context DCMA DOES, in fact, protect creator's rights to the content they are selling and using in their videos, games, movies, stories etcetera. It was designed to stop people from using content without permission outside of what is considered to be free use such as criticisms, playthroughts, original content and reviews. However, as of late, things which would otherwise fall under free use have been forcedly taken down. Youtubers such as Lost Pause, Gigguk, MarkusKun, VermillionAmvs have been pinged excessively even though these channels either have the permission to rehost other people's content FROM said people or have generated original work. This needs to stop. People NEED to be able to host what is actually original content rather than fearing some guy with a mouse and a keyboard will report them for no other reason than for laughs.
YouTube, among many other websites, if well known for the horrible processes that content creators are subject to enduring based on the whim of any individual who decides arbitrarily to report the content creator for violating copyright law, and a lot of the time these content creators are punished when they have done nothing wrong.
Look at YouTube channels like GradeAUnderA, Jim Sterling, or TotalBiscuit. All are excellent content creators who have been hit by false DMCA claims and are very outspoken about the negative effects that the current state of the DMCA and how its policy is put into practice.
Does the DMCA have its place in modern society? Parts of it possibly do, but it needs to be reevaluated in the context of our current technological capabilities and also within the context of balancing copyright holders' and content creators' needs.
An enormous amount of content creators on youtube have been suffering a loss of ad revenue to the, in its current stake, incompetency of the DMCA. Claimants of videos are always given the ad revenue gained while the claim is being disputed, regardless of the dispute victor. Sleazy companies and shell companies such as egeda, merlin, and one literally known as ad revenue for a third party are making an illegal business out of false takedowns on viedos made by content creators and are being given no punishment whatsoever for their doings. Millions of people need the internet as its their largest source of entertainment, myself included, and with the constant harassment content creators have gotten, it amazes me that this unbelievably flawed system has been used for as long as it has.
This abuse to the system is so bad that peoples videos who we love are being taken down for using short clips from a copyrighted movie, this isn't only affecting people who just do this to entertain, it is DESTROYING peoples jobs as content creators on websites like YouTube this is a serious matter that we need to address NOW! this has gone on for far too long
It also far too easy for people who have absolutely no business or right to issue these claims to do so, and take the money that does not belong to them or have a video removed entirely on little to no basis. And these false claimants face absolutely no consequences, even after being thoroughly proven to be thus. End this nonsense!
My name is Marshall Burch, I'm an aspiring artist who has just started an art blog on Tumblr... I am not the most politically eloquent person ever, but I do know that the right to create art that is based on something amazing like video games, movies, and books are all covered by our freedom of expression. I truly hope that you don't allow such blatant overuse of things like copyright strikes by making it even harder for original content to be made
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most himportant types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
YouTube is being taken advantage of and there is a lot of UNfair use of content on the internet. We desperately need an update.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
DMC is like the mafia of the internet. It exploits creators and supporters and runs rackets making sure no one can escape from its influence
Free the internet
One of the worst things about the DMCA as it stands is the power huge corporations hold, and the lack of power individual content creators hold. Media should be subject to fair use- for purposes of review, critique, remix, all that. If you want to create a video that analyzes, say, the Fantastic Four movie (but why would you), then using clips from that movie can help illustrate your point.
Like when you write a paper- you cite other people to get your point across. It's unfair that companies can indiscriminately take down videos, stifle creative expression, punish content creators, and disrupt the livelihoods of media personalities with such little oversight or repercussions when they do it wrong!
And on top of that, the people who are really in the wrong, the real criminals, are getting away with it! Facebook freebooting is rampant, and it's near impossible to get a word in- corporations are able to steal from smaller content-creators and there is nothing the little guy can do. Just watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6A1Lt0kvMA
What I'm trying to say is, the system needs to be revitalized- there needs to be a MAJOR change!
The system that is in place is a joke, pathetically out of date and a special way for companies to steal peoples livelihoods. I know so many youtubers that obey the LAW but still get their videos banned and often earn the revenue instead of the youtuber. That's stealing, understand this. The system in place breaks the law and allows companies to commit theft.
I really don't think the DMCA has done much good at all for copyright protection on the Internet. There are still plenty of websites where copyrighted content can be obtained via illegal means, and it doesn't take a genius to know where to look.
Meanwhile, large sites that DO comply with the law, such as Youtube, grossly overstep the boundaries of fair use. Rather than limiting themselves to true violations, they allow companies such as Viacom to issue blanket takedown robo-notices, even to non-monetized channels using clips or samples for transformative, critique and parody purposes. The system to fight the takedown notices is complicated and heavily favors the content owners, even when they clearly have no case. Doug Walker explains it well here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
Throughout history, fair use (and even what we would now consider unfair use) has been a critical part of the creative process. For example, where would Disney be today if the source material used for many of their most popular movies had been kept under copyright by the descendants of Perrault and Grimm (or their publishers) looking to squeeze every last drop of money out of their works? How ironic, then, that today Disney is one of the DMCA's biggest proponents.
Protection of copyright is, without a doubt, imperative to protect the livelihood of the creators who rely on it. But the DMCA is not serving this end. Instead, it fattens the pockets of corporate media interests while severely limiting what avenues independent creators can safely pursue. If we want to protect artistic careers and livelihoods, perhaps instead of allowing such overbearing interference from these larger companies, laws should instead focus on requiring media concerns to give their creative voices (such as writers, musicians, CGI artists and so on) a fair share of the profit earned by their work.
Here's a longer, better explanation that was written by the folks at takedownabuse.org:
It isn't that creators want a complete removal of all punitive measures, or an excuse to flout copyright altogether and post anything they want; the problem is the staggering imbalance of power towards one particular side--a side that ironically has far greater means than creators commonly do, to begin with.
Might I suggest the introduction of intermediary measures, such as:
1). Reasonable licensining right bundles: Much like with a tv channel, rights not to whole films, but to a quantifiable pre-designated amount (say, 120 minutes of OVERALL footage allotment per studio in a quarter or month) of content can be permitted for fair use by creators, for the purposes of review or parody, etc.
2). Create an updated search filtration engine, perferrably run by context-sensitive intelligences (i.e., humans), so as to diminish abusive takedown practices.
3). Create some form of tangible representation for those who wish to counter claims; this sounds simple, but YT's current system makes even a calm, collected discussion or fact-checking session impossible, and there seems to be no way whatsoever for creators to do anything--even things that should be perfectly in line with DCMA standards.
These are a few potential alternatives to the current DCMA-based abuse on YouTube. While they may or may not help, it's important to recognize that while these unfair practices must stop, they must also be supplanted with a system that can manage things a little more cleanly and frankly, fairly.
Thanks very much for your time.
--Chris
Youtube has become one the biggest plataforms for video content on the internet, and has a lot of it's success thanks the comunity that has grown around the idea of sharing, but even after it's years of growth it still uses the same outdate system to avoid the abuse of copyrigthed content and because of that many content creator in youtube or ''youtubers'' have been harmed and exploited.
When youtube started the idea of a web page where absolutly everybody could upload video content was amazing, but it was also open to the abuse of copyrighted material, so they put in place a system in which the owner of said copyrighted content could claim the rights to the video. The problem is that this is a system was set in 1998 and it hasn't been updated to avoid the many awful situations that many content creators have had to deal with.
Many people have had their videos takendown from incredibly arbitrary reasons (like 6 seconds of music from song, a clip from a movie, a tv show or a videogame, or the minimal mention of a product, etc) that are never stated until the creator recieves the notification of the claim, most of the time they go by their experience or other peoples of the many reasons why somebody can claim their videos. Always in fear and insecure if all the work they put goes would go to waste. But it doesn´t stop there. Many times videos are claimed not because the company thinks they own the content but they do it erase criticism and do damage control, take for example the case of the famous video game critic John ''Totalbiscuit'' Bain who uploaded a video that criticized a game called ''Day One Garrys Incident'', gave it a really negative opinion, to later see that his video was copyright claimed by Wild Games Studio (the company that made the game) so they could silence the negative criticism and avoid loses. Or take the example of James Stanton (also a video game critic) who had considerable number of copyright claims on many of his episodes of his weekly show where calls out diferent negative aspects of diferent game companys on his weekly showshow.
I would like the DMCA repealed completely as I view it as an attack on the American people by large corporations that needs to stop. I don't think there should be any method for corporations to control what we do with our private property (computers). This is an example of the worst kind of government overreach. Not a dime should be spent attacking and prosecuting kids or anyone else for flipping a few bits on a hard drive. However, this message below, written by subject matter experts, I am also in complete agreement with:
People have abused the fair use claim. People have been threatened by claims that take away their revenue that are almost always false. Fix this. Someone can just make a claim whenever they want to and get away with it without anyone looking further into. Just read tweets or watch videos such as this one to learn more about what you SHOULD DO! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
Fix this. For the love of god. Don't be an idiot! This has been going on for far too long. FIX IT!!!!!!!!!!
I'm just an average joe who watches YouTube consistently on a daily basis. And some of my favorite YouTubers such as, BlackCriticGuy, Channel Awesome, I Hate Everything, and The Mysterious Mr. Enter and many, many others have been unfairly spammed and harassed by copyright claims even though most of the content these channels produce are intended for reviewing purposes, thus being under fair use. Every once in a while these channels will justifiably complain about this situation as it isn't right and will show their proof in their videos. All of them have claimed that they are afraid to put their next video up because they know that they can receive an unfair copyright strike at any moment. There is little to no support coming from YouTube's help system, as they are apparently extremely hard to get a hold of. And because of this, these channels are pretty much on their own. As someone who usually prefers not to be a part of drama, especially on the internet, I'm writing this comment because I cannot take this sort of abuse anymore. Seeing some of my favorite YouTubers struggle day after day dealing with these copyright claims is almost unbearable to watch. And as a viewer, I cannot stand by and let this continue. And thousands, if not millions of others feel the same way. We cannot let these companies abuse their way into possibly ruining the chances for future content creators. This has to end. #WTFU
(If you don't want to read the boilerplate email, skip to the "Too long, didn't read section at the end.)
Here's the "Too long, didn't read" version: companies should not be able to control everything on YouTube/internet. Game developers shouldn't be able to use DMCA to remove a critic's video; see the case of Jim Sterling against Digital Homicide LLC. Let's Players should not have to worry about their livelihood and revenue being taken by companies. People should not be able to file a false claim, with no justification, to sabotage someone's life. People who obey the law, and who actually obey Fair Use, as it's defined, should be able to review, critique, and use material that they are legally allowed to use, with no fear of false claims just to censor them. As strange as these claims seem, I have seen all of them first-hand, from content providers I follow.
Please. Consider how the world has changed since DMCA has been put into play. What we have is a completely different world than the 1990s. We need the laws to reflect that. So, my question to the US copyright office is: "Where's the Fair Use?"
I am a fan of a YouTube user known as Mr mystery enter and 5 of his videos have taken down for copyright when he was under fair use. And one out many YouTube user I enjoy but thier videos are taken for copyright but they under fair use and user are biblereload,brad jones , yourmoivesucks, I hate everything, brad Jones,the amazingatest and many more have videos taken or whole channel remove for no reason
I love watching movie reviews online. They help me decide what movies are worth my time and money. They also allow the reviewers to express their feelings on a movie and let the viewers decide if they'd enjoy it, regardless on if the reviewer loved or hated it. But with the DMCA taking down videos under fair use, not only are they silencing the reviewer's opinion, good or bad, they're stealing money from the people who do this for a living. People like Doug Walker, Mat Brunet, and so many other reviewers are loosing their income because of false copyright strikes. And it's sad knowing what hat these people who quit their original jobs, and put all their time into making reviews and videos for our entertainment are being punished for no reason. Please do something so that these people can continue doing what they love and inspiring us to persue our own passions.
I am a regular watcher of YouTube and I have seen a lot of complaints about the copyright system on YouTube. A number of false copyright claims have been made which have crippled a number of YouTube creators, many of which review movies and television shows like Channel Awesome and IHateEverything. The process YouTube uses is automated and unfortunately abused by a number of companies in ways that appear to censor the opinions of the reviewers under false copyright. Also, video game review channels have issues with game companies who are unhappy with the reviews their game is getting. I don't feel YouTube itself is completely the issue as these companies use their clout and finances to threaten YouTube itself as well as content creators with lawsuits that would cripple the content creators and YouTube financially. I have tweeted the CEO of YouTube and Google personally to help get the word across. These companies are in violation of the First Amendment by trying to stymie the content creators with false claims. Please act on their behalf and investigate.
The current law is obsolute and is easily manipulated by parties to create a monopoly on ideas that can be proven to fall under "fair-use."
The law is used to create an environment that mutes rising studios and also frightens new studios from even trying.
I can understand that there are rules for a reason and fair use is important, but the ones we have now are anything but. I have heard stories of many YouTubers that I'm subscribe to tell their story of getting a strike because of copy right and the corporate companies trying to take down their channel. I can even see the ones I'm subscribed to now are aware and cautious of what they say or do because of things like this. This is restricting their creativity and turning YouTube into a place I've never seen before. I just want the rules to be more fair again or else the YouTube that saved me from my depression will be gone forever.
Stop abusing creators. Please.
Fair use is constantly being ignored and videos(particularly on youtube) that are of review nature, commentary, parody, etc are being falsely flagged and taken down, sometimes impacting income. Often times it is reflagged after being cleared.
A system should be in place that legal action would be easily carried out against clear and/or repeated violations of fair use of the same claim. Such as monetary compensation. This would help discourage blackmail, false flagging, and harrassment as there would be consquences for such actions. It would also open up more time to taking down actual DMCA violations.
Additionally, using automated flagging systems should not be allowed to issue take down notices, as they are unable to consider if works fall under fair use, something shown twice (Lenz v. Universal Music Corp. and OPG v. Diebold) before issuing a DCMA take down, fair use must be considered. The whole innocent until proven guilty thing the US legal system is based on.
People have been filing on claims that do not even own and it affects content creators immensely by limiting what they can say. Youtube was created to protect free speech and most companies are hindering that right because they don't believe in fair use. Most companies believe they are creating the law of copyright and it is up to them whether or not you can use their material. Some companies literally use copyright as a threat to take your video down even though only a few seconds or a few minutes was used in certain videos.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted
As just one example a dear friend of mine was put into the legal circus and given the run around for the better part of a year over some videos he made that were just funny parodies. He explains the process of how he was treated by Hasbro here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7gQ9EamVfo
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I feel fair use needs to be protected under US law.
Free Speech and Fair Use Law are being violated by greedy corporations at colossal levels. THIS NEEDS TO STOP NOW!!!!!!
In my personal opinion, apart from what has already been said and sent thousands of times before. The internet is one of the most influential and powerful creative mediums in the history of mankind. Every single day, millions, if not billions of people are connected to it in one way or another. From electronic banking, emails, netflix, smartphones, and even those odd little online calculators some companies have been making. The freedom of expression is constantly being challenged by trolls, corporations, or otherwise intentionally or unintentionally oblivious users, staking a claim against multiple users for perfectly valid acts of fair use. While piracy and intellectual property may be incredibly important, the blatant abuse of the systems put in place to protect us is profound. With great emotional attatchment, I ask you to refine and refurbish the law, to protect the large communities of content creators, artists, and critics, to better support our ability to express ourselves. Thank you.
I have been personally effected by poor DMCA handling by companies who claim ownership on material in my creations when in truth, not only do not own the material, they are only a 3rd party company making the claim. This cause my to loose all me revenue made by my creation and have it handed to them no questions asked.
It's outdated, it has a lot of loopholes, it's just bad....Please fix it
#WTFU
To the rest of the world, the United States has stood as a beacon for freedom of speech and ideals for centuries. What this act is proposing equates to muzzling the populace, denying them the right of fair use and free speech, in favor of those who want to gain money or prevent criticism. We were not meant to be a country held under a dictatorship of stifled words and ideas; it goes against everything that America stands for.
To allow this act to pass would be to allow a wave of censorship that would threaten the further rights of the populace. I was born into a country where I was taught that free speech was a birthright. I don't want to suddenly find myself in a foreign country where the boot of the dictator comes down to crush the necks of whomever disagrees with them. Do not let this happen. Do not let the DMCA pass.
The notice and takedown process under the digital millenium copyright act is, plainly, broken. In practice it places no burden on the issuers of takedown requests to demonstrate that the work is one that they own, nor does it require that they show the use is actually infringing. In practice this means that big media companies flood the Internet with an unending torrent of takedown notices powered by robots. On its own, handling such a large volume of legal documents produces a huge burden for any web site and is a direct harm to innovation.
Second, this process does great harm to fair use. The archetypical fair use. You know, using short excerpts of a work in criticism or review. The Content Robots spam sites like youtube without any concern for whether a video is fair use or not (sending fradulant complaints doesn't cost the media companies anything, in practice). Ask any one who reviews movies, especially new releases, and they'll tell you they've had works removed under the DMCA.
Third, it harms speech unrelated to any copyright document. Online books that happened to have the same title as a newly released movie have been taken down. People have used DMCA takedown notices as censorship of speech they don't like. And, in general, they face no consequence.
You might say this is youtube's fault or the website's fault for not making a counter-notification proposal. But counter-notification is harder than notification. Setting up a counter-notification system is a burden in terms of money and time. And nothing in the law says a provider has to support it. The law is, once again, lop sided.
Therefore, you must end notice and takedown.
Notice and notice is a much superior system.
And even under a notice-and-notice system, there should be a small fee or some other incentive to prevent large content companies from imposing an undue burden. I don't know what, maybe you get the first ten takedowns in a month free, after that you have to pay ten cents a piece. But something. Anything to make this incentive system less biased.
#WTFU
I have a YouTube channel. It's small. 10 subscribers. I'm not worried about me. I'm worried about the big content creators. #savefairuse
The fact that this needs to be fought for is unbelievable. Such a large quantity of senseless copyright claims brought by companies and people who are in no right to do so is completely staggering.
It's 2016. free speech on the internet should be a given, it shouldn't have to be argued for as there is no reason to be against it. The people against this fight for freedom of speech are big companies hoping to make a dishonest buck, which shows an obvious unfair superiority over smaller groups.
We're in a new age of technology. Less people are watching television and more people are making their use of their talents, be it animation, editing, film making , or just speaking to others, to make their place online. We can't lose this just because other companies are having more and more trouble to compete.
The problem with fair use and these DMCA take downs is becoming more and more obvious and to have it continue could change the internet for the worse. I wan't to protect free speech on the internet because that's what makes the internet so great.
The Abuse of this system especially on YouTube takes away hours and hours of Creator time to create these wonderful visions of how something can look different through a different eye. The copyright holder of Fair Use material simply has to claim a creator's content and they not only silence a valuable voice for new content but the Claimant gets to take all of the monetization for 30 days and even if the Claim is nullified the creator never gets back that revenue and there is no punishment for the Claimant, They have nothing to lose to make a claim on the Video and money to gain.
This process has to change we have to give the control back to the community and let the Creators of the You Tube Community retain there source of Income .
Thanks You, A YouTube Fan
This video explains our concerens very well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
This act is not only outdated, but isn't even being used properly. Yes, there are some legitimate acts of piracy of copyrighted material, and those people SHOULD be stopped. However, things that clearly fall under "fair use" are being attacked and taken down. And now, much content that has NO copyrighted material at all (i.e. someone talking in an empty room) have been attacked. People are abusing the system and nothing is being done about. Half of the claims that are being filed aren't from the legal holders of the supposed copyrighted material, and the content uploaders aren't even given a chance to defend themselves before their content is taken down, or their accounts are shut down completely. It's not at all fair, or even legal considering most of these so copyright claims wouldn't hold up in an actual court. It's time for this to be given the attention to deserve. This not only robs people of monetary gain (some of which, this is there actual career and means to live), but, most important, it robs people of their voice. Their freespeech, which everyone is entitled to.
Even I have been affected by this by posting a cover of a song using my own voice.
Please, please take a second look, consider the times we live in, and make a change.
I may not have my own channel on YouTube, but YouTube's where I get most of my entertainment from. There are companies and people who are bullying and harrassing so many hardworking YouTubers just because they didn't like something they made. People who only show SOME clips from the things they're talking about and are definatly under the Fair Use law. There are even instences where videos with NO clips are taken down just because they THINK they might be talking negitivly about a movie, or TV show, or videogame, or whatever! Here are some videos for reference to prove I'm not making this up, from the victems themselves. And yes, they are, in fact, victems...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH-8PqS84qA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyQjcFmc-Cs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkcWbvnN0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzXSQ5f08sA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ZmVheuxpo
Please end this madness... #WTFU
Before including the form letter I would just like to say that it is absolutely an affront to everything that the United States stands for that people are living in fear of using media in a way that does not violate anyone's rights. Fair Use NEEDS to be made into law, not just as a defense against it. There needs to be clear rules in place that allow for the use of copyrighted content for the purposes of commentary, criticism, parody, news reporting, research, and scholarship. Not just by corporations or those who can afford defense lawyers, but also by ordinary the citizens of the United States who use the Internet.
More over there needs to be clear penalties in place for abuse of copyright law. These need to be put in place and enforced by the government. This cannot be something left to civil law as the average American cannot possibly afford to take a giant corporation to court to ensure that the law is followed. Media companies cannot be allowed to continue to snub their nose at the rules that the government has laid out for fair use, and continue to use the DMCA (or whatever copyright law comes next) to threaten, bully, or censor Internet users who are doing absolutely nothing wrong in the eyes of the law proper. These companies are all too comfortable with the idea that there are no consequences for abusing the law in this manner. That needs to end.
I believe that the DMCA is, for the most part, a good law. It adequately protects copyright holders' interests for the most part. The need to register a copyright needs to be removed or altered so that creative individuals who are not wealthy enough to file an expensive registration can still seek damages if their rights are infringed. Artists and creative individuals come in all tax brackets, and it would be wonderful to see more protection for those who are trying to make their way with their art or music.
Thank you for reading this. The takedownabuse.org form letter is as follows, and goes into far more detail than I have here:
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Let's finally settle this.
The broken system allows takedown strikes to silence criticism, or take away a creaters right to make a profit of content that falls under fair use. Some creaters, like CreepsMcPasta, have had videos taken down even when they clearly have permission to use everything in their video. This needs to be fixed.
The Bottom line is that we need to allow for fair use, otherwise content creation on sites will be practically impossible. As a citizen of the United States I see that our most valuable amendment is the first, that of freedom of speech, press, religion ect. Without it this country would have never survived, and without fair use, the Internet cannot survive.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyright.
Hello right now a lot of videos are being taking down. like IHE video of cool cat it was a parody he was just making fun of the movie because it was bad, the Nostalgia Critic had a lot of videos taking dowe just because he was making fun of it, TheMysteriousMrEnter he has the most videos he has to fight to keep on youtube now please help with the copyright laws.
I could type a bunch of stuff explaining how archaic and stupid the current situation is. But I feel like you know. It's a broken exploitable system.
This explains it better than I can anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
It is only logical to stop the abuse caused by the DMCA.
There are many, many people who rely on Youtube and other sites on the internet for their revenue, and it is absolutely absurd that the ones that are following the rules are getting punished with the ones that are breaking the rules. Too many people are abusing the system and making good people suffer when they haven't done anything wrong. They are taking away money from them that they didn't earn and don't deserve. Fix this!! And do it right, do it fair.
The above sums up my current position, the current copyright system is ridiculously out of date and needs to be changed in order to protect reviewers and those who need fair use to avoid being censored
On a more personal note, I've seen countless videos on YouTube taken down even though they were in accordance with fair use. Copyright law is being used to bully and harass content creators. Large companies are bullying smaller, independent creators for absolutely no reason. It's a malicious, abusive tactic that has no place on the internet.
-Brian
several of my favorite youtubers have been completely and utterly screwed over by this outdated and extremely biased copyright system that ignores fair use laws. Several of these youtubers have been flagged only because the "real creators" knew that the system was biased and they could easily harass and bully youtubers who were just trying to make a living and entertaining people. i extremely hope that this campaign is successful at all so that these youtubers can rest easy knowing that if they get a copyright claim filed against them it will not be because they deserve it and they will get a fair chance to fight for their video, channel, and basic ability to create.
Pretty much every one of my trailer reaction videos get a copyright infringement strike due to the audio being recognized as not my owned content. But those videos are of me reacting and reviewing said trailers, and fall completely under fair-use. I've had a big strike against my channel when I posted a supposed logo to a movie that hadn't come out yet, but it wasn't the logo. This needs to be dealt with.
If you want to help, stop this travesty and start solving real issues for example going after pornographic videos on youtube that don't get flagged, noticed or even age restricted because bots aren't human adults who can tell the difference between legal content from illegal pornographic videos/pictures with no age requirements. Another issue for example stop bully fight videos where children beat up someone who doesn't fight back and prosecute the person/people involved with the assault and invasion of the victims privacy, because I really doubt a person beaten black and blue really gave consent to do that right. If this passes you will infact be supporting illegal access to illegal pornographic images "that don't have a age restrictions, not censored that shows full penetration" to children. You'll be supporting battery and assault not only that but supporting invasion of privacy because those fight videos usually have the victims identified without consent.
There are too many cases of the DMCA being abused and it has caused many people to lose their Youtube channels and their jobs. Fix the DMCA.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse, and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
As a YouTube content curator, it would upset me a lot if my gaming videos just one day disappeared due to someone not liking what I posted in relations to "violation of Fair Use". Fair Use is important, and I think some steps need to be taken in order to prevent the abuse of such a system from occurring. While I realize that human review may be impossible, I firmly believe that a refinement of the copyright/flagging system on YouTube is in check. If this fraudulent behavior is to continue, all notion of freedom of speech and entertainment may be erased from YouTube altogether.
People are abused by this dated system and companies can even makes their own laws by so much power are given to them. A videographer received a message saying "according to OUR POLICY, you can't use copyrighted image unless it's filmed by you" which is not what the DMCA allow, and which goes against critcism and analyzes.
Some can even threats people from other countries, even though the laws in regard of copyright material change.
Which is what happen to an other known videographer, he has been bullied, and his livelihood threaten too.
Peole had their revenues stolen from this.
And that is not even the end of the surface, just search for the " #WTFU " you will see a lot more problems caused by the DMCA.
It need to change !
On Youtube, I have been noticing videos being taken down for no good reason. They may use clips but Fair Use does protect these videos. Most are edited in a way so they are not from the original source.
We people understand that people like to pirate things of the internet and that is wrong and illegal but clips for reviews falls under Fair Use and this matters. These people are being harrased by big companys because they think that Fair Use does not matter yet it does.
The creator TheMysteriousMrEnter has had to fight through companys that don't have anything to do with the clips he used. They are just trying to make it so he is afraid and will stop.
The creators behind Channel Awesome have had to send multiple emails to get a response.
And all of this is unfair and needs to be recognized. The creators on youtube have made a campain called 'Where's the Fair Use' and many people have joined. So please make Youtube great again.
I'm tired of hearing about content creators having their content taken down falsely because of frivolous takedown notices. The law needs to be updated, people are already beginning to abuse it.
Hey government,
This is a little message just saying "hey, update your policies" popular YouTube personalities such as Pyrocynical and GradeAUnderA are getting their videos targeted and taken down for no reason. This is pretty bad, because these people have made the decision to make YouTube their full time job and are getting their revenue taken from them for no reason at all. Hopefully this changes soon.
Best Wishes,
Thomas P. (age 13)
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Hello,
I have been witnessing a disturbing trend of people being falsely flagged on the internet for copyright claims and its just not right. Heck I was flagged because of a song even though I got it from AudioBlocks.com which offer royalty free music. I was able to get it cleared but the fact that there is no punishment to the person who made the claim is just absurd. This needs to change. I want to be able to make content but the people that work for me all get nervous due to copyright even though its covered over fair use. Please something has to be done. I want to be able to turn this into a job but its becoming increasingly difficult. Thank you
The copyright laws are allowing large companies and small companies alike abuse content creators, and they don't even need to justify it
They can place a false claim and the content creators are left in the state of "guilty until proven innocent". Livelihoods on platforms such as twitch, YouTube, and even twitter have been threatened. Especially with YouTube. If a corporation does not like opinions or statements on a certain product, they may simply place a false copyright claim and destroy that person's channel or at least shut it down long enough to damage the person.
What I am trying to say in this rather all over the place comment is, well, " Wheres the fair use?".
I watch people broken down and attacked as they get abused by companies throwing a tantrum over that reviewer or journalist's views and opinions. Their free speech, more often than not speech that lies well within fair use. For more information from the content creators themselves, simply search "WTFU" on most platforms. People are speaking out, grasping at straws to try and fight corporations with far more power than them, to try and keep the livelihood they have. Things need to change, as the system in place is automated, and broken. Not to mention directly silences free speech and press. Everyone from small indie developers and directors to Hollywood corporations have the power to unlawfully abuse content creators well within fair use and copyright laws.
Thank you for your time, and of course, "Wheres The Fair Use?" I do hope that with this we can all reach out and make a difference.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act's (DMCA) claiming and take-down system is rather biassed for copyright holders, and, well, the system allows these companies and people to falsely flag videos as infringing on copyright, even if they fall into fair use. This is severely affecting and limiting content creators who are not in the wrong at all, and I believe that the DMCA needs to be updated to adhere to today's society and the standards of the Internet.
Yes, there is an automatic computer-based content detection system. But can I just say it's rather flawed? That system can't tell the difference between a pirated video (which are really the ones that should be taken down) or one that uses clips fairly. However, it's the MANUALLY flagged videos are the major offenders here. The system is so "for the copyright holders" that any random Joe can say, "Ooh, I want to make some money" and claim a random video. What does that mean? People and companies can claim videos they don't own.
The system also allows for situations such as IHE vs. Derek Savage, where the latter sent takedown notices on certain reviews IHE made (reminder that reviews fall under fair use) simply because he didn't like the opinions expressed. Savage then proceeded to bully IHE and harass him into making a public apology and removing the review videos. The way that the DMCA is established now allowed Savage to do this and GET AWAY WITH IT. This just isn't right.
Heck, even I have experienced a little taste of this when a company claimed monetization on one of my videos that they didn't even own the content to. They blocked the video in Japan and got money from placing ads on my video. I ultimately removed the video, but the fact that the company was able to do this with no human reviewing it is rather unfair.
A recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors determined that almost 30 percent of takedown notices are extremely questionable. A human needs to be looking at those types of notices. It can't be left to an algorithm or a bot, because in this situation, it's very unreliable.
Even though the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA are meant to make an open Internet, the procedures for notice-and-takedown actions were made in a way that copyright holders and random Joes can shut down legitimate fair use videos and literally steal the money that the original channel is supposed to be making.
The takedown process seriously hinders content creators at their important moments. Small business wouldn't be able to grow, political speeches can be censored... This type of attack can't be undone.
Copyright holders need to have to have more responsibility for analyzing whether or not a usage falls under fair use, and if they claim a video or put a strike on one that IS fair use, there need to be consequences. The claimant should have to be responsible for their false action(s), because right now, the way the system works, the content creators get all the consequences and the claimants get off scot free. There is no balance here. When the content creators aren't in the wrong, this means they are unfairly punished because somebody thought they could get some cash by ruining the lives of some innocent content creators.
...OK, that may be a little exaggerated, but stealing money and being able to take down videos with a few mouse clicks is not cool.
We need balance in this system. I believe that there need to be consequences for false claims, and for damage to not be so severe to the content creator in the event that a claim does come up, simply because there are immediate consequences no matter the validity of the claim. A human should have to see the claim before anything happens, and then, APPROPRIATE action should be taken. There shouldn't be bias like there already is.
The DMCA is an old law that has harmed many content creators on the internet. Many creators have lost money, time, and their livelyhoods because of the constant abuse of the fair use system. It MUST be revised or else many will suffer from the abise for years to come. And on the modern internet, this can mean the difference between a meal for the family and starving. Please, amend or discard the DMCA and help content creators keep their lives secure.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube*, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
*To zero in on YouTube, a user who goes by the name I Hate Everything posted a video review of a movie entitled Cool Cat Saves The Kids, using footage of the movie. The creator of said movie proceeded to file a copyright takedown on not only his video but several others through YouTube's copyright system, and hanged the threat of more strikes (which would lead to a user account becoming deleted) over him like a Sword of Damocles, in a constant string of harassment. A user by the name of TheMysteriousMrEnter has had a video review of an Australian cartoon entitled Pixel Pinkie taken down on copyright grounds three times by the creator. If that was settled in a court, it would be a clear case of double jeopardy. A user named Jim Sterling has had multiple video game developers takedown his reactions and impressions of their games. And that's not covering copyright takedowns of videos that have no footage of a game or a film or even any copyrighted material to begin with, and takedowns by those who don't even own the copyrighted material. All of these examples were in Fair Use, as the copyrighted material was transformative and used for critique. But YouTube and the DMCA has no checks-and-balances for protecting a content creator from an abuser, and thus, all of them escaped prosecution and accountability. This must be stopped.
I do not want to live in a world where what I or anyone else will say is constantly under threat by severe negligence or malice. I do not want to live in a world where all too easily anybody can just censor somebody else on a whim, on a flick of the wrist. I do not want to live in a world so overrun with protecting property reaches maniacal levels and anyone who dares even touch a second of someone else's thing is sued. I do not want to live in a world that caters exclusively to the ones on top at such an extreme, not even a single person even gets a chance to have their say.
I do not want to live in a world where the word copyright is to be feared, rather than to be seen as a protection.
Sincerely,
Colin Prosser
DMCA's are being abused by major corporations who are censoring peoples views and comments even when it isn't legal. The internet has no voice thanks to false claims like these take down notices on Youtube videos that fall completely under fair use. Something needs to be changed as censorship is rampant even when the content falls under no copy right infringement. Please help us update this broken system to help content creators.
Hi, I'm just an average teenager. Recently, videos made by me have been taken down because they were criticizing Derek Savage. No hate speech was used or copyrighted content. Sadly I was guilty until proven innocent because of the DMCA. That is not how our justice system works, so why should this be any different. Please change it for the well being and growth of the internet. Thank You.
Does this seem fair to you? We live in a world were freedom is the greatest right we have. Yet a mindless machine is able to take that right away in seconds.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
Should there not be penalties for this kind of behavior by corporations. They have the ability to mess with people's livelihood's by taking their means of supporting themselves. Yet even when the corporation is proven wrong they are able to continue to make false claims and continue to basically steal from other people.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
For YEARS mere entertainment to millions of people across the globe has been intercepted by any company big or small by an easy-to-abuse system known as the infamous YouTube Copyright System. I have seen many people I have respect for struggle to stay afloat in the waters of this site because the vocal minority of producers, games developers and many other entertainment producers suppress viable argument in a desperate attempt for as little negativity as possible, and in turn stopping hundreds of thousands from making their own decisions. It makes the whole idea of Fair Use seem like a mere gimmick legitimate creators cower under instead of serving the purpose we all expect it to provide without question. Many people have lost jobs and hobbies because of what is nothing short of a disgusting display of abuse towards the law and people who serve under it, I wish we can all simply rest easy knowing we don't need to publicise our own problems and plead for the help of our audiences to continue to do what we all have the right to do: make money. We should not be expected to police ourselves and solve issues like these on our own, while a totally functional law operates everywhere but on this twisted landscape. I truly hope you can put these fears to rest once and for all, as it's only been a destructive dilemma for everybody involved.
This madness can't happen!
I'm a librarian and classes on fair use and copywrite are a standard requirement of library science. Though I am not a YouTube content creator, Internet sites such as YouTube, Channel Awesome, and Twitch.tv are my main source of entertainment... in this day and age, who needs a TV anymore? I love internet-produced content, and to see the absolute bullying that these content creators are going through because of an outdated act, the DMCA, is ridiculous. It is used to censor free speech, to steal their rightful monetization, and worst of all, there is no regard by the current systems in place for fair use at all. Please update copyright law, impose stricter penalties for people abusing the takedown system on YouTube, and Internet content creators are an "industry" worth equal and fair representation against these big corporate bullies in their own right. Protect free speech and fair use!
While I'm not an active content creator or a person who makes an income from the internet I've witnessed a disturbing number of lesser known to well-known individuals and businesses having their content unfairly taken down and receiving unfair punishments under the notice-and-takedown process established by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Studies from Berkley and Columbia show that "up to 30 percent of the takedown notices are of questionable validity," and since the DMCA allows judgement based solely on algorithms without human scrutiny many of these instances are impossible to plead or take unnecessarily complicated processes to, in a sense, cry for help from the community that supports them. Additionally it has come to my attention that almost anyone can simply claim a right to someone else's work regardless of actual ownership, and such cases are apparent in addition to the surge of companies making unfair claims that would be found invalid in court. Unfair and false claims are not accounted for in the DMCA as it stands now, and such abuse and outright theft respectively must now be taken into account.
Human involvement must be taken to assure that exceptions sanctioned by copyright laws can be protected, that claims are more closely monitored so that false or unfair claims can be punished and therefore discouraged, that content creators and small businesses are given an equal voice to defend their case against accusation, that individual rights of free speech are maintained and that the automatic takedown system is not so blatantly misused to the detriment of content creators and small businesses.
Several big content creators on Youtube I follow, reviewers mostly, have had their revenue, their main or even only source of income, stolen by companies making copyright claims on videos that are undoubtedly fair use, because they are critiques. Their channels are essentially held hostage for days or weeks with no repercussions to companies making false claims, while content creators can have their channels deleted. They even keep the revenue money they obtained while the claim was active.
And this says nothing for who knows how many starting content creators get videos flagged and don't have the sway and connections of the more well known to fight back. These people starting up may never get the chance to become big if their channels are removed or they might decide it isn't worth it, this is completely unfair to them. And the DMCA is what allows all of this abuse.
The internet has gone through many changes and grown exponentially since 1998. It's been almost two decades. The law is long overdue for an overhaul.
There have been many content creators I've seen in this day and age that have material which would stand up in court as fair use, yet have been unfairly biased against in favor of those abusing the current DMCA system, whether the person abusing the system is large like a corporation or small such as another content creator. This needs to stop before all fair use is thrown away and no one is fairly justified.
I have seen so many content creators nearly lose their livelihoods due to companies abusing copyright policies on YouTube and striking against videos that should be protected by fair use. The government needs to crack down on copyright abuse. This is a matte of freedom of expression that shouldn't be taken away from us!
Although this may seem a great idea to prevent copyright issues, it's the community of the world wide web that gets harmed in the process. Not only does this affect the USA, it affects the whole world as many people won't be able to access many works of art that are created by people who are literally nobodies in the era we live in. We have the right, as citizens of the USA, to have freedom of speech. Even if we are silenced, we won't be quiet for long.
_________________________________
I love to parody and have freedom to make things that I love seeing people like Markipiler or the Nostalgia Critic. We need do change it. Please Washington, do not keep down our voices. The internet IS our voice. People of the generation of the internet have change the world in more ways than you know! Helping people, making people smile when having a bad day. And the parodies to poke fun at others is the freedom that should not be taken away from us. Please do not take our voice away. By doing this your only harming a beautiful communication route that could even inspire you.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
the thing never done harm to me, but im trying to start up on doing reviews and all that cool jazz, but seeing other people getting copyright takedown from other people (some who don't even own some of these said content in the first place), and it just doesnt seem fair, that some of the practices, like reviews and other things falls under fair use, and it doesnt seem all that fair to have other people taking other people's videos down, because the fair use laws has some loop-holes in it.
Um... I didn't want to just copy the default letter, and I still am a bit shy and don't know how to express myself well enough, but please bear with me...
Youtube is a really important place for me. Whenever I'm unable to function in the world and want an escape, I listen to music and watch entertaining videos to cheer me up. Instead of watching television, I'm much more interested in helping smaller groups of people earn a little money than helping corporate big shots. They already have tons of money, so why not help out other talented, funny people? Youtube has kinda become a business in a way, and businesses always have those people who lie just so they can get a little bit more. The DMCA has falsely accused other youtubers of stealing content that is under fair use. They harass and aren't nice to them at all. The DMCA needs to be stopped because the internet is changing and something like the DMCA doesn't fit anymore.
Thank you for your time...
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
DMCA misuses has affected me in particular although i am not a content creator, as I use the video hosting site youtube as my main source of video entertainment. Regularly, and increasingly, i am seeing the content creators I follow having their videos taken down unfairly by DMCA strikes, while their videos fall well into fair use. Sometimes the same video of theirs will receive multiple strikes by the same company or person under a different name! I've seen abusers use the DMCA system in order to threaten and ultimately silence those who criticize them, or even those who they see as competition. It is clear that this is a threat to free speech on many of these widely used internet platforms, and that this system of copyright strikes does not properly take fair use into account, and is highly biased in favor of those placing the strikes.
Let me start with saying thank you so much for listening. I know that whomever is reading this has been assaulted with (albeit at times justifiable) rage comments. But any time rage like this reaches the masses on such a scale it should not be taken lightly. This is certainly not the first time that Fair Use has been questioned and will certainly not be the last but the least we can ask for is updated rules that fits more the internet environment of today than in the late 90's. These rules and unjustifiable take downs are not only affecting our entertainment but people's actual livelihoods as people have come to rely as a source of income that the DMCA has made climate of uncertainty. I'm sorry that I must say the most cliche of phrases but we live in a different world. A world where rules that at one time protected people now do nothing but hurt them. I mean hasn't it been shown time and time again from the history and classic literature that a stagnant law will often turn antagonistic towards who it should be trying to protect if not in constant upkeep? I am not speaking of the rippers or the pirates, who let's be honest usually stay clear of youtube, that should be penalized but for the little guys who yes base ideas off of others (but in reality who hasn't) and keeps their content within fair use but it does not matter when a bigger adversary drowns out their own voice and rights. I understand any new or updated law will not be perfect, or may not solve the problem right away but something has to be done to at least attempt to make our voice heard a little more in a country where the freedom of speech is supposed to be protected.
(AKA STOP THE BULLCRAP)
Seriously, this copyright stuff is becoming more abusive than helpful.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouiraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Times have changed. Content creation and ownership cannot be dealt with in the same way that it was so many years ago. With the growing internet industry, home grown entertainers (like those from youtube) and larger intellectual property owners (like Disney) are facing off more and more often. Steps need to be taken to insure that critics and entertainers are not being abused by these larger companies. Steps need to be taken to insure that these larger companies are not having their products stolen or altered and resold, effectively ripping their profits from them. It is up to you to find the middle ground between these two powerful groups. Lobbying, petitions, and emails like this one should be taken into account, but look further into solutions that will aid both sides. A compromise is always there. I trust you to make the right decision. The following message is from takedownabuse.org, who favor the less financially powerful group of internet content creators:
A great deal has already been said about the outrageous abuse of the DMCA, but I feel compelled nonetheless to voice my concern as well. Fair use is an important right which has been largely ignored on sites such as YouTube by many individuals and organizations. Claims against content, regardless of the actual legality of the piece and its adherence to fair use, are issued much tot frequently. Ad revenue claimed as a result of incorrect or even malicious claims cannot be recovered by the creators even when the claim is overturned, and creators must endure a lengthy, frustrating, and time-consuming process to retain their content and prove their innocence (rather than the claimant having to prove the defendant's guilt). The DMCA's failure to provide penalties for false copyright claims, its outdated understanding of the internet today, and its potential to destroy, rather than protect, the livelihoods of honest, hardworking people must end. Please amend the DMCA to hold abusers of the law accountable, protect the innocent, and guide the U.S. (and the world) into a more free vision of the future. Thank you for your time.
Small internet entertainers are constantly harassed by the thought of a DMCA takedown even though they are protected from fair use. The DMCA takedowns don't stop copy write infringement. There are plenty of places where you can get copy writed material for free no law can stop assholes from being assholes.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is EXTREMELY vulnerable to errors and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition, silence criticism, and extract money from innocent victims.
In fact, there are companies that will issue multiple copyright strikes against the same video, only using a slightly different name, in order to keep stealing revenue from content creators. Plus, it's also been known that some companies issue takedown notices against fair use videos; not because they believe they're infringing copyright, but because they're offering negative criticism that corporations want to silence.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses, or when they generate the largest amount of revenue for the content creator. This kind of damage can not be undone by simply appealing the takedown notice.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Below are huge issues and very OBVIOUS blatant misuses of copyright take-downs involving absolute bias.
Examples of the issues currently going on YouTube
Our original video on Fair Use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFA...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0W...
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (STILL going on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J0...
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ...
Team Four Star's issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkc...
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nU...
Chibi Reviews gets a DMCA for talking about snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWys...
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company - MMA company thinks it makes the law!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXo...
Mr Enter and the saga of DMCA after DMCA takedown on the SAME video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtw...
NFKRZ and how ransom is now on YouTube!
Relive 1998 here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1UY7...
Space Jam circa 1996 still alive - http://www.warnerbros.com/archive/spa...
This is very important to many people, people who watch entertainment and people who make their entire livings making entertainment. I admit that I don't know much about how to remedy this, but I know that there is a way and I urge you to do your best to fix this.
Fair use is our right!
To sum up in my own words, 1 Federalist Papers these people should read them two screw anyone abusing copy right law.
Free speech is the free right of all free people. To take away that Right is truly in american.
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This issue has gotten so bad that we have been seeing everything from DMCA takedowns being used as personal attacks against reviewers, to ridiculous takedowns of content where no footage or audio of the source material is even being used. The current process lays all punishment and work to 'clear their name' on the often innocent content creators while having zero repercussions for people and companies who file unjustified claims.
While I understand and agree that it is a necessary means of maintaining copyright, the process needs to be reassessed. The automatic process has too many flaws, and the fact that an individual/'company' can essentially file as many claims as they want (while honest people suffer the unjustified takedowns for weeks on end) is an issue. There should be some sort of penalty paid for people who file false claims, the same as there is a penalty for people 'breaking' copyright law.
The DMCA is failing its purpose and innocent people are being bullied by larger corporations.
notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright bullies who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Personally, I have been affected by companies claiming my content which has been 100% my own content, and have been penalized and lost revenue because of this. There are no safeguards in place to prevent these issues being made by individuals, which is a massive problem. Where's the fair use.
I have A YouTube Channel (Melodious Lyrics) some videos randomly get taken down because of the DMCA's please fix it #wtfu
Over the past couple years i have watched some of my favorite YouTuber's go through so many copyright strikes. It has become a norm for content creators to fear making anything that is not fully original in their videos, including myself. Using even a picture from a show can get someone to get a strike on their channel which is ridiculous! It is appalling to see so many businesses trying to take down these videos because they don't want even a smidgen of their work presented in someone else's content. Even if the channel is praising their work, they can still be seen a threat and me taken down! I'm a fan of My Little Pony friendship is magic and i have watch so many channels get these strikes because they shows a clip, picture or audio from the show, and although they usually were saying they enjoyed it, they still get in trouble for it. Personally, i don't think that's fair. Not only are these company's taking advantage of Youtuber's, but it is possible for someone to send out a strike on someone even if they don't own any of the content, it is that easy to take advantage of someone on YouTube! Because of this, as a content creator myself, i fear being taken down myself one day.
Everythings has been said. It's time for a change.
The false copyright claims have reached epidemic levels, and the abuse of the DMCA has become unacceptably commonplace.
Claims have been made on content NOT even owned by the claimant, used as threats against specific creators, and even made on content that was already cleared as Fair Use.
This cannot be allowed to continue
Although I reside in Canada, which has updated their copyright laws in 2012, content creators such as myself are still bound my America's DMCA which drastically needs an update or rewrite, so that corporations cannot bully content creators out of views and funds with no repercussions for a false claim.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The System is broken and needs to be fixed.
(and also companies in Japan specifically need to be taught how fair use works with international media, I'm looking at you Nintendo and your leeching off of Let's Players who are making legitimately transformative work)
Personally, I've been working on starting my own Youtube channel centered mostly around gaming content. I aim to make informative and hopefully entertaining videos based off of gaming subjects, controversies, and my own personal view on the gaming industry. However, I've been very wary about doing so do to the over abuse of the copyright system I've experience on the site. My experiences have been completely indirect so far, mostly they've been by seeing my favorite content creators coming under fire from people abusing the system. I've been trying to find the best way to make content on the site that would be able to get my points across with video and auditory evidence from these games as well as staying in within the bounds of "fair use". This has become increasingly difficult as of late because of companies misuse of the system. Even though I understand the term, it seems the people at these companies do not and will claim and strike videos even when they are using fair use practices. This "guilty until proven innocent" approach that has been used on the internet is a terrible way to handle content creation. My point in all of this is that the laws should be changed to promote both fair use of the copyrighted by content creators and the owners of the copyrighted material. You should condemn piracy and misuse of copyrighted content, but you shouldn't restrict criticism and freedom of speech.
The DMCA at this point have become a weapon. I have to see content creators that I watch get their channels or pages taken down at least once a month with very little ability to fight back. The system as It's being used right now is laughably one sided, and the side it picks is that of the claimant. Where is the protection for content creators in this time when anyone can make content and upload to popular sites. The DMCA is outdated and needs to be revised to fit the current internet as it stands today for sites like Youtube. Fair use is being shut out and It's not okay. When you see clear cut cases of fair use being taken out by DMCA's It's clear that there is an issue and that the act is failing.
Long story short, large companies are taking down Youtube videos and channels that have even a shred of their content in it. Even if the channels are not trying to make money off of their videos, they are still victimized by false copyright strikes. If you want more detail, these Youtubers fully explain the problems with the current system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjvoJe4_v9k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kElEmlKZ0oY
Look I don't 100% understand the idea of the copyright laws but I do know one thing. These laws are costing many very talented and hardworking people money, time, and unneeded stress. Also, it's making people just about to start out (me) too intimated to to start making content. So please you don't need to get rid of these laws 100% but you MUST update these laws for the 21st century!!!
This needs to be fixed immediately. Update copyright law, or aspiring content creators will be crushed under the soles of big business companies desperate to deny evolution of technology and loss of sales. We can't let them win any longer.
Furthermore companies are abusing the power granted to them under DMCA to intimidate and bully people who review and criticize a product. Methods of which being putting constant strikes on a video, wrongfully taking down content that is protected by fare use, taking any revenue that the video could produce, and sending intimidating messages via email or social media. The DMCA is outdated for the rapid change in technology and how people consume media and has unfortunately allowed a culture of abuse and intimidation.
People use it to ruin other content creators so please help fix youtube . They hurt alot of the content
The copyright system is being abused in this day. I support freedom of speech on the internet and I would like to see a change in the way things are run so content creators don't face bogus takedowns.
These kind of takedowns are abusive and just outright wrong.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Accountability, is to go BOTH ways. Not just one way. If bias gets in the way of judgement. Then fairness and due process can not be done.
The notice-and-takedown proceiss under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. I'm only 17 but I think this system needs to be charged
Hi, I am an average normal person and i love internet entertain. I watch them every day when ever i'm board or i need to cheer myself up when i'm down. I have become a fan of a couple internet shows and my most favorite is the nostalgia critic. i even became a huge fan of Youtube poop. Youtube poop is making a parody of tv shows, movies, video games etc. I even want to make them when i get a better movie maker like sony vegas and all of them fall under fair use. But sadly, Fair use has been abused by people who false claim content they don't even own. Some of my favorite videos and reviews i like watching were taken down because of copyright infringement when it's not even half of their work. Some of those movie companies say that they "create the law." Some were even threatening you tubers to take down their videos. And even videos with music playing in the background is being taken down. I'm so sick of this. It's not infringement if it's being used for reviews or parodies. I even fear for the internet's future and the people who want to make youtube videos for a living. We need to show them that this is not ok and that Fair Use is being abused. It's time to make a stand.
Sincerely- Ivan.
yeh what fam said up there
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Now above was legal representation of the problem at hand, but there is much evidence to prove this claim, especially on the multi-platform business YouTube. On YouTube much content that is under fair use with parody, satire, or just critiquing parts of entertainment has been under fair use but not treated as such and in a way that is both infuriating and terrifying. To prove this, here are some examples.
YouTube Channel- I Hate Everything:
This channel reviews online memes, Cinema, Television, and other social constructs, and uses all of his content under fair use. However, his channel has been taken down multiple times due to false accusations of unfair use of content while it was under fair use. He critiqued something by, as his name suggests, hating it, but while cruel dues fall under fair use and is legal in which. This however did not stop a third party from taking his channel down, ceasing his livelihood for a limited time.
YouTube Channel- MrMysteriousMrEnter:
This channel has had his videos taken down again and again as well as monetization being taken from his videos due to third parties doing this, and just like I Hate Everything, has had his channel taken down multiple times as well.
YouTube Channel- Channel Awesome:
This is a channel that has helped spread awareness to some of these channels and has itself had videos taken down and demonitized where the money was given to the third parties and his livelihood was taken away.
there are more examples and was in a bit of a rush, but there is evidence of this happening, look at #WTFU, wheres the fair use, which gives many examples of this occurring on YouTube and try and help give this issue notice
DMCA is literally the worst thing to ever happen to the internet. It is used almost exclusively used by large corporations to stop out smaller content creators, costing the economy billions in ad revenue.
Copyright infringement is a legitimate concern in this day and age. However, it should not be used as an excuse to silence criticism, satire, or reviews. Fair use is a genuine doctrine that needs to be considered before taking action. Copyright holders need to learn this and if so be punished in some way when falsely accusing one of copyright infringement. This is not a conservative or liberal issue. This is an issue of Liberty and let's treat like one so Freedom can prosper on the Internet!
DMCA, while reasonable in concept, cannot continue to operate as it does today. While property rights are important, it fails to protect them in a non-destructive manner. It has been abused by malicious parties attempting to stifle free speech. While the claims can be challenged, it forces the content to be taken down and locks it behind a lengthy settlement process. In addition, many parties have begun automatically scanning for and taking down content which shows similarities to their own. While this can and does protect some content, it actively hurts others by forcing a change in their content or restricting access to their content. The way claims under DMCA are handled must change to prevent abuse.
I also would like to ask you to analyze how is it possible that harmless youtubers, bloggers and just people enjoying their hobby or doing THEIR JOB (because is their income), are being abused, stalked and taken down for things unreasonable, but people who had been accused of sexual harassment in and out of their videos are NOT being taken down?
Please, I am a regular user of YouTube since 2012 and I really love this place and it brakes my heart to see the people that make this wonderful place possible being damaged by the same place where they found their way to be themselves.
I am being you: update the law to the 21st century.
Thank you.
Plus, they are using it to bully and censor content from others despite being in fair use or not even having any content at all. We cannot let loopholes abusers run ravage in this. Let's make Copyright right again!
The Internet is the freedom of information and that information needs and wants to be shared, to rid the world of ignorance and injustice; for everyone to be equal. There need to be new rules because the world is evolving and to stay on top of the food chain, you have to adapt. Adapt the Internet as a tool and useful means of communication. Use the information to better the world and not line your pockets. Use what is one of man-kinds best creations to help man-kind, not just one man. This is America, "land of the free and home of the brave", and all americans should have that feeling; not the people that will extort and end somebodies life line if they get offended. Be brave enough and free enough to take a family video at an amusement park and not be scared that the family may not be able to pay the bills for months, even years, if they let any one see it. Be free enough to let two friends just talk in the back of a car about a movie that they just saw and post their opinion online and not be scared that they might not see any movies for just talking. Be free enough for a mother to film her baby dancing to a Prince song and want to share the happiness with the world then have her video get taken down because the song was on the radio.
One of the worse things these companies do on youtube is make false claims about fair use on videos that clearly do not violate the DMCA. With the way the current system works a company gets the profits made from a video from the time they flag it until the case is settled. Even if a video is shown to comply with the DMCA the company that accused the video of violating the law still gets to keep the money they unfairly got from the video. Imagine if someone complained about your work and your boss gave them all of your pay until their complaint could be analyzed. Then after it was shown you did nothing wrong they still got to keep your pay. It's stealing; there's no nicer way of putting it. Even movie reviewers who only talk about a movie on a video site and never even show any clips from it are having their videos flagged. It's ridiculous. Something needs to be done to protect this form of free speech.
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I had a blog on blogger. Which was a blog focusing on copyrighted works. We had still images for references, we kept getting claimed until the demise of the site. WE NEED TO CHANGE THIS!
I know that whoever you are that is reading this has to get through a lot of comments, so I'll try to make this brief. The DMCA is an archaic law in serious need of updating. It was written almost two decades ago for an Internet that no longer exists. The Internet has grown so far since that time, it can practically be considered a whole new entity. The most obvious problem with the DMCA is the penalty-free nature in which individuals are allowed to issue false copyright claims. The DMCA seemed to be written from the ignorant perspective that no one would issue copyright claims for threats or harassment, or at least that such people would be few and insignificant. Nothing could be further from the truth. You probably know all of the examples of how this has been abused in the recent past, so I'll spare you.
The Good News, however, is that this problem is completely solvable and the solution is not as difficult as it would appear. The DMCA does not need to be completely re-written as some may lead you to believe. Rather, this problem could be alleviated by one simple change, an amendment that would easily solve the most pressing issue with the DMCA. Provide a significant penalty to those who issue false copyright claims (through a platform like Youtube or otherwise), even if their case never makes it to court. This way, Content-Creators may protect themselves from harassment and legal coercion, and belligerent companies may longer be able to manipulate and steal from legitimate Content-Creators without fear of repercussion.
Now, I'm not saying that this will solve all the problems with the DMCA. The DMCA needs to be constantly worked on, and the fact that it has remained a stagnant law for so long is how we've gotten ourselves stuck here in the first place. Rather, this is just a starting point, a rung to help us climb towards a permanent solution.
I apologize if my comment was too long in a sea of long comments, and I sincerely appreciate whoever reads this and their effort to solve a seriously understated issue.
Knowing that Youtubers, especially Doug Walker, TheMysteriousMrEnter and Totalbiscuit, can and are being harassed by companies without any wrongdoing is disturbing.
When they have spend time and effort to heavily edit segments of shows, movies and to a lesser extend games, to critic and provide enlightening insight on our entertainment industry, to see them being bullied by often thread bare or even outrageous takedowns really makes me wonder how such an obscure Act still exists.
These Youtubers have no power to defend their efforts from being attacked when the takedowns are unlimited and unregulated. The lack of human interaction aggravates this further, thus I hope this system can be corrected to ensure legitimate accusations are filed. The three cross (X) method of punishing channels could be tweak to allow channels to "um-cross" themselves after a period of correcting their videos and keeping to the Fair Use laws. The takedown claims should require actual blatant copying that are reviewed by actual people before they take effect. Lastly, penalties should be given to not just Youtubers, but also the companies that abuse the Fair Use laws.
If there are people reading this, I thank you for your time.
Don't fuck with fun shit, yo.
You're ruining people's livelihoods andmaking the world a worse place. People are losing even more faith. Do something about it already.
Ive been Making Fan Made Trailers and Other type of Content for over five years now. Recently ive seen content creators get their videos removed from claimants who don't even own any of the content displayed in said video.
Basically, copyright holders have too much power. The fair use laws set seem to mean absolutely nothing to the copyright holders. Several movie reviews, video game reviews and anime reviews taken down while there are full episodes uploaded and they don't even try to stop it! There needs to be a change. And it needs to happen now.
One of my favourite content producers is Alex from I Hate Everything. He has been targeted multiple times, but the worst time was when someone just said that he had copyrighted music in a clip of one of his videos. (I forget which one, but he addresses this in his video "This isn't funny anymore!", just in case you want to see for yourself) in the video, he also says that he can (and I'm paraphrasing here,) feel the ad revenue that belongs to him just go to some thief. When I heard this I fealt genuinely helpless. Then, I saw Doug's video on the subject and I immediately came to this site. I want to help, so much. I fell that this can make a positive difference here. Now, the main issue is that you don't need proof of someone stealing copyrighted material, and this needs to change. Now. So, please, try to change this. Fake DMCA takedowns are the cancer of YouTube.
I'll admit I personally don't have a lot of experience with Fair use as well as the politics behind it. However, what I do know is that if credit is given to the original owners of whatever is being used(images, clips, names, ect.) then I don't see what's the main problem since those original owners are still getting attention and acknowledgement for their property. And even then, stuff like let's plays and reviews can actually be a huge benefit to the original owners since(depending on how well it's presented) it can allow others to take an interest and maybe cause them to go out and buy the official release for themselves. And besides, making small random videos online like reviews and let's plays are just that, small and random. Just something for people to do in their spare time either cause they're bored or they want to use those types of videos to improve their skills in acting, video making, debating, entertaining ect. And personally, I see no reason to take that right away from people. Again I'm not that knowledgeable when it comes to this. However, what I can say about this is that fair use is a form of freedom. To take away that freedom is to strip one aspect of equal rights and freedom. While this is small in comparison to some other form of freedom, it still doesn't change the fact it is still being taken away just to satisfy the personal needs of a few people. And that's not being fair, that's rejecting fair use because they didn't want their precious property to be used by someone else. That's not fair, that's not equal right, so think about that when making a final decision.
I refer you to the statement below.
There are times that the DMCA is needed, and intellectual properties need to be protected. But the current rules permit companies to bully others into silence with no backlash or punishments!
To make matters worse, it forces good companies to still take an overly aggressive stance on their own properties or face a "defend it or lose it" status, meaning projects made to praise their work often need to be stopped or removed.
I have even seen a number of larger scale projects have a home base in other counties just for protection agaisnt copyright claims, even when it is clear the project is just a parody or homage, and it just isn't right.
The rules need to be redrawn, and they need to be fair. Property needs to be protected, and abusers need to be punished, on all sides. Stop the bullying, fix DMCA take downs please.
This used to be a country founded on the idea that anyone with the talent & drive could be successful. It's not too late to make that our ideal again. What happened to the America I knew?
I and other content creators on YouTube have suffered egregiously under illegitimate DMCA takedown notices. Whether we're creating anime music videos (AMVs) or taping a conversation in a car about a movie, we're all vulnerable, despite copyright law's clear wording that such things are completely legal under Fair Use. Media theft is a real thing, but so are trolls and false claims. Corporations and trolls need to be held accountable and internet content creators need protection. The current code is out of date and gives corporations too much unchecked power. Take this into account when reviewing the current copyright laws, please.
"People videos are being taking down for no reason...
The points this man makes are good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
(It's difficult for me to talk about something like this but I'll try)
What he says is true people's content are taking down for no reasons what so ever... and how it's very abused and is used to threaten people's content and how companies lie about making a certain law.
(Its very hard for me to talk about this stuff but i hoped this was enough)"
I know of many reviewers who have have their videos removed, when all they were doing was critiquing a work. They weren't trying to give away the original copyrighted work for free, they were talking about its merits and/or flaws. Often these reviews would influence my decision to legally view the work (via dvd, streaming, etc.) bringing in more revenue to the original creators. The creators of reviews and critiques are beneficial to the media market and will likely foster future original creators.
As a content creator, I'm constantly in fear of having my hard work taken away from me just because I use something from someone else that abides by fair use with plenty of crediting to boot. YouTube is especially bad with their system. Lets make fair content shine again by removing false restrictive services!
While I agree that there needs to be some form of protection online to stop digital piracy, of music, ebooks, etc- the DMCA is a really flawed way of doing it. I have friends who blog on YouTube, and it truly is a nightmare when the DMCA taps you for a violation. There's no leeway, no fighting it. No way to keep your legit content on the web. Currently, my favorite Facebook page is fighting to stay online after ONE disgruntled person filed a few bogus complaints under the DMCA. Did anyone check the validity of these claims? NO. They just sanctioned a legitimate page based on one loudmouth's lies. The theory behind the DMCA is sound, but the abuse HAS TO STOP.
I'll leave the stock response below, as I have read it in full and agree with it.
Big companies can unfairly use this system to steal money from content creators by capitalizing on videos that have little to do with them. They can also just take down negative reviews of their content even if the use of their content in the video falls under fair use. These laws need a massive overhaul to be made less exploitable.
First: I am a content creator on YouTube. Three friends and I started a channel to play video games and produce comedic content. The DMCA hinders our channel, making it nearly impossible to produce any ad revenue.
We've lost entire videos to copyright claims, including a 12-hour livestream of Rock Band 4 because of ONE Jimmy Hendrix song we played. One song completely ruined any chance we have to show that video on our channel again.
The DMCA was created before the era of YouTube. It does not provide save havens for Fair Use and does not provide any consequences for false claims made against content.
This is not just a problem for small hobby-level channels like ours. Bigger channels that employ dozens of people. The careers and livelihoods of these professionals are in jeopardy because of a law nearly two decades old; from a time when the idea of creating video content for the internet was just a fantasy.
Given all of that as a new content creator it has made me leery of even attempting to start being heard on the Internet. Since my content will be dramatic readings of old legends which cannot be copywrited I still worry that I will be targeted as a small time content creator.
For the copyright system to work, there needs to be severe penalties for filing false claims. In addition, all monetization should be placed in a side account while the claim is being disputed. The constant violations of Fair Use on the internet infringe upon the rights granted to American citizens by the First Amendment, specifically, our right to free speech. Please, let us have the right to Fair Use.
The DMCA, once used to help the content creators that we enjoy, is not being used to attack and harass those same creators. They silence free speech and even take the money some creators use to live is being taken. Even videos that lack Copyrighted footage are under attack. This bullying of Youtube creators that only mean to share their opinions and entertain the viewers of the world has got to be stopped.
You must be STOPPED. Government, what the hell do you think you're doing? Just not caring at all about how the internet works. Just forgetting about trying to stop YouTube's bullshit system. I think it's time to fix the DMCA. Or KILL it.
The fact that there are no consequences to companies issuing strikes on YouTube videos is bizarre. There should be a system in place where if the action fails on the company's part and there was no copyright infringement on the creator's part, the company would have to pay damages to make up for the amount of time the video was banned. If there is copyright infringement in the creator's part, the claimant won't be punished.
My name is Gabriel Shahid. I am an Eagle Scout. I have been using and creating videos online for a very small audience for over 3 years now. I chose this very issue to speak about in my Public Speaking class, and i would like to present it to whoever may be listening now so that I may make a change for the better.
In my short time of being a content creator online, I have heard of hundreds of unethical and in many cases illegal takedowns of videos. The worst part is that these illegal takedowns do not just consist of my favorite 'far-off' Youtubers, they happen to everyone: close friends of mine, the new hard-working and aspiring YouTubers, and even the large multi-network channels. However, most terrifyingly, it happens to the least of us. Small families have uploaded videos of the kids dancing to a song that might happen to have been copyrighted, and these videos are faced with takedown, despite these types of videos falling under the protection of the fair use act. Young reviewers face unfair takedowns, even if they provide insightful critique that may end up supporting the content they review, and their content falls under the protection of fair use. We need these reviewers, because with a lack of communication about the entertainment we pay to watch comes ignorance, dissatisfaction, and untrustworthiness. Animators I love to watch and artists of the online world have had their content taken down indefinitely and their careers online destroyed and their revenues taken, despite the fact that their videos fall under the protection of fair use. We need these animators and artists because they are the voice of creativity, and taking them down leads to no entertainment and a lack of appreciation for art.
On YouTube specifically, please don't let the minority who seeks to control the freedom of speech online continue to unfairly bully individuals. Thousands of people know the terror of having their content taken down and their rightful earnings taken away because of some individual silencing their work. These companies and people that take down completely legitimate and legal videos are persistent, and in many cases, such as in Doug Walker's experience, they will try to takedown videos at least once or twice a day of the channel is well-known enough. There just isn't enough time for anyone to have to deal with the unfair amount of these copyright claims. YouTube's copyright system is extremely unfair for an individual that is just trying to create his own content.
These kinds of content takedowns happen so much, that it makes it not only challenging to upload a work with the amount of effort put into it, but dangerous for the individual uploading it as well, as the whole project could have just been a waste of time due to a takedown. Please consider reconsidering the DMCA law for our present time, because I'm pretty sure a lot of people will be glad you did.
This:
The DMCA is old and outdated. It needs to be changed. Companies are abusing it and it is not serving its purpose. Digital content on the internet has changed so much since the time that the DMCA was first put in place. It is being abused and it needs to stop. Content creators can lose potential income because of a false copyright claim on a video. If you do not have the means to fight this unfair, then there isn't any hope in fighting the unfairness. Everything below my comment is true and I want to leave it in because it explains more than I can articulate. I hope that others who have been affected by the unfair usage of the DMCA will post their comments and tell their story. Nostalgia Critic brought me here with his videos on fair use. He has been affected by the abuse of this now outdated and aging system that needs to be changed. I recommend that you watch his video on this and listen to what he has to say.
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgement to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Please let us all sit down and have an honest and intelligent discussion about this. This law is literally ancient. It does not account for anything that is happening in today's world. It needs to be looked at an updated to current societal standards.
Dear Copyright Office of the United States of America:
I am writing with regards to one of the most unrecognized forms of abuse in media going on today. The abuse of content creators who profit and, in many cases, obtain their income through Fair Use. While the DMCA was created with both copyright holders and content creators in mind, its application on the internet is strictly biased towards corporate copyright holders. I myself, have seen numerous content creators on major media websites such as Youtube who have come under attack by companies claiming to have owned part of their transformative work. To this day, there is little to no penalty for those who illegitimately seek monotization of content creators videos on websites with overarching copyright recognition programs are utilized. Instead, these systems allow immediate abuse as content creators are stripped of their revenue the moment any claim is made without any background or check of legitimacy. This in turn has led to many cases of abuse and even illegal practice that is currently un-surveyed by any national oversight. I speak on behalf of myself, my fellow content followers, and all those who pour effort and countless hours into these transformative creations when I say that policies must be instituted to protect Fair Use and its application on the internet.
Sincerely,
Alexander Parobek
I have had many, many rights-infringing moments based, ironically, on this outdated and misused system. I have made videos online that have been taken down for no reason by companies who don't seem to understand what fair use is. For example, a parody of a Universal Studios movie I uploaded as original content was flagged as Copyright Infringement. The company had flagged me, and in the process, took all profits the video made. The worst part is there was no system in place to allow for my voice to be heard, so my channel was suspended and the video's monetary funds lost. Please, please fix this so I, along with others, can once again make and share original content freely.
It is also very upsetting to see companies attack and attempt to tear down creators willing to share their talent online for malicious intent or just to make a quick buck. And it is highly immature of them to take down videos just because they cannot take a little bit of criticism, which you would expect from professionals who should be used to that sort of thing by now. It is highly immature to censor someone for sharing their thoughts on something they have created, because they think their end product is perfect, when nothing really is.
What really sickens me are the people who do this for a living, they unfairly report a video and end up taking the money from it that should rightfully go to the creator if they truly did nothing wrong. This is underhanded and very cruel, I'd even put this along the lines of piracy and thievery.
This is an issue that needs to be fixed if people want to share their talents online, but can't because of the multiple companies, and immature fools who abuse fair use for their own malicious intentions. Otherwise what is the point of having fair use if no one is going to use it right. If you won't follow the rules, it is like giving a fool a lighter and a canister of gasoline, it only ends in disaster.
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Additionally, there needs to be people handling questions and complaints in real time, not automated systems sending forms to those looking for answers. Real communication needs to be available for real problems to be solved.
We're in an age where people are making a living by creating internet content for the public to enjoy. When the DMCA was created, this kind of possibility was unheard of and some of the biggest websites today were either in their earliest stages of creation or not even conceived. Our technology is evolving at an amazingly fast rate, and the laws that are meant to protect internet content creators should evolve as well. Don't penalize creators and jeopardize their livelihood when THEY are the ones being bullied and threatened. Penalize the companies that abuse these policies, and aid content creators who are forced to defend content that is supposedly already protected. Do a better job at helping Content Creators, and LISTEN TO THEM. There are countless testimonies on Youtube from content creators who have spent years fighting against bullies who abuse the DMCA. Watch their videos, and listen to what they have to say.
Big wigs in their suits thinking they fuckin rule over everything and they can do what they want, and they can. Sort this shit out.
Fair Use is being abused on Youtube, and there doesn't seem to be an end to it. Large companies like Viacom are looking for loopholes (and blatantly ignoring Fair Use) to get their hands on any money they can. A good example of this was the incident with the Youtuber TheMysteriousMrEnter, where his channel was taken down by Viacom for reviewing Spongebob episodes, which is by all means protected by Fair Use laws.
Arguments have been made that adequate procedures exist to reverse false copyright claims. These arguments are uninformed at best and completely fictitious at worst. In the current online environment, content creators have little to no power to fight false claims under the DMCA system. Most often, victims of false claims have to turn to their fan-bases for support in getting a false claim over-turned. People with millions of followers/fans/subscribers eventually see success in getting a false take-down reversed, while smaller content creators with less clout are ignored and left with no recourse.
The first amendment was not written to protect people who already have power of public opinion to support their use of free speech. It was written to protect everyone's freedom of speech, but ESPECIALLY to protect those without power from those who would abuse it.
For the past months I have seen multiple people been unfairly hit because of big companies, and sometimes, COMPANIES THAT DO NOT EVEN EXIST.
People are literally able to make up a fake company, contact websites like youtube, and have content taken down.
Not only that, but videos that have nothing in them, no clips from shows, or images or music, just people talking, have been struck, multiple times.
Fair use is being ignored. Small time contact creators are being attacked by big companies and this is destroying them.
These companies are BREAKING THE LAW. This needs to stop!
Seriously, Youtube. Take a chill pill.
Updates are also needed to cover transformative works such as videos that use the user's gameplay footage on youtube, such as video reviews, Let's Plays, etc.
The abuse of the DMCA has harmed the Internet as a whole, and in some cases, has harmed people's livelihood. The law for Fair Use and the DMCA is outdated and must be changed.
The DMCA, an aging out of date lawsuit, is no longer a tool used for good. Some companies use this to stifle free speech to shut down those they feel threaten their business model. People who don't own any inkling of the content in some videos use this to coerce the creators of the content to bend to their will. This piece of legislation must be overhauled. It must be updated so that it better protects those who are unfairly and illegally targeted by businesses who believe that they are above the law. The only way newer and better ideas can flourish is if laws like these actually help and protect them. End the abuse of fair use and let the ideas, thoughts and new content flow. Let creativity shine and flourish.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to
censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression,
creativity, and commercial innovation
on the Internet. The DMCA needs new
safeguards to protect against abuse
And companies that infringe on users’
free speech need to be held
responsible. So we can see the youtubers we love again plus if a person takes their videos don't we have a right to tell them it's our videos so it's under our fair use I'm just saying.
The DMCA has been exploited to no end on multiple modern social media sites. It has been used to bully smaller content creators who have little to no means to defend themselves, and will continue to do so unless it is updated.
To put it simply, DMCA takedowns and the whole system behind them is horribly outdated. Content is taken down without regard for fair use, without regard for who issues the claim, without regard for why it is issued. When it gets to the point where your own content is getting taken down on your own channel/site/whatever, a line has been crossed and when it's used to crush free speech, the line has been left miles behind.
Also, as an added bonus, I do not live in the United States, and many of the laws currently in place are enacted and enforced by the United States. Which when you consider that the Internet is owned by more then a single country, is incredibly ridiculous. I should only be expected to follow the Copyright Laws that my countries government enforces. Either that, or we shouldn't follow geographical borders affect our ability to conduct our laws in a digital space.
I don't want to get sued by the American Government because they decided that they don't like the way I do things, when it's perfectly legal where I live. I doubt they want to cause an international incident over something literally as stupid as an automated system flagging a video somebody made and posted from a separate country
The DMCA law is a dinosaur that fails to keep up with the modern world. It has become too easy to abuse in recent years and keeping it around is ultimately harming content creation, whether monetized or not, more than it is helping.
They can be used as threats and be used to harass people by companies that serve to profit from taking down content even if it doesn't belong to them.
There needs to be a shift, because as it is, the companies have all the power. Those who create content on the internet live in fear of having their work being removed by companies, shell companies, or third parties who disagree with their work or otherwise do not wish for it to exist because it may hurt their bottom line.
Youtube has taken down videos completely under fair use, people in their car talking about a movie, or even someone talking about the snow outside his house. These copyright laws have gone too far.
The following automated statement made is honestly perfect. I've been saying just about the same for some time. However I must state that in my experience, I've known many cases where there has been violent, life ruining abuse of content creators who produce content that is of fair use, and that's not right. We must stop this, we cannot let this go on.
DMCA is even used by foreign companies to inforce non-American laws on American based sites.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is an outdated and heavily abused law. It was created at a time when Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube would have been revolutionary had they been around in 1998, but now it simply interferes with content creators and social media users.
Currently the DMCA can be abused by spiteful people who want to threaten or hurt content creators like journalists, movie critics, video bloggers (vloggers), music creators, or even average people who post to social media. This law can even be abused to remove videos or posts that had no copyrighted material in it.
The DMCA is also abused by movie companies who don't want their movies shed in a critical light, and they often use automatic takedown algorithms that take down reviews of movies almost immediately after they are posted. Movie critiquing is a form of expressing an opinion, which is exercising Freedom of speech, so by censoring these critics, movie companies take away their voice, which is a violation of the First Amendment.
For many content creators, making videos or posts is their job, and even if they successfully challenge a takedown and restore their content, it can hurt their reputation or income.
As someone who loves movie reviews, and music creators, it saddens me to see that my favorite content creators have their work taken down for no good reason.
To put it simply, the DMCA is used as a weapon of hate, hurts those who create content as a job, and clashes with our human right to freedom of speech.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use, and political disagreements. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. There are no penalties to the parties who make DMCA claims and turn out to be untrue. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Instead of a copy-paste form letter, I've chosen to speak openly about this subject in my own words.
I am not a content creator, nor am I a copyright holder. I am simply an individual consumer.
As a simple layman, even I can see the massive imbalance in the structure of DMCA enforcement of copyright "issues". Nearly --if not-- all responsibility, burden of proof, and consequence of action are born solely on the shoulders of those against whom claims are being made. There is little to no consequence for those erroneously or deliberately making unjust claims of copyright infringement against other parties, whatever their reason or methods may be.
In a system of government and society which is to be a champion at the forefront of freedom of speech and expression, it is a failure for us to permit the entirely one-sided share of responsibility for the fair and safe conduct of free use, free speech, and sharing of knowledge, information and property.
This provides safe harbor for those who take part in the rampant abuse of a system meant to protect BOTH those who hold and exercise copyright for content and those who take part in its fair use. In order for any good system to work fairly and productively for both sides represented, both sides must share EQUAL responsibility for ensuring its proper use for the benefit of all; not merely the benefit of those who stand to gain the most money, or its use by those who have the least to lose.
It is time for all voices to be heard equally in the enactment of the protection of property and individual expression. As it stands, there is no repercussion or disincentive for those who take the stance of "shoot first, ask questions later" when making claims to the copyright of content. It can only serve to hamper and harm freedom of speech, expression and the sharing of ideas, when the default of our government and enforcement systems is to side with those making claims which solely hold back access to content and sharing of materials, without making provision to empower those who have been found to be sharing content and materials fairly and justly to make injurious claim against those who have been found to make false accusations.
The system we currently have in place incentivizes harmful censorship without repercussion or responsibility, and needs to be changed. Our nation is one of the people, not the copyright holders, or those party to the enforcement of their rights.
It's time that we stop this digital ganglamd style attack on content creators. The internet is giving so many people a place to work n to earn money so they can live day to day. Shut ins who create content for a living so they can getoney for the month who otherwise can't get it with their current government checks as they might not make enough to cover everything. Not only that people who suffer from anxiety n depression can relate to the create to the creator who has went through the same pain can cops n relate with them.
If this continues to happen to the content creators on YouTube then there will no longer be the Markipliers or the AVGNSZsllmkpknlmmlnkjljknnnllnjjj
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
#WTFU
Additionally any money earned by content that is in dispute should go to a unbiased third party account to be returned to whomever the decision is in favour of at the resolution of the copyright claim
Youtube reviewers and online content providers should be seen as innocent until proven guilty and not guilty until proven innocent. Just like our justice system.
The DMCA laws were created for an older version of the Internet. It doesn't account for sites like Twitter and YouTube especially! So many videos are reviews or reactions to content created by others but reviewing them shouldn't be the issue it is. People are being harassed by companies simply because they didn't give something 5 stars. This would never happen to someone who wrote a review for a paper. No one would have dared fight Roger Ebert on a review no matter how harsh it was. The abuse has to stop! We need punishments for false claims. We need help for those abused by a broken system. We need to change the DCMA process as a whole-and it must be now. -BC
This system limits how reviews ,commentaries, Parodies , and surpressing or original content and new ideas simply because of outdated laws from 1998. Please let people express from the world around them.
Youtube is the website that is attacked the most with little reason. The DMCA has shut down videos that did not need to be taken down. With the videos taken down the content creator will lose the video, which in a lot of cases is lost profit for the content creator. In the time that we are in, most people get there news and entertainment. If the content creators lose this profit it will be harder to keep making content. I'm not saying that it is not needed BUT it needs to be more careful about taking down anything.
Help us please! as a person who wants to get into the youtube business and seen many takedown strike horror stories, we desperately need more protection.
-even people who have no claim to any of the material are easily hurting channels that do everything to follow the laws that are in place.
#WTFU
The current system needs repercussions for false claims. Big Hollywood Studies have stolen tens of thousands of dollars from content creators under false claims. The system needs to be changed to be impartial to any party, regardless of wealth, unlike the current which lets big studios do whatever they want unchecked!
The unwarranted dmca strikes against content creators has plagued youtube for years, several channels I watch have been hit more then a few times with completely unjust reasons. The people this law was created to protect are now being hindered by said law because they too are creators who deserve protection against people stealing their content. This law was not created to stop freedom of speech and critical thinking, it was created to protect and its being used to destroy
I hate everything, yourmoviesucksdotorg, channel awesome and jim sterling are among a few that are constantly attacked falsly with this law and it impedes their ability to do what they love and create content. Daddy derek was a perfect example(derek savage)
he flat out admited to "I Hate Everything" that he knew that he was falsely striking him because he was upset with what he said about his movie, of which he used very limited footage, very well within his legal right to, and obviously it was legal because its now back up it just took a lot of anger and frustration on "I Hate Everything"s part to get it back up and thats exactly what these false copyright claiming people want, they want creators to have to jump through hoops and go mad trying to get their content back!
Some people even go as far as to claim something they dont even own the rights to, even send fake letters from lawyers that dont exist to try to scare people into not fighting against the strike.
This law doesn't account for the internet in its current state and it needs to be changed so that the abuse of it can stop.
I hope you understand just how badly the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has been implemented. The DMCA is incredibly biased in favor of claimants, no matter how illegal their claims may be. DMCA claims have been issued by individuals and companies who don't own ANY of the content in the content they are shutting down. DMCA claims have been issued without any regard for fair use, specifically to takedown criticism and commentary of work, which is one of the SPECIFIC issues Fair Use is meant to defend.
The current takedown system needs to be refined with statutory punishments, and these punishments NEED to be able to be implemented by a citizen without resorting to court costs. The current legal OBLIGATION to consider Fair Use is being blatantly ignored, because companies know that they cannot be brought to court for perjury because the court costs are too high for the average citizen. They are flaunting their willingness to IGNORE the law because the current system does not provide ANY means of addressing false claims, and this HAS to end.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The notice-and-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgement to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
People are having their original content removed, despite there being no copyrighted material involved. I haven't made anything on YouTube publicly accessible because despite coming under fair use I could still have my video pinged for saying something that a company doesn't like, and that video would be taken down.
The way the internet is now there are generation's of people who are going to get their big break online. Freelance journalists, critics, and other content creators should be able to discus copyrighted material without the threat of their livelihood being taken away.
. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
The DMCA is an outdated system that makes it easy for big corporations to abuse content creators. False claims occur every day to those who's videos obviously fall under fair use. Even claims made by people who don't even own the original content are being made without consequence. This is horribly wrong and change must be seen.
Seriously.
As an individual, I believe that the DCMA has been used by organizations to censor ideas they don't like and take down even fair-use works.
Basically, DMCA takedowns have been abused to attempt to censor critique, silence bad publicity, falsely flag unrelated material, and make life hell for content creators.
It's no longer 1998. The Internet, and the people who use it, have advanced. The law has not.
In order to maintain a free and open Internet, the DMCA takedown system needs to be stopped.
Links of videos to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH-8PqS84qA , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuXfQuueIKU ,
Also, First Sale doctrine does not get much respect on the Internet. Many companies do not allow the buying and selling of copyrighted works legally bought on their platforms. First Sale keeps losing ground on the Internet and if no action is taken soon, I fear that it will no longer be given any heed.
Thank you for this opportunity to voice my opinion. I hope that my voice as well as the others who join with me, will persuade you to change the DMCA for the better.
This must be stopped! Realizing this made me realize how much this might effect the videos I enjoy watching online and the things I love to see on picture sites! Forms of creativity that are posted online, whether video, picture or blog, have to be protected from permanent deletion! Let's do it!
The DMCA is servery out dated for this new world of technology and innovation. We are always told to update our equipment and software to cope with this ever changing world. I think it's time you do the same, don't you?
False DMCA's have stopped me from watching some of my favorite channels. All of which are well within fair use. It's being used as a tool to harass and prevent creators trying to give a fair and honest review on videos, music, books, and movies.
This doesn't just affect the U.S., it affects the world.
DMCA takedowns are based on almost entirely outdated rules created back in 1998, when things like YouTube and the majority of popularly used sites did not exist. However, as the entertainment industry is shifting towards an online presence, the DMCA has been hurting countless creative, hard working content creators. Myself and many others who create covers of songs in order to show our love for the source material and put our own spin on it are harassed by DMCA takedowns day in and day out. We are being put down for something which falls entirely inside of Fair Use. However, Fair Use is being completely ignored in favor of corporate bullies or even kids who understand how easy it is to harass a content creator and take their uploads down. Not only this, but other videos me and my associates upload which do not contain any copyrighted material whatsoever can be taken down with ease and little to no repercussions in the event of placing an incorrect claim. This must be stopped in order to allow this thriving entertainment medium enjoyed by millions to continue growing and becoming a truly wonderful creation.
Fair Use isn't being used fairly.
I know you probably have a lot of these. But please actually read it and let common sense prevail.
The total lack of process adhered to by all corporate entities, whether they directly own the content or not, as well as Google failing to provide a reliable means for anyone who produces content on their content distribution networks such as YouTube, is quite frankly negligence to those who in turn make them a substantial amount of revenue. Revenue that sits in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Hence why channels/people such as PewDiePie can make 12 million dollars a year for his production.
A system that allows corporate entities to claim anything that is clearly under Fair Use and to which doesn't feature any of the content that they are claiming clearly needs some reform into how the claims system works.
If I talk about a movie at all, make music that samples a song from the 80's, which keep in mind is highly likely to not only make people hear that lost piece of music again but perhaps even generate interest in it again, then this can be claimed.
Even reviews that speak positively about something, praising a movie, showing zero content of said film can also be claimed. What's the point?
Businesses have zero repercussions for this abuse and can get away with this with absolutely no consequences. They also take away revenue from those who put in honest, hard work and then it sits in their own pockets. The irony of it is is that they're taking away revenue for something that they don't really own but there's a system that just allows for this. It's a giant waste of resources and time. Especially that of the content creator who in many cases really hasn't done anything wrong. Having to constantly defend their work which they shouldn't have to in the first place which might be their only source of income at all is shameful. An artist who might just be the little guy trying to get his start is constantly being bullied out of ever producing on any medium where a business can come along and take away the time he's put in. The time may incur weeks or months of production. I know a few artists myself and I can say that they are seriously passionate about what they do. It's insanely discouraging for anyone to express themselves openly only for them to be shutdown.
The whole situation is simply put, petty. Petty that a business, which makes millions of dollars a year or more, decides that a fraction of 1% of its revenue made is worth putting someone through a grand ordeal. Why even bother?
I'm sympathetic to the notion that copyright is a big deal to many people. If I create anything and someone downloads my video and then re-uploads it and they generate revenue off of my work, then of course I have reason to be upset. If it's blatantly mine then I have more reason than anyone to make a claim. However if they credit my work and advise those to go ahead and check out my other videos then that's a great way to advertise as well as it being free!
All content creators want is for people to have a slither of common sense regarding fair use. But that's the issue. It's all automated. It's run by a machine that processes 0's and 1's, bits and bytes, decisions based on what it's been instructed to do. Computers are dumb. They have no capacity to think like we do, obviously. We tell them to do things and they do it. This means that those who are putting these systems in place need to understand that. Whilst not trying to get technical, if you tell a computer to delete something, it will definitely try to do it. It might not succeed but it will definitely try. If you tell it to open a browser such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Safari, etc it will do as it's told.
Australia has a large design and media industry with an incredibly crap network that belongs in the 80's. Imagine if you're an aspiring film maker and it takes 2 days to upload your film only for it to be taken down because someone decides that there's a 5 second portion of a song somewhere in the background can rightly claim it when it falls directly under fair use. How can anyone expect to voice their concerns about anything if all that's going to happen is the video becomes no longer viewable.
I think it's hardly fair that if this were reversed the little guy gets to give the same treatment to that of the bully. Essentially, independent film makers or content creators have little power in this regard.
I'm signing this petition specifically for the reviewer, the film maker, the activist, the news broadcaster, the comedian, the gamer, the singer, the animator, the dj, the dancer, everyone who puts themselves out there trying to share what it means to be them and what they love to do.
The system has been abused over and over again. At least it needs to be changed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
#WTFU
..
...and Hitler did nothing wrong.
My YouTube alias is Film Filter Studios so since I'm a YouTuber I have had my fair share of copyright take downs and claims and the videos had no copyrighted material at all for example a long time ago I made video called "Minecraft part 2" and I was silent and the video was silent through the video and the copyright system gave me a copyright notice of a companies music. Like I said before I was silent and the video was silent to but I still got a strike by a company with a song that was really bad? I have taken down the video because I was young and I didn't know what to do. I would like to give an example of bogus takedowns which would be when the company Nintendo has and still is taking down videos of people playing their games for either playthrough or walkthrough and Nintendo has copyrighted a video I made about "The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess HD" and I am currently not making money off it.
The DMCA system has not adapted to the internet of today and so many videos and entire Youtube channels have been taken down. people whos jobs rely on Youtube have lost revenue. A company can take down any video they want and suffer NO consequences. the DMCA system has to change and adept to the internet of 2016!
The outdated DMCA law has affected many people all across the U.S., especially those who create content on YouTube. Those people, who utilize fair use to critique and/or parody movies and other media, have been the victims of many different companies abusing the DMCA system. People who haven't even used any footage of the media in question at all have had their videos wrongfully removed from YouTube and/or have had all their monetization taken away. There is an immense number of people who make YT videos as a full-time job. It's what they live off of. And to see them constantly being bombarded with false copyright claims is horrible. This video should explain what you need to know:
https://youtu.be/zVqFAMOtwaI
And, here are some more videos detailing various content creators under attack by abuse:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0Wpn1zmU
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (STILL going on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J03pUizE
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ9U8YLY
Team Four Star's issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkcWbvnN0
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nULnD9OQ
Chibi Reviews gets a DMCA for talking about snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWysPctePw
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company - MMA company thinks it makes the law!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw
Mr Enter and the saga of DMCA after DMCA takedown on the SAME video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtwVOZ0Yc
NFKRZ and how ransom is now on YouTube!
I have had videos of my show on youtube which is a review show blocked and taken down even though they are heavily edited and dubbed over with me talking about what I'm reviewing costing me thousands in revenue. I will use fifteen minutes of a two hour movie to review of which maybe two minutes of it is raw footage mean both visual and audio is in tact and it's not even a consecutive two minutes, it will be broken up into ten to twenty seconds of clips from different parts of the film and get hit with a copyright claim.
I've had copyright claim by companies who don't even own the rights.
I've had claims that I've disputed, won the dispute only to have the claim reactivated days later.
The DMCA has to be updated to fit today's world because as it is it'still bring abused.
Give support to the internet content creators who've spent years fighting against jerks who abuse this law to harass and bully them, and stop protecting the bullies from any penalization. #WTFU
To whom it may concern,
What follows is a form letter provided by takedownabuse.com, but having reviewed it, i feel it captures the issues at hand better than I possibly could in my own words. In short, I'm 21 years old, and I can barely remember a time when the DMCA can satisfactorily serve the modern internet, and the time has come for change.
Thank you for your time,
Ronan Murphy
DMCA takedowns are a good idea in theory but are very rarely properly used. The fact that anyone can submit a takedown request for any material on the Internet without first proving that the content is copyright infringement makes the takedown notices ripe for abuse. Copyright holders need to first prove that material in question is actually copyright infringement before service providers are required to take anything off the internet. Googles automated approach to copyright protection is extremely over reaching and most often takes down material that would be covered under fair use.
Uh, I'm just gonna leave all that above up. I just know that this affects a lot of my favorite YouTubers and I will do whatever I need to do to support them.
On a more personal note:
One of my favorite abridged series has been threatened by an unfair DMCA claim and was almost shunted off the Internet. They write their own scripts and have even animated extra scenes and characters into the original show. They put months of work into the project (in their free time) in between episode releases, but have a small fan base so weren't able to raise their voice and bring attention to their issue to someone with influence. It's unfair that companies can bend the rules/rights of creators under Fair Use via an unreviewed takedown notice. We need to come together and analyze the DMCA takedown process and focus its ability on removing stolen content rather than erasing legally used content with reckless abandon.
Please
Now this part is a little bit of what I experienced, since I bet you've seen this message over and over. But I seriously want to see this change. Great entertainers in the youtube community are being taken down just because they criticized somebodies's content. Some of their channels have even been taken down, and the way they earn money has been completely lost. IHE ( I hate Everything ) is one of the prime examples of this, and I'm pretty sure there is more examples outside of youtube. Please make things better
It Seems like every you hear some story of false DMCA's being ues. Be it some claiming entire comonly use sound library's are theres that are not. Or large companies and game devs use Them as a why to censor negative criticism. Big youtubers like Total Biscuit and Jim Sterling being among well known examples. Falsely Using outdated laws to remove people's opinions you don't agree with, or to steal revenue from content creators needs to be stoped.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dirve effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
There's absolutely no good reason why anyone should take down fair quality content. What? Are you companies too lazy to make your own? Step it up, scrubs!
In addition to these remarks I personally would like to add that these are only a handful of examples, in order to know more I highly recommend you watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI. It explains the major problems with the current copyright system. And finally, I want to make one thing clear, the DMCA was created in 1998, almost two decades ago. If so much technology has changed in the last 18 years, why haven't the laws that govern them?
I support all of the below. Everything with a "*" has been added by me.
*Their are people, hardworking people, that I really enjoy watching. They are funny, entertaining, and enjoyable. Instead of allowing them the freedom to grow, the notice-and-takedown process is a broken system that is heavily is abused. Yes, copyright is important, but all the stories I hear shows that the notice-and-takedown process is unfair against content creators. They are reviewers, comedians, and entertainers that use clips and inserts as a vital part of the process, but someone mearly has to make a complaint, a complaint that is NEVER verified, to take the video down. And these are not just vlogs that are done on the spot, it takes time and effort and they are the primary means of income for most.
The notice-and-takedown process is stifling and completely unfair.
*Again, no verification. Several content creators have complained that their is no one to verify the claims, or act as an intermediary to say "yes, while you do own the clip used, it is under fair use, so we will not take it down." It would be like a person saying a specific person stole their car, and the police arresting the accused with no evidence or even checking if the accuser even owned a car.
*This is no joke. Corporate copyright holders will make claims on videos that uses clips for a review if it is negative. If that would be allowed on TV, Siskel and Ebert's show would have been cancelled in a week. And copyright trolls, people who do not hold the copyright at all, will make claims and get people shut down, maybe because they just don't like the person. I could probably do it right now if I wanted to.
*Bingo. First amendment. Their is currently no punishment for copyright claims that are false. Meaning that claimers can make false claims as much as they want without any consequence. Unfair treatment at its finest.
*And, lastly, if I may be so bold: many content creators have made videos in protest to the current notice-and-takedown system. Categorically, if their has been protest to mistreatment, then their is mistreatment. Pick up a history book, because those that do not help the protestors are usually the bad guys. Do you want to be the bad guys?
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
In my case, I am an aspiring writer who wishes to share my work with others. I have always dreamed of being a part of the Youtube space so I can read my stories, or stories of those that have given me permission to do so. But now with these recent issues, I am very fearful that I will be attacked even though most of it would be my own work, or if a robot took me down. I am fearful to express my creativity because people or robots think I'm using their work or if a premise was similar in some way. After seeing all of the trouble other Youtubers get, I am very reluctant to become a content creator because of these laws.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The fair use isn't fair get you're shit together i'm serious it NEEDS to CHANGE right now! I know a lot of people who did serious good content on youtube and got supressed and censored,now they can't do anything.
Right now, under some of the largest content hosting sites like YouTube do not have any penalties for false take down notices and as such use them to abuse anything from non-footage using reviews to videos that merely mention the copyrighted material. Policy guidelines and the law itself needs to be written in order to protect content producers and punish the blatant abuses that happen daily.
Please fix this system. Content creators I have grown to love have been harassed aggressively because of their opinion. I understand taking credit and money from other creator's content is wrong. But in this sense, shouldn't the revenue from content not be given to anyone if the claim is true? Even though I would understand why companies would want the money the content made, is a system that can be easily cheated. Also if the claim is false, why isn't their a penalty or fine. Ex. If revenue is $100 shouldn't the company pay 12¢ or respectably not be able to make another claim for a short amount of time (like how some actions in court can be dealt with a fine or community service if fine is not paid?) Yes I understand this could be taken advantage of if a company chooses not to pay the fine, but if a company wants to protect it's content because a creator's opinion of another's opinion, shouldn't they have to do an actual filing of paperwork that is registered?
Is it fair for a person to make money off another for their work if it is an original review or script? This feels like a man making money off another's unpaid manual labor to me. If the content creator was in the wrong, then they lose some privilages until they are trusted after some time. Also even though the company who sent the claim might want the revenue, shouldn't protecting their content be enough if they truly aren't just hungry suits?
Hollywood was created so actors and creators could flee from discrimination, persecutioj, and restrictions by other creators/suits. Now production and cinema studios are doing the same? Is this not hypocritical? We are now "sophisticated", we are now "intellectually evolved beings", but how are we supposed to stop discrimination and persecution of races if we can't stop this on a place were people are seen by the character they display? If hackers and vigilantes and criminals roam the internet, but they have a better moral compus then suits, how do they have the right to say what's should be their's and what shouldn't be another's?
Anyway, this system has become corrupt, and is longer relevant in this age. The governments of countries have had to change their rules. It's about time the beautiful kingdom of the internet should to.
I may not be in the United States but I am a YouTube creator and I like to express myself in any way shape or form. The fact that these take downs are happening are clearly a big threat to new creators and will limit the amount of creative content released in the future.
Also the fact that they are targeting Tweets now is ridiculous. The copyright hand is strangeling the world too much and we need to put an end to this.
There are also instances where negative opinions on media, such as movies or video games, are taken down simply as a measure to prevent bad press from circulating about the content in question. Not only is this stifling for free speech but these massive content screening sweeps can result in unaffiliated works being taken down as well, simply because it might have a similar title to a work in question.
I feel the fair use system is broken. Many others can agree with this content creators and reviewers are constantly being harassed over the Internet it needs to and it needs to stop. I don't want to live in a time where free speech dose not exist.
This:
Also, The way it works now is utter bullshit! It's impossible to respond to corporate giants like Anita Sarkeesian/Brianna Wu/Zoe Quinn or even news companies like Buzzfeed without the constant worry of them using a false DMCA on me, Or my friends. Lets stop DMCA abuse.
As a personal note, corporations have taken this abuse so far that they are shutting down their own videos in addition to a great many individual channels who are producing content to support themselves.
Clearly, the DMCA is being abused. I have personally witnessed the removal of content creators' material unjustly based on a broken system. Whether it be parody, criticism (both containing and not copyrighted material), content within the parameters of fair use, or content not containing copyrighted material, the content that pertains to this subject is being unjustly removed, penalized, or silenced on the unenforced basis of the DMCA. The DMCA needs to be updated and has now become detrimental in it's current state.
The message below has been unchanged, but the DMCA laws are massively outdated, and the only ones benefiting from this are corporations who wish to censor content. This practice scares me away from having a career involving content creation, because i do not feel like fair use is there anymore. Im not the only one. Thousands of people want to become content creators, but the problem is it is too easy for content to be falsely removed, and it can destroy the lives of affected individuals. I hope something is done to update the DMCA laws. This cannot be ignored!
This system is being abused up the ass from every dick head corporate cunt jockeys from the likes of Hollywood to really fucking shifty ass companies who seem to exist to just get revenue from from videos that aren't breaking any copyright laws and are well within fair use. A nice little example of this is when I HATE EVERYTHING (Youtuber who makes a whole variety of satire videos on a variety of subjects such as movies and popular websites) made a video which goes by the name of I HATE DAMN DANIEL ( A video in where he critiques the a popular meme made popular though the social video sharing app Vine, as well as critiquing the people who find it funny) was taken down by a [Merlin] CDLTD who interestingly enough do not own the content, which yes I HATE EVERYTHING did make a video on this which he has recently taken down for unknown reasons, I will note that [Merlin] CDLTD have made an AMA on reddit addressing what they did. If you want some more examples of the system being abused just look at any large movie reviewing channels such as Channel Awesome ,Chris Stuckmann, YourMovieSucksDOTorg,etc. Not to say they are the only ones effected, even smaller channels are effected by this. So how does this effect me? How do you fucking think it does? Imagine a world were you have to watch what you think because it may not be in accordance to how the people in power want you to think, imagine in a world in were criticising a subject, idea, person, corporation could lead to you being silenced and punished because those who are in control disagree, imagine a world were originality and innovation is not something of value and goes unnoticed. This is the direction Youtube and Twitter are going at the moment, well unless something changes of course.
Pending the following issue below there is one major issue that I find to be a disturbing trend. There is no punishment for repeated filing false claims out of malice. It is nothing short of an attack to remove content that one does not like or feels it is not in line with their religious beliefs. This type of false claim is common from Christians and other religious zealots and has no ground for DMCA as it is but is not punished when repeated false claims are used as an attack.
I've been a victim of false copyright claims. I've worked on many projects of review and commentary, only for them to be shut down due to a faulty system. We need to have this fixed.
Its bull shit!
The WTFU on YouTube is ruin and removing everyone's video. I want them to stop doing this to YouTube.
As a hopeful critic i have been wary of uploading any content to Youtube out of fear that it will be unfairly stricken down. This is stifling so many voices of people who, like me, are afraid of getting into a career that has seen so much abuse lately.
I'm not a US citizen. I know that the DMCA is a bad law for the US domestically and there will be numerous comments telling you all about that. There's something that won't be brought up, something that you need to hear:
When your country passes bad laws and enforces them on an international stage, it effects me too. If you guys continue to do this, it will be a clear message to the world that we need to take an interest in your country's elections. We can't vote, but there is enough money out there to get us the results that we want. Is that what you want? Foreigners co-opting US elections for foreign interests?
This affects content creators in ways that don't even seem possible, by putting in claims when there isn't even copyrighted material in the video. It also takes away their revenue until the company, or Youtube's broken system decides to let them have it back, and they cant argue against another claim for 6 months. This is only a small amount of the things people have been abusing fair use for. Videos have been taken down for negative reviews of a certain movie or game, even though it is in the lines of fair use. Or companies who don't even specifically own the content provided call a strike, which anytime a strike is called, monetization is taken away, and there is no repurcussions for a false strike. Anyways, Youtube's copyright system is a broken mess that needs fixing, badly. They could start with actually having a person on the other end of the line instead of a program. That is all.
As a note I am Australian and even though these laws don't directly apply to me they do affect Australian YouTubers and Australia looks to American law to apply copyright
The DMCA laws as they stand are not only harmful to those who are genuinely attempting to generate criticism or create new content within fair use laws, they are also terribly outdated and inadequate when it comes to genuinely protecting against actual copyright infringement. I've seen many times where critics giving reviews of content in video form--that show nowhere near enough of the content they are reviewing to be harmful to the product (apart from sharing their opinion or synopsis of it)-- get DMCA takedown notices from a company when elsewhere on Youtube a fully viewable pirated video exists.
The current DMCA practices don't just harm content creators without there being any sort of reprimand or punishment to those falsely accusing them of copyright infringement, it is actually a benefit to companies to claim as much as they can regardless of whether or not it is infringing simply because they can momentarily hijack revenue from said videos by letting the content claim attempt sit without taking action. It momentarily halts revenue to a content creator and can be potentially defaming toward them. Personally, I don't think it should be that a company or individual should be able to claim copyright infringement on a video, etc. and not be so moved to take legal action on it.
Quite frankly, these laws are terribly outdated and do not account for the way content is produced today and fails to protect the sort of content that has traditionally always been protected under copyright laws (i.e. criticism and the formative arts). It disgusts me how some individuals and companies have used these laws to silence criticism or stop the use of sampling to create new things. Copyright law has already protected similar sampling in the realm of music for years now, despite initial struggle. So long as Run-D.M.C.'s "Walk This Way" is protected under copyright law, I believe this should be as well.
There is no room for "us" or "them" in the debate about the current state of copyright law, it is meant to protect everybody as long as their intent is not to make money off of somebody else's content or damage the creator's income by making their content available in other ways; however, under the current laws and policies, this is the exact thing that is happening currently on Youtube. Content creators are having their video revenue redirected to those who make claims against their videos with no punishment or reprimand.
If Studio Ghibli is allowed to issue a take-down claim on an American video I'm allowed to comment on DMCA as a Canadian. DMCA is being used to maintain status quo in the entertainment industry and disenfranchise the content creators it was meant to protect. This is a law that is only enacted in favour of those with the funds for a legal battle with no regard for fair use. It is a perfect example of anti-capitalism and turns the government into the stooge of large companies.
""
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0Wpn1zmU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J03pUizEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkcWbvnN0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nULnD9OQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWysPctePwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtwVOZ0Yc
The above links are stories of many people who have been affected; many more aren't linked and won't have their stories heard. It like many issues seem distant and afar. Yet it is almost always these smaller issues that creep up behind our collective backs and catch us by surprise with a knife. Lets nip this in the butt while we can, I hope this single comment helps change you mind(s).
Nice day, a concerned citizen.
The DMCA is in desperate need of update. Essentially, corporate copyright holders are using DMCA to do unto individual creators what it was designed to protect copyright holders against. Individuals and companies who issue false claims or claims where Fair Use is not taken into consideration should be held accountable for abusing a system meant to protect people who create and the content created from others who would claim the content as their own.
The current way the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is being used is to abuse and oppress free speech of many creative people, people making content that may use portions as small as simply saying the title of a work or summarizing a copyrighted work to express original opinions. The current DMCA is very heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders, and does not account for Fair Use nor for the way the Internet is used and experienced today. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The court sanction of Lenz v. Universal Music allows companies to use computer algorithms, not human differentiation, to scan and identify content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations in order to issue automated takedowns. This process does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet. According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
The DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, and there is some regulation necessary to properly protect legitimate copyright holders of their intellectual property. However, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed have made it possible for these same corporations and IP owners to usurp income and claim copyright over people creating their own content protected under Fair Use, and thus have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls (people who file copyright claims for the express purpose of seizing the money of original content creators, sometimes without even proving they own the copyright at all) who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Companies and individuals issuing takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use need to be held accountable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech to balance the process. Copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
*I have used a form comment as a basis for mine, and have modified the form comment to include my thoughts and concerns. I have personally been hesitant to even begin expressing an opinion on sites like YouTube due to abuse of the DMCA. We do need some form of digital copyright protection, but not at the expense of free speech.
I watch many YouTubers who are talking about this issue and how outdated it is. It was created in the Internet's infancy and needs to be adapted to the new, growing problems people are having. I believe that using the Internet for Piracy is wrong and by profiting off of someone else's work should also be punishable by fines and/or royalty to the content creator. Something needs to be done to better suit the law to today's Internet. People on the Internet should have as much freedom to post as long as what they post is their own content, posted with the content owner's permission, or are not making money off of another's content. Thank you for listening to my voice and I hope I can make a difference.
The above section could not be worded better if I tried, however, as a user I will add my two cents. The dmca today is a total and absolute mess. The ability to take down someone's content for petty reasons such as they gave your game a bad review and made an entertaining video about it is just insane. People can claim things they do not own, again, they do not own the things they are trying to take down simply because they are upset about something. Companies hire certain shady people to file claims all the time; regardless of the validity of their claims or if they even own what they are claiming. This has top stop. Not for us who gain entertainment from watching videos online, but for those whose very lively hood are dependent on their content which is being destroyed by the dmca and youtubes insane copyright robots. We do not have to stand for this, and if you are really listening to us, then do your job.
An issue going on with the DMCA takedowns is that shell companies are going on and taking down content creator's videos and creations for content that is original, and goes under fair use but regardless, they continue to target creators, take down their creation, or worse take their ad revenue that can come from their creation.
Please help, fix the system, its gotten out of hand as companies, fake companies connected to the main ones, and individuals are using this broken system to illegally steal the hard earned money of creators!
I work for a church that has sermon videos I upload on YouTube. Having fought copyright infringement for gameplay footage of the game Rock Band from back then, I've been very careful about how YouTube would take videos that are used in the sermon videos I upload today.
Most matches are from music from our own staff, mostly monetization transfers even though we don't monetize our videos. The saddest thing however is that I can't upload a sermon video that uses a video clip of something to comment on or analyze. I hardly tried knowing what happens to other YouTubers and not wanting to go through all the legal disputes to keep the media up. It feels like walking in a minefield.
One video was about the film Bruce Almighty with three clips being analyzed and commented on. Afraid that I didn't know the law well enough, or not having a legal defense to file a dispute, I ended up just blacking out the screen and telling the timecodes to watch IF the viewers happen to have a copy of the movie. A church sermon where you need a copy of a movie on your own to know what's going on or what we're talking about is absurd, but knowing it has happened to other users I knew it would happen to me.
Copyright owners, from first and secondhand experience, intimidate me and many other people who upload videos to YouTube. Fans of TV shows to movie critics to game reviewers all have trouble with the content they create even though the fanbase is likely to strengthen a franchise and reviewers give a free promotion of the source material. It seems like owners feel like it's a lenient give away of their content, an allowance of piracy, but really it's content that leads to a stronger audience and growing attention to the public.
Fair Use is meant to be a balance between content creators and copyright owners, but it's difficult to get through and sometimes a lengthy process. It is not fair to the creators or the creators' audience. Owners have no constraint on their claims while content creators stay under pressure by their thumb. Today, content can be taken down instantly without any human review, meaning the owner's side is taken while the creator is guilty until proven innocent just by an automated match of a sound or a video clip. It can take weeks to be proven innocent, but only one or two days to be guilty.
We need an update for changes of the internet since back then when DMCA was enforced. We need something more fair to keep us users and creators free.
My friend who was a victim had this to say "Sure. Well I was a stop motion animator, I made a video called Hulk VS Hulbuster. I used music in the video that caused my channel to get taking down. I used the song in far use, it played for 18 seconds. I got a copyright claim from someone that apparently works at WB that sent the claim and the claim later turned into a strike. I tried to fight back but YouTube and the guy didn't answer. So my channel got taking down. I lost everything...3 years of work, my 120 subscribers, everything. I was deviated. I have made a new channel but I do hope all of this gets under control. #WTFU"
You've probably read whats below this addition a hundred times, but i've left it in since I agree. I have a hard time believing washington who heartlessly let bills like sopa (as it did in its second incarnation) pass that only benefit the rich and powerful and grant them more control to tithe and squeeze the smaller companies, could have any empathy. The American Government has failed time and again to address hundreds of key issues in favor of political tug of rope and hot button issues that get them press attention. Our coin currency is broken, Our net nuetrality stolen, our agriculture system monopolized by one terrible major company and the people who despise it bamboozled by 'natural' organic farming. Many injusticies of economic and social reforms are needed for this country, but this is the most pressing.
Information is crucial, Why would anyone need to defend a bill against detractors if they can cut off their voices in an instant? This is your chance to prove everyone wrong. To show that the american government is against corporate monopolies and favors the American people and freedom of speech over investors and bribes. No good will come from not reforming this system, it is the one system that if it continues to decay, will allow others to decay. Many people in our government seem to be technically unsavey, aware of how massive the internet has become, but begrudging its every impact. Why shouldn't they? even people actually invested in media resent the internet for subverting their presence on other networks like television. It's understandable yes, but unfortunately we don't have the time. This system can't wait for the next generation to take office. It needs to be fixed now or gaurenteed it will entrench itself further.
Never before has a single system promised to completely change the way the world works as the internet. It's potential for misuse by people in power surpasses that of banking establishments, it is where people go to communicate, where a huge ammount of the economy is focused, and it needs to keep the interest of the people, not be a tool for corporations. They may have an obligation to make as much money as possible for their investors, but the American government has a duty to the lives of millions who would be adversely affected by these corporations interest.
Please, stand up for free speech and stop the abuse. Thank you for your time.
This system is being horribly abused. False claims are filed every minute and content creators are having to constantly fight to have their work not stolen. This needs to change and fast.
Fact of the matter is that fair use is under attack. Many internet content creators I watch have been affected by false claims.
Larger content creators have more protection ("youtubers" for example).
The likes of "PewDiePie" who is the most popular "youtuber" would have little issue from a false claim.
Whereas a someone just starting their YouTube career will not have the same protection and would largely go unnoticed.
There also seems to be no punishment for false claims (that I know of), many "youtubers" will not have the money or time to go through and take any legal action. This makes it difficult for any due justice to be taken.
One recent case I should mention is the false claim Derek Savage had on the YouTube channel "I Hate Everything". "IHE" is a reviewer who also makes videos giving his opinion. Derek claimed "IHE"s video under copyright. Though fair use includes reviews as being "fair use". The issue has since been resolved, but this was because the community came together.
Fair use is becoming a joke, the many cases of false claims are proof enough. Also those committing false claims need to be punished without any excuse. Those continuing to constantly put out false claims for profit need to be made an example of.
The internet has changed in a big way. Some content creators are making or just starting to make a living there. The DMCA needs to be updated to make sure creators are protected and fair use is completely enforced.
First off all, im from Mexico, still i use Youtube just as everyone else in the world, the DMCA is now pretty Outadated, we are now in 2016 thinks are different, and Companies are abusing their power, good people are now being being ripped of their content that they make with love, the DMCA is MOSTLY used to delete negate reviews that could affect sales on a Series/Movie, its porpuse was to protect creators of content from being ripped off, but now its used to abuse people like me and everyone else with no power.
Well, I admit. I'm no Video Maker ( Yet! ), but Doug Walker, inspired me. Thus, I make the voice, heard.
When one person claims free use they are taking the fair use away from others.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
i agree with the statement above and i have to add my 2 cents to it. i have created content on social media sites like youtube with a basic understanding of fair use and copyright laws. i have made a few video's that have bit claimed less than a minute and before anyone could view the content. i have tried to follow the rules that were set by said site above and no matter what i do i am always in the wrong according to current fair use laws. when i started i didnt monetize my video's and i try not to but due to the bots in youtube that is an impossibility. i only have like 6 or 7 videos that i have made myself and one i uploaded from third party site as reference material for art. out of the video's that i have made myself only 3 were not hit with any claims. i have made a fan made clip video of my favorite superman villain from the 80's 90's superman animated series and its only a 7 min video. but if you look on youtube you will find 10 or 14 min video's on the same cartoon or even whole episodes. my first review video i used music from the cartoon for the intro and for the outro and only 1 song was hit with a claim and i used the original songs which were in its native language and i put disclaimers in the video for any content i used and gave credit to the people i heard of. that review was good until the site decided to make a sister site called youtube red then out of nowhere my settings for my videos were changed, they became either blocked, lost monetization which makes no sense considering i didnt monetize them to begin with but after the sister site was released i had to monetize them in order for people to watch my content but that only lasted for a short time. i had to use youtubes horrible editing software to edit my videos because i couldn't take it down edit it the content and re-upload because it had a claim on it from a company that i never even heard of. my superman fan video cant be shown anywhere unless i upload it to facebook because warner bros had put a ban on it but yet i can watch whole episodes of the series on youtube without problems. my youtube channel only has 3 subs and that all from family. i have made gameplay footage of a first person shooter online game called wolfteam and i will admit i have used whole songs in them and i have also used medley method for the others. i edit the audio the best i can to where you can hear it in the background when either the gun is reloading or when another match is about to begin. i would have talked thru it all if my microphone was working. in all of my video's i dont claim anything besides my username and the character that is representing me and i make that very clear that people should support the official release. whether it be game, tv show, or song.
i have had friends who use youtube as a means to have someone comment on their music so he can improve his skills but shortly after he started to get a following his channel got hit with claims or strikes because the bots had claimed that his music was owned by someone who lives in france. so what he do instead of trying to fight it he gave up closed his channel and does his songs somewhere else. another friend of mine only used royalty free music and she got hit with claims from a company who was claiming the content on the behalf of sony and when she contacted sony, sony had no clue that this was going on and told youtube that they dont know who this third party is. the sad thing was all of the claims on my friends video's were on video's that were 2 or 3 years old. and i really believe that if im forced to give up my info to fight a claim that i think it should go the other way around to where the person claiming also has to give up their info. for companies like sony for example i think their needs to be a representative that you can talk to either thru email, mail or phone and that there need to be more human interaction in order to come to an agreement. i will say this if any of the people claiming on the behalf of a company would give me some contact into and then work it out from there. i would not have a problem at all because then i could learn from my mistakes and move forward.
well have a nice and wonderful day or night and this may have a few grammar errors but that just goes to show how mad i am that anyone can make false claims whether it be human or bots.
I recognize the importance of copyright protection on the Internet, but the current methods by which this is achieved do not do this fairly and justly. Content made under Fair Use is taken down unfairly, and its ad revenue is siphoned off to the claimant, no matter how legitimate that claim may be. The laws governing online content must be updated to match the current usage of the internet, not a distant relic of what it used to be.
Some of my favorite content providers have been hit multiple times by people abusing the DMCA system in order to silence free speech or criticism. In order to have a free marketplace of ideas this law has to be updated for the current day internet landscape.
My name is Nathaniel. I'm a youtuber. Over the past few years, I have been making review videos on Youtube and have been doing so under Fair Use. However, as time goes on, I find myself facing issues with Youtube's copyright system. Such as false claims by companies, youtubers, or third partys that abuse the copyright system and take down or claim my videos and run ads on them even though they are completely legal and don't hurt the company in question profit margin at all. I have seen other youtubes and individuals hit with false copyrights even thought they are protected under the Fair Use Act. I hope that this feedback encourages the DMCA to rewrite some of its rules and policies because the way it's going now is worse than ever.
It also destroys the intent of all content creators exspecially those who do covers of songs. Some people like me would love to make our talents known but can't because copy right coming in and saying because it is someone else's song it cant be sung on line.
tl;dr: DMCA is a bunch of unfair nonsense that gets people's channels taken down for stupidly cryptic reasons and it has to be stopped
I am a content creator on the Internet and I can tell you how these bogus DMCA takedowns have affected me: not once have I used copyrighted products in my videos. Instead, I used my own custom animations and voice actors to use instead of copyrighted clips of movies for movie reviews and I have received over 5 DMCA takedowns for my videos which if I had gone to court, would have been labeled as Fair Use. This DMCA takedown abuse needs to stop NOW!
We are talking about how Gun Right and what to do about it. How about rights on the internet?
Please consult the following video to hear from a content-creator directly, and how DMCA abuse has affect their livelyhood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
I'm an American student studying film production in New Zealand. The movie industry is challenging to enter for budding creators, and the internet (and by extension youtube) is a fantastic tool to showcase our talent, grow an audience, and use as a stepping stone into the industry. The DMCA's unrevised sections & commonly abused loopholes keep creators such as myself from producing content and advancing in this career. Entertainers may have not needed the internet to get their voices heard in the past, but times are changing and now it's necessary if you want to survive as a content creator: we need to revise our outdated laws.
Update it ladies and gentlemen. The DMCA has failed, and is tired and archaic.
The DMCA is being used by copyright holders as a form of abuse in order to unfairly line their pockets with extra cash for almost no work. The law does NOT properly cover content creators who create videos online. As long as these videos fall under fair use, copyright holders should NOT be able to free rampage an individual or company with out some form of due process.
Personally, as someone who wants to be a online video maker, I'm scared to death put almost anything out there. I do not have the funds to enter a legal battle over a civil suit. There for I am handcuffed against large corporations and have no way of defending myself, even if I were in the right.
The DMCA is an outdated and very abused law. It is equivalent to be accused of stealing a car, getting arrested, fined, jailed.....and then getting a trail. Then in the trail, the evidence is hardly considered if at all.
That is what DMCA abuse amounts to on the internet, especially YouTube. Guilty until the Fat Cats have had their fill, then they might call you innocent.
It doesn't take that much to actually spot if something is Piracy or if it is Fair Use. There HAS TO BE A WAY to make the process of sorting out the two more steam-lined to be fair to both copyright holders and content creators.
In addition to that premade message, it's poorly made, and abused to no end. As a concept, not just any particular example (despite how many there are).
The amount of false claims made by people citing this is ridiculous. These notices even get sent to people who review the videos/games. This is done to prevent bad reviews at launch, and launch is where most of the money is made. That is blatantly abusing the system, and should be stopped.
I have seen so many YouTubers have their videos targeted for unfair copyright claims, despite the fact that every person and their dog could tell that it fits under fair use.
A YouTuber by the handle of AngryJoeShow had a video claimed by a bot claiming to be Tomb Raider (which is a video game, but the company is actually called Square Enix. The video in question was one in which Angry Joe interviewed people who worked on the game.
Another YouTuber who goes by the handle Stoned Gremlin Productions has a video series where he'll film himself in his car in a parking lot with a friend and talk about the movie they just saw in theatres. There is no footage or anything of the movie they are talking about, and yet one of these videos was claimed.
Things need to be fixed so that people can't just claim willy-nilly when the videos are clearly under the domain of fair use.
As things currently stand, when someone claims ownership of a video, until the channel owner is able to prove that the claim is wrong, the claimant is getting all the money generated from the views, causing a loss on the part of the channel owner. In case of conflict, the claimant shouldn't be allowed to have the money from the views until the dispute has been settled. The money should be put in a separate account, so that if it turns out (surprise!) the claimant was wrong, the money can be given to the person who made the video.
Oh, and here's the auto-message that probably has things explained better than I did:
Seriously, this needs to be revised. DCMA notices are being sent to creators who don't have ANY copyrighted material and their videos get removed. Even when the video is put back up the entity sending these fraudulent DCMA notices are NEVER punished for loss of revenue for the creator.
The system is EXTREMELY abused by companies and its so automated that a lot of the notices are not fair. Please look into reviewing and revising this process.
For example, I love a channel called 'Project Voice Bend', the creators often animate their own material along with dubbing over a popular cartoon 'the Legend of Korra' that appeared on Nickelodeon which doesn't even air anymore and it's edited together to be much shorter than an original episode. The channel is using this material under FAIR USE - not just blatantly ripping the material off and showing it unaltered. Their videos have been taken down multiple times, even though they have edited the videos with their own content.
If you need a refresher on what defines 'fair use' it's thus: "In its most general sense, a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work."
Thank you for reading.
I once received a copyright notice on my video that had only 10 or so views!! These are horrid misuses of law and are complete hinderences on freedom of speech!!
The DMCA needs to re-write its system to protect this modern internet era. Companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible for their actions. This would created a two-way justice system.
Right now, companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan the Internet for possible copyright violations to issue automated takedowns. This is not very accurate and also should not be used as a form of justice. The process should not be automated solely, but every takedown should be reviewed first by a human being before finalizing.
Do not violate individuals’ rights to free speech. This includes Political speech and survival of small businesses.
I want the DMCA to impose statutory damages for companies that fail to review each takedown, and or companies that make money in any way that makes them money.
The notice-and-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Fameos you tubers videos have be taken down by false DMCA's and dirty business tactics.
you tuber call IHE have a false DMCA by a man name drake Savage for is review on cool cat saves kids and also false DMCA and you tuber yourmoviesSUCKS just for review his movie.
Also shell companies are use by company to false DMCA beyond there behave.
To be honest this DMCA NEEDS to get to update right now because this just not effect the creators it effects everyone and there internet.
thank you reading
The internet is evolving constantly, new forms of entertainment grow from users of the internet, instead only with the media company.
Creativity and new view points around forms thanks to the continuing evolution of the internet and at the same time, opens the opportunity for viewers around the world like myself to discover music, movies, games and much more media produced by EUA. For which I'm encourage to pay for thanks to the reviews and play videos made by this passionate users in the internet.
Free speech will also be on the line of this issue, since people or companies, take advantage of this copyright laws that surpass the fair use to shut and silence disagreeable comments and videos that will allow for many people to know another point of view regarding of political and ideology themes.
Please, make note of these constant abuse of powers to protect this creators by a better understanding of the fair use and punish those false claims.
The notice-and-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
In short, what you're doing isn't working, and it inhibits the ability of small creators to post their content on the web without fear that it will be taken down without due- or any- cause. The United States I thought I lived in would never allow the free speech of the common man to be controlled by large corporations. It would not allow those same companies to revoke the revenue generated by these projects. And it would certainly never allow these strict limitations on the creators' right to fight copyright claims.
In short, U.S. Copyright Office, please hear me and the rest of us. Please do the right thing.
Comment from person:
A lot of my favorite online entertainers have suffered from this shit. I don't want any of their videos to be taken down because some asshole thinks he can. Please stop these shit DMCA takedowns. If you do, I will give you a cookie.
Love
Max
Dear World,
It's time that the injustice of faulty copyright claims is brought to light and acknowledged as more than simple misunderstandings, this system is being abused and it's going to take more than a better algorithm to fix it, what we need is real people working on this, with the knowledge that the internet is the future of media entertainment.
Many are receiving takedown requests from people that don't even own the content they claim to have been in a violation of fair use, at this point anyone with a mobile phone can destroy an individuals career or many at that. DMCAs are being used to inflict harm on creators ,stifle creativity, and destroy free speech. Even people just talking about related content with no footage at all are being taken down, and if that isn't a violation of free speech, I don't know what is, it's as if some companies believe that they create the law, and they might as well considering how much power they have over us. People are being hit with multiple takedowns with no time to respond, at which their channel is taken down with very little notice and any money earned by the channel goes to person who made the accusations, there should have been a fail safe in case there are faulty claims made until the conflict is resolved.
This a revolution, a cultural shift if you might be as inclined to call it that, and the point is to make big companies who are having issues dealing with how things are shared in today's world of the internet, realize that this could benefit them or destroy them, the choice is theirs, they may have the money but we have the numbers.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH > FREEDOM FROM SPEECH
~The Internet
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, archival, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I'm a film student. I'm terrified of the prospect of having work potentially being censored, or having my primary source of incoming being at the hands of Hollywood executives. It's no longer 1998: we live in an age where most people have internet access. It's time to update.
These words, as written for Fight for the Future, really express the issues well. I can't express them much better. Please take action on this.
The Internet has changed so much, especially in terms of media production and consumption, that these laws need to be reevaluated to make sure they're applicable today.
One of the biggest places this system is being abused is Youtube. There are hundreds and thousands of Youtubers who have faced false DMCA claims that have almost or have entirely ruined their Youtube channels, and they can't fight back because of how this system works. I would love to produce content of my own, but this sort of stuff worries me greatly about the possibility of producing content that might later be taken down falsely.
DMCA has been used several times shut down videos of critics that give some media a bad review, even when that video didn't even feature a single fraction of the media itself, just a person talking in front of a camera. It's being abused by big companies in an attemp to attack freedom of speech and that attack my freedom to hear those opinions I care for.
The current state of the DMCA is harmful to the freedom of speech, not just in the US but globally. I live in Sweden and the DMCA is hurting my ability to take part in wordly news and events on a daily basis.
Content creators on youtube that I follow to get my news, be it in entertainment or in political areas, get more or less herassed by companies / people who abuse the current system to silence critics.
Most (if not all) of the content creators I watch act under the fair use clause. And the people abusing the DMCA takedown notice system knows this, yet they still do it because they know that it's near impossible for a small person to take this all the way to court.
This law does not stop people who steal others content. People who steal full feature films or other works of art will keep doing it because there is no loss in it for them. Thus rendering this law toothless. It's only hurting people who try to entertain us or inform us of things that is happening.
People who review movies and videogames, who sometimes warn us consumers for a flawed product get targeted by these DMCA abusers so that the information does not come out to the consumer, thus pulling a metaphorical blanket over our eyes. And at the same time, hurting the people who make said content economically and emotionally, all in a semi-illegal way (since most content falls under fair use, they just don't want the critizism) that is akin to bullying and herassment.
Please take a look at this flawed and outdated law so that the internet can stay a bastion of intellectual freedom and creativity.
Additional comment at the bottom:
Additional comments: For the record, I am not a content creator. Perhaps I will be someday, but not now. However, that does not mean I strictly have no experience with copyright. While any content I've ever posted on the internet has never been claimed, I have witnessed several cases of copyright abuse, typically on Youtube. And it is annoying me off every time. Probably the first time I heard of such an action was the incident with Jim Sterling and Digital Homicide. It was blatantly unfair then, and it remains unfair today. While It's understandable that piracy should have a cap on it, that only should go for real piracy. Sometimes, it seems companies actually ignore real copyright infringement in favor of censoring a critic.
Take a recent case, for example. The Mysterious Mister Enter is a cartoon critic on Youtube. And recently, he's received a stream of copyright claims from a company, or a company obviously in touch with, the creators of a cartoon he slammed fairly hard. What's interesting to me, while they claim that Mr. Enter has infringed on copyright (stating that he used fragmented footage from the cartoon itself), another channel has uploaded the entirety of the show on its channel. And this channel is allowed to stay up. To say the least, I believe cases like this show that change needs to be made, which is why I support all of the above.
I support the use of fair use... to an extent. About this fair use legislation, I have some concerns over after it's passes. People will use this as an advantage to either blindly hate on content without physical proof for their claim, or they'll hurt an industry that's trying to protect their content (like Viacom). This is my opinion on the topic and it's important to discuss about this in a proper manner without taking sides.
Now I'm not supporting either side, but with this law you need some restrictions so the content creators don't get blindly hate by fandoms that watched a "review" or a video bashing their content without giving them actual evidence.
Now here's an example: I like Teen Titans Go, an animated show on Cartoon Network. People all over the internet greatly despises this show and more than half of these videos about this show are saying it's a bad show without giving evidence, and the fans of the Youtubers begin to use their "opinions" as facts (even though their opinions were bias) and they join the bandwagon to make everybody hate the show. This hurts the company making the show, as they can't do anything to stop it. They didn't do anything wrong, and they get negative feedback from millions of people who follow these biased reviewers who hate the show for the stupidest reasons.
There must be a law regulating fair use, but to an extent. We don't want to just have companies delete videos of actual good reviews about anything, both positive and negative feedback. There's a difference between "bashing on something with a bias viewpoint and sharing those opinions as facts" and "giving constructive criticism over the something"
The solution is to either have people review the video to see if it's bias and it hurts the industry, or an alternative solution to have companies get a penalty for frequent copyright strikes on videos that actually give out constructive criticism. That's my opinion on the situation, but we all know everybody is a huge Nostalgia Critic and Mr. Enter fan and join their bandwagon to have them yell at things and get supported for it (I don't hate them, but they go too far to actually damage the industry)
The Internet has been far too long without fair use. Talented people are being thrown to the side by greed.
We have used the Internet, not just for entertainment purposes, but for education and global communication. It is our responsibility, if not in our best interest, to make certain laws pertaining to the usage of the Internet are not being abused by individuals or groups of individuals who have the power to. Many already have, which is the exact reason why the laws should be updated to suit the century.
So many of my favorite youtubers have been unfairly harassed by false copyright claimants. This system allows people who don't own the content to claim copyright on said content. Videos that simply mention the names of movies with no footage or music are getting taken down. Video makers have had their same video taken down multiple times by the same company. Companies do not take fair use into consideration at all when making these claims. This system is being abused to make money off of things that aren't claimants' to make money off of. It's actually like some kind of business to make false copyright claims. Content creators shouldn't have to be bullied like this. The DMCA needs to be updated and there must be ways to make false claimants take responsibility for false claims.
Dmca has damaged the potential for free speech and artistic critique. The system is abusive and predatory.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased against users and in favor of corporate copyright holders that commonly used to control and censor content that is protected under fair use. This current system harms content creators and limits political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act needs new step into the new decade, and must create safeguards to protect against abuse from companies and individuals that infringe on users’ free speech, and free expression. These persons need to be held responsible
Hello, My name is Taiason and I am a college student.
I am a huge fan of reviewers like Nostalgia Critic, Mr.Enter, IHE, etc.
However lately they have been treated unfairly as companies would take down videos they had every right to put up according to Fair Use, often without much reason causing the reviewer to get hurt by a loss of profits and loss benefits no matter what. The Youtube system has it to where the person posting the video is always on the short end of the stick even if it shows that they were in the right the whole time.
This is completely unfair for reviewers and hinges on Free Speech.
People should be allowed to talk about other content without fearing of getting silenced for either talking about the flaws or even the positives of the things they are reviewing. In fact there was a huge boost of popularity for a movie called "The Room" after Nostalgia Critics Review.
The world is changing and I'm going to start become more involved with it as I graduate college. And the internet is becoming more and more a part of our lives, that by fighting it we only making things worse. Please do what is necessary to make the future more open for adults like me.
Thank You
The DMCA has been and continues to be a source of illegitimate claims and abuse of fair use rights. Many people, developers, companies, etc. have used the DMCA to maliciously to take down users who criticize and speak out about unfair or poor media.
Two examples I will cite are Jim Sterling and The Mysterious Mr.Enter on Youtube. The former is a noted game critic who has reviewed everything from AAA video game titles to independent developers. One such independent developer has taken the DMCA to take down or at least attempt to, remove any criticism that exists about their studio or games.
In the latter, an Australian company has used DMCA to take down negative reviews of Pixel Pinkie, a Cartoon. Despite losing all of their attempts to take the work down, they have hired a third party company to continue the DMCA harassment solely because of his negative review.
The situation on Youtube is a microcosm of the harassment and abuse of trademark and copyright on the internet caused by the DMCA. Moreover, it should be noted the DMCA's abuse is a microcosm of the larger issue of byzantine and anti-free market copyright laws along with absurd lengths issued to said trademarks and copyrights.
Thank you for your time, please consider this and all criticism. Poor copyright only hinders the free market and humanity at large by restricting access of information, leading to stagnation.
A multitude of sites have people abusing and misusing the copyright clams but I want to focus on one, YouTube. So many people file claims on content that they don't even own. DMCA's are used to inflict harm on individual creators and being used to stifle free speech. I mean there are people just talking on camera with no copyright footage or music are being taken down. Their are some company's that believe that they create the law. DMCA's are being used without factoring fair use. DMCA's are being sent by shell company's to shield the company's sending the take downs. Their are people that use them as threats. There are videos that are being hit multiple times even after there cleared.
This has to stop.
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Creators are getting money STOLEN from them on youtube and other platforms. ANYONE could claim copyright on a video that the company doesnt even have the rights to. THAT person gets all the money from the creator and doesnt get ANY punishment for false claims. That is theft! Fair use is also being pushed under the rug.
When i post a video on Youtube i watch them 1,000 times, just to make sure that something small like a song, clip, or photo isn't copyright material and that my video isn't something that would get me in trouble. I actually wanted to post a video with a character by the name of Black Rose, but my friend told me that i could get a copyright strike because of the character's name! i couldn't pay for the cost of a copyright strike! My favorite You-tubers are also getting tricked down by stupid, ignorant people! I want to help, not only for my channels safety, but others too.
Where is the fair use? Corporations get to take money that may very well rightfully belong to users? YouTube's copyright bots can take down content instantly, while any rebuke takes at least one month to process?
This and other abuses of the DMCA have gone way too far. It is our governing principle, brought down to us from our founding fathers that the people of the United States are allowed to speak freely without fear of censure, especially censure coming from law and government. This abuse is going directly against the fundamental ideas upon which our nation is built. The DMCA, as well-intended as it is, favors abuse as it is written now. Though the idea of preventing stolen copyrighted material is noble, it is currently being executed very poorly. Even users who justly purchase licensing to incorporate copyrighted material into original content have had entire works taken down without fair consideration.
This is what some users have to say about the DMCA in relation to YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrT2IC21i0Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tljJhLB5k4
As well as a brief summary from takedownabuse.org:
"Every time a tweet is written or a video is posted to YouTube, trolls and corporate copyright holders see a way to abuse a law called the DMCA to stifle speech they don’t like, cut out their competitors or critics, or fleece someone for profit. They're even using robots to automatically take down other people’s work. Free speech and fair use are under attack..."
We are all citizens, consumers, and users. Copyright holders and government officials are no exception. You are no exception. Protect your free speech. Rethink the DMCA. Thank you.
Below is a more detailed and professional message from takedownabuse.org, which could perhaps explain the situation with more clarity. Please give them the time and respect to hear their thoughts as well:
I have had tribute videos that I worked literally hundreds of hours on taken down without question, even though they were labors of love functioning as free publicity for the people I respect. We HAVE to do better.
Thus far, DMCA abuse has resulted in content creators on the internet being harassed and losing revenue, even if no content from the claimant's work was used.
(Many Youtubers and creators are all being effected by this outdated law and bigger and more powerful people/companies are abusing this law by sending false claims and taking the creators money, which is illegal, without any form of punishment. This law needs to be changed for the internet of today and have creators have their fair use.)
I am a consumer,as simple as that.Whenever I go to big sites like YouTube to get my daily fix on entertainment,like nostalgia critic and IHE,all of them condone the right to free speech.However,the DMCA is doing nothing but oppress the idea of it.
The DMCA,which was created in 1998,does not belong in a 2010's context of media and entertainment on the internet.It gives too much power to h creators to silence people who make videos relating to them which are still under fair use!As how dangerous piracy is in the internet,there should be a more easy going line on the threat of piracy,like allowing clips or excerpts of media to further better utilise what
From the original form letter comment:
>>
While the original comment offered significant and valid points in favor of updating the DMCA from its archaic form, I feel it would be more effectual to make a more concise argument. The DMCA serves a purpose, but lacks the protections needed to used properly now that digital media is freely accessible by anyone. Because content creation in its form did not exist at the inception of this act, there was no threat to freedom of expression via digital media. This is no longer the case. The lack of verification processes allowing for false take-downs and various other abuses of the act on a corporate level have reversed the letter of the law and severely tarnished the spirit. We can not allow a handful of companies to monopolize internet content. It may begin with Youtube, but if unchecked can continue into any internet based media, even as far as private correspondances. Give and inch, loose a mile.
The thing wrong with all this is anyone can just take down any video they want. They can make up some excuse that is not true and it will have the video taken down.I think there should be a better way and harder way for people claiming a copyright strike. We should have it so Youtube take a look at the Video and then the copy right strike claim. To see if it is accurate and have the copy right claimer probe that it is there. Thats how we should do it.
My comments is that we need to update the DMCA to help youtubers and stop big companies from abusing and destroying youtube channels hard work and taking all their money for the hard work they have done.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and is too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I have uploaded on Youtube for almost seven years, and over those seven years, I have had a lot of claims made against my videos by various companies. Some of them are legitimate, but there have been quite a few made (and are still being made) by companies who clearly do not own the material they claim they do.
Some examples of this include:
-World Wrestling Entertainment claiming commercials like Lee's Press On Nails, Oscar Meyer ham, and promos for NBC programming that isn't wrestling-related.
-T3MediaSports claiming various commercials (mainly cars and beer) without saying who they represent.
-Claims from a motivational speaker for HBO movie intros from the 1980s (since rescinded).
-A group called Merlin (on behalf of a third party called FUGA) claiming that the theme song to the Price Is Right is a song made by a singer/band named Trashy Pop for (what I assume) the Charlie's Angels TV show. Upon looking it up, they make the same blanket claims on other TV show intro/outro songs, such as the A-Team theme.
-Fremantle International (who has made legit claims) claiming the same portion of a video FOUR TIMES! How can the same thing be claimed that many times at once?
These third-[arty claimers are running amok claiming stuff without needing proof that they even have a legit claim on the material in question. Youtube/Google's haphazard copyright system doesn't allow you to counter a claim by saying the company simply made a mistake, allowing false claimers to cash in without fear of penalty of any kind. That is simply wrong at its best, and screams abuse of a broken system.
Unless something is done to curb this relentless wave of abuse, nobody is safe online, and the U.S. will turn into another China. Google needs to stop saying they know there's a problem and actually do something to fix the system. Nobody deserves to have stress doing something they love, and these false claimers need less incentive to make these obviously false claims.
DMCA KILLS CONTENT CREATORS, BY THREATENING INDIVIDUAL PEOPLE.
Creators that I really enjoy are always being constantly hit with DMCA take downs on content that they put their entire livelihood on creating and sharing with people who love them.
There needs to be accountability for corporations who abuse the broadness of the law and fair use needs to be redefined to be more favorable for the consumer rather than the corporations who have the means to actually protect themselves.
For every big creator that gets into a spat with a copyright claiming company whether that be the company itself or an alternate puppet company to make the claims there are so many smaller creators who just don't even have the means to contest it.
Businesses like Youtube need more protection from companies overstepping their bounds since the individual creators cannot defend against the system that Youtube needs to protect itself from overzealous companies.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
For too long, internet content creators have had to put up with the anxiety that stems from the ludicrously unfair "legal" repercussions. It is legitimately harmful to their lifestyle and to the world of critique and free speech.
This needs to stop.
LET'S END THIS RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is pathetic.
First of all, this is not right!! I have watch a lot of good people get hit with this copyright law. People should not be flag down for who have no music and sound from the thing they a reviewing and they shouldn't get flag again right after they just got clear. Company should not use shell company's to just shield their own company. Also some company's are not using fair use right. They are sending people copyrights when they are not thinking of using the fair use law. Its also not right use the copyrights as harassment and threats to people. Its also not right that they can still take the money from the video they copyright. That is someone's hard work and job you are stealing from! You are stealing someone's hard earned money! Also I can't believe some company think they make the law. Because last time I knew they didn't make it. These viewer should be with respect and fair treatment.
I have just seen endless amounts of videos taken down because they supposedly violate copyright laws when, in fact, they never did. I've seen reviews taken down, I've seen videos using small excerpts from copyrighted works taken down, and I have even seen videos taken down that were literally just the users talking in front of a camera. It's frankly quite ridiculous, and it needs to stop. Things need changed, and they need changed NOW. This is not 1998, it's 2016. Times are changing, and technology along with it. The DMCA needs changes to reflect that.
Dear DMCA,
Please don't fuck this up.
I wont be surprised If riots start because of it.
It is for the good of the internet and the entire web of creative media.
About Half the Channels I subscribe to have been taken down at least once.
Thid kind of abuse has impacted my friend who is just starting to branch out in his reviews on youtube. He loves making reviews but he is constantly fighting copyright claims under clear fair use terms. I intend to help him with his channel and gi e him the encouragement he needs. It's up to the government to ensure his rights are protected, as well as his future finances when he moves on to monetizing.
I own a youtube account, but have made only two videos since making it 10'years ago. However, as a viewer, i have seen many videos of other uploaders taken down by those who claim to be from big companies. Most of these videos are simple reviews of movies. One person reviewed a movie in his car, and that video was taken down by the company that made said movie. I keep seeing people who review movies, like Doug Walker, who talk about a movie and barely use any other scenes from a movie except for the scenes he is at that moment talking about. Barely any of the movie is shoen, and sometimes he even forgoes clips and has his team act it out in humorous ways. Still even those videos are taken down and removed by other companies claiming copyright, drspite being used in fair use. My question is how long is it until some big corporation sees my video with me blowing up the titanic model i had as a kid and throws a tantrum because i destroyed it? The system is broken and this law needs to be addressed and changed to protect small content creators.
Latley this has been used to much and anyone can send a claim and fair use users have bee being abused by take downs and copyright strikes it must end
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Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
It may sound odd, but in a world so strapped down with rules and regulations that can crush an individuals creativity, the internet as a whole tends to break that part away from most peoples lives. Many claim that there aren't many frontiers left in our lives, nowhere to explore and try new and exciting things. I believe that the internet is one of the last few unregulated and truly free environments on the planet, it can bring out the best and the worst in all of us due to its innate freedom. Please allow our content creators to have fair use actually be backed up in online cases and as a general rule along most countries our freedom to say whatever may be on our minds. Please regulate the fake DMCA takedowns and protect our voices, sometimes it truly can feel like the only thing the few and small have.
Hello,
This is to whoever may be reading this. From the way that I am able to comment on the act of fair use, I can already tell that you know the way fair use is being used now is wrong. Instead I would like to tell you how videos using content for reviews, parodies, and other items has affected me.
Such as many of today’s people I spend most of my time in front of one screen or another. Then when I finish watching a television show, or a movie I think about what to watch next. One major item the influences this are reviews. Most shows or movies that I watch, I have only watched because one of the people I follow on YouTube talked about. One example was Daredevil and Adventure Time. The only reason I watched these shows was because Nostalgia Critic did vlogs on each episode, and unlike the star system that most movies and shows get, I respect his opinion.
Other times I have watch something and gone on to watch the show would be an Anime Music Videos(AMVs). I love AMVs and only started watching the series One-Punch Man, and Space Dandy because of videos that I watched at Sakura con. If we go by the way that fair used has been used to take down videos than I would have never watched these videos which would led me to never buying the One-Punch Man manga or the Adventure Time DVD.
So in the end the point I am trying to make is that the way that videos are being taken down is not only hurting the people who make the videos, but this is also hurting those who could be gaining fans, and buyer because of these video. Even video with bad reviews or there wouldn’t be a Sharknado three.
In my opinion the worst case I have seen so far is with Mysterious Mr Enter. Basically a company was constantly making a claim on his video under different names. They also believed that they were in the right! It is ridiculous!!!! That is one case in thousands of videos wrongly being taken down! HUNDREDS OF CHANNELS ARE FALSELY TAKEN DOWN BECAUSE OF THIS BROKEN SYSTEM!!!!!
After looking over the Youtube copyright section,you realize how messed up they got it...
I've been copyrighted over and over on my small youtube channel for using music in videos that the owners allowed me to use that is just not justified and it is NOT justified to take down ENTIRE YOUTUBE CHANNELS by a company simply doing it at the press of a few buttons so please bring back fair use.
As an aspiring content creator, I am personally daunted by the possibility of stepping into the arena with large corporations aggressively "protecting" copyrights without allowing for fair use, or with copyright trolls who claim to be representing copyright holders without ever having had an interaction with those they claim to represent. It is especially troubling to know that, due to the existing DMCA law, I could find myself losing not just my livelihood but the dream I have been working to pursue for years, regardless of whether or not I have actually violated the law in any way. When videos that include literally zero content from a film or video game they happen to be reviewing, aside from the title of the work in the title of the video, can still face multiple sequential takedown notices that each result in the removal of the video for an indeterminate period of time pending review, it paints a picture of a law, whether by design or by coincidence, that functions to allow those with time, money, or both to profiteer at the expense of those with the passion and the drive to create genuine, supposedly protected works.
I stand with those requesting review and revision. I stand with those calling for penalties for false or frivolous claims. The time has come to update this nearly 20-year-old piece of legislature so that it reflects the truth of the world as it is now.
The current copyright laws are outdated an must be replaced. Today's internet has changed how fair use and copyright should be applied to content everywhere. Instead of being used to protect content creators, it is being used to harm content creators, by having entities use false copyright claims to control and steal from creators. DMCA's are being abused and the laws must be changed. Thank you for reading this and hearing my voice.
As a professional creative and social media manager I recognize the necessity for copyright protection of original materials but this should never come at the expense of free speech and fair use of my original materials by individuals who may choose to comment or satire my craft or opinion. YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become the new media of this generation. These new artists and critics deserve an equal playing field that does not include an automatic take down system which does not allow them due process nor penalizes abuse of the system by corporate America. Judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions should be made by individuals and not robots.
In the 21st century, internet content creators are the new small business owners. The current DMCA rules and regulations allow corporations to maliciously harass people legally using their products and content to make original and informative media. If this is allowed to continue, places like youtube would become nothing but marketing tools for companies, which is something that would only hurt the internet as a whole.
The current notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) allows and rewards abusive use as there is no safeguard of proof before action. This process is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
How can something like someone's child dancing to a song, someone talking about the weather, or even someone making a negative review of a movie not be well within fair use? With the DMCA, of course! This system is so terribly in favor of copyright holders that those who are attacked have little to no say in what happens with their content, whether or not it really is out of fair use. Very few of these people can afford to take these matters to court, and are thus taken advantage of, essentially BULLIED out of what they are lawfully able to create. What happened to fair use? Why are mere robots and scripts able to send out these claims, and go without penalty? Where's the fair use?
Corporations are not people. Help the actual people stop this abuse.
The DMCA has taken down multiple videos of friends that I have even thought the material that they used was completely legal and fair, and nothing is getting down. And this is happening to too many people in it needs to stop Please. We need to do something about this.
We don't need another Hitler. C'mon stop this nonsense.
I have been wanting to make my own stuff for youtube but have been afraid to do so because of the resent copyright abuse.
Having frequented YouTube for watching reviews of movies and other media created by the Nostalgia Critic and others I have of course notice the large number of take downs filled against these reviews and it's not just on reviews. indeed the ability for reviewers to review is very much hampered by companies abuse of the DMCA. I have seen entire reviews with no footage from the media they are reviewing simply because of the threat of take down.
Companies have no clear incentive to fallow the rules when their is no consequence for breaking them and will abuse this left and right for as long as they are allowed to get away with it. Many make their lively hoods with reviews and this flagrant abuse of an outdated system threats that lively hood. This country was founded on the ideals of free speech and the ability to review, critique, parody, or simply share your opinion is part of that, now more than ever.
Right now, trolls and major companies are heavily abusing the DMCA and Fair Use. They are using shield companies to hide their names as they stifle their critics or potential competitors for monetary gain. These companies are now reaching the point of harassing content creators for trying to fight back and protect their work with threats of taking creators to court over reviews that have no clips of copyrighted video or music. I feel I speak for majority of creators when I say that this is unjust, and is simply a trick used to make the rich richer and to crush any negative comments sent their way.
Please, update the DMCA. Creators are losing their freedom of speech to companies that hide behind smaller ones to steal money from critics that are protected by Fair Use. It has gotten to the point where there are companies making copyright claims called "Ad Revenue for a Third Party". As more and more people move to the internet to get their news and stories, companies are turning to dirtier and dirtier tricks. The world is changing, people are growing, and companies must realize they cannot crush small creators in this expanding market of the Internet.
Please don't ignore us.
I'm not sure why you're soliciting opinions since cursory inspection would tell you how this works for anyone who isn't a large corporation. An individual or smaller production company uses content in a manner consistent with the fair use clause, DMCA notice comes, fighting it accomplishes nothing, new content is suppressed. Congratulations, you've streamlined SLAPP lawsuits by cutting the courts out of the process. I suggest you reevaluate the amount of evidence required for a takedown notice and come up with more effective ways for recipients to respond. Thank you for your time.
The current copyright law system is incredibly outdated, harsh, heavily skewed against content creators, and extremely prone to abuse. Fair Use is not accounted for or protected against large companies.
Creators have very little means to argue against a claim to defend their content and the claimers have ZERO repercussions for making blatantly false claims. Even videos of people simply talking about a movie from within a car, without absolutely zero footage of any kind involved, get copyrighted.
This process has been used to outright harass and personally threaten people making content, and there is no reason for them to stop. They are not penalized for false claims. Even after a video defeats a claim they can be still be claimed multiple times after. And during these claims the revenue that should have gone to the creator goes to the claimer even if its defeated. Companies are spamming claims on videos in order to reap the profits even if they have no true claim whatsoever.
This has, without hyperbole, become an extortion scheme. Free speech, independent and harmless opinions, are being strangled by companies while they make money off of them. Copyrights must be protected, sure. But this has become corrupt and highly abused.
Look ANYWHERE across Youtube and you will find thousands of videos of youtubers detailing, with able verifiable sources and court-worthy evidence, extremely disturbing abuses of the notice and takedown system. See for yourself! You won't have to search for more than a minute.
This has to be fixed. Its not a minor issue, it has become abusive and corrupt and people are sick of it.
If still not convinced then the following notice sums it up thoroughly:
""
This has gotten to a point where not only is it wrong it has become criminal. The DMCA is being used to bully, silence and steal from honest people. There needs to be a stop to this.
I'm not a big youtuber like Markiplier or League of Super Critics or anything but the few videos I've made that were previously cleared on my main channel and my second channel have been effected by all the copyright issues plaguing YouTube users everywhere. So since the process of arguing against those claims is run by outdated rules and no humans seemed to even be involved in fixing it, I just removed them entirely which is completely unfair. It's making my experience on YouTube a pain and has tempted me more times than once to never post a video ever again, because our content under constant attack. That is why we have to do something to protect our rights as well.
The automatic process by which DMCA take-downs work leads to countless spurious claims on legitimate work. It is frequently used to remove dissenting opinions, circumvent fair use, and even claim work that does not belong to the claimant (happens to creators of original music, who can have their music automatically claimed by algorithm).
It can be used repeatedly on an innocent content creator to have their channel permanently removed from Youtube. And it can be used to claim the revenue from videos which claimant has no right to. Because the take-down or claim on revenue is automatic, and their is a significant amount of time between appeal and response before the claimant actually has to justify their claim, the system is rife with completely risk-free abuse. An organization can manually, or use software to automatically, claim content, make money on that content, and then drop the claim just before the end of the response period - and they keep that money.
The act needs to be changed to reinforce fair use doctrine on the internet, to stop false claims from stealing money from creators, to put the onus on the claimant that the content is theirs before they can potentially steal other peoples work, and to stop people being able to spam claims to have others voices permanently removed from whatever outlet the platform in question may be. It's time for an update that reflects the modern internet and media environment. Thank you for taking the time to hear us.
I, Quaid Wright, agree with the above statement
There are multiple cases of fraud where shell companies steal income from videos claiming their copyright. This also happens to videos using no copyrighted content including vlog videos of one person talking to the camera. This not only inhibits free speech, but hurts small business owners. Further it makes viewers complicit in the theft when they watch content with dmca claims.
I have seen many times when incredible videos are taken down for a few seconds of a copyright song, it gets to the point where having anything that sounds even similar is used to take down the video, making it difficult for creators online to do anything new and entertaining.
Companies constantly abuse the DMCA law, going online and constantly harrassing users that put up content online regarding their content. Critics who voice their opinion are constantly shut down, completely restricting their opinion of the subject, in order to avoid bad publicity and sell their content further, making the consumers blind to any wrongs until it is too late.
The DMCA is constantly being abused, used to suppress the freedom of speech of creators everywhere online. It is no longer used for any one who uses copyrighted material, but a tool for companies to control the media. The law has not changed in almost 20 years, growing stagnant while the internet itself has grown and expanded. The law of 18 years ago does not apply anymore to the internet of today. It needs to be revised, and looked over again to allow users, creators, critics, anyone to have their voice heard, to allow creativity to flow, rather than let a scared corporate control what we can and cannot watch.
If you're going to fight online piracy, do it right. Employ those who insist they cannot find jobs to look at each video and post made throughout the internet to find copyright violations, or pressure relevant corporate branches to do so. Better yet, delegate these jobs to inmates who can't code/hack to save themselves. Most employed Americans have jobs that involve extensive sitting time; why not share that experience with those in need?
Most posters who create content on video- and image-sharing sites acknowledge they cannot legally make a profit off of previously copyrighted material they share. Treat them with the respect they deserve, make examples of those who violate this code, and move on to something more universally profitable.
This is getting embarrassing; people, who are being unfairly taken down for no legally proper reason, are being treated like scum for no good reason; outside the fact that the system is flawed and easy to abuse. Sites whom, as previously thought, are guilty of no more than the predetermined fair use laws allowed them to be are being shut down because of discrepancies (and dare i say; corruption) in the current system. This needs to be remedied immediately; unless you want to subject legitimate artists to the same ridiculous censorship standards that only North Korea would welcome.
Please, update DMCA policy to include something that requires actual proof that fair use is not being used. Maybe a hiatus period to ascertain who's property is infringed without the need to immediately remove the product so that people aren't censored like they are today. or consequences for those that are using the system to censor others. Please and thank you. I may not understand everything about DMCA but I do understand that right now the system isn't working to protect peoples work. Unless they're a giant Corporation that nobody wants to mess with because they can afford the court cost.
I have a tiny channel and I'm currently working on expanding my audience and increasing my amount of content. I'm even working on expanding my number of channels to diversify even more.. Only one slight problem. I'm scared to put anything movie, tv or new mainstream videogame related up on youtube. I'm literally hesitant to express any form of review or opinion, based on the horror stories Ive heard and read about. I've seen friends have strikes against videos where the creator of the videogame he was playing has ok'ed fair use and monitization. I'd love to expand and do all my ideas, but with these rules in place, and if one single person not liking my opnion can bring my video, channel or even potential liveliyhood down, it's not a risk anyone should have to take.
New digital age should mean new/altered laws.
Imagine, for a moment, a law which is designed to hold private businesses where people congregate (such as bars. restaurants and museums) responsible for stiffing "violence-inciting speech" made by people in their establishments. Now technically, this is a form of expression that is okay for the government to punish, so long as it is extreme and immediate enough (see: Brandenburg v. Ohio). But of course, the basic description is only the surface. So what if, within its pages, not only was the above term defined very vaguely, but the prescribed punishments for not meeting the strict requirements were extreme- enough in the worst cases to cripple them completely. It's not hard to imagine that before long, people caught by a waiter saying things like "keep him in your sights" and "let's go in with guns a'blazing" getting kicked to the curb after maybe one warning.
Now the question is: does this law sound constitutional? At first glance, one might be tempted to say yes, because the government ITSELF isn't restricting speech, and it didn't SPECIFICALLY demand that the businesses "take it too far". But ultimately, this is a climate of protected speech being stifled that now exists only because it was legislated into existence- the fact that it is being done by proxy means very little if anything.
Unfortunately, there has been a law actually on the books for almost twenty years that is strikingly similar to this hypothetical one, both in description and results.
The fair use law is being voilated by companies, sometimes that don't even own the content. Content creators are getting copywrite claims on videos that had already been cleared, and for videos that only show the content creators face. Many content creators are afraid to upload, because the harrassment involving the DMCA takedowns. This needs to be updated to fit with our new internet, as it only fits with the very old ways of the internet.
These takedowns affect everyone in the youtube community, youtubers(content creators), fans, content creator's families, and anyone else, by removing innocent videos,or taking down entire channels, it takes away income, entertainment, or whatever the video's about. Please update this.
-a young, youtuber supporter.
Who runs USA these days? Is it the law, or is it big companies?
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Times have changed. Users are the focal point of the Internet, not corporations. It makes sense for them to have their rights taken into more consideration.
I watch YouTube as my form of media. I not only get important news stories, but I also get a lot of entertainment from creators. They need to be protected by those who want to abuse the DMCA's laws. I've seen creators heavily censor, heavily change their content over the years in an attempt to stop the attacks from copyright holders. It isn't right that their rights are being violated as creators. It not only affects those creating the content, but those of us who enjoy what they bring to the table. Where's the fair use?
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Stop allowing major corporations from stealing from content creators and stifling voices of people trying to review products. The current system allows people to attack others where they have no actual legal ground to do so and with no repercussion.
Videos should not be taken down due to false copyright claims. Seeing channels I enjoy be taken down because of this is a horrible thing to happen. I love watching videos these people make. But might not be able to in the future is not something I like to think about. This needs to change
To note, the DMCA is a dated process made in a time where the Internet was completely different. It needs to account for the Internet of today. 1998 was a long time ago, and the law needs to account for now, 2016. The DMCA lets those who want to play dirty, play dirty. It harms from the content creators that make a living of what they do, to the regular internet user who posted something once and gets sent to court for something of Fair Use.
The abuse needs to be handled and it needs to start right away.
This is not a joke, this is not to be taken lightly. This is the right of citizens to make what they want under the 1st Amendment (Freedom of Speech, specifically), and their right to hold Fair Use.
april foolz
All of the above is accurate, do not let unfair censorship overwhelm the creators and critics.
The world of Youtube as we know it right now is crumbling for the middle man and no one is doing anything about it. Big companies such as Warner Brothers, Studio Gibley, Time Warner, and even small companies no one really knows about are abusing the copywright system! Bringing false claims on content that they dont even own! Some are maliciously using the system too stifle other people's work because of negative opinions of their own work, there by severly limiting the 2nd amendment's legitimacy of "Free Speech". Some people's content that have ABSOLUTELY NO Copywrighted material AT ALL are still being taken down as we speak! The system of the DMCA is beyond broken, and it makes it a very scary place for those on the internet that wish too create content for our viewing pleasure. The internet is not a place where greedy, money-grubbing companies can steal other people's work right under their noses and make a profit off of it. Especially when they themselves make plenty of money from their own work. We as creators should not have too put up with this!
As a fan of many YouTubers, I have quickly learned in the past few months about how different companies and individuals have been abusing copyright law. Although the YouTube copyright protection system is in part to blame, I believe that certain parts of the law need to be more clearly stated.
Many of the people I watch have gotten false strikes under claims that it infringed with fair use, which is absolutely not true. People will either have the creator's video taken down or steal the revenue that the creator would have earned. They will have this happen based on the claim that they stole the original work without adding anything new to it, which in most cases isn't true, and only a clip was used along with commentary of some sort added along with that. They will also do this on reviews and critiques. I have seen many reviewers have their videos taken down just because the creator(s) of the original video didn't appreciate the publicity it brought them. Sometimes, there's even cases of people who don't even own the content in question to begin with! And yet they are still allowed to claim it as their own with no consequence and a whole lot of benefits! I believe that if companies feel the need to do this, there needs to be some sort of punishment if they falsely accuse someone of infringing on copyright law.
Please update this fossil.
The ancient DMCA was introduced way back in 1998, before sites like Youtube and Facebook were even imaginable... it was not made with the current internet in mind. People are using the internet for most of their media consumption these days, and instead of copyright law being used to protect these internet content creators it is being used to harass and destroy them. The DMCA is being used to stifle free speech, even being used to take down content such as a video containing nothing but a couple dudes talking on camera. The DMCA does not do the job it was intended to do very well, and all it has succeeded in is a long history of abuse towards fan works and legitimate content protected by the fair use act. DMCA claims are filed without factoring in the fair use act... DMCA strikes are being used as threats, with some even begging for a ransom to not do it. Some people are being hit with content claims multiple times even after being cleared, which is simply not ok. With 0 penalty for false claims people are claiming DMCA strikes on content that isn't theirs, nor any other copyright holders, just to stifle their competition or harass individuals they have a beef with. They are using false DMCA claims to damage those content providers reputations and prevent them from making revenue for a long enough time to affect them... when the first few days are where almost all revenue comes from, it makes it impossible to get any revenue out of content someone falsely claims. Many people are using robots to file DMCA claims simply to harass internet content creators in bulk whilst protecting their real self/company from any backlash by using shell companies and such. The DMCA simply does not mesh with the modern internet, where everyone with a cellphone is a news reporter and a content creator... where fans are using several kinds of art as a way to interact with their favorite content, and get punished for it whether it is fair use or not... where people are punished for trying to share any experiences they have with the world. Copyright law does not take into account the strong power of social networking websites, and how getting fans to share and interact with their content in any and all ways is now a benefit to copyright holders rather than a threat. The many industries that have a hard time accepting new technologies can't be allowed to continue with their choke-hold on the internet... especially the cable companies, who continue to charge exuberant prices for their dated services running on technology that they refuse to upgrade and who take anti-competitive actions such as territorial agreements. Companies need to stop hiding behind abusive DMCA claims and learn something from Valve... offer legitimate services that dis-incentivize piracy and people will stop pirating. They also need to legitimize fan works of all kinds and let their community grow more naturally instead of stifling fan enthusiasm by shutting them down in some crazy attempt to force fans to interact through their own controlled setting. It isn't like the DMCA is actually preventing real illegal content, for instance with piracy the internet has proved that where there is a will people will find a way... all it has really succeeded in is a long history of abuse towards fan works and legitimate content protected by the fair use act. Copyright law needs to join the modern age of the internet!
As a content creator starting out with a blog and my own YouTube channel, this concerns me of my long term ability to provide content of value. I'm also very concerned at the longevity of many of my favorite content providers as they can easily be taken down or removed from the internet based on the whim of a company or individual without considering fair use.
The current Dmca is being abused by greedy jerks we want peaceful Internet with out greed companies.
My name is Tyler Wolff and I am an aspiring film critic. I've made two videos YouTube and have written dozens of reviews on a public website that I won't mention without the owner's consent. The main reason I've avoided making video reviews for so long is the fear of my videos being taken down by people who simply don't care for my opinion. This fear stems from seeing Internet personality Doug Walker's reviews for The Room and Planet of the Apes among others being taken down by film studios. But then I learned he was only one of many who's rights to free speech have been ignored.
In Canada, fair use/fair dealing requires that in order to use copyrighted material verbatim, you must mention the source and the artist responsible for the source. Tony Zhou of Vancouver has made many film essays titled Every Frame a Painting, and his videos end with the names of films he showed in his videos, the year they were released and the film's director. He did everything that was legal, and yet Vimeo still took down many of his videos. Not only is this unfair, but it makes no sense considering his videos celebrate certain films and filmmakers for their visual skill. What was the point of removing the videos?
I'm making it a requirement in my videos to source films and artists whose content I display, as it is the law and that artist must've worked hard on that particular project. But it's a daunting and intimidating task to get in front of a camera, speak my mind, spend hours editing my videos and inserting photos and then posting it online where anyone can see it. This is a very difficult job to do, and the people who use fair use in their content work very hard on these projects. And they don't deserve to have their content either removed and/or profited by others just because they don't like their opinions.
What I want to see is a requirement that copyright holders have to prove that someone is using content and violating fair use law BEFORE the video can be taken down, instead of immediately taking down a video without providing any evidence. If there's no copyrighted material being used, it should not be given a claim or strike! If it's proven to be used under fair use law, the claim or strike should be denied. If content creators receive a claim on a video they make revenue on, the revenue should be placed in a side account while the claim is being processed, and should NOT go directly to the plaintiff. And if it's proven that the content creator was legally using fair use, the revenue should be given to them and not the claimant. If it's legally proven that it's violating the law, then the money should go to the claimant. And there should not be a limit on how many appeals a content creator can make when they receive a claim or strike. It's unfair to have the claimant receive more liberties than the content creator/defendant.
My name is Tyler Wolff, Where's the Fair Use?!
READ IT THIS TIME.
The DMCA allows for obscene amount of abuse by large companies, with 0 negatives to the DMCA claimant. They can issue them on anything and EVERYTHING they want taken down, and can do it over and over even if the video is restored . There is no penalty for this either, so they continue to do it . This needs a huge fix.
The DMCA is incredibly flawed. I've seen this system used to threaten You Tubers who critique copyrighted material, even when they are within fair use. I've seen those who misuse this system pretending to represent a law-firm. I've even seen those who take down content they don't even own the rights to. This must be stopped not with deliberate speed, but NOW!
I have seen a large amount of content taken down to false allegations (and some of them not even from the companies or people that could claim to be even remotely affected by it); and I have also seen such people and companies abuse the current system. If one decides to search the internet they will easily find several companies whose primary source of income is to hand out DMCA notices and seize the monetization of youtube videos. It is not just unfair that such companies are able to continue to operate but also harm the internet as a creative medium, discouraging artists (and other individuals) from producing content as well as punishing those who use such media as youtube and other similar sites as their source of income.
A lot of great content creators put a lot of hard work into their reviews (which absolutely falls under fair use) only for other companies to make a false claim and take their hard earned money. This has to stop! Furthermore, the Internet has provided jobs for creating content, and these companies who don't follow the fair use law are holding them back. Please please PLEASE do something about this!
While I cannot say much about what an impact the DMCA has with me, as I am not a content creator, but seeing what has happened to many of the creators I see being restricted and censored, I can see that the system is certainly flawed, and I have a few questions concerning the system that I would like to see addressed (most of which involve YouTube).
Why is it that a Copyright claim can be enforced on a video that features no Copyrighted material?
Why can a company take revenue from a video that they claimed, even if the claim is false?
Why is a YouTube channel only allowed to fight three Copyright strikes or claims at a time, if there doesn't seem to be a limit on how many times a company can enforce these claims?
Why isn't there some form of repercussion for companies who present false Copyright claims?
Bottom line, the way that many companies seem to abuse the DMCA to censor anything they don't like is baffling. There needs to be, at the very least, some changes to the current system that ensures safety and freedom for creators to create, while also protecting against piracy, which is still a prevalent and important issue.
Free speech is the way to be! It always has and it always will!
I am here, because I support the content creators, I stand with them, they have no right to lose their videos or content because one person thinks it violates fair use, and not even define it.
*MY WORDS ON THE MATTER*
This outdated design of the DMCA has been used to attack content critics when their videos have no displays (video, still image, audio) of the copy written material, the fact that this happens at all is beyond insulting to the concept of content creation. How long till someone claims ownership of the Internet it self? How long till someone claims ownership of the letter E? The internet is an ever changing entity much like people, the D.M.C.A. is trying to halt all change towards progress in favor of a minute profit for a handful of people with no understanding of innovation or improvement.
We truly need to stop this abuse of the system put in place to protect us.
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The DMCA takedowns are being abused by people and corporations in an effort to censor criticism. This is a direct violation of the first amendment right to free speech. Creators and critics, many of whom rely on youtube for their income, should not be harassed and threatened for giving their opinion.
Entire companies have been formed to take advantage of youtubes automated system, filing copy right claims against creators who have done nothing wrong in order to take their ad revenue. Even if the claims are found to be false youtube still gives the false accusers the ad revenue money allowing people and companies without morals to profit from creator's hard work. This cannot stand, these people work hard to provide entertainment to people all around the globe, they are no different than an actor, an author, or a television news anchor, we would not allow such harassment of traditional media persons, why would we allow this to happen to a new and promising medium like the internet.
Also, I urge you to extend your deadline for the opinions. Many in the online communities have not yet heard of this, no one made any effort to inform us until the last minute. I just heard about this from the Nostalgia Critic today. Please extend your deadline and give more people time to voice their grievances.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.
Signed,
Kenneth Ulrich
I don't make internet videos but that does not mean i cant write this comment, but i think as long as a flag on a Youtube is "legit" and fair its fine but if a fake company goes after channels they know they can get money from i.e IHE. If a company does an invalid take down there should be fines and depending on the scale of what happened possible jail time.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. Unfortunately, these algorithms often fail badly, committing severe errors and precluding rational judgments about possible fair use exceptions. These algorithms fail to make a significant distinction between piracy — a legitimate concern — and fair use, a distinction US courts have been making competently since before the Civil War (Folsom v. Marsh), continuing the tradition from English courts which predate the United States itself. (Giles v Wilcox)
As a result of these algorithms' failures, untold amounts of legitimate creative and expressive works are being systematically removed by overzealous computers programmed by uncaring copyright holders, with little regard for the fair use doctrine or other exceptions and exemptions in copyright law. In fact, a recent study by Berkeley and Columbia law professors determined that nearly 30% of takedown notices are of questionable legal validity, at best; these notices would benefit from a human review system that is not available under current implementation of the law.
Even allowing for legitimate error on the part of these computer programs, the process is still rife with corruption and wide open for abuse. Political speech can be removed during crucial periods of a campaign, for months at a time, violating the most sacred First Amendment principles with the click of a mouse. Copyright holders who find reviews critical of their work can hold those critiques hostage as would a schoolyard bully, burying a legitimate critic under a mountain of frivolous copyright claims, strikes and takedown notices until the critic gives in due to simple fatigue. The people, companies and computers filing these SLAPP-like notices need not even be involved with the material they claim to be infringed, but can simply be a shell company or copyright troll using the legal system to exploit legitimate content creators for material benefit.
In nearly any other industry, these frivolous notices and knee-jerk takedowns would rightly be dismissed as wasteful or prosecuted as fraud. But under the current system, there is no penalty for flooding the system with claims that have no basis in law or fact. This state of affairs is unacceptable as our public spaces and economic systems move increasingly into a digital environment. Copyright holders must be made responsible for their abuses of the system if creative, critical, educational, and political expression are to survive on the Internet.
If we are to hold to the Constitution's call to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts," then balance must be struck in the DMCA's notice-and-takedown system. Those who abuse the system must be held legally accountable for their actions.
It is important to remember that the purpose of Copyright law is to protect the economic interests of content creators. This primarily applies to direct, unedited uploads of entire films or television shows. Online creators using aspects of Copyrighted content to create transformative works are not harming the economic interests of the original owners, and should be protected to the fullest extent possible.
The DMCA has really helped the birth of sites such as Facebook and Youtube in its early days. However, in recent years this law has begun to show the signs of poor aging. It was not built for the fast and free flowing internet of today. It was built for a much older and more rigid system, one where there was no concept of sharing and even really content creation.
One major issue is the overtly defensive nature this law takes. By offering no penalty or difficulty in claims, companies have begun aggressively abusing their power over fair use in order to force people out of their freedom of speech. By allowing this reckless action by some smaller companies, it is slowly becoming the norm to attack channels that use a companies content, even when this content is little more than free advertisement for that company.
This has created a stigma between the corporate and every day person in regards to internet content. Places like Youtube have never held this sort of tension until recently, and this is due to the misuse of a law designed to protect average people. Not all content created is following the law, but a majority of content is being flagged and even taken down unfairly, or at least without proper care.
This system currently promotes the concept of guilty until proven innocent, something which is against our nations laws. These attacks are getting out of hand, and we have even begun to see takedowns with no real proof to back it up. Put simply, this is becoming terrifyingly similar to the Salem witch trials or the Mcarthy Trials. The last thing anyone wants is our early online generation to be remembered for unjust blaming and aggressive attacks on the people.
As a budding content creator, I find myself in a difficult situation automatically. Much of the work I would like to do could easily be false claimed under the abusive use of the copywrite law, and that ranges from releasing my own thoughts and concepts onto the internet to simply playing games with friends. I want to expand out and entertain others, but I feel like I will be punished for it as soon as I stick myself into the ring. I have even been working on some Podcasts for a friend and there have been continuous automatic strikes garnered against them for music that they own.
Needless to say, there needs to be a change. I am not entirely familiar with law crafting as a whole, but redesigning the law to follow the simple reinforcement of innocent until proven guilty would be enough to solve a great many of these situations. Perhaps some sort of difficulty on the companies part, or need of proof would scare most companies away from following through as it wouldn't be so easy to simply call out channels that use their content in the least bit.
This now is a step in the right direction though, asking people their thoughts on the current laws in use. To do so is to allow a great many ideas to flow in but makes clear whether or not change is needed. By giving people a chance to speak it allows a much more even playing field so that companies are not automatically placed at a higher priority than the average person. Hopefully this leads to another step in the right direction, and soon a return to free speech and truly fair use.
While I myself don't have any kind of personal stake regarding the issue of DMCA, the abuse of the system is plainly seen with those it affects. Nearly all of the channels I've subscribed to have been stifled by countless companies, large and small, who's intentions are often times malicious and greedy. This needs to end soon or risk further strife with the internet as a whole. Thank you for listening.
I highly recommend you analyze the following channels to see the unlawful and illegal actions that people and corporations have done to others online.
1. I Hate Everything (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRbOPaGDB_xOQkVM8Rnn62Q)
Alex is an online personality that does satirical rants and movie reviews. A few months ago he (along with other online personalities) reviewed the anti-bullying movie Cool Cat Saves the Kids by a Mr. Derek Savage. Alex, given that his online persona revolves around cynicism and criticism, gave the movie a negative review (though recommended viewers to see it because he classified it as a "so bad it's good"). Derek Savage saw said negative review and out of anger abused the DMCA to take Alex's video down, claiming it was copyright infringement, depsite it being a review which falls under fair use. After weeks upon weeks of trying to peacefully resolve the situation with Derek, Alex made his situation public. Eventually, Alex won and got his video back (along with everyone else), but that stain on his schedule prevented him from getting ad revenue for months, which essentially meant he wasn't being paid for his job.
2. TheMysteriousMrEnter (https://www.youtube.com/user/TheMysteriousMrEnter)
Jonathan is an online personality that does reviews for animation, ranging from big-budget cartoons like Family Guy and Spongebob Squarepants, to cartoons that didn't make it past their pilots, to online animations. His main two series are Animated Atrocities and Admirable Animations. He has stated that every time he posts a video, it gets flagged for copyright and he loses his ad revenue until the counterclaim he uses to dispute it with finally gets answered at the very last minute by the claimants (usually a month). Like with Alex, his form of entertainment is review, which falls under fair use. However, this does not stop the companies (some of which don't even OWN the reviewed animations) from flagging the video and getting the money that he deserves. This is still happening to him with an Australian cartoon named Pixel Pinkie that he reviewed over a year ago that keeps flagging his video. This abuse has gotten to the point that Jonathan demands that the company responsible, Blue Rocket Productions, either sue him or leave him alone.
3. Channel Awesome/League of Super Critics/The Nostalgia Critic (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiH828EtgQjTyNIMH6YiOSw)
Doug Walker, aka the Nostalgia Critic, has been reviewing movies since 2007. Since then, he has risen to internet stardom, being the most well-known online personality of the ones I have mentioned. Doug, like Jonathan and Alex, has also been getting hit with abuses of the DMCA for his reviews. This also costs him the money he rightfully deserves. He has no job other than his YouTube career, and because he keeps losing his ad revenue for so long, it's costing him a lot of money that he needs to keep the lights on in his building. He began the "Where's the Fair Use?" (#WTFU) movement in hopes of getting these abuses to stop, and he was the one that notified me and many of the others commenting of this very docket.
Doug, Alex, and Jonathan are only three people out of the hundreds and thousands that get hit with this abuse every day on the Internet. The DMCA needs to be changed, and it needs to be changed soon.
As a viewer of Youtube who loves to watch people like Natewantstobattle, who plays some anime openings covers, or make some funny parody's, etc. The video those people make are fun to listen to. I also watch people like Arlo who makes video about video games but talks about the deep thought of it, for fun like how people talk history or culture. I also like watching people like JoshJepson who play games, yes to play games, it more how they react to the games itself to see how they act to it fun to see. I also like people reviewing movies, games, music, and Cartoons, like Mr.Enter. I also like watching Top tenner's or fivers or whatever people like Rabbidluigi does this and do a good job of it with the topics of whatever he feels is his top favorite video game is. If all these people that I do end up subbing or not subbing lose there job because of the copyright we are screwed as viewers and has Youtuber's and even Youtube itself which is the biggest video site that isn't porn! Money will go down the drain for both Youtube and the people who makes the money of Youtube. The viewer would get very bored very bored because there nothing to watch at all on T.V
Many channels that I enjoy watching and watch on a regular basis have been effected by false copyright claims. Creators putting countless hours into their videos while completely following fair use rules. Channels including Channel Awesome YourmoviesucksDOTorg and I Hate Everything have been given false claims from companies and other content creators for using clips from their movies or videos even though it is completely under fair use. Yet, other channels that call themselves "react" channels, play videos in their entirety while adding almost nothing to the video. Channels like Jinx claim that it's "promotion." However, if a video is played in its entirety then that gives the viewer no reason to go watch the original video because they've already seen it. Back to movie reviewers. Clips of movies were shown in their videos to allow the viewer to see what they're talking about. Yet companies still file false claims. This typically happens with movies that the reviewer doesn't like and gives a bad review. This completely destroys not only fair use, but freedom of speech. Balance is needed. Companies shouldn't be able to file false claims and put internetainers careers in jeopardy.
Seriously.
This system has been abuses again and again for as long as I have been on the internet. Almost all of my favorite content creators have had to deal with problems like these their whole careers. Take Mysterious Mr.Enter, who had to take down his video three times in a row by being repeatedly attacked by the same company. Standards have changed. It's time for this law to as well.
I'm a small youtuber with only a few subscribers, and though I have not been directly effect by this I see all the crap that happens to other youtubers, and how this effect them, but also as a fan I hate having people take down the videos of youtubers I love, giving them the choice of either not getting any money from it, or not having the video shown at all. and though I might not have many views or subscribers I still put a lot of work in to my videos so I know how much time and work it takes to make them, and to have that all wasted for some jack ass to come and freely take down the video, even though the youtubers is in the right with fair use is completely unfair
I cannot recount the many times that I've seen my friends, people I respect, and even myself, have been abused and humiliated through the ways which companies abuse the laws in place that are supposed to 'protect' copyright. Fundamentally, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is meant to help safeguard copyrighted material and prevent blatant stealing of content or ideas, but, in reality, the way it has been interpreted and used has favored these larger companies far more than you might even know.
The criteria set in place for Fair Use, under Section 107 of copyright law, I'm certain you understand in full. I will still, however, list them off, as I wish to underline how companies abuse the DMCA and how they outright break Fair Use doctrine:
1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
This essentially states that, under Section 107, whether or not the individual makes money using the copyrighted material, if that content is considered fair use, is completely moot. This includes such content as satire and parody, protected under its respective clause; reviews, and critical analysis, as well as many other such types of video, audio, visual, or written material. This has not, however, stopped companies from attacking individuals and censoring their content, regardless of if they fall under Fair Use. Takedown notices, entire websites deleted, and this being done to those who have complete abidance toward Fair Use just as much as, or even far more often than, those who willfully break it.
2. The nature of the copyrighted work.
Content that is submitted to the public, such as movies, television programs, video games, books, and other public media, is "Knowingly submitted to the scrutiny, viewing, and approval of audiences." Even with this known, however, companies have cracked down on content creators, both large and small, for this very thing. As one that follows game development, I have seen many small developers childishly censoring and taking down negative feedback of their products, which, under Fair Use doctrine, should not be something they're allowed to do, as they themselves are breaking Copyright law by abusing that very law. However, due to the way that copyright is dealt with, including popular websites for media such as Youtube, this ruling in the Fair Use doctrine is skimmed over or outright ignored. That should not be - never be - the case when it comes to the matter of rules and regulations.
3. The amount and substainability of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
This states, essentially, that should the content in question use the copyrighted work in a sparing and/or transformative way, it should be considered protected under Fair Use doctrine. This follows us back to the aforementioned satire, parody, and review types of media content that has been battered and abused by the misuse of our copyright laws.
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted material.
In the case of reviewing said copyrighted material, it speaks for itself: reviewing and critiquing products that are provided in a public consumer market is fundemental to informing said consumers into making wiser purchasing decisions. Unveiling scams, revealing deceptive business practices, Fair Use doctrine should be protecting the whistleblowers to dangerous, if outright controversial, decisions that larger corporations attempt to get away with. As, however, the DMCA favors these corporations, they have continuously silenced these outcriers; in the case of content creators, this may include taking down videos, accounts, or even whole websites, under the pretense that these individuals are breaking laws they, clearly, are abiding by.
To summarize on the use of Fair Use doctrine, each of these criteria have been repeatedly ignored by companies and corporations, using DMCA as essentially a weapon against practically defenseless individuals. This affects people's livelihoods, how they create their content, and if they can even still create content at all. As I understand that this DMCA has, in fact, stopped countless actual copyright infringements, it has also done far more harm to those who abide by it than those who don't. Allow me to provide an example:
A small, practically unknown channel, posts an entire feature-length movie to Youtube. Youtube's automated systems tend to be very abusable themselves, and so these said copyright breakers change the pitch or visuals just ever-so-slightly to avoid being caught. Much of the time, they're never dealt with.
However, larger, well-known channels, including review channels such as Channel Awesome, are hit with takedown notices that they must counter-argue constantly, over little more than using publicly-released content such as movie trailers or teasers. Under Fair Use doctrine, and the way that they create and sparingly use the copyrighted material, they should be protected, correct? However, they are still plagued by these issues, as the law they abide by is weaponized against them by companies who they, themselves, have broken these very laws, sometimes on a daily basis.
The example I give is but one of many. There have been good people who have lost their ability to create and sustain, for a living, the content and material that they are skilled with and comfortable in making. DMCA, on paper, is sound, but in its application has done devastating damage to the internet at large. Fair Use is nothing but an afterthought to corporations anymore, and everyone knows this: it's because of this, budding developers and creators; the up-and-comers, the fresh faces; these people are too terrified to even try now. They know, as well as we all, that our current treatment of copyright is broken and archaic; why produce for a medium that is being tainted by the laws meant to protect it, after all?
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, in its current state, is flawed; these flaws are used to take advantage of, extort, and bully smaller businesses and individuals. The amount of utter carelessness in enforcing Fair Use, and preventing big companies from abusing it, has become unfathomable. It requires closer examination, to make it far more capable of handling the newest mediums that exist on the internet and beyond in the 21st century.
I pray to all those at the copyright office that read this message: please, take a second look at our current laws regarding this matter. Companies have trampled over and silenced free speech numerous times. What's the most ironic, and the very purpose of this message, is that there is a fundemental problem in play, here, if the laws meant to stop this are what they use as their tools to do so. Do not allow what you mean to protect become diluted and meaningless. Please, please...put an end to this. Save Fair Use.
Basically, DMCA takedown is an over-abused system that does far more harm than good. There are too many people put at risk of having their content took down due to false flags.
The current system in place allows companies and people to place as many false copyright claims as they want without any punishment.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works
The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) In its current state is heavily abusable by copyright holders, Multiple users on YouTube have had videos or their entire channels taken down by spurious copyright claims.
Companies have the ability to remove videos or seize revenue from them with no evidence required that they actually hold the copyright, As well as there are no reprucussions in place for individuals or companies that abuse the system.
Various users on YouTube have had videos of just them in front of a camera talking, with no music or any copyrighted material in the video completely removed.
The laws regarding fair use need to be updated to help protect content creators from being targeted by these individuals or companies.
These laws are being used by other bias companies to take money from other creators and/or to shut up others that take their creations in a negative way. We are afraid that if this law goes on longer that content creators will be afraid to publish more content because of this unfair and unbalanced law.
I have seen many of my favorite creators like "I Hate Everything" and "Channel Awesome" contents attacked by other companies for ridiculous reason such as using clips for reviewing and telling others that a bad movie is bad.
Im afraid that this law will be the reason that we will lose our freedom of speech and should be changed in a way that everything is in balance and those in the wrong shall be punished.
Hi, My name is Richard Huntley a.k.a Liquid Harmony and I want to talk about the right of our fair use as a content creator. Mostly everyone from let's players, reviewers, musicians, voice actors and many other content creators as well. I would like to talk about how are fair use is not being used in the right way.
The fair use policy should be use in order to let the creator of a youtube video can have the right to use whatever they want in their video and your copyright claim isn't helping us out.
Almost all of some of famous youtubers videos are being taken down by copyright claims that are extremely false and not true. Some of our videos and channels have been taken down for no reason and it's really stupid.
So I ask you to give use the fair use and we can make youtube a better place to the creator to do what they like to do and entertain the ones they love.
People in the US have freedom of speech. Why are youtubers like the Nostalgia Critic punished by corporate jerks bullying their way past our rights? Why do said corporate bullies get no punishment themselves?
The DMCA has been a source of endless abuse to content creators and artists. Anyone can make a claim of infringement without any proof, and it can ruin the livelihoods of any content creator on the web, even if the claim is 100% false.
I understand the wheels of law turn slowly, and for good reason. But we don't have time to wait. People are being hurt right now.
Act now, and stop the abuse.
Over the past year or so, I've witnessed many YouTube videos, protected under fair use, needlessly attacked by copyright claims that falls under fair use, especially when it comes to negative critisism.
Whether or not this gets heard to the ones in charge is paramount to free speech, and will set a huge precedent on what companies and random people can do when they send in false claims, hurting content creators when they don't deserve it.
We need more oversight on this that is direct and doesn't punish anyone immediately until they are proven guilty by an actually human being that investigates it.
Thank you for reading
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjvoJe4_v9k&sns=em
I feel major issues with the current applications and usage of the DMCA can be seen in this YouTube video posted by the user Matthias, in which videos were claimed by people who were not owners of the original property or had no jurisdiction to do so due to the posted content being well within the exact letter of fair use regulations. This archaic method of copyright has injured countless content creators in but their revenue and has been used as a method of censorship that is entirely unconstitutional.
Unfortunately, DMCA's are biased against content creators, and there are not penalties for faulty claims.
I have some suggestions for what needs to be done, but first understand my position. I honestly wanted to start creating my own original content on the internet. I have not posted these non-derivative works due to the fact that I fear the immediate false claims that would be left unchecked by the current system. It would make my content unprofitable for me and would waste my efforts. The efforts of others are constantly under attack and I know for certain that this issue has become a drain on the economy of the United States.
Things I think can improve the laws in this issue:
#1: Since the content creators are often small and underfunded, make it mandatory for the plaintiff to reimburse the defendant for legal fees when the plaintiff's takedown claim is false or unfounded. Furthermore, blatantly false takedown claims (requires approval by an appropriate judicial official) should be treated as a a form of fraud, allowing for return litigation against those that would abuse the system by way of a criminal suit against a company.
#2: To remedy piracy and protect content creators at the same time, pass a law that makes it so that the hosting websites can give through contract with the content creators or people who post on their website the legal responsibility for claims against the host website related to the content creator's materials. In other words, Youtube, Deviantart, and other content hosts can make deals or contracts with the video creators, art creators, and others of their websites that would shield the host website from all legal responsibility for copyright suits and claims by putting said responsibility upon the content creator whose posted material is being claimed against. Thus putting the creator in a courtroom to defend his deeds instead of the usually not involved host.
#3: Pass both #1 and #2 into law together. This way, the weight of responsibility for illegal activity can be placed on the actual pirate, not the websites, and also people falsely accused of piracy and copyright infractions can be better capable of fighting false claims.
#4: Ban automated third party takedown services and legally require that someone has to put their name on a suit as a claimant for a takedown. This way someone has to be behind the wheel when deciding that a takedown of content is necessary or legally appropriate.
I run a small YouTube channel with less than a hundred subs. One of the main videos I do are trailer reactions. However, a bunch of companies seem to think that I am infringing copyright, and most of my trailer reactions are being MONETIZED by the studios. I don't even make money of my own videos, so why should they?
I am a victim to this copyright abuse. I have made a parody of bob Ross an it was taken down for reasons which were protected.
It's caused injury to both current and likewise aspiring original content creators in social and broadcasting platforms such as Youtube, while leaving unpunished perhaps content producers who would've just gotten their gains from broadcasting other creators' content since they wouldn't own the piece that got taken down, this last part appliable to Youtube itself in its current state.
I'm adding my name to this because I believe the laws of right of expression need to be renewed with a better chapter for the current generation, and also with the upholding of fair and just reprimands, as the world evolves so do the modes of one's chance of expressing themselves, and with the current business model, there's too many ways hard working creators are crippled or outright disabled by con artists in platforms such as Youtube, by getting strikes caused by malicious users who make sure to amass bots and like minded people to take down videos, and finally thieves who reupload their work and attempt aswell to mask it as something else, such as the example of "reaction videos", wherein they'll actively, and consciously, show the entire video in their own channels therefore ruining a more positive or experience the user could have gotten from the source material, and maybe go as far as to attempt to have the original video deleted so as to have the only preserved copy of the created content.
It's time to engage in changing the ruleset, else its become overtly detrimental to the people who could've once shaped the online community.
I'm not someone who posts videos on the internet, but I am someone who enjoys them. As such, I see the hard work and creativity these artists bring and it's heartbreaking to hear how easy it is for someone to take advantage of them. If they truly have done something wrong, an investigation will prove it. Right now, it seems like no one is investigating these claims and there are no reprecussions for false accusations. As an artist myself, I would like to know there are ways out there to protect my work.
In honor of the American way, this Act needs to be updated to protect our freedom of speech and creativity.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
i've seen small channels and big channels use small clips of works just to give an opinion or react, or share their expressions, no matter how dumb.
it's time someone protected these people and punished true offenders.
something needs to be done about whole non-public domain movies or songs being given a pass while people who create mostly original content can't give a fair amount of reason or percentage of their profit to companies who are unwilling to negotiate.
we need fair use. we need free voice.
we need change.
For a long time there has been the principle of Copyright where if you make something, then it's yours. However, the Fair Use act allows other people to be able to use parts of the copyrighted materials for the sake of education, parody, comment, and criticism. Many people, especially on YouTube, Facebook, and other social media websites, respect the author's original work and only uses their material to make a point.
However, this rule is not being followed by companies or anyone who is trying to bring drama towards the content creators. There are no penalties for these people for bringing up false claims and those who are being claimed are limited to appeal. This has made some content creators on these social media sites lose their time and money for creating content, especially for reviews and parodies.
As a result, some of these content creators are either threaten that they'll be sued, or some have lost their revenues. There is nobody to help these content creators appeal because there are no human beings to help them. The entire system is automated, and computers are not able to comprehend subjective materials as much as we can. Therefore the computer can think that a lot of these videos and posts violate copyright law without a second review coming from a person. Where's the Fair Use?
Because of this, I am sending you my dissenting opinion that the current state of Fair Use, Copyright Laws, the DMCA, and its procedures are far outdated and need to be updated between the government and the content creators. We need to have conferences to prove that content creators are not stealing the whole content from the original authors, but that they fall under Fair Use.
The DMCA was enacted in 1998. It is now 2016, 18 years after this law was enacted, and the state of the internet has changed entirely. The internet is here to help you. We can combat piracy. We can determine if the video in question falls under Fair Use or violates Copyright law without the use of a robot. We can also update these outdated laws and protect content creators from false claims as well as protecting the original work. As long as you give us the freedom to speak about what we have to say about the current state of the DMCA, Fair Use, and Copyright laws, then we can both be able to bring change that will benefit all of us.
I only recently learnt of the scale of things, but I already do not like it at all. I don't think businesses should be censoring what should be legally protected as fair use. I don't want to see my favorite content creators to be constantly harassed by, and possible shut down by companies who are willing to abuse a law, that then gives them no consequences. I don't think it's right, in any way, for anyone to steal the revenue, or hard work of someone else, especially when that's how they make their living. They have already unfairly removed some of my favorite videos, and they have no way to get them back. Companies have been abusing their power long enough, I think it's time they stopped
DMCA is being abused BIG TIME. There are people who make a living off of their content on sites like YouTube, where they do reviews, commentary, and other transformative works that makes them protected under fair use when using copyrighted content correctly. However, big companies are not taking this in account, and have put strikes, claims, etc. on videos that are protected, and we're punished for it! However, when we try to file a dispute, we don't get a real person talking to us, only robots, which makes the process harder. And when we do win, and the strikes are taken off, the companies aren't punished! There needs to be more consideration for content creators protected under fair use and companies shouldn't be able to not be in trouble when they are in the wrong! DMCA may have worked back in 1998, but it's been almost twenty years, and a change needs to be made.
The DMCA as it stands today is significantly flawed. It gives corporations, copyright holders, and generally anyone with enough power free rein to forcefully remove any outside content if it conflicts with their interests or is able to make a profit.
I and plenty of other content creators have made videos for Youtube that have been unfairly taken down, and we don't have the ability to fight against it unless we go to court and lose anyway. Abridged series seem to be an especially gray area in fair use. They do use footage from other media, but they transform it through editing and voiceover work in a way that differs greatly from the source, and smaller series do not profit off of it in any way. Often, these series are so different from the source that it qualifies as being under fair use. However, it's still easy for copyright holders to immediately remove it and issue a copyright claim despite its fair use. Youtube even has automatic bots for detecting content, but they rarely take into account the actual transformation of the content itself. These copyright-detecting bots can make it near impossible to create on Youtube, and at the very least, these claims and counterclaims should be looked at by real people who can properly decide whether or not content falls under fair use. This ability to file copyright claims has also made it easy for anyone, especially greedy companies, to file fraudulent claims on content that doesn't even use anything they created.
The DMCA needs to change drastically in order to let us inform or entertain our audiences and create worthwhile content.
We need to change the DMCA to accommodate for the Internet of today and the future. This is a necessary step because companies are able to abuse this current system to hurt creators and content. The only way to make a change to this is fixing the DMCA.
The DMCA is beeing abused and my favorite content creators are threathened.
People send false copyright claims and there is no consequences for it.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I believe there are a lot of problems with the DMCA, especially for content creators not part of big companies and who are not protected well. Please take a look at many examples of this especially on many YouTube channels. It needs to be updated towards the Internet of the present and not the past.
I am friends with a content creator on YouTube who has been abused by this system (SpaceBlazer). He has had multiple videos flagged for copyright infringement where it was obviously not present. Please, take these comments seriously and do something about this issue.
The following is a form letter that I agree with wholeheartedly, but I want to add my own comments. Nobody could have predicted how the DMCA system would be abused over the course of its' ~20 year lifespan. Nobody is blaming the legislators at the time for not predicting the future. But something needs to change, more and more people are using the internet as their primary or sole method of communication, entertainment, and keeping power so heavily in corporate hands is appalling.
Copywrite holders have abused this power flagrantly in private conversations with creators they should, legally, have no control over. But because there are so few protections in place for non-corporate entities under the current law, the little guy has no choice but to crumble.
Thank you for your time. Form letter as follows:
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I've seen a lot of examples of fair use get taken down due to companies abusing copyright, and I want the bullcrap to stop.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright 'trolls' who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
There are so many potential great creators out there and some are to scared of being taken down quickly just for expressing their creativity not to mention all the great creators who are dealing with these issues even by those who know full well the content is not there. Please update these laws now
There are people out there taking down videos, abusing the DMCA without putting fair use into consideration. I've seen some of my favorite content creators on YouTube have their videos get copyright claims or have them taken down or have their channels (temporarily) deleted for reviews of copyrighted material that were clearly under fair use. Sometimes the usage of robots that track down copyrighted material take them down for no reason, showing how broken YouTube's copyright system is.
This situation has caused said content creators to become more worried about posting their videos. People who have a desire to post their content have become reluctant to do so because of this. The DMCA has become seriously outdated and needs to be adjusted for today's internet. Since the inception of the DMCA, the internet has grown and become different which is why some action has to be taken.
At the time of freedom of expression it is when we decry more, please stop this. In the name of millions of content creators, including me. Thanks
I know you've had a large number of these, so I'll try to sum up quickly here so you can skip the rest as it is the standard form letter you've had many times before. My favourite YouTube channels (Those from the RoosterTeeth family, such as The Know, and Channel Awesome, such as Nostalgia Critic) have been under fire from false claims from DMCA's. The laws around them are so archaic that there's no repercussions for people who file them if it turns out to be false. they even keep money from ad revenue until the claim has been sorted out. That's not right. Please take a look at the current usage of the internet. The same way you can't have a man walking in front of a car holding a flag anymore, we can't keep the same laws that govern how Fair Use is handled.
Thank you for your time. I hope I've made a slight difference.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse, stops allowing theft of creators money, and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
User notes: I've lost thousands of dollars from rouge copyright claims on my youtube videos.
It is far too easy and rewarding to make false DMCA claims because there is no upfront fee or penalty for a fraudulent claim. This needs to change. Thank you for your time.
Please, save the internet.
Please fix the issues!!!
So many youtubers and artists have had to deal with aduse for so long. Don't let it continue!
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The notice-and-takedowns under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Many companies are fully allowed by the DMCA to take down several videos, and if their claim is fought against and the video is put back up, they can reclaim it with no hassle and the video is instantly taken back down/revenue is immediately stolen. Even when companies make false claims on videos or content they don't own and they are fought against, they have no punishment. This creates the opportunity for companies to steal other people's source of income at no charge to themselves. A penalty for false accusations must be put in order to stop companies from abusing this system as well as others.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright
victims. ok I will do anything I can
There was literally a guy who had a trailer for his own game taken down for using footage of it.
This is David, I did not write the following statement, but have read and agree with its contents. Thank you for your time
On YouTube, it is easy for anyone to file fake DMCA claims and take down videos unfairly and in some cases illegally.
The internet was designed to be a free a expressive space.
let's keep it that way
monly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
As an artist living in the US I feel that are current laws need to be updated to match our modern times. I feel that people who file take down claims and remove monetization need to pay if that claim is found to be fair use. It's a ridiculous system that stifles creative freedom in a way where it even can hurt large businesses not just the small.
Plus the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Guilty proven innocent is not what this country was built on!
Couldn't have put it better than that.
It's not fair that content creators go through this. No fair :(
The DMCA is flawed by today's standards, the internet of today consists of millions if not billions of ever-expanding users who use it, most of them people who seek entertainment and then there are those who provide it.
As more and more people go out and provide quality entertainment, via a review, rant, parody or highlight showcase the more it has been observed that out of nowhere these entertainment channels are being shutdown. Why is that?
As far as most professional channels are concerned they are in the right to employ what we consider "Fair Use" in which a person is allowed to quote or use some of the work of another third person under certain regulations, (such as reviews, rants, critics & parodies) however, this is where the flaws in the DMCA also come in, Youtube.com is the perfect example for this.
Many channels live under constant fear in which almost any company can shut them down with little to no notice because of copyright strikes via an automated system in their favor, regardless of the copyright strike being even proven beforehand, because of this quality content has been reduced, entertainment has begun seeking other alternative forms of entertainment, and even so, DMCA continues to strike again,
It's primary and most devastating flaw in today's Age of Cloud Networking is having an automated process that is clearly biased towards companies without even regarding if a strike is done fairly or not, ANYONE can exploit this, and as a consequence fewer and fewer content is being had today.
The DMCA is outdated and abused, it must be changed or abolished altogether.
if nothing changes, nothing important or amazing will be made. what's moe important, happiness or money?
THIS IS BEING ABUSED AND USED AGAINST THE INTERNET! It is hurting art makers, movie reviews, and hundreds of YouTube creators in negative ways, even I have personally suffered for no other reason than copyright abuse.
DMCA is a good idea implemented poorly. Real plagiarism and theft of copyrighted material is harmful, but the loopholes that allow copyright trolling and censorship are too large. DMCA benefits wealthy and powerful copyright holders while small businesses and independent creators are hung out to dry. As someone who makes a living doing creative work it's disheartening, to say the least.
The future is a net of communication with as much freedom as it can get. Our species is evolving faster and better than it ever has thanks to the ease of access to knowledge anyone can create, access, and inspire.
The abuse of the copyright system is hurting a very vital part of our self expression based on the art that others create, or that we have the right to make.
Stop false DMCA attacks on peoples content and protect free speech.
Fair-use is currently under attack by corrupt companies and individuals that wish to leech off of peoples hard work, censor criticism or generally be unpleasant.
This is bullying at this point, and the DMCA needs to be taken down and/or revised to better suit todays online media community.
Please.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is an extremely dated law that no longer adequately protects content creators and is constantly being abused by copyright holders. Everyone and their mother knows someone who has had something with a copyright claim against it, mostly for completely ridiculous reasons. There have even been cases of people filing claims out of spite, when there was just discussion of copyrighted material (where's the free speech?), or for completely ridiculous reasons (some people will play full classical music songs in their copyrighted works and have the ability to take down any video that that classical song is in or gain the money that would be generated by that video).
The DMCA is a broken system and needs to be fixed to help out the content creators who are currently plagued with false claims and often fear for their reputation and content because of them. Imagine if in a baseball game the other team's coach got to decide if the pitcher threw you a strike or a ball? That doesn't seem fair right? And then imagine that if you get enough strikes from that coach you're fired from the team and have to start your career over again. This is similar to how the current system works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the DMCA is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
There has been many creators that make great content for people they do this as their living and they can lose their any second of any day for no reason. If you care about creativity you need to stop.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Dear Copyright Office,
My name is Max, I occasionally have freshly shat pants. How ever that is my choice. Having my favorite videos taken down, is not choice. In fact, it sucks my balls. People abuse the system, like a drunken father abuses their child on sports night. One time this guy (who I think is a furry, or maybe a pedo), took down this dude IHE's video. He took it down, because he was super butt hurt. It was totally in fair use bro. Super not cool.
Sometimes dudes use it to threaten other dudes, which is also not the cool. There are whole channels of people who actually steal videos and post themselves watching it. These blokes are called "reactors". They get away with this a lot. In fact, I don't think one has ever been punished, in the history of the world, possibly even the galaxy; or maybe even in alternate timelines.
Basically what I'm trying to get at is that it's outdated in it's current state. Like a video game in beta version, or a sandwich that only has meat and condiments. The current DMCA laws are hurting innocent people, who are attractive, pay taxes, and would totally let you barrow five dollars.
Please change the DMCA laws, to better fit the needs of people in the future world of 2016 and beyond. I would greatly appreciate it, I'll even let you play with my favorite Star Wars action figure.
Signed with love and erection... I mean affection.
- Sir Maxamillian Reyes Capinpin the 2nd esquire
PS. It wasn't me that ate the last pizza pocket.
PPS. Is your sister single? Just wondering, no reason I asked.
PPPS. I'm in the market for a new couch, please contact me back if you find a cheap one.
Please update the DMCA law so current and future content creators can create something without having to fear about it being taken down by a company's bogus copyright claim. As someone who is trying to improve his own content creations, it would be disappointing to see nothing change despite all of the DMCA controversies that have spread around these last few months, including #WTFU. Fair use is a right everyone on this planet needs in this technological day and age. Please don't take that away.
I believe that the way creators have been affected recently is nothing less than a travesty to the community. A very dated and old law has made it almost impossible for creators to lose the rights to their creations. I fear that this law not only affects how creators are able to create right now but it might also turn people away from wanting to create things. In conclusion I believe this law is unfair and out of touch with today's culture and something needs to be done about these creators having their freedoms taken away.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I think that youtube's system is broken beyond belief.
The DMCA has continually abused content creators and has allowed those who don't have the license of other peoples content to use the DMCA to take down videos and manipulate the system to their advantage. There must be change, and it needs to be fair and just, and it must also punish those who wrongfully use it in a spiteful manner. The DMCA must be revised and it needs to be done now!!!!!1
In addition to the below (which has undoubtedly been posted innumerable times and I fully endorse) I wish to add that DMCA's current common use flies in the face of the Constitutional concept of 'Innocent until proven guilty.' If automated takedown should be used, it must be used at the time of submission/upload of content, i.e. when the video, picture, or text is uploaded to the site; otherwise it must adhere to due process, complete with repercussions for false allegations. Automated screening of content at time of submission is not only possible but quite viable with modern pattern-matching technology. Thankyou.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The only thing a DMCA does is deliver injustice to those that depend on fair use. when content is blatantly displayed as someone else's, there needs to be action, but content providers, like YouTube, allow computers, algorithms, and companies to shut out competition, to ignore criticism, to fight individuals for revenue, to destroy a career, to stunt a campaign, the list goes on, and will never stop. the current system does not allow the individual to weather the hurricane of DMCA's that can come their way, even if they have broken no law. all the current system accomplishes is create pain and misery for content providers, and give companies recognition for being protected, when, in actuality, they are the ones causing harm. please, the united states of America is called the land of the free and the home of the brave. let the people of your land be free, let the internet exercise fair use, and be the brave men and women who fight for that freedom. #wtfu
I've seen countless people, most predominantly on YouTube, have their works and profiles removed or blocked in certain countries due to false copyright claims. Almost all of these were over the use of content that fell under Fair Use, and some of them were even claimed by companies on content that belonged 100% to the user who created said content. If the abuse of the system continues, content creators could end up being wiped off of the internet for copyright infringement they never committed, and could destroy their livelihoods by making them unable to make money from their content. Not to mention, if these content creators are using a website as a host , once they loose their ability to create, less people will come to that host website, and that website will have to shut down as it will make no income. While people may think that this system is an efficient way to make sure that content is not stolen and the original creator gets their well earned money, it can actually cause a chain reaction in which nobody gets what they want or need.
How come companies can take down a work without it being considered for fair use in the first place. Then when the work is counted as fair use, how come they don't get punished.
There has got to be some ramification for this type of slimy behavior.
Many of my favorite creators on Youtube have their property taken down by a company called MERLIN that disguises itself under an agenting company and, by taking monetization away from Youtubers, gets money even though they just steal money. Please, find away to stop the abuse in the system. The law is outdated and needs to be reformed.
If anybody needs examples for how fair use has been shoved aside for corporate agenda check out the following videos (Channel name: video title URL),
Totalbiscuit: This video is no longer avaiable: The Day one Garry's Incident Incident https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfgoDDh4kE0
Jim Sterling: The Slaughtering Grounds: A Steam Meltdown Saga
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0Wpn1zmU
Channel Awesome: Where's The Fair Use? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
I Hate Everything: I Hate Everything vs Derek Savage - IT'S OVER (I'm just going to but in, this isn't part of the title, but for a better example of the crap this guy went through, skip to one minute and 50 seconds) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzXSQ5f08sA
BrainScratch Commentaries: BSC Update: Temporary Upload Hiatus Due to Copyright Strike
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8kXGMhVvMg
Matthias: YouTube Copyright Abuse Has Changed me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjvoJe4_v9k
GradeAUnderA: Everything Thats Wrong With Youtube (Part1/2) - Copyright, Reactions and Fanboyism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjXNvLDkDTA
There's no video for this one but user Michelle Phan was sued and she fought back and won, for a copy of the lawsuit here http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ultravsphan.pdf?b56280&b56280
The provided video's/links shows that DMCA is outdated, and abused. DMCA was written in 1998, nearly a decade before the internet even begun to kind of resemble what it has now. Copyright Law was designed to prevent theft, but in an awful twist of fate, IT HAS LEAD TO MORE THEFT! For example, on YouTube companies can temporarily seize revenue on videos, even if the claim's found to be fraudulent. Do you know what the best part of this is? They get to keep all the money the video mad while the claim was in effect.
Why is it that a DMCA claim automatically takes down videos? Why is it that the citizen must comply before the Court of Law decides that they're in the wrong. If you are stupid enough to believe that we have the means to sue those companies, it must be fun being in the 1%. In the grand scheme of things, unless you're rich, get EFF to fight for you, or have connections, the copyright holder will just prolong the trial until you can't afford a lawyer! Because who needs to punishment when you can avoid it, and potentially ruin the livelihood of the victim, when you've got money!
From Wade Newman with Love
I did this because someone told me too
I've always wanted to make videos that express and share my love for tabletop RPGs, but the DMCA has me making second thoughts about the kind of video content I make.
I had my work taken down by a corporation called Egeda. They claimed third party rights to my films and made over $100. They are scam artists and they need to be stopped along with improving copyright and fair use.
Please help us.
DMCA now in our day of age is being constantly abused. Content creators and media is being falsely taken down. People are abusing this claim and copyright system to censor others on the internet and due to the nature of the DMCA claims, it leaves the creator of the content little to no tools to fight back. DMCA claims are now being used as a way of censorship which is in complete contrary to our first amendment rights. Please do something to rewrite these DMCA laws and put an end to the censorship and abuse that they are causing. Thank you.
It has been clear that corporations are placing many false claims on Youtube videos for content the corporations may not even own, or the content falls under fair use. This needs to stop.
As a person who uses Youtube very often, I'm appalled by how broken the system of fair use is on the site. Videos can be taken down at the turn of a dime with no warning or requirement of proof, costing the content creator part of what could very well be their entire livelihood. These takedown strikes are often used as threats against creators such as IHateEverything and it's a great injustice to those who find themselves in a tight corner because the laws of fair use are abused or misunderstood. YouTube and other sites like it need to be held responsible for this sort of thing, making sure that content can not be altered or removed unless proven that it is operating outside of the fair use laws.
It is used and abused by the abusive firms that claims even a fraction of their property on reviews, comments, anything... For some firms (like Nintendo) it's completely went bonkers as they want money off of the creators' fair use content when they put any gameplay, criticism, review and/or more to YouTube. It is destructive and needs to be changed, adapted to a more agreeable basis.
Please change the way this works!
Its one thing to use DMCA claims for something that is a legitimately copy right, but its another thing to use DMCA as a weapon to weaken or destroy someone's free speech about a topic that they cover on the internet media. There have been videos taken down on youtube due to DMCA when legally there were no copyright violations. Videos about people making their own toys, commenting about a subject with just their face in the video and nothing more, or explaining how to create things at home for cheap have been threatened and spammed with DMCA claims. From my understanding, DMCA was created in 1998. It is now 2016. It is time to update the law to fit today's time and technology.
Tl;dr The DMCA is frequently used to abuse content creators, critics, and parodying artists without consideration for fair use, fair criticism, or ethics. There is no penalty for false copyright accusations and those who abuse the DMCA reap all the rewards while guiltless artists and critics suffer the consequences for their actions.
The short version:
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is responsible for my decision to not express myself creatively on the internet website "YouTube", and to not supplement my income through this expression. The DMCA provides an easy avenue for anonymous attacks designed to irritate others ( commonly referred to as "trolling"), and even irreversible fraudulent redirection of revenue generated from original content, as well as content utilizing fair use of outside source material. Once the ad revenue is redirected to whichever party files a claim, that revenue cannot be recuperated even if the claim is eventually defeated. In the end, the cards are stacked against the content creators, making it feel as if it is not even worth the effort.
The long version:
False copyright claims are being used to threaten content creators. As long as this continues, their freedom of speech will be infringed upon.
As many have said, the DMCA must evolve along with the internet of today. At this moment it is causing more harm than good. Many people's livelyhoods are at risk. Please consider making significant changes.
there are many things that are being said throughout the default comment, but I do believe that there needs to be a stop with these big comporations that can munipulate the Internet. Some use copyright claims as threats and While some big youtubers can gain a lot of attention and have their voice heard, others can't help defend themselves from these claims.
Examples of the issues currently going on YouTube
Our original video on Fair Use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFA...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0W...
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (STILL going on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J0...
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ...
Team Four Star's issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkc...
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nU...
Chibi Reviews gets a DMCA for talking about snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWys...
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company - MMA company thinks it makes the law!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXo...
Mr Enter and the saga of DMCA after DMCA takedown on the SAME video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtw...
NFKRZ and how ransom is now on YouTube!
DMCA is being used fraudulently by many companies. Creators are harassed and threatened by corporations who want to stifle free speech. Corporations deserve protection from those who would steal their content, but the current system is extremely broken in favor of big corporations. Videos that have no content at all from any of the corporation's holdings have been taken down, with monetization often going to the corporation. Currently, there is no punishment for making false claims, meaning that corporations can claim anything they want, take the creator's money, and then keep it, even if proven innocent. I stand with the independent content creators, who are sick and tired of being taken advantage of by a corrupt system.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
When people can get taken down just because they revied a movie that they didn't like, and the accuser can freely silence them, falsely, for weeks without any repercussion, that is an abuse of fair use. The voices of popular movie critics are protected so why not the less popular critics of movie and gaming?
The DMCA has allowed companies to have too much control over content creators on the internet. Despite them following the laws of Fair use, Companies and Copyright holders have been able to remove content with no justified reason, take ad revenue/profit from said content for themselves before the issue is even resolved, remove entire Youtube Channels or websites for again, no reason, or limit the content creators further from already given restrictions. I am a content creator and while I have not dealt with any issues myself, I have become afraid for any of my current content or future content due to the unfair actions done to creators like "Channel Awesome", "I Hate Everything", "Your Movie Sucks (YMS)", "Jim Sterling" and several others.
Even non-businesses have the power to illegally accuse/abuse content creators through lawsuit threats and taking down their content despite the fact that said content is completely under Fair use and other community guidelines, A prime example being the YouTube Channel "I Hate Everything" who after doing a review of the movie "Cool Cat Saves the Kids" Which was completely under Fair Use, the Director of the film "Derek Savage" took down his video and continuously threatened/harassed him, "I Hate Everything" won the fight and managed to put the video back up, but Mr. Savage still broke several laws of accusation by attacking him. However "I Hate Everything" is still dealing with copyright issues from Youtube, such as having his entire channel taken down from for no reason, which was only put back up after he caused an uproar on social media. These people are doing nothing wrong, yet they are being constantly punished for it, some never winning.
Other cases are videos that have no copyrighted material in them, still being taken down, such as "Brad Jones" series "Drive Through review" Where he and a friend discuss a movie they just saw. Each video is them talking in front of a camera with no movie footage or copyrighted music, yet one of the videos was still taken down by a copyright strike. Or a video of a young girl going to see a Taylor Swift concert, which was given a strike just because Taylor Swift was mentioned, yet the video has no footage of the concert or Swift's music, even though that would still fall under Fair use as it is a family video.
This system desperately needs to be fixed. Content creators are being abused and forced to restrict themselves further (Which even then rarely works) and people who have not even faced issues are now scared to do what they love, in fear that it will happen.
DMCA's are too easily used as a weapon, and there is no supervision over weather or not it is used properly.
Hello, too many times I've seen creative works taken down in the name of "copyright" when they are just there for entertainment, creative expression, or even just something that is shared to express the joys of life: for instance, a video of a dancing baby, but because of the clip of the song the baby is dancing to, it gets flagged for copyright claim. Comedic/review videos get taken down that have used movie or music clips. Copyright claims have become absolutely absurd under DMCA, taking too many things down that would highly likely fall under fair use. I would make the argument that in many cases these creative works can even further cause people to check out any given entertainment media when they might not have before, or have not heard of it until then. The Internet is a wonderful place for discovery, and this should be encouraged, not censored. Word of mouth is a very useful form of advertisement after all, whatever form it takes. The Internet can do that on much more global scale than ever. Freedom of speech is the 1st amendment, and this is being trodden upon. There NEEDS to be a better balance. Thank you.
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Examples of the issues currently going on YouTube
Our original video on Fair Use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFA...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0W...
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (STILL going on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J0...
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ...
Team Four Star's issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkc...
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nU...
Chibi Reviews gets a DMCA for talking about snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWys...
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company - MMA company thinks it makes the law!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXo...
Mr Enter and the saga of DMCA after DMCA takedown on the SAME video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtw...
NFKRZ and how ransom is now on YouTube!
Also, i think that youtube is a place for creation. Having people constantly having things taken down when even not having anything to do with copyright is not fair. I think, the system should be updated to make the modern internet, make it still exist, but water it down so people cannot be bulled about it for no reason on the internet.
Many ABUSE the power they have, in a way that may be illegal.
Hello, My name is Abigale. As an active consumer of the internet I enjoy content created under fair use. Satire, reviews and the like. Unfortunately, fair use has had a negative impact on the content creator, specifically the popular website YouTube comes to mind. There is no punishment for unfair DMCA takedowns. Movie Studios and other similar corporations use these takedowns to get videos removed that they feel is unfair to their products, which could be something as meaningless as a unfavorable review of the movie they created. This creates problems for critics, parodies, etc. Creators who "abuse" copyright laws have jump though a lot of hoops in order to remove a Copyright Strike in YouTube, one strike and they demonitze your video, even if the copyright isn't proven yet. The current system in place is outdated and has been abused. It was meant for a internet of the 90's not the Internet of today.
In addition to below: I have had many cases of false claims on my YouTube videos by companies who don't own the content that I am using.
this whole thing has been ruining the internet and it's gotta stop.
look, the DMCA is broken. The system is now use to silence people who will say anything bad about anything. They are taking down freedom of speech. What our founding fathers fought for our country. But the system is made for the companys to abuse it. And also it is also use to steal money from the creator, regardless if the creator commit any sort of piracy. Please and believe, to help make desperate changes to this system or even remove it and start a fresh new one fit today's standards.that way, people not only save freedom of speech but to protect people that does this for a living, and for future you-tubers to have new and much stable environment. BRING BACK FAIR USE
Examples of the issues currently going on YouTube
Our original video on Fair Use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFA...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0W...
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (STILL going on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J0...
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ...
Team Four Star's issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkc...
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nU...
Chibi Reviews gets a DMCA for talking about snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWys...
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company - MMA company thinks it makes the law!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXo...
Mr Enter and the saga of DMCA after DMCA takedown on the SAME video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtw...
NFKRZ and how ransom is now on YouTube!
I personally have been subjected to the DMCA takedown of a fair use song parody, and although I supplied extensive legal citation for the legality of my content, I was powerless to prevent the DMCA takedown from going through.
I am writing to you to express my dissatisfaction with the current Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). At the moment, Copyright law is being abused, resulting in the following problems (particularly on YouTube):
- People filing claims on content that they do not own
- DMCA laws being used to stifle free speech and harm creators
- Videos of people merely talking on camera - with absolutely no footage or audio from an outside, copyrighted source - are being taken down due to fraudulent copyright claims
- Companies and corporations acting as though they "create" the law in terms of what they will allow and what they will not, regardless of whether a creator is covered under "Fair Use"
- DMCAs being sent by shell companies to sheild the companies sending the takedowns
- Videos being taken down multiple times even AFTER a claim has been cleared
- Video takedowns being used as threats/forms of harassment
- Companies taking ad revenue from creators by filing a claim, even if said creators are covered under "Fair Use"
- Video creators being unable to promote their businesses
- Video creators being unable to express their political/social views
- A total lack of consequences for companies who file fraudulent claims, while victims of fraudulent claims often have everything to lose.
In short, video creators are not being allowed the rights granted to them under "Fair Use" - whether it's critiquing, parodying, or even mentioning someone else's work. Some are even getting videos taken down for apparently no reason. This is hardly Fair Use, and is, in fact, a gross violation of Americans' constitutional right to Freedom of Speech.
Examples of the issues currently going on YouTube
Our original video on Fair Use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFA...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0W...
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (STILL going on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J0...
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ...
Team Four Star's issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkc...
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nU...
Chibi Reviews gets a DMCA for talking about snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWys...
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company - MMA company thinks it makes the law!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXo...
Mr Enter and the saga of DMCA after DMCA takedown on the SAME video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtw...
NFKRZ and how ransom is now on YouTube!
commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet, and frankly is 18 years out of date. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
#WTFU
Please, keep our freedom of speech intact.
I am NOT going to stand to see people using copyrighted content under the fair use act only to see companies fraudulently taking down and/or monetizing the content produced.
People have CONSTANTLY claimed copyright for video and audio clips that have only been used for A FEW SECONDS. While this is mostly something that has appeared on YouTube, I am one of possibly thousands that fears that something like this could spread to other social media websites.
I have seen blatant abuse form big name companies, and even shell companies to bully content creators. This needs to stop because sooner or later there wont be any online content creators brave enough to spend their time being abused, harshly limiting their free speech
DMCA takedowns are more often abused as a censorship tool than their intended purpose.
The DMCA is horribly outdated, and an automated system where a content creator in full rights within fair use has no means to reach out to a human quickly to dispute a takedown is a form of censorship. Many people now make a living off doing parodies our reviews online- this does not diminish the ordinal works in any way- in fact it can actually point people to great works they might have never heard of otherwise. I'm saddened that there's been such a short period to comment on this matter. Videos are being hit multiple times, individual creators, even those who are merely mentioning copyrighted material are being harassed. This must stop now.
There have been countless experiences I have encountered myself of the current method of upholding copyrights being abused and used for illegitimate purposes. Content creators who are well within fair use laws are being censored for giving unfavourable opinions, people who rely on viewers for revenue are being forced to radically change their product when they haven't been doing anything wrong. The companies that file claims do so without even seeing the video in question or without reason. There are no repercussions for denying small business owners the fruits of their labours.
(personal input at bottom)
(personal input)
The current DMCA act has done nothing to protect online critics and parody artist. Many videos that actually qualify as fair use have been taken down by many company's the most notable example is Viacom who despite knowing that videos are in fair use take them down from services such as Youtube. many of these video's should be protected under right of parody or right to criticize and have been removed unfairly. This is an issue that needs to be resolved immediately. As it stands, any company can remove any video with any relation to their products without warning and without questions. this leaves many users of the net unable to fight to keep there videos up. i have watched several of my favorite reviewers lose there videos and lose there channels and quite frankly its atrocious and i want to see it resolved
As the operator of a video channel on Youtube, far too often has the content I've provided been taken over by entities with no legal claim to it due to abusive, unverified use of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. And I've heard of far worse happening to many others accross the Internet. Copyright content should absolutely be protected, but a better process must be put in place, as the current one is being misused at an inapproriate proportion for censorship and unlawful profit.
For the Copyright Office: Please watch this Video, Doug Walker from Channel Awesome explains everything that has happened with DMCA getting out of hand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
Companies have been abusing DMCA and taking revenue from individuals who work hard in making and editing videos.
Examples of the issues currently going on YouTube
Doug Walker original video on Fair Use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFA...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0W...
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (STILL going on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J0...
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ...
Team Four Star's issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkc...
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nU...
Chibi Reviews gets a DMCA for talking about snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWys...
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company - MMA company thinks it makes the law!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXo...
Mr Enter and the saga of DMCA after DMCA takedown on the SAME video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtw...
NFKRZ and how ransom is now on YouTube!
Relive 1998 here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1UY7...
Space Jam circa 1996 still alive - http://www.warnerbros.com/archive/spa...
While this problem lies everywhere the main problem is Youtube, or is at least where it's being abused most.
People are being backed into corners, needing a huge following to get it fixed.
People are being hit multiple times even when it is cleared.
People are being hit even when they have permission to use material. (#FreeNFKRZ for example).
It's very easy to fill in a copyright claim, but insanely difficult to counter one.
It needs fixed.
Seriously this needs to stop.
This system is broken. There's no other way to describe it because of how little it does anymore. Online content creators are being abused by Hollywood to the point where a lot of them have to take alternate methods of getting their messages across. My primary source of entertainment is on websites like YouTube, vimeo and dailymotion, but these content creators that I, as well as MANY other people, love aren't being allowed to create the videos that a constantly growing audience love to watch, as well as how much these independent creators love making. SOMEBODY NEEDS TO FIX THIS.
I am sick and tired of the abuse content creators have to put up with just because a big name company didn't like what you had to say about them or their product. Stop the abuse! False claims should have repercussions!
Please step in.
Stop the false copyright claims! This needs to end NOW! #wheresthefairuse
PLEASE listen and consider copyright reform.
The DMCA is a counter-productive Copyright idea! DMCA will effectively remove the ability to borrow content of others to create one's new content, which is not going to stop people from stealing. The DMCA will in fact ENCOURAGE people to be thieves of copyrighted material, due to the common human complex of oppositional defiance!
The DMCA is negative, and fails to recognise human behaviour and people's want for freedom of expression/speech. The informed citizens of all the nations affected by this monstrosity likely agree too, that the DMCA has less positives than negatives. Do not pass this monstrosity of a law.
- Braedon J. Fisher, Ontario, Canada
The DMCA was created nearly twenty years ago. While it's intentions are important the wording drastically needs to be updated to support and protect the internet users of the new decades. The current DMCA details allow ABUSE of the copyright systems available everywhere online. It is time for an update.
Personal note: Without any laws to prevent abuse of the takedown process - like repercussions for fraudulent claims - people will continue to be harassed and bullied by private parties and big business without legal recourse. Enact a punishment for fraudulent claims or change the takedown policies! I believe strongly in the following community statement:
There are some people out there that use clips for fun, experiment, learning to edit video clips and maybe educational purposes. Not for making money. I understand why there's a copyright law but I do not think it's fair to have robots automatically take down videos unless it's full movies and TV episodes that are currently airing or showing.
YouTube is shaming it's creators by shelling themselves with 3rd Party companies, taking down videos and demanding and stealing revenue. It is not fair to the content creators like Lost Pause and others.
Let's make this happen.
As the internet continues to evolve and expand, so should the laws that help protect the people that rely on the internet as a main source of income, information, and entertainment. Change needs to happen now, for the betterment of modern digital media and communication.
It is an often abused system that honestly needs to be fixed. Give users more of a chance to fight claims and do more than three strikes. Do not let companies filing these claims and strikes to keep the money that was made off of the video, instead put it in a different place so who ever wins can get the money. Allow people to fight claims and strikes instead of instantly taking away all privileges, even if there is more than one strike on that channel. Have penalty for companies that issue false claims and strikes. Make the Internet a fair place again.
This video I recorded and posted displays my discontent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EptRYob_cEg
The DMCA is an outdated law that now is being used to harrass and stifle creators and critics operating under fair use. For too long now creators on the internet have been afraid to publish material that they should have every legal right to post, but are victims of baseless claims designed to either silence their voice or in some cases, steal their revenue. This practice cannot be allowed to continue and the DMCA is the most important part of changing this.
In my particular case, I have been copyright claimed for audio that is barely audible or noticeable or incredibly short (1 second or less). For instance, I am a creator of gaming content on YouTube. I uploaded a video showing my experiences in the video game Grand Theft Auto V. I woke up the next day to see a copyright notification for that video. I checked the flagged audio, and it was a barely audible, 2 second long clip of an Elton John song that was playing on the in-game radio. So quiet, in fact, that I didn't notice it while I was recording, and even if I did, due to the nature of the game, I could not have done anything about it. The claim was eventually retracted, but this is a prime example of an anti-infringement system that is outdated and poorly executed at best, and being abused at worst. This needs to be fixed, and fixed as soon as humanly possible. That's all I can say.
This is not an United States-exclusive problem.
The DMCA is really old and ancient for something like the internet. Right now the DMCA is used as harrasment against people trying to put things online. especially for people in youtube. Right now companys are using the DMCA as a way to stifle free speech and take down things like negative reviews. Companies will hire shell companys who just send out as many dmca claims on as much things as they can with little to no basis on copyright laws. The DMCA claims have no respect for fair use and can be used as an offensive tool to take down something as simple as a video of two guys in a car talking about a movie they just watched with no content or music or pictures from the movie.
The DMCA to me seems like a shield companys have to protect their copywritten material, but right now it seems that it is instead used as a weapon to take down anything negative and has no regard for fair use.
THIS IS BULL YOURE TRYIN TO TAKE OUR FREEDOM AWAY I SPEAK WITH ALL THE ARTIST OF THIS WORLD WE WILL NOT GO DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT SOO ARTIST WILL BE LINEING THE STREETS CHAOS WILL BE UPON US DO YOU REALLY WANT THAT DO YOU WANT THE U.S. TO GO TO WAR WITH ITSELF
Essentially, all this. We need to stop the take down of videos before all we have left is..well, nothing. We'll have no creative people on YouTube anymore since they won't want to take a chance being sued for all the silliest things that make no sense, and shouldn't even be a thing. Please don't make YouTube a place no one wants to put their next big video, so help out those in need.
Let's begin to fix copyright law and bring it into the 21st century.
(I recommend Doug Walker's video on the matter, titled "Save Fair Use NOW" for a more easily comprehensible description of the matter at hand. You can also search "Fair Use" to find a plethora of similar videos).
I love to watch Youtube and follow many creators on there; they are being harassed and beaten down by those claiming what they've done is illegal when in fact it's Fair Use. I am against bullying, corruption, and greed, and studios are breaking the rules and stealing creators' money all for saying their videos are illegal when they are not, and covered under fair use. Laws have been in place to protect those who are in their right to do their work. But the recent actions from studios have creators asking the question: Where's The Fair Use? It can happen to anyone, including myself and even you if I post a video and a song is playing from the radio in the background, it might get hit with a copyright claim that takes days to fix or not, and that's because there is no human interactions to talk at Youtube, just computers. If we don't make a stand, Hollywood and others will not only steal and make the wrong moves, claiming it's related to privacy when it's not; but it will be applied on the internet at large, with another SOPA being brought up, and before we know it, our own freedom of speech will be silenced. In fact, that is what's happening to these creators now. I'm making a stand so it does not happen. It needs to stop now. #WTFU
Fair Use policies are being ignored by those filing these claims and internet videos in particular are being flagged multiple times, even after they were deemed to be under Fair Use law.
(My add in) - This practice as also pushed away more creators (myself included) from entering the new fields of entertainment, and it would past work at risk of take downs, vicious sob story attacks and self destruction of the creator. It really needs to end and it needs to keep every creator safe and to continue doing what they do best, entertaining and providing incite to everyone, while at the same time, allow new creators into the fold and let them embrace this realm without the threat of attacks and take down... otherwise no new people would mean the more mediums would (and will) die
Bring Fair Use back and protect everyone from this stupidity these threats and false claims have created
Many YouTuber's have had their content taken down unfair. There's nothing wrong with reviewing something, but animation or live action. There's also nothing wrong with parodying a series.
We need to end all these take down notices so many reviewers, let's players, performers, and artist can be free to express their belief and opinion on the Youtube without fear that it will be taken down or worse stolen from them. Work done by the party is their work and they deserve every bit they can get. I run a very small Youtube channel and me and my team are afraid every second that our videos could be flagged for copyright when it is a simple let's play. We have the freedoms to add to a source with comedy, review, or seriousness, but not at the cost of our freedom of speech. Please change these rules. Make it so no one can fear copy right take downs and so that people can rightfully dispute claim where the right person is given what they deserved. No person stealing their work, stealing their money, or stealing their livelyhood. Make Youtube great again and Make fair use mean more than a hashtag
Im doing this to protect my fucking memes
The DMCA, first enacted in 1998, does not reflect the nature of the Internet in 2016 and needs to be updated in order to protect online content creators from copyright claim abuse.
Under current regulations, all the cards are stacked in favor of large entertainment conglomerates. I'm online content creator can post a video on YouTube reviewing a movie, TV show, video game, etc, that completely falls in line with fair use laws. But copyright holders can file a take down notice against the creator, knowing full well they don't have a viable claim, and the creator is left with no option but to immediately take down the video. The process then to have their content reinstated can be convoluted, and dragged out up to months at a time. And even if the content in question is finally cleared, the copyright holder can just file another notice and start the whole thing over again. With more and more people earning a livelihood through user-generated content, this is equivalent to taking food right out of their mouths.
The DMCA, as it stands now, is an outdated relic that leaves the door wide open to exploitation by corporations. There needs to be new guidelines in place so that take down notices have to be backed up or verified before they are implemented, instead of being doled out en masse and tying the hands behind content creators' backs.
Please.
You need to update this. People on youtube who do it as a living are having their money stolen. I'm found of a youtuber named mr enter who, for the years he has been doing this been attacked for his reviews of cartoons by companies who might not even own what he's reviewing even though they fall under fair use. (I'll enclose a link to a video where he tells you of his most recent attack) He and so many others are being abused and bullied for this and it needs to stop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Personally, It's of great delight and pleasant surprise that the office has even questioned the DMCA standards, opening this dialogue. As much as I do thank the office for this endeavor, I do note the frenzy that people are in to get the word around before the cut-off time; since the only thing getting in the way of the response this deserves, is not enough people on the internet knowing that this inquiry is going on right now.
The abuse of this system does nothing but hurt the lively hood of small independent creators and the people who watch/support them. Save our entertainment and their jobs, thank you.
Too many good people completely in the right of all these laws have been screwed over by a system that no longer cares, this needs to end.
Please make the Internet great again.
I think it's wrong to punish creative people, and though i don't know much about this law, a guy in a video said enough to make me sign this thing almost 5am my local time.
Your law is outdated, update it instead and don't punish the little people.
I don't know how it will affect me over here in Sweden, but i like watching youtube videos and people commenting on games they play, or movies they have seen, and other things they may or may not recommend to their watchers. I like sites like deviantart, photobucket, imgur and patreon, and many- many others that seem like they could be affected by this thing of your so-.... Please consider the users of the internet, not the big companies with the tons of money. -Thank you.
People are reviewing things and using clips and music from other sources as some of their opinions, but they are not just showing those other sources without any commentary. They also do this as a job, imagine going to work in the building that you work at is suddenly not there. That is how it feels for them.
Our content is important and fair use is important and should be regulated according to the modern Internet, not the internet of 1998.
Even when I live outside of USA, DMCA, freedom of speech and fair use matters to me. While it should protect creators and their contents, it does not. DMCA even hurts people outside of USA, because on DMCA takedown, content providers will block content to everyone, not only to USA residents, and when it's proven it's false claim, it is practice to restore the content only for USA residents, the rest of the world will still be blocked from viewing the contents. DMCA have many flaws and does not reflect the fair use, proper rights and current situation of world wide web.
YouTube and Facebook are the worst for this, you can't put any song in your video even with credit and it's hindering creativity. PLEASE STOP THIS UNFAIR NONSENSE, it is extremely biased against video editors.
Sincerely,
Every YouTuber Ever
This has been going on for way too long. Innocent people are getting hurt by this. This CANNOT keep happening.
The DMCA has been abused many times and in most cases it is by large company who do not have a good understanding of fair use and what that means it today's day and age. The internet is one of the fastest growing places for new and fresh entertainment however the process is being stifled thanks thanks to the abuse of the DMCA system. There should be penalties for those who are found to have abused the DMCA system and more protection given to the creative individuals and groups on formats such as youtube and other sites.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has become a tool for corporate copyright holders to censor content while in a guess to protect their copyright. For example, in a site like YouTube, critics/reviwers have their videos taken down without any due process or fair discussion as to why their videos are removed for criticizing some movie or game. Many channels in Youtube have been affected by this rampant abuse by these "copyright holders" -- some of these said rights holders claimed to be hired to just take down videos who "infringe" a companies copyright.
Below are videos samples of people who have their videos taken down or claimed unfairly by people who have their feelings hurt over these reviews.
Digital Homocide (studio) taking down review videos of their games.
https://youtu.be/S6s0Wpn1zmU
"I Hate Everything" (YT channel) v Derek Savage
https://youtu.be/yXVkcWbvnN0?t=1m18s
Australian TV company abuses Youtube Copyright System
on MysteriousMrEnter (Youtube Channel)
https://youtu.be/jiSXoEbILhw
John Bain's (Totalbiscuit) review on Day One Gary's Incident (game) gets unfairly taken down by the game developer.
https://youtu.be/QfgoDDh4kE0
Hopefully, this will be helpful references to re-think the policies of the DMCA. If the U.S. is still about freedom of speech, please review the DMCA as to prevent copyrights holders from abusing it to unfair levels.
Thank you for your understanding.
I made a video that was just me talking and I got flagged for copyright! How do I copyright infringe myself?
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
This video is a perfect explanation on what's going on, on a day to day basis and should be heavily considered: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
Let these creators work on there passion and let them entertain their audiences, LET FREEDOM REIGN!!
This has been hurting many careers and the people who enjoy the content. We need better protection from fake takedowns. Right now a large company can take the money from a youtuber with no cause and no evidence. We need a better system for the people who make a living off of this, and those who enjoy the content created by them.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
DMCA on YouTube is unfair basically it gives too much power on the copyright holders and removing power on the people who made the video. There are videos and channels on YouTube that was taken down even though they following the letter of the law. Some of these videos was taken down because the YouTube creator was making a review of a product and properly using fair use but because they were giving a negative review of the product they copyright holder took the video down for no reason but to silence the person. The worst thing about it is that it too automatic. With no effort with the copyright holder they just used YouTube search program to find the videos that might be breaking fair use laws. But instead of copyright holder watching the video to see if it is breaking fair use laws. They just take down the video or claim the money that the video makes instantly. Which is unfair for the YouTube creator because they have to jump through hoops and go through a process to regain their video even though they did nothing wrong. Also this process could take like a month or even longer to get back the video they created. And in that time the money generated is claimed by the copyright holder which is not fair. Plus, there is no risk for the copyright holder for making a claim. Copyright holder can make a false claim and no negative recourse happen to them. There have to be a harsher punishment for copyright holders who abuse the current system and the process for YouTube creator to fight against this unfairness should be easier and faster too.
The message below is a pre-written one, but what you are reading right now is my own aspirin to it. Though I am not a US resident, I have been penalized for what is claimed to be copyright infringement. Specifically, the claim was filed against a recording of an airband competition posted on Youtube. The fact that there are no checks on companies making petty, inane claims like this is just ridiculous. I implore you to look into this and make any necessary adjustment to this piece of legislation.
I have seen too many people pay the price for copyright claims against their videos where the content is fair use. It's time we stop with these acts that are only hurting content creators even though they did nothing wrong.
Many of the content creators of YouTube have been harassed by companies exploiting a system that can be fixed. This is a serious problem. Some of the copyright take downs are issued by people who don't own the original material, and are not punished for their actions if caught. Most content that is taken down by a company is within the rights of fair use or under permission of the original copyright retainer.
Because of this, many of the content creators that we all know and love, are being jeopardized through threatening and moot takedown notices, whereas the takedown users and automated systems take advantage of the DMCA without any repercussions of the extent of law.
The limitations to the people getting takedown notices are far exceeding the limitations of the people issuing these takedown notices. The damage done from this can cause revenue to be lost, and even accounts to be removed because of a faulty system handled in place which has been constantly abused.
The system is flawed at such a point where companies placing their own content on their social media platforms are at threat of their automation systems.
This is a chance for change. This is a chance for content to become relevant again, in a time where the DMCA is outdated, and requires updating to the current standards of HTML5, and mass media outlets such as streaming, video sharing, image sharing, and audio sharing are at risk because of such standards placed in an outdated DMCA system.
Content I view has been frequently taken down falsely, often to silence voices.
The comment below, as well as the fact I have seen several YouTubers, (content creators, critics, and others I'm sure) get questionably taken down for things that are obviously under fair use, are why I'm signing this. Hopefully DMCA gets revised to better protect, and not abuse, content.
My videos are being taken down despite clearly being under fair use and used purely for the purpose of review.
I have a lot of friends who have personally been affected by this bogus outdated law. The fact that they don't even have to give the content creators the courtesy of at least listening to what they've created and decide to just have bots take down videos is downright disgusting.
This is so limiting to people's creative freedom. You know why people cover VGM and movie music? It's because it inspired them! They are so moved by it that they want to put their own spin on it and share it with others so that they can hear it and be inspired by it as well.
That's what you don't get! These covers and reviews and let's plays inspire people to look up your content! I can't tell you how much music I've gotten into because of covers, or how many games I've decided to buy because of let's plays. If you get rid of those videos, you're only hurting yourself.
This law needs to change. There are some amazing talented and inspiring people in this world who are gonna have their voice taken away before they have even been able to use it. Don't deny people their voice or the right to express their creativity. Pretty sure there is an ammendment about that somewhere...
Good evening. I am not a YouTube content creator. I do not make any videos or commentary whatsoever and I have not done so at all since my arrival on YouTube so many years ago. But too often I have noticed good talent, honest hard working commentators like AngryJoeShow, Channel Awesome, I Hate Everything, and many others like them being harassed, attacked, threatened, mistreated, and robbed for their hard work.
Nothing makes my blood boil more than injustice amongst the government that does not care. The DMCA policy is a mess, outdated, and an embarrassment to the western society. How can you, the government, boast about freedom in the western world when corporate companies are committing acts of cyber terror by stealing, censoring, and removing content that lies under fair use? Do these companies hope that we will sit in our rooms quietly and allow this to happen? No.
What if I wanted to create content in the future? What if my talents suddenly find their way to YouTube? Will they be stolen, claimed, taken down, and destroyed? Most definitely. This directly effects not only myself, but millions of people who watch/use YouTube. These people make these companies money by either praising them for all the good they have done or cursing them for the malpractice and the down-right evil these companies hide in the dark.
If you really claim to be about freedom, then protect our rights as viewers and content creators. We will not stand for this cyber tyranny any longer and no matter what, our voices will be heard. It is time for Washington to do right by its people and protect the very freedoms they so boastfully claim to be all about. This needs to be dealt with. This needs to end; otherwise, you have nothing to boast about.
Save the Internet. If this happens dozens of content creators will have their work ripped from them. Please. For the love of all that is good in this world. Lets end the Bullshit!
It's frustrating that I can't make videos without fearing internet abuse by trolls just for trying to make people laugh
I assume you're just going to need to go through a lot of these mails, whoever you are that's reading this. So I'll make it brief:
The DMCA is good on paper and bad in practice. Of course removing the DMCA entirely would do more bad than good as Youtube would then become the new hot Pirating service. However, this does not make it acceptable to keep the law as it is and allow despicable people to profit off our favorite creator's hard work.
Instead of a rant, let me give you a hypothetical, get 100% plausible and historically accurate example. Let's say you made a review of a television episode. The review was heavily edited enough it doesn't legally count as piracy (even placing your face over it counts as 'not piracy', but most creators go further). The company that owns the show could then attack your video. At best, they take it down so that it's unviewable, and at worse they flag it so that they get all the ad revenue.
So let's say the Youtuber wants to get it taken care of. Filing a complaint takes 10 business days, which equates to 2 regular weeks. In that time, all of his/her fans have already seen the video cutting off about 90% of the revenue they would have gotten. So already, they're crippled. Once youtube gets the request, it's then left up to the a-holes the filed the complaint in the first place to determine if it was just in what is essencially the equivelent to asking Hannibal Lector whether cannibalism is wrong.
(I'll readily admit that the comment below is a copy-paste. Nonetheless, I've read it and fully endorse those ideas and statements.)
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
There are so many cases that I cannot even list all of them. One of the most famous ones are from youtube critics and gameplayers. They created contents to enlighten and educate the viewers, and by the fair use law they are protected. However, many youtubers were attacked by the big corporations just because they include their work. In fact, even if the youtuber do not include the company's work, they still attacked the creator to steal their work and money. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. In order to be fair to both, DMCA should have a definite guidelines and penalties for the copyright holders when they are striking the content creators.
Current copyright laws are absurdly slanted to the benefit of large corporations over individuals, and stifle open communication, learning, and expression in favor of those who would want to nickel-and-dime our voices and our lives for maximum profit. This needs to stop. Money should not speak louder than people.
I make YouTube videos, for them I rely on fair-use, my videos do fall under fair-use of course, the four factors, and I've spoken to copyright lawyers to make sure, even though they do fall under fair-use, certain companies have filed 14 false copyright claims on my videos, monetizing and taking the revenue that should have been mine, spending 2-3 days researching, writing and editing, then have the revenue from that video taken away by some company that just wants free money, is not "fair" at all. Now these are just claims, not take-downs, but I've dealt with 5 DMCA take-downs as well, my videos were removed the second the owner filed a claim, and they were removed for 3 weeks until a third-party reviewed my counter-notification, the DMCA is now being abused by companies and people who want to censor others opinions, or just take down videos they don't like. Take-downs are being used as threats now, people threatening others to have their videos automatically taken down if they don't remove them because they don't like a bad review on their movie for example. Please bring back fair-use!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is explicitly protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs to be revised with new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and/or extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. The average citizen, sharing their personal expression,m, m can be snuffed for without reason. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable with a significant penalty for damages and violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
I have seen so many creators earnings stolen from them, and it seems no one is safe. Only those with large enough followings to create a stir can even dream changing their situation. Many are left hopeless and abandoned by systems put in place. For the sake of those creators, please conister revising.
I have had many of my videos flagged unfairly and had what little money they make be taken. I am not a large youtuber and some of my videos I don't monetinize get ads forced on them. Videos I download to use in the youtuber video editor and not at all pos,t save for a five second scene I want to pull out of the ten minute HellRaiser 3 scene, are flagged immediatly. My tribute videos are always getting flagged when I have music playing in the background as scenes from games and movies play to the beat. Also some of my older videos are getting flagged when they were just still pictures. Also my John Wick review was forced to private and the only reason was because I showed a picture of the movie poster for the thumbnail and credits. I sincerely hope you fix the problems youtube has and I wish you luck.
Ive seen to many of my friends who have created content online get falsing reported and flagged for unfair reasons. Some of these friends have once or twice given up on the things they love to do becuase of worrys about having their content flagged and removed. Which also leads them to depression.
I am from Canada, but if this law in states doesnt get changed, how long until other countries fall victum to a broken law and service.
DMCA takedowns hurt upcoming small businesses and uphold failing business models, a system which counters the essentials of the free market. Rather than discouraging offenders, focus on rewarding original intellectual property.
When the private sector imitates the government, it is no better than a communist regime.
Basically, due process is lacking.
I am a youtuber who has seen fair use bring so much joy to people. People using fair use has brought joy to me and I have brought joy to others.
However youtube's copyright has gotten out of control. The videos and channels being taken down don't have a fair chance because there are only robots to talk. Sometimes they can't talk to a person until it's too late and they have lost their channel.
Every time I get on youtube, I am afraid.
I'm afraid the youtubers I love so much will lose their channels. I'm afraid I will lose my channel. My channel gives me a chance share what I can do and allows me to receive tips on how to improve so I can make better content. The better I get, the more chances I have for acquiring skills for a job and make people happy.
My goal in life is to make people smile and with one of my videos, I have made at least 70, 000 people smile. It would break my heart if that video got taken down by copyright.
Some of the content creators I enjoy have videos taken down at at times their channels suspended due to copyright strikes even though they should be protected under fair use. They rely on those videos for income so it's really unfair to them that the copyright system is heavily biased against them.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is, plain and simple, being used to strong arm and abuse the rights of a shocking amount of people. And the total failure to uphold the right to free speach, is a pressing and serious issue. To sensor someone for sharing nothing more than there opinion on a product, with ought any legitimate copyright marital anywhere in the video, is to ignore the law, and avoid responsibility.
I sincerely hope this is rectified.
I am a person who frequently visits YouTube and various other websites on the internet that often contain materials which are copyrighted by their respective owners. I do not make content myself, but I enjoy the content of many other internet users. Many content creators follow fair use copyright laws on YouTube but still have their videos unfairly taken down by corporations and companies who do not like the videos' content for any reason.
An example would be the I Hate Everything vs. Derek savage incident involving a review video made by I Hate Everything relating to Derek savage's movie Cool Cat saves the kids. Derek used threats and bullying tactics to attempt to completely shut down IHE's YouTube channel. This and other similar cases are unacceptable and it is abuse of a law that was meant to protect users and not harass them.
This abuse also affects small channels trying to become bigger in the YouTube community. I personally know some people who have small channels on YouTube who cannot gain as much popularity as they could because of fair use abuses. Other such small channels are often terminated unfairly due to a multitude of strikes against them issued by companies like Nintendo who sidestep fair use laws and seek to make profits off of videos of their games or other content because they are overly greedy.
Please update copyright laws to make things more fair for all YouTubers and general internet dwellers alike. I do not want to be on an internet where everything is fair grounds for copyright strikes and unfair punishments. Please update the DMCA to reflect the more modern internet. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Also take into consideration the original comment box text:
I wish fair use on the internet was mandatory, and that we didn't have to sign something just to get it; it really seems like something everyone deserves to have. But since that isn't the case, I am happy to sign this, so content creators will be able to make a living without the threat of their channel getting taken down.
The over use/unfair of copyrighting has crippled people's livelihoods and is a huge issue on the online community, particularly when the copyrighter can make money off of, say a YouTube video, while a copyright claim is disputed, taking the income of the video and copyrighting without any penalty for false flags.
The DMCA was created in 1998. It is 2016. The Internet has evolved beyond all that people in the 1980s could comprehend, and the DMCA is now broken beyond all repair. There are so many problems with the DMCA that I cannot explain all of it in one comment, so here's the highlights.
As of right now, anyone can claim a video. Considering centuries of footage are uploaded to YouTube each month, there is physically no way on Earth the website can fairly manage all of the copyright claims they get. There is simply no way. This presents many problems. The most obvious to me is that copyright holders claim videos that fall under fair use. A lot of videos that fall under fair use. More than you can imagine.
A YouTuber with the username TheMysteriousMrEnter has created dozens of videos under fair use, but so many of them have been claimed by various companies, the most noteworthy being Viacom and 20th Century Fox. Although I no longer enjoy Mr Enter's videos, I think that his videos qualify as fair use. They do not hurt sales. If anything they encourage sales by making people curious about what he's reviewing and leading people to hate-watch a show, which likely increases ratings.
A user known as "I Hate Everything" had his channel placed in jeopardy. He uploaded a review of a low-budget movie called Cool Cat Saves the Kids. The creator of Cool Cat took down the videos--leaving a strike on IHE's YouTube account, threatened to take down his channel, bullied him, lied about it on his YouTube channel citing irrelevant or completely invalid cases of copyright infringement, and impersonated a law firm (the law firm doesn't exist, by the way). His channel was later taken down for one video without any warning or explanation. IHE recently received a copyright strike on YouTube for his video on the "D**n Daniel" meme. The owner of the "D**n Daniel" videos has stated that he was not responsible for this copyright claim. In other words, some random person abused the system to steal ad revenue.
Viacom, in particular, steals all the ad revenue they can from anyone using footage from SpongeBob or any of their shows for that matter. Sometimes these videos do not harm the copyright holders because they're uploading content that is otherwise not available. Turner took down clips from Sheep in the Big City in spite of the show not airing in YEARS. Sega once removed videos on one of their franchises from YouTube just so they could make their new trailer the top of the search results on the site.
A user by the nickname Pan Pizza uploaded a review of the Nickelodeon show Breadwinners using less than one half of a minute of footage from the show. The rest were just pictures. It still got taken down.
In short, the DMCA needs to be seriously updated or even replaced with a new form of legislature. Thank you for your time.
Many people have probably pointed you to the videos of Doug Walker, Jim Sterling, and countless others who have suffered from the unfair system in place that works against creators who wish to do something creative. I myself had a review taken down before it even came up due to the system auto-claiming my video and blocking it worldwide. The video was a review of a film, I used clips to emphasize points that were easily accessible to any and all viewers. Yet it was still taken down and I did not feel safe enough to attempt to fight back as I was one "small" individual against a company even though I myself was in the right under Fair Use.
Other videos of Let's Plays I have done have been claimed by parties that hold no claim to anything in the games themselves. One such game I had researched the claimant to try to find anything about them, and found nothing. No website, no listings, not even the "song" they claimed. Yet when I refuted the claim, almost instantly it was put back up but the same claimant for the same non-existing song. This system is broken, please fix it.
The notice and take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The dmca system simply doesn't make sense anymore.
Creators all across the internet using fair use are getting cheated, bullied, and stolen from; IT HAS TO STOP
I received a claim on a video fully in line with fair use that halted all of the revenue I would have received from it for the 30 days the claim was active; as someone who's revenue on YouTube is minuscule as it is, I did not appreciate that. If the video in question really DID infringe on anyone's copyright, why didn't they escalate the claim further? It's because it did not infringe on copyright, and they knew it would never hold up in a court of law- YET- they were still able to take the video down through the DMCA system because there are no penalties for it.
While I've dealt with dmca disputes on my own channel, what really bothers me is how widespread the misuse of this system is
I highly encourage the reader of this e-mail to watch this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
With the current system, claims or strikes can be set on videos (implementing fair use) solely because they contain negative criticism that the copyright holder doesn't want made public. People are essentially able to infringe on free speech because (again) the system allows them to do it, and there are no penalties for doing so. Often, the videos are even viewed by the copyright holder to determine if their use of the copyrighted material is lawful under fair use, or even contain any clips of the copyrighted material.
There are also companies who profit from making claims on videos they don't even own, because (ONCE AGAIN) there is absolutely no consequence for abusing this system to the point that it is being abused
I would go on and on about the ways that this system is being used to hurt creators and bully people out of their livelihoods, but I'm sure you've also received more in depth messages as well
Please, fix this broken mess of a system
The DMCA is an out-dated document that has failed to protect content creators on the internet . It is now being used to silence critics, steal money from those who have earned it, and it makes new users not want to even try. I have a video that i finished last month but the environment has become so toxic that i'm afraid to. There needs to be penalties for those who would abuse the system.
People are having their videos that have no copyright content being taken down by companies who believe that they make the law, and the content creators are losing money in the processes.
Fair Use needs to be, well, used.
Currently, the DMCA is being heavily abused by companies submitting false copyright claims on content creators that are creating content that is COMPLETELY under fair use. I believe the system is being abused because any company can submit a false copyright claim without any repercussions. So in a company's eyes, they can decide to take a video that falls under fair use down, realize that there is no downside to submitting a false claim, take up a content creators revenue for more than a month, and then remove the claim after the creator has shown that their content falls under fair use (That's if they respond to the notice at all). The DMCA needs some serious adjustments. It's being abused by companies left and right. Change needs to happen.
Due to the nature of these takedowns being almost completely automated, these broken systems can be used to threaten, censor, or simply destroy someone's career in video making. Some takedown notices were given out on the basis of absolutely no copyright material in the video, and it still got taken down.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The following is the default message that shows up for all the comments, skip if you've read it before, but it provides good context. My comment begins at paragraph 8.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
This is all true, and I'm sure plenty of people have been drawing attention to the content creators who have lost their channels (Such as I Hate Everything) and I commend them for that, so I will draw attention to the case of The Slaughtering Grounds. A couple years ago, a small game came out on Steam. It was extremely bad, and most YouTube video game journalists mentioned this in their videos. However, instead of taking it humbly and patching the game, the developer decided to claim copyright infringement on any videos mentioning the game in a negative light, most namely reviewer Jim Sterling, who they then posed as on YouTube and sarcastically made fun of him and his comments, including calling him a "[Expletive] Idiot". He made an entire video chronicling the whole situation.
The Slaughtering Grounds situation is a great example of how copyright claims on YouTube can be used, especially by large companies that can afford lawsuits, to abuse journalists on YouTube that show bad press for their product. Which is exactly why their needs to be more discretion on what's fair use and what's not. Reaction channels on other YouTube videos are not fair, because they suck views from the original (Some are within use, but as a generalization), but commentary review shows, such as I Hate Everything, which was well within fair use, can be instantly taken down with no due process and deprive a creator of his job. There is a system in place, but there needs to be more of it to allow people to be warned and prevent these things from happening before it becomes the fiasco it has in the past. Due process, innocent until proven guilty, people's constitutional rights are being violated because of laws written before the internet could practically be used for commentary. Content could still be signed over to the websites, but methods of creation could still remain up. YouTube could flag videos at the discretion of its own terms of service (With proper review by staff, instead of robots, or trusting viewers), but the organizations that want to avoid criticism would need to go through more steps to claim copyright, and it should be less immediately punishing. If you want more info, Grade A Under A, TheOatmeal, Jim Sterling, and I Hate Everything all did videos (except for Oatmeal, who made a comic) about these same topics. They use profanity, but hey, the ideas are good, and they have free speech. And I hope it stays that way.
I agree with the above statements.
I've never been personally affected by somebody abusing the DMCA, but a lot of the creators I regularly watch have. And the DMCA in its current, outdated state threatens their livelihoods. It's really hurting them and I'd hate to see them lose out on the revenue that's being stolen from them.
Really, what would do some good would be to introduce harsher penalties for abusing the DMCA. And then, adapt them to today's internet. As Doug Walker, the Nostalgia Critic put it, most of the cases where people file a copyright strike on a YouTube video wouldn't have gotten it approved had they gone to court instead.
I really hate to see this happen to the YouTube community. I'm not sure what happens regarding the DMCA on other sites, but I'm sure it ain't pretty either.
DMCA is archaic law, which never helped anybody, even though some content owners at times maybe thought so. This law is now only harassing people, while not fixing any problems with copyright issues. It is now a weapon of corporate bullies, who despise criticism, reviews and sometime even exposure of their own products, while the real pirating of content still work despite the DMCA. I am fully for protecting fair use.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that Campbell nfringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Last week I got a DMCA notice for torrenting 'the hateful 8', which I was downloading for a maximum of 15 minutes, and which I currently possess ~1.5% of. In the days since I have downloaded over 7 copyrighted albums from GOOGLE. The current system of sending DMCA notices to everyone on a torrent's ip list is straight up ridiculous. It doesn't stop me from pirating content (nor will anything) and it mainly just penalizes people who don't know how to throttle seeding. RIDICULOUS
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Free Speech is important.!
This ancient rule made by the government that allow the internet to be 'safer' has now gateway for great corporations to bully internet content users for their 'copyright issues'. US government must improve on this law made the DMCA or get rid of this law completely and start a new. Obviously we need laws for sex offenders and pedophile from viewing certain pornagraphy. But we really need change for the internet of today not from 1998. We need new laws to protect Youtuber and other online content creator who make living doing reviews, news, gaming entertainment, skits, and other content. People wrongly accusing content user for stuff those accusers don't even own because of the NCAA. It's harming and abusing the content users and creators right of freedom of speech. Even videos that no copyright footage or music or being taken down due the corporations need for money. Corporations not wanting to hear about the bad things about it their own products because one person said it was bad. Corporations making up rules that aren't federal rules or local politic rules. NCAA is being wrongly used without the consideration of fair use. DMCA is being used by fake or shell companies to shield the companies who are sending the take down's on YouTube. They're using this as threats, they're using constantly bashing content user's for multiple reasons and on multiples on the same video. Even after the problem is settled! The giant companies are even taking the content creators money away with this. If this continues, won't even get the say on if okay to post photo on the internet of our children playing outside because they didn't like the kid. Or a married couple holding hands because they think it's weird looking. If this continues we will have no freedom to do whatever we want. Change the DMCA & NCAA laws now for today's internet so that our generation and the next generation don't have to go through this. Please whatever human decency you have left, change these laws now so it becomes safe for all internet users who want free use of the internet for their own sake.
Alot of youtubers I watch make videos and may use clips or even just talk about stuff Hollywood have been a part of. Of course I know they took no part in the creation of the project but there way of expressing their oppinion is amazing. Sometimes they can make fun of Hollywood and that can brightness my day. Personally, I am an artist who draws influence from musicians and animation directors. Much like these youtubers, I want to use my skills to entertain people and create art to help others. However, with this aduse, I fear for both me and other artist who make a career or have a career in this field. I'm only seventeen, which may mean I mean nothing to you but I was a citizen and a voter. These people on youtube do more that studios think, and for the right reasons.
Thank you for your time.
Please. The youtubers that I admire have been struck down by companies trying to earn a quick buck off their videos by abusing the copyright system. Many companies have been taking down videos on subejcts they don't own, some doing this multiple times under shell names. This flawed system has been used for threats on the content creators. It has gotten to a point where people who have no footage what so ever and are just speaking their feelings into a camera are getting their videos taken down. A lot of the DMCA are taking videos down without factoring in fair use at all. Some videos are getting taken down even after they are cleared and this can end up in lost revenue and even harassment. Many people rely on the content they make to earn a living and make sure it falls under fair use. So please, fix this so the people who try to make their living off this can do so without the fear of getting taken down and possibly threatened. If you want a clear example of this flawed system in action, I recommend you go watch I Hate Everything's battle with the copyright system. See for yourselves why this is a broken system in need of repair.
memes
The internet is intended for the free creation and distribution of information this law hurts and hinders content creaters and sharers it is outdated and simply broken. Update or throw it out and start from scratch.
I have seen so many accounts of content being taken down unfairly, and the claims are used to harass the content creator. The person that strikes the content has no penalty against them and they can take content down and strike content as much as they like.
Free use on the internet is a risk. Everyday many people are forced to take down their content because it doesn't go with copyright law. I myself have ran into this problem, with videos I worked hard on getting taken down. I do respect copyright, but I also believe in fair use. The current laws don't go with todays internet. There are people whos videos are taken down for having 30 seconds of a song or maybe a picture of copyright content. Piracy is a problem, but reviews, top 10s, and parodies aren't piracy, they're fair use. These laws need to be updated in order to save fair use on the internet, or many people will lose their free speech. Something needs to be done about it. because if something isn't done the problem will only get worse.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Due to the outdated nature of DMCA, businesses entirely predatory in nature are becoming a niche market on services like YouTube, issuing take-down requests and getting ad revenue for content they did not create and have no ownership over in whole or part. Due to millions using the platform both as consumers and creators the sheer volume of content requires much of the process is automated.
I could start a business in under a month and pull in substantial earnings by targeting popular videos, claiming ownership of the content; thus violating fair use and DMCA, and make money off of it, simply by running some analytics to determine the optimum viewing period for the video to ensure my fraudulent claim means I get the ad revenue for that time-frame.
There are businesses and individuals doing this already and making a livable wage off of it. Furthermore it is being done frequently by non-americans to americans.
The DMCA takedowns are so easily abused. People are claiming content they have no right to. Companies are repeatedly attacking content that has already been cleared. The mere mention of something that another holds any rights to is seen as trespassing on their intellectual property. This is a new age and companies are trying to stifle freedom of speech in its newest form. While reproductions should be stopped, DMCA takedowns are most often trampling on the rights of individuals to comment, review, and be inspired.
Where is the Fair Use?
The DMCA causes more harm then good at this point and needs to be updated to fit the internet of today.
I agree with everything that is about to be said down below. I have seen to many cases of abuse of the current system to stand quietly by. There needs to be more protection for not just the copyright holder but also for the person being accused.
Fight the power
The DMCA is something that was started to protect content creators and make sure people didn't steal other's properties. However, it has evolved into something terrible. Rather than protecting creators, it punches them, even when they do nothing wrong. Protecting people's content is important, but the laws need to be updated so that false claims are punished. The internet used to be a place of freedom and creativity, but it is being hindered by laws that are outdated by nearly two decades. Please change the law so the Internet can go back to being what it should be, a place where anyone can do anything.
I have seen so many videos from my favorite critics saying that many of their videos have been taken down. Even if they don't use copyrighted content, it is still taken down. In fact, some companies make claims more than once under a different name. Please do something about this, so YouTube can be a place where people can review and do other things without these false and bothersome claims.
The DMCA is a fossil of legal precedence, in need of immediate reform. The internet has evolved ever since the law's inception, and now fair use law is more important a protection than ever before. Work with the millions of American internet users who rely on it for anything from their entertainment to their careers, rather than abusive copyright holders.
To put this into perspective: a podcast that I listen to recently received a DMCA and the content creators were unable to use their original YouTube channel to stream, having to move to a different channel in order to keep producing content. It took 14 business days for YouTube to respond and overturn the false DMCA. The reason it was false was because the podcast had played another YouTube content creator's videos as part of their show's format, and because they were critical of this creator, he filed a false claim in order to silence them. The false claimant has suffered no legal repercussions for committing perjury, as he admitted that the reason he filed a DMCA was because the podcast had talked about his family. In reality, the comments on his family were in passing and not malicious.
I wish this was the only time this has happened, but as YouTube continues to expand, so too do the cases of false DMCA takedowns or abuse of YouTube's ContentID system. (The latter of which allows copyright owners to redirect monetization to themselves and keep it even if YouTube rules in favor of their opponent.)
People are calling for copyright reform more than ever, and as the internet matures, that sentiment will only continue to grow.
This is a very important issue. It is far too easy to stifle free speech using copyright claims. Not only by corporations, but by political ideologues who want to silence opponents. The copy and paste below says it all, but I want to write something original to prove I'm not a bot.
One of the prime sites for DMCA abuse is on YouTube, as videos relating to this situation contain WTFU (Where's the Fair Use) in the title. This movement has also spread across Twitter as a hashtag. I highly recommend that videos with that in the title are watched, as it gives a big insight as to one of many instances as to how this is abused. The DMCA is also abused, believe it or not, by countries outside of the United States.
DMCA makes it difficult to make a career off of youtube videos, as people abuse the law.
DMCA takedowns are used far too frequently to harass content creators, getting content taken down even when it's perfectly legal and under fair use. This results in them losing fair content, or losing the money that they make their living from. The people who file the false claims get no penalties, even when they are proven to be false. Automatic takedowns being issued also have significant errors, arguably doing more harm than good. And again, no penalties. This law needs to be at the very least reevaluated, if not replaced altogether with one that takes into account the abuse that the DMCA has been subject to.
As for my comment, none of this greedy bullcrap from the past 3 months would've happened if it weren't for The Fine Bros. We have now seen people abusing copyright systems and stealing what doesn't belong to them. I'm not saying that The Fine Bros. is the end-all cause of it (it would have to be Viacom), but it's still flat-out evil.
Content creators from Doug Walker to "AkiDearest" and "Misty/Cronexia" to "JackSepticEye" and "Boogie2988" all fear that their livelyhood (as YouTube Content Creators) are being hampered by the "False Claims" individuals have posted against their respective channels.
The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: "quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author's observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported."
Copyright-screening systems currently being implemented on such sites as YouTube regularly fail to recognize the rights of content creators in their practice of Free Use. These systems do not hold copyright holders/claimants responsible for unwarranted or false claims yet strictly limit content creators in their capacity to combat such claims. The policies of the DMCA are grossly outdated in their applicability to modern multimedia and, as such, demand review and revision to account for the significant changes the internet has seen since the DMCA's conception. A practical parallel can be found in "SLAPP suits" and "anti-SLAPP" litigation. Those who bring in lawsuits which prove to be without merit can be held liable for attorney's fees and costs. These are the kinds of penalties and disincentives which should be established to protect content creators on YouTube and other multimedia sites who comply with fair use yet are faced with responding to merit-less claims and having their livelihoods compromised by baseless claims of fair use violation. The standard of review and the burden of proof is where the solution to this issue lies.
As a personal note:
I am not a video creator, and cannot claim that I have been personally targeted. However, seeing the obscene amount of abuses perpetrated against those using Fair Use to comment and critique, I feel that this issue needs to be resolved.
The improper and one sided method for the protection of intellectual property prevents and stifles the creation of new content, and can be easily used as a method to bully, threaten, or harrass content creators without penalty, even if the party making the accusation has no claim over the property in question, or any affiliation with said property holder. This directly causes a decrease in the quantity and quality of content available on the internet, as well as drastically reduces the feasability of economically supporting one's self through the creation of content on the internet, even that which clearly does not infringe copywrite.
Works of parody and critique are being targeted by rights holders who either do not know what Fair Use is, or simply claim that their audience's understanding of Fair Use is wrong so that they can steal money from them. The automated system that is in place to flag copyrighted material on YouTube cannot properly quell internet piracy. Directors are entitled to protect their movies, writers are entitled to protect their television programs, and singers are entitled to protect their songs; but we want them to know that directors, writers, and singers do not just create art, but they also create fans. And this is no way to treat their creation. They cannot get away with silencing their fans for the sole reason that they do not like what their fans have to say.
Cheers,
Mike Lyons.
The disgusting abuse of corporations taking down review content under the name of copyright law with absolutely no protections to the claim is fundamentally broken.
The following has been generated, but I have read and agree wholeheartedly with it:
You guys are probably getting more than enough e-mails on this topic, but there's a serious lack of fair use going on. Videos that have no copyright infringement, videos using royalty free material getting sledgehammered by people taking that royalty free music and making it seem like it's actually there's, the fact that parodies or reviews, things that should be protected, can get targeted and things can be blocked for little to no reason-
This madness has to stop. The old law isn't built for the modern internet- and it seriously, SERIOUSLY needs to get altered. The uneven penalties, the monetary loss some people can't afford to have, the fact that the wrong-doers will get away with doing this scott free and even use it as a threat? Laws should not be this horrifically abused.
I'd just simply like to state that the DMCA allows for our constitutional rights to be countlesly violated. It needs to be fixed to avoid being used as a tool to Punish Criticism, Monopolize, Unrightfully Taking Income, Ensure Illegal Business Practices May Occur and countless other reasons. Lastly it acts against the mass majority, and is far out of date.
No one should be allowed to abuse free speech to take away and abuse others.
I've watch from afar, carefully looking at both sides of this issue. I've seen only a few good but many wrongful deeds caused by this system. I've studied business law, economics, ethics, world history, psychology along with sociology. I've stayed in silence as I allowed other companies not even credit for my ideas because I was content making others happy. But others, I've watched their ideas stripped down from this digital web by an abused system. Accounts deleted, voices silent, money stolen from honest work. This system that was set in motion serves no purpose in this age of technology but to make others suffer. This DMC does not protect, it has transformed into a tool of harassment and destruction. DMCs are being used by those that do not own the rightful copyright, stifle the freedom of speech, even those that do not have any images or audio are being taken down. Some companies believe they create the law, not factoring fair use, used as threats, even shell companies are being used to shield other companies sending the takedown in order to attempt from losing a positive appearance, and hit multiple times even after cleared. I do not have a crystal ball to gaze in the future, but I do understand spreading ideas is a great thing for creators both big and small as I've seen throughout history. The United States of America, as I've seen it, does not truly function on regulations but on responsibilities. I've been grown on tales of a great few to understand and honor such responsibilities and it shall be of great satisfaction to see such a tale unfold in my era. Both parties will benefit, but both will need to listen openly and without bias or rancor in order to enter a new age. I've read the default text bellow, right or not I do agree with these statements.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
This law as it exists is a threat to freedom of speech, consumer rights, and is very anti corporate responsibility as it prevents people from calling out people who make bad or even dangerous products because it gives companies a weapon against critics and detractors with no protection for the content creator, so pleas protect ALL OF US not just the companies our freedoms/livelihoods are under attack! #WTFU?
We need the freedom to post fair use videos especially our YouTube gamers who make videos on video games.
Fair use is being ignored, and that isn't something that is okay, too many companies are attacking critics and others because they know they can get away with it, they try to bring down videos that are clearly only reviews, you only have to watch to realize that, an internet review, even a negative one, brings attention to the product, sometimes because of this attention the product sells even more, sometimes it sells less, either way though, there is a reason fair use is a part of copyright law and I'm sick and tired of companies thinking that they can do what they want to whoever they wish, I don't use twitter but I'm in agreement with the hashtag #where'sthefairuse or #wtfu
Like all things in the world to survive this needs to be updated for modern day standard, not the standard on 1998. It is still in the corporations favour even though videos done by professional reviewers, by people just asking about something using their own mobile phones and mentioning the name of something and this can and has resulted in videos been taken down. People in high positions are abusing this to take money from hard working people who are trying to make it on their own but are losing such revenue because of this.
People in power are abusing this to their favour and not apologising for it even when the videos that had no right to be taken down are put back up, when can take months as it's an automatic process.
Actual people need to get involved in this process now, the guidelines need to be changed and power given to all people not just those in power.
#WTFU
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
A couple of channels I have watch on youtube had been affected by people who abuse the system and overall ignore the Fair Use law. Some had their accounts shut down without any warning or chance to defend their claims while others had to struggle for weeks to get their channels back to normal for similar reasons. The people who are affected were well within in the law and had done nothing wrong, but they get attack by the companies or trolls anyway for all the wrong reasons. I am asking that something needs to be done to help fix this issue that is facing youtube and the internet as a whole otherwise people freedoms to express themselves and create in the internet would be in jeopardy. What needs to happen is that the DMCA law needs to be updated to fit with today's internet.
Everyone has a story regarding these DMCA takedowns. Here is mine.
Hello, my name is Albert and one of my YouTube channels that I have is TerraformedMovies. This is a channel that was also owned by my high school friend, Joseph. Initially, I made this channel to have fun; to discuss and review movies and talk about recent movie news. The reasoning why we made this channel was because of our wide interest in movies, and how this channel was going to provide awesome updates to recent or upcoming movies.
Half a year after we made the channel, we received a claim that our Frozen 2 Announced?! video has been taken down due to spam. We had no idea why anyone would believe it was spam, bwcause the video was sort of a comedic way to introduce these news to YouTube's growing community.
A few days / hours later (as I recall), the TerraformedMovies channel was suspended. We had no idea why; it came to us by surprise. We filed an appeal / a complaint of some sort to contact YouTube about this serious issue but they never responded. So here we are.
To be honest, the channel didn't exactly have much subscribers (maybe it was about 50-ish to the 100s, the last time I remember). Another thing I'd like to acknowledge is that, in our videos, we would put snippets of movies and images to get the points in our videos across. But the only reason we are using them is for educational and humorous purposes. They are what we call the stimulus material for visual aid to the audience. Even though we used these images, I believe more of the video is us talking than the video "playing". Maybe I'm wrong, but as far as I know, I strongly believe the authorities who used the DMCA to take me down were in the wrong here. I have never done anything to get my channel ripped apart from me.
This comment isn't coming from just the USA. Voices regarding the DMCA are also coming from around the world. I'm representing Indonesia here to have you guys listen, that we should renew / update the law / treaty. I love YouTube very much, and I believe the site, along with the entire Internet that is growing as a community and as a place, would be a much better place if this would happen.
Thank you for your patience! :)
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I can definitely say that the way the system works right now is outdated. Please, somebody change it so that people can't abuse the system so much!
Also, companies have sent out notices for properties that they don't even own, or attacking those who disagree with their views. Creators have abuse the DMCA to attack those who disagree with them, for example a film director attacking a online film reviewer who pans his film.
Please stop stifling creation and destroying competition. By letting people with the most money dictate what we can and can not create or say. Their is also small factions of people who want to silents others. They are called Cry Bullies.
Although Copy rights are most certainly needed, its being missed used. Guess the only thing i could say to you is. Look harder into what the person wants to DMCA. Make sure they aren't DMCA-ing just to troll or to remove competition.
Thanks for letting me speak.
Please read the following statement and take them into your consideration. Thank you.
The below comment explains this perfectly, but it's clear that there have been no consequences for people who abuse the copyright system and seek to take down content creators that follow the law for their own agenda. Stop this abuse now.
""
I have a very small vlog/game channel on YouTube, and my channel is barely more than a month old. In that short time I have had 3 false Copyright claims regarding some music I have used in my videos. This music is public domain and under Fair Use I can use this music. There are no repercussions for those who file these false claims, allowing them to use DMCA notices to harm content creators instead of protecting them.
DMCA laws are harming today's modern sources of entertainment. Large companies are breaking fair use laws hiding behind this Archaic system with small time content creators having no means to defend themselves. I could create a channel now, review a game or a movie online with NO Footage, or Music about what I'm criticizing and be silenced instantly by that corporation who published it without any means to fight back because of DMCA laws. This system needs to be reworked to protect from harassment and abuse of these laws.
Copyright laws have been inflicting harm on innocent content creators for years, especially now. This act is a step in the wrong way. Goodnight, and don't allow this to damage the internet even more, Government Official.
my videos have been blocked from my tablet and even my own computer at home im not able to watch anyones videos other than channel awesome ive been getting messages stating that i will no longer have these videos unless i call a number wich i never recieved a number even my friend jacob holder has been targeted
Abuse of the DMCA has been rampent recently. I may not have a youtube channel or other medium for content, but I know several who do and some of them have had content wrongfully taken down despite following the rules of fair use. One popular example from only a couple months ago was with a youtube channel called I Hate Everything. Despite the name, he actually gives some solid criticizm on various movies among other things. But someone simply claimed copyright infringement, even when following fair use, and tookdown one of his videos all because the owner of the movie being critiqued couldn't handle a little bit of criticism. It's simply far to easy to eliminate content that isn't even breaking any rules and with no repercussions.
Stop allowing multi-million-dollar corporations to claim all revenue from created content that barely contains any claimed content. It is not fair to claim all revenue from 2 hours of content that contains 18 seconds of copyrighted sound or imagery. Stop corporate harassment of small business owners. If you purchase an object, you then own that object and should be allowed to use it for your own financial gain.
Ok this is absolutely silly at this point. Videos on Youtube are being threatened with copyright claims despite the fact that they contain no copyrighted material at all. They are being used as threats to small channels and take money from hard-working individuals. Even videos
that are clearly protected under fair use are attacked daily. The system is horribly broken and needs to be fixed. Trust me, I know the internet, and if you don't fix this we are not gonna let you live this down. This decision will impact millions upon millions of people. Act wisely.
I have been watching my favorite content creators have thier work taken down due to false DMCA claims for years. The internet is a completely different place than it was in 1998 and our laws should reflect that. I feel like the original comment message sates the situation well and echos all of my own opinions.
""
This system is nearly as old as I am and it has had no amendments to account for the rapidily changing conditions on the internet of today. There is litttle to no real regulation and penalties are nonexistant, giving big corporations and creators trying to hide negative reviews or any criticism the power to abuse the DMCA and put holds on content or entire revenue streams for people who need it, as Youtube and other such sites have become places where people can make a living now
Frequently on YouTube, for example, content creators are constantly at risk of losing their livelihood. YouTube has many people who enjoy various media (including but not limited to movies, books, video games, animations) and wish to discuss the assets and flaws of their chosen interest. However, with the current DMCA in place, these reviewers could easily be silenced by those who originally created whatever they choose to review, despite how the commentary of the reviewers falls under fair use. Even if the reviewers are ultimately in the right, they can easily be paralyzed out of what they need to survive. Those who abuse DMCA can do so even if the reviewer just talks about their media without showing any actual footage. One could even send a copyright claim and ruin the content creator even if they are not who they claim to be! In a world where the Internet is such a ubiquitous and vast realm of creative possibilities, failing to account for today's Internet is a legal travesty which must be revised.
The internet has changed drastically in 18 years, but the law hasn't. It's ruining the lives and jobs of many, whose revenue is stolen from by money hungry corporations. It needs to be put to justice, and Fair Use needs to be enforced. We can't let corporations run rampant.
#WTFU
Greetings from an Australian,
First and foremost I must address my nationality; most of my entertainment comes from the internet, and the vast majority of that from the video sharing website YouTube. Since this company (amongst others I use) is located in the U.S. I am often made aware of issues pertaining to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998. This matters to me. This matters to the content creators that produce the entertainment I view.
I like the DMCA and I understand its purpose. It is a good idea... in theory. The trouble is that this Act hurts more than it helps. It hurts small copyright holders and helps big copyright holders. It is wrongly used to settle petty disputes between equally small copyright holders as something of a trump card. It is long overdue for an update as it has become a heavily abused piece of legislation. The most obvious and easiest solution would be to introduce strict penalties for misuse of DMCA takedown notices.
Here follows are individual examples of copyright abuse using DMCA takedowns against copyright holders--the very people this Act was meant to protect:
Although I actually knew about DMCA takedowns from a personal connection to a, now resolved, copyright dispute, I was made aware of how DMCA could be abused with the DMCA takedown by developer Wild Games Studio against critic John Bain (TotalBiscuit) in October 2013. Bain made a video, posted to his successful YouTube channel, critiquing Wild Games Studio's 'Day One: Garry's Incident', and he criticized the game heavily for a whole host of problems. In response Wild Games Studio used a DMCA takedown to remove the review. This flies in the very face of Fair Use.
Another example I remember intensely was that between developer Robert Romine and critic Jim Sterling. Sterling critiqued the Digital Homicide Studios LLC. game 'The Slaughtering Grounds'; a game that made several 'Worst Games of 2014' lists. The developer (after some further discourse between the two parties) filed a DMCA takedown and removed Sterling's review from YouTube. Again, DMCA was used to trample on Fair Use.
But this abuse isn't limited to games reviewers... that's just my sphere as it were.
More recently, YouTuber I HATE EVERYTHING (IHE) reviewed the Derek Savage movie 'Cool Cat Saves the Kids' as part of his The Search for the Worst (Movie) series. As IHE states in the video, the movie has obvious issues such as production value, but also more important problems such as the overall story line, conflicting advice, slightly disturbing themes, and more. Derek Savage's response to this criticism was to use a DMCA takedown to silence IHE. Savage released a video explaining why he had done this, but another YouTube-based movie reviewer YourMovieSucksDOTorg showed that Savage failed to understand even the basics of Fair Use.
Although I don't watch it, I have heard that the Stoned Gremlin Productions channel on Youtube has received a DMCA takedown for video that did not feature any third-party copyrighted material. Brad Jones, the host, runs a series called 'Midnight Screenings' where he and another person(s) sit in a car, in a carpark, and talk about the movie they just watched. Obviously, the copyright of Jones' camera recordings are his own, so why are there no repercussions for companies or individuals that file a DMCA takedown notice on content they do not own?
DMCA may have been invented to protect copyright holders, but it is now being used as a weapon against them. DMCA takedowns are being used to hide reviews around game releases, and to deprive content creators of their ad revenue.
This is but a tip of the ice burg... only the individual cases of DMCA takedown abuse I have heard about or witnessed while following the work of the creators whose entertainment I enjoy. DMCA is in desperate need of balancing. There are no downsides to copyright holders if penalties for misuse were enforced; a company or individual either owns the copyrighted work and it is being stolen or they do not own the copyright and it is not being stolen. There is no middle ground as one should not mistake one's own work.
Kind regards,
Gavin C.
Melbourne, Victoria
Australia.
P.S. I am including Fight for the Future's message below as they have gone to the trouble of creating a more generalized view than I could have.
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DMCA plays an important part in protecting parties property, but it has been used as a weapon by those same parties to target innocent third parties who are not stealing content, and are simply referencing other peoples content under fair use to create new content such as reviews, parodies, or social impact videos.
To steal entire songs, or videos is illegal, but it has long been held a standard of fair use for those in the profession of content review to be allowed to reference, and even use tiny snippets of copy righted material, under fair use, to discuss said material.
Showing a picture of Darth Vader while discussing the Star Wars franchise, or showing a 7 second snippet of game play from the newest Super Mario Brothers game that encompasses 50+ hours of game play and barely scratches the surface of representing the subject at hand should not be considered copy right infringement, they have been considered fair use in precedent years, and should continue to hold that status.
Holders of copy right should be required to prove their ownership of property before administering strikes on third parties, and after they have proven ownership, they should be held responsible for any irresponsible use of DMCA take downs. If Warner Music wants to use a machine to claim every appearance of the Harry Potter music for example, and takes down 1,000 videos, every single case that only contained less than 10 seconds of music, and could be considered fair use, should be marked against Warner Music for false strike claim.
False claims should add up against negligent corporations, either in punitive damages against the company, or the removal of their ability to apply strikes further on platforms such as Youtube where they habitually abuse the system to target channels that use small bits of their content under fair use.
This is all my held beliefs, below is a pre-written statement that I agree with, from a group who believes as I do that the DMCA needs to protect both sides, and not unfairly allow one group to abuse the other with threats and illegal take downs.
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This is a severe thing, stunting the growth of an industry for doing lawful things such as providing critiques for things, making parodies and even citing other sources with educational intent. However, worse than that is that other companies, some even having no involvement in the sources used in said video, are striking down content and even take the money from the content regardless if the lawfully own it or not. This is something that needs to remedied as quickly as possible as, the longer it goes on, the more people it'll enrage and I need not remind you the internet id a hub for most, if not almost all, of the 1st world's population.
Please, help content creators and fix the issues causing them to have their content removed, their revenue stole and their voice silenced.
I'm a content creator and I've had many videos taken down and monetized by companies even though I used fair use in them, and on those videos I put time and effort in, they're not being shown, or are having money funneled to them via my videos, which barely even break 20 views. How desperate can you get that you have to monetize a video with barely 20 views? This should not be stood for any longer. Save Fair Use.
Come on guys, really? You gotta fix it right now.
THIS TYPE OF SHIT TOOK DOWN TEAMFOURSTAR.... ITS TIME TO STAND UP FROM THIS PUSSY-ASS BULLSHIT
Youtubes "Fair" Use program has been abused to an almost satirical level as people can take down a video on the basis of nothing if they wanted. How does flagging a video and it getting taken down, regardless of the validity of the reason of the flag, benefit free speech and copy right? It doesn't, it creates a system where people can remove your content for an amount of time and cut into your revenue because they didn't like it. Reviewers have suffered from this for when they give honest criticism of terrible games and movies, and the developers can't handle their own inferiority and try to compensate for their lack of of a quality product by writhing in their own petulance, resulting in a reviewer (doing their job) losing view counts and potential sales because someone became "offended". This is some Orwellian nonsense right here. Stop it. Stop this. Fix it.
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Personal comment :
I am thinking about making a YouTube channel about retrogaming, games from the past and the story of their making... aside of making daily let's plays too, and I would like to have access to fair use when I want to communicate and inform about one of the things I like most : video games. I know who created the games The concept of my possible show is to review games and telling the story of their creaters and developpers, so I know what I'm talking about. Also, the fact that the DMCA just make YouTube strike youtubers because of copyright issues without letting them have a plaidoyer or letting them explain the situation just doesn't make sense. Everyone should have the right to explain for him(her)self. And this petition is the best thing that can occur to protect free speech and fair use.
I hope it will work for the best because I'M IN!!
-Steven Bien-Aimé aka Toonesk Kasaï
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I believe that the DMCA is a well intentioned piece of legislation that works decently well in many situations.
However, fear of the repercussions of DMCA is causing some websites to be very over reactive to minor complaints. The biggest case in point is how frustrating YouTube's content policy is.
YouTube is a private entity and is allowed to remove content that it chooses for reasons it chooses, but content creators do need more protection from abuse of copyright threats. Copyright management should not be left to the private entities, because that's a case of an individual with their own interests making a legal decision and punishing someone without a due process. Any proposed fixes to the process should prevent things like a "guilty until proven innocent" privately-run system from stifling the spread of ideas. Punishing people who take copyright management into their own hands, penalizing false claims, or by any other means making it so that YouTube does not feel it necessary or practical to delete a video at the drop of a hat because they are afraid of the potential repercussions of being potentially liable for copyright infringement.
I've been wanting to create a vlog for over a year now and one of the things holding me back is whether I'd be able to use clips from audio or sound files of media I want to reference. Right now, even playing a clip of a couple seconds worth of a song or movie is a risk, because if someone decides they aren't happy about it, I fear legal trouble that I couldn't afford or that would overburden my ability to just put a video on YouTube of my stupid opinions. I'll also admit some of my fear of starting a vlog is that something I say might attract the attention of people who could cause real problems, ie harassment for whatever views I might espouse. Looking at things like GamerGate, a frequent weapon trolls use to get people they disagree with to shut up is to file frivolous DMCA reports. The current implementation of the law just makes it way too easy for someone with less than honorable intentions to make things materially difficult for people trying to use the Internet for it's intended purposes, like expression or public dialog.
Another purpose of the Internet is to facilitate and democratize education, and as a public librarian by profession and avocation, I have had numerous ideas for getting people into the library stymied by overzealous copyright law, including the DMCA. For example, I can't play a documentary on high school baseball in Japan for a program I want to put on in July because the director lost the rights to some of the music he used in it, leaving the whole documentary undistributable. That director's hard work is now a moot point because of a technicality, and I can't play the movie, along with most others I want to for programs. If I want to make a Powerpoint, for example, inserting a short video clip, audio clip, or photo could get my library system in trouble, and that will result in my being reprimanded and my county implementing more restrictive policies to avoid legal problems. It might seem like a logical jump, but the way my library system works, this is very plausible to me, and it means I have to plan for POTENTIAL issues anyone might take with the content of an educational activity. I'm a librarian and that's part of my job, but at the same time, the burden is always on people with less clout than their opponent to defend against claims of theft or intellectual property infringement, and even if my use of content falls within fair use guidelines, I have to prove that in court, so just the filing of a DMCA or similar complaint is something I have to avoid. It really puts a stifle on, frankly, public discourse overall, since so much of that now takes place online. The DMCA in particular stacks the balance of power too far in favor of those who already are more powerful than those they can accuse--whether those accusers are rightsholders, major media companies, or online bullies. I'd really like to see this law reformed, if not thrown out altogether, because it severely hampers the democratizing powers of the Internet in ways that are frankly un-American.
I understand the DMCA was originally intended to prevent illegal downloading of MP3s and other media files, but it clearly isn't working, and I would argue it subverts the idea of the burden of proof being on an accuser instead of the accused. It consolidates power in media companies and stifles freedom of expression while enabling harassment and catches up far too many innocent users and consumers of media in it's implementation...please consider heavily reforming or removing the DMCA. Thank you.
I've been seeing content creators, artists, critics and reviewers, and entertainers online being unfairly affected by the abuse of the DMCA. DMCAs are used as threats, DMCAs are being issued without factoring in "fair use", videos are being flagged and taken down repeatedly, shell companies are being used to flag and take down videos and content on behalf of companies, and free speech is being censored. There have been many cases where I see my favorite YouTubers getting their videos taken down unfairly, and the ad revenue goes to the claimant. The YouTuber is the one who suffers most during the process of disputing the claim, and yet the claimant suffers no penalty, whether they lose or win. Why? Because the claimant STILL gets the ad revenue from that video they reported. The DMCA law is being abused either out of maliciousness, stifling free speech, or greed. I've seen a video that had 2 guys in a car, talking or reviewing a movie, with no footage or music from the film, and STILL that review video was taken down. If that's not censorship, I don't know what is.
I love how the internet is free for all, and it gives anyone an opportunity to make something new, or contribute. They can make something out of themselves. But it's rather discouraging and outrageous how a lot of entertainers, writers, artists, and content creators are getting screwed over by the abuse of DMCA. The internet has changed with time, and so have all of us. Shouldn't this DMCA be changed as well? It's clear that the DMCA is being abused easily, and putting unnecessary grief and frustration for everyone, content creators and fans alike. Please, something has to change.
As a content creator myself, I worry about the effect of the DMCA on my work, even though I am creating original text content. The idea that I can simply have any fiction I write be removed, automatically, because it competes with a larger corporate interest, means that I cannot offer it for sale. This is a serious chilling effect and a genuine concern for the online community at large.
The DMCA laws have shown they are much too dated and biased for today's internet content. It has given too much power for large entertainment companies to silence any internet content creators using their media despite fair use. This has lead to the excessive punishment of creators with bans and strikes against their channels along with the very monetization process by which they get paid being stifled. The biggest downfall of these laws is the lack of punishment toward the party making a false claim. The DMCA laws have recently become a weapon for large entertainment companies to use against this new generation of internet users who are collectively becoming a significant competitor for them. The simple fact that DMCA laws are being used as a corporate weapon to stifle not only free market capitalism but free speech, is enough to have these laws removed or at least revised heavily.
Accountability and transparency are conspicuously missing from the claims and takedown process. Those who file must provide valid legal reasons BEFORE having videos removedso as not to force legitimate small businesses and independent creators into legal battles they cannot afford. Penalties for frivolous and fraudulent claims must be codified and enforced to discourage copyright trolls and corporate legal departments.
As a fan of various internet entertainers, I have too often been disappointed and heartbroken when creators have been forced to remove their content or even retire their series altogether thanks to accumulated claims, threats of legal action, and harassment. Companies cannot be permitted to dictate de facto policy. Take a stand for real citizens and free speech.
The current system is broken. DMCA claims are automated and create serious repercussions to valid content creators who are following the law. There are illegitimate claims made by third parties haphazardly and no penalty ever falls upon the false claimant. It's time for change.
Content creators on YouTube are being unfairly treated and attacked by companies. The DMCA is allowing the companies to do this. Where's the Fair Use? It is time to update this law.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech and causing financial damage to those individuals.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works. Also significant punishments and fines should be assessed if an individual or group abuses the DMCA takedown process to censor critique when they clearly know that the use of their content is protected by fair use. For example, some small indie developers on youtube admit they're only doing it to mess with video creators that give them unfavorable reviews.
Further, the DMCA takedown process should only be available to persons inside the US, or with financial connection inside the US, or persons from countries with extradition treaties to the US. This is because sometimes the DMCA takedowns come from small groups outside the US who do not care about US law, and would be unaffected by any sanctions or lawsuits against them. They can also be difficult to track because the DMCA doesn't really check that any identity and address information is correct.
The government should do more to track abuses of DMCA takedowns when fair use applies. For example, creating a tracking website where content creators can submit DMCA takedowns that don't take into account fair use.
The way the DMCA is right now doesn't reflect today's technology, and that's the main problem. Because of this, Youtube, which has the largest consumer base for many reasons, doesn't have a viable system in taking down videos. Because of this, content creators that use fair use - Channel Awesome, TeamFourStar, I Hate Everything, and many others, have been taken down or had monetization pulled from them. It all boils down to two parties - Youtube themselves, which have a fully automated system based on the DMCA, and internet trolls, which can and do abuse that system. Grade A Under A points out a couple of entities that take other people's videos down and falsely claim copyright. Meanwhile, there are people who have entire copy written movies up, and aren't being taken down at all.
Another issue is international. We're now in a day and age where footage from the other side of the world may be used, muddying up copyright. There are many instances in which fair use, under US law, is being used the way it's supposed to be. However, whether it's used well in other countries, or even whether US fair use applies to said content, is brought under question.
The final issue that's been recently brought to the table is how far copyright can go. Recently, the Fine Bros. were brought under fire for doing something allegedly legal, which was trademarking the word "React", as that word defined their series. While the Fine Bros. never went through with it and lost an incredible amount of subscribers, it seems there needs to be discussion on this topic.
Many people have been affected by this outdated copyright law, and its very upsetting and unfair. We need something new to protect content creators from these false copyrights claims with no punishment and no justification. Its a very unfair system.
I watched Nostalgia Critics Video on fair use and I was very terrified on what's become of YouTube I got claims on my videos and I typed in the description under fair use but YouTube didn't stop claiming my videos and I want this to stop
I make fanart for various video games and other things and while i have not had any of my stuff taken down i have seen other peices of art taken down for no reason but having a charater from a video game or book, and if there is a chance that could happen to my work and tons of other peoples work who mostly do fan art to show appreciation to anothers work, there really is no reason to do art at all
Freedom of speech is not just being attacked, but it is being charged as well. Many copyright holders are attacking these internet videos just to make to take money that rightfully belongs to the account of the Youtuber or any other site.
Dear Government
Please help the people spread their content, and protect our right to freedom of speech. To many content creators have had their videos removed due to content creators feeling like they don't like the feed back people are giving. A strike that could possibly devastate someone's lifestyle from an income of YouTube videos is not right. People abuse the strike system, and this helps no one. Content creators loose revenue, and viewers loose content. Please, help make the Internet a place for 'the little people' to thrive.
Yeah, people are being huge greedy evil-doers, so yeah, we need PEOPLE to solve these problems, not AI
I believe that DMCA is currently hurting the internet, in more ways that actually assisting content creators. The idea of being transformative with copyrighted materials is slowly becoming a more and more obscure idea. Where even basic critique of film, entertainment published to the public sphere are strucken down to save face, just baffles me.
The idea alone that there are no true reporcutions scene for false DMCA'ing content that does indeed fall under Fair Use in fact frightens me, as someone who does want to pursue content on YouTube.
The takedown system on Youtube is especially broken. False claims allow monetization to be taken away temporarily, giving all funds to the company making the takedown claim. Even if this claim turns out to be false, the funds obtained during the time during the copyright dispute are not returned to the victim, possibly endangering people's livelihood.
This law is outdated and truly needs to be updated to accept the way of the internet in 2016 and further. in time as creators are targeted and give no way to truly defend themselves from false claims and can in turn, drastically affect someones lively hood in the modern age of media.
Good day,
The DMCA is a tool to protect the hard work of those who create but it is clear that in it's current form it is possible to be used a tool to silence criticism, steal revenue, and harm those it was meant to protect. I appreciate it's existence but would request that it be thoughtfully update for the times.
Thank you.
I will now leave you the will this organization's original message.
The DMCA must be updated to account for the modern internet and freeddom of speech.
Pardon, but I believe I have a say in this even though I'm not a content creator. I am however a fan of a majority of those affected such as I Hate Everything (IHE), TheMysteriousMrEnter, Bobsheaux, and The Nostalgia Critic. Personally, I don't watch a lot of TV, and YouTube is my favorited platform. It pains me to see a good review of another's work turn into the next season of Dallas.
Claims are being thrown left and right. Some saying that it's not fair use, which it is since a review of any form of art changes the point of the art itself, and getting the video taken down. Some are saying that they're violating copyright even though they're not showing footage of a film or video. Some argue that their copyright is being violated even though they're just stating the name of a brand. The creators of several reviews are being robbed of money that is rightfully theirs while others have been wrongly silenced through the loss of their channel. In the long run, this needs to change for the better.
The Internet is a platform that is growing every day. We have come a far way from 1998, the year the DMCA was passed. Though we have added several new things to what we call the basics of living freely our freedom of speech should be protected. Yes our country has changed quite a lot since 1776, yet that's one thing I'm not letting go with a wrongly placed copyright claim.
I have an idea: Why doesn't the government (or whoever's watching this unfold. I'm still not exactly sure.) let the innocent creators go free while video and movie pirates get punished? Why don't we hold down those uploading an entire video belonging to someone else even if they have 'commentary' throughout the uploaded video? Why don't we have someone watch the video before saying if the claim is true or false? Sir, Ma'am, there needs to be a change for the better.
Cheers.
I have personally read this and agree with the statement above --Ethan
Just look at these videos and you will see the abuse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9mTOq6mP2I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-O7WANBW_Y
In 2007 I desciverd the Internet and some of the things it had to offer and it was cool. In 2013 I found out about all the amazing content creators and what they made and it was awesome! They were the highlights of my day. Without them, I wouldn't be inspired to create some of the stuff I do today. But now they are being attack. Even thou they have followed the rules set up by the DMCA and the copyright corporations, they are being abused by it. They have done everything to keep their content up, but because corporate companies don't like what people are saying or just want money, they are attacking them and abusing the Fair use system. Taking away money from the people who make the content. A few examples was when the "Cinema snob" got strikes on his channel because of his videos where he talks about the movie he saw with a friend in a car even thou there was no footage of the movie or music playing. Another one is when "Nowacking" made a music parody of "All About that Base" which the music was made differently by a friend of hers, sung by her, and was about Vinyl Scartch, a pony from MLP, (which is awesome) she got a claim by Sony. (Even thou it was nothing like the original!) And another one was with "Angry Joe". He has the right to speak his opinion about the game he's reviewing, but because the maker of the game didn't like his opinion, he had gotten strikes. It even gets weirder! "I Hate Everything" did a review on a bad movie, and even thou he recommended it to people, the director of the film put a claim on his video! Corporate companies are abusing the fair use and it needs to stop. This has to be fixed. Creators have the right to make reviews, parodies, etc. A system that was set to keep balance and make people safe is broken. Please fix it.
I think current DMCA practices don't place enough consideration towards fair use and in so doing, unfairly target the little guy.
I have read all the paragraph of this comment. I agree with the fact that the notice-and-takedown system if biased in favor of copyright holder anda better system need to be put in place.
Didier S. Chénard
Most important, there must be consequences for false claims on videos, such as forcing take downs on videos that have no video content or copyright songs in the video. People who do reviews for a living are being attacked by big film companies for no reason and are losing money. Everyone piracy and claiming someone else's property is wrong, but if the person is following copyright laws and getting punished for no reason. Freedom of speech must be protect.
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or
The DMCA laws are being abused to censor the opinions of the average voice. Popular YouTubers have been battling companies that have been taking down their videos that are fair use. People like Nostalgia Critic, I Hate Everything, Your Movie Sucks and many more have been hurassed, bullied and threatened because of how outdated and rigged the system is. Some creators do not even use copyrighted material, just the mention of their name is enough for a company to decide they will take it down. Please update the laws, the last time they were updated was 1998. This is 2016... Enough said.
Dear Copyright Office official,
Best,
Brijen Patel
What he said ^
DMCA has been WOEFULLY abused on the internet. Something must be done about it, lest the future of the web and fair use be jeopardized by corporations looking to profit off of perfectly legal videos and content other have poured their time and effort into creating.
SAVE FREE SPEECH
So many Youtubers and other content creators are being falsely accused of copyright infringements and are given zero compensation for video takedowns and the like. These people aren't breaking any rules. All they're trying to do is to create entertaining content for their viewers. Right now, the false takedowns are despicable. Harsh punishments (such as warnings and/or account deletions for the perpetrators) should be laid upon those who harass content creators that follow fair use. The makers of these videos should be left to make content that's engaging, creative, and fun, instead of being given strikes by viewers who are either unfamiliar with the community guidelines or are just harassing the creators. This entire system goes against what the internet is meant to be. All of these problems can be rectified if the proper measures are taken. Please, help the internet to thrive and remove this stain from it.
Save Fair Use.
Sincerely,
- A viewer (who is sick and tired of seeing his favourite content creators given crippling punishments for nonexistent or insignificant offences).
(Original text) Not only this, but I had plans on becoming a YouTube content creator as well. I have a friend that I know who's a YouTuber, and he's currently getting paid in cents. I have few other friends that are also YouTubers. I don't want copyright claims affect them, or anyone else for that matter. Right now, I'm afraid to make an account. If this keeps going, not only won't I become a content creator, but my favorite YouTubers will get their money stolen and their channels eventually terminated. So, please, make... this... end NOW!!!
The government is taking down videos even if they aren't copyrighted! Copyright laws are okay, but not when they are abusing the laws! We need to be able to watch videos, and they shouldn't be taken down!
Many of my favorite YouTubers have been victims of copyright abuse. I Hate Everything suffered at the hands of Derek Savage. TheMysteriousMrEnter at the hands of Blue Rocket Productions. Jim Sterling at the hands of Imminent Uprising. The Nostalgia Critic at the hands of countless others. In the words of Filthy Frank, "ITS TIME TO STOP! ITS TIME TO STOP OKAY! NO MORE. WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOUR PARENTS? WHO ARE YOUR PARENTS? I'M GOING TO CALL CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES. ITS TIME TOO STOP!"
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
This law need to be uploaded, was created in 1998, internet isnt the same thing than was in 1998, or just a month ago, we changed, just like internet, and this law is making big bussines taking down videos unfeirly, stealing money from creator, and erasing channels than even hasn´t broke any law.
To add some of my own words, after reading all this. I have to say this has ruined many things, and I just want all the bad things to be over with. Just to get it all back to normal, and protect people out there that have to deal with these idiotic situations and such.
This also needs to be applied to large non-corporate channels that make copyright claims against other Youtubers for using their footage in fair use.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisigons are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
It needs to give the copyright of content automatically to the creator, and not the ones claiming ownership.
I am never one to voice my opinion openly, (especially on le interwebs,) nor am I a content creator of any recognition; but I am a huge fan of my favorite celebrities, the Youtubers. I have always been excited to have a new video in my feed from them in my feed, and I am extremely grateful for what they do. They take the little they have and get hundreds to millions of fans and do there best to make us feel included. From my discovery of PBG and Jon Tron 5 years ago when I never thought much of youtube, to the recent discovery of Arlo. I hope the best for them and so so many more.
I won't go into the legal reasons for why the Fair Use issue has become inflated, as many have already given their arguments eloquently, and I am not as familiar with the matter, but I do know this: the DMCA has right intentions but the results have become blown over and unacceptable. There needs to be a revision. There needs to be protection for both parties; for corporate Hollywood, and the significantly smaller Youtubers and others of the like.
I agree with Douglas Walker's mention of penalizing the false ,"reporters," but so much more can be done.
Thank you for allowing us, the viewers to be heard.
Certianly in,
Jaron
The current system is structured so that content hosting companies have no incentive to advocate for content creators, and abusive companies have no incentive to cease abusive behavior. Furthermore, the lack of clear guidance means that companies can create Copyright Compliance policies that are wildly detrimental to content creators. The current system is very one-sided and the rights of content creators must be addressed
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright
holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This
system has had dire effects
on political expression,
creativity, and commercial
innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I have seen many, many people have their lives put in jeopardy because of greedy corporations who abuse the takedown system on the internet. This can't keep happening in the modern age.
The laws that were made in the late 90's are outdated and sites like Youtube weren't a thing back then. People have been copyrighted left and right for little to no reason when are using the fair use laws. It makes no sense that for people like Doug Walker, Anime America, I hate everything and even Team Four Star that they have been claimed for several videos when their is very little problem with having bad movies reviewed (Nobodys going to buy them) or talking about Anime while there clips are in the background. (We are not selling them for profit) A friend of mine's channel was completely erased with all of his content due to using clips from DBZ. However he wasn't releasing DBZ clips like most youtubers due and instead he had been working on a major project of making a whole new story while still having about 20% Original DBZ clips, the rest of them were edited in ways that it wasn't DBZ at all so it was fair use. We won't face this injustice any longer and we require the US government for this. #WTFU
I mean hell, I got a copyright strike for a song that was fair use in iMovie studios! #WTFU
The DMCA takedowns on music cannot be done under an automated process, due to the variety of use that music has. The difference between the Soundtrack of a movie, the Soundtrack of a game, a song from a personal ITunes album, or a song from a radio, are completely vast, and cannot be differentiated by a simple software or AI or not at all via automated. The use of copyrighted music in a video with the intention to add the music's flavor to your video's artwork, is a copyright issue. But when you purchase a video game, within that purchase lies the purchase of the game's soundtrack. And the game's own artwork consists of the songs the developers purchased and licensed. So when a video consists of footage from the game, including the soundtrack. That is not a copyright issue. Much like how listening to a song you purchased and sharing it with your friends on a road trip, or how movie theaters don't have to pay a different attention to the song each movie uses every time they are shown. A DMCA Takedown should only be issued when a song is being used in a variety that was not previously agreed on by the owners of it's copyright in the first place, unlike when a musician makes a deal with a game company to add it into the game, it becomes part of the game. And only a human reviewer could differentiate a video that adds a song where it previously did not exist with the intention of using the song to add to the video, while not owning the song. And differentiate from a video that features a song that is part of the video in the first place, such as a soundtrack or a background ambiance harmony, which was purchased in agreement that the owner of the game/movie now has the right to listen to it or display it in it's original unedited form.
The whole concept of "innocent until proven guilty" needs to be restored to the DMCA, because the current system is literally designed to be abused.
PS: read the Constitution one day, yeah?
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content
Thanks to the Nostalgia Critic I have enough time to put my 2 cents into this dilemma
Despite the fact that him and others that are similar are in legal territory... People still put claims on them and fuck them over.
Well I'll be damned if I didn't help these wonderful creators who give us daily entertainment. Stop this madness and this Take Down Abuse (wink)
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Please don't allow our world to be so easily controlled by the few and those who know the right people.
One of my own parody 'YTP' was also taken down in most countries by Viacom.
The censorship has become absurd. Most of the programs I watch on youtube are parody, protected by the First Amendment. And yet they have now been able to do the job they want to because of ridiculous claims by companies that are not being effected financially.
Seriously, the reviewer TheMysteriousMrEnter has had many videos illegally monetized and his channel wrongfully shut down by other companies abusing this. He put passion and hard work into those reviews, and he never deserved to be treated that way. This is wrong. You need to fix it.
Also I really like making fanart!! I don't wanna get sued for making fanart! Please!
As an additional note, the abuse of content creators has gone on for far too long. So much as a baby dancing to a song was apparently grounds for an abuse of calling copyright infringement. If that's copyright infringement, then Disney and ABC have a lot to answer for in the case of America's Funniest Home Videos. Various critics, both serious and satirical have had attempts to silence them thrown around, in an attempt for a company to damage control a situation they don't like. That's horrible misuse of the system and it needs to stop NOW.
Please fix the broken Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and update it for the present and future.
Aside from all this, many content creators are taken down for these false/very unfair copyright strikes, as an example of this, there was a youtuber, that was doing a Vlog on his courtyard, him talking to the camera, and he got a copyright claim, and got his channel taken down.
Also, the DMCA is outdated compared to what we need on TODAY'S internet, this is not 1998 anymore, people are losing thier jobs on social media such as youtube, because an unfair strike for some random thing on the video, please just, for this people's sakes and for the entertainment as well, fix this problem
As we all know, video game related content is fair use when you add your own touch to the already existing video game, some examples are Lets-plays, Walkthroughs, game reviews. Some Games Reviews may criticize the game because of how bad it is. Criticism then upsets the Developers of the game (Most of The Time Being Independent developers) and the File A Copyright Claim Against the Reviewer. The Copyright Claim its then accepted by the DMCA beacuse of its old algoritms, But The Copyright Claim is False because the Striked A Game Review, again a Game Review Being Fair Use of Content. Basically Upset People are stealing our Free Speech, its their problem of their Game is bad, not Ours.
TELL YOU TUBE TO GET IT'S SHIT TOGETHER AND FOLLOW ITS OWN BROKEN RULES, ALSO FIX SAID BROKEN RULES PLEASE
BRING BACK FREE SPEECH TO THE INTERNET.
Software automatically ignores fair use:
The DMCA is being abused through software that automatically targets any appearance in media of copyrighted material, even when the material is not infringing copyright. Free speech protections and fair use allow for many situations in which media can be used without the permission of copyright holders.
There is no penalty for abusing the DMCA:
The lack of penalty for accusing, and the automatic punishment that follows, results in DMCA notices and the automatic take-down of media being used as censorship, and to harass competitors. This also creates an imbalance, as individuals do not have the resources to defend themselves against large software-based attacks. When the targets are small media startups, often having a single person behind them, they may be faced with financial ruin.
Witch hunt:
Essentially it is like having a powerful personal enemy cry: "Witch!", and having the burden placed on you to prove your innocence or be burned.
As a regular producer of original content designed to criticize and analyze media, I can say that the rampant abuse of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act had not only limited the revenue that I can bring in, but it has also limited my ability to fully advertise my work and gain additional followers.
While this law was relevant 18 years ago, the rapid changes in the online landscape have made it little more than a cudgel used by powerful and monied interests to defend their image against criticism and fight against the inevitable change in the way that the majority of people consume media.
Far too often have I been hit with DCMA take down notices that were at best spurious and at worst cynical attempts to silence negative criticism of a product or work. Right now I have very little legal recourse to these sorts of actions that ignore Fair Use and have no merit but could succeed due to my not having the time or resources to fight it in court.
Changes to the DCMA must be made and they need to incorporate not only additional protections for content creators but also impose meaningful punishments for false DCMA claims. Otherwise this law, rather than defending creators in the way that it was originally designed, will instead stifle creativity and slow down or stop many of the changes that are improving how we communicate.
I genuinely hope that you will consider revisions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that will bring it more in line with the current digital landscape and make it once again a measure designed to protect creators from those that would abuse or break the law for their own gain.
Thank you for your time.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
This systems is outdated for today's standards. Just as we look to other civil rights to be updated to create a more fair environment, we must also look to laws such as these to create a more fair and just system. Allowing the abuse of a law due to a technicality is in fact a violation of that law and demands attention. Our justice system tells us to treat the accused as innocent until proven guilty. Everyone has a right to face their accuser. We do it in the courts. We must do the same here. Many laws are made obsolete by the passage of time, quality of life, civil liberties, as well as advancement in technology. Given that technology has changed drastically over the last 18 years, it should be very clear that change is long overdue. Do not let the unfair users abuse Fair Use to their benefit. Such actions are and should be punished in our society, not rewarded. But, unfortunately, they have been rewarded. The law in its current state will only see to reward them further. Do not let them. Show them they don't make the laws. Show them they can't manipulate the law. The future of entertainment and the internet itself hinges on the update of the Fair Use Act. Make a change. Solidify the future of free speech, expression and commerce.
The fair use system is being abused by major corporations so that creators cannot create. People create content for websites like YouTube for a living and with the DMCA being abused like it is, they can't make a living. This has to be fixed and it has to be fixed now. #WTFU
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
The DMCA needs to be updated to tye 21st century. As a result of this act, companies and individuals can falsely claim copyright with little to no risk of damages towards the claimient. However, content creators suffer lost revenue while they fight with the claimient on video upload website such as Youtube. The process can take months, resulting in lost time and revenue. Creators need to stop being treated as guilty before due process and false claims need to be held to punishments that can be doled out outside of expensive court battles.
And I'd just like to add my personal thoughts on this. The dmca does not do what it was designed to do. The only people who get hurt by this are content makers on youtube, twitch etc. It is incredibly oppressive and needs to end. This is 2016.
I shouldn't have to be afraid on what I can post. YouTube has long since made that fear come true. There are things that I want to post that are my original ideas. Now I can't, my First Amendment is being taken from me!
I can't give my own thoughts or critiques on anything.
So... a lot of my point of view comes from being an avid user of YouTube. It hurts to no end how many times a channel with original content that I watch can be taken down with flippantly filed take down notices. I ask how this practice is fair when users that use content that is not owned or licensed by the YouTube channel clearly violating someone else's material is never taken down and in fact has been rewarded with gilded trophies because of the number of subscribers? I'm talking in particular about channels such as "Nostalgia Critic" or "I Hate Everything" using clips from existing material for critique and review which is covered under fair use in the United States and United Kingdom had their channels taken down without any form of appeal from YouTube/Google Inc. Yet at the same time, the channel SoFloAntonio will post videos of other people's material and is in no way critiquing or transcending the content is happily given a trophy for the number of YouTube followers, is possibly earning an income, and is even reported as being a frontrunner for Facebook's monetization test market.
Also on an unrelated note... please stop the glorification of harassment in prank videos. This is another that is in sort of murky area of freedom of speech that people can publicly post videos of others being harassed or threatened without the person's consent. It's not just a prank, it's just disgusting and shows how far behind the law is with technology.
In closing, It's time to face the fact that cable television is a dying medium (with very few to save it anymore). There needs to be more to step in and to prevent creators who work hard and well at what they do not to have their work taken away because of a difference of opinion. It's not fair. And it's not right. Just like in the Miranda laws if a police officer is arresting a person, someone's channel being taken down should be innocent until PROVEN guilty. It has to be proven worthy of a take down by people. Not a series of yes or no questions.
(And now the same message that is on all other petitions).
A video from Kim justice on YouTube "Commodore 64 vs ZX Spectrum - The Great British Computer War - Kim Justice" was taken down by the BBC by having about 5 BBC Shows showing for about 5 Seconds each and all spread out to 5 Minutes between each other. And so he had to replace some of them with Video Game footage. Despite the fact his use of the video was completely within fair use. (Education). And the BBC is one of the biggest titans who ALWAYS abuses the DMCA. Again when most of the videos that use BBC footage always get neutered or taken down.
The DMCA was created in 1998 and is severely outdated, easily abused, and encourages people and companies to steal content and cashflow from people trying to make a living.
Many of my fave videos r being taken down and they r using fair use. the internet is changing so much that we need a revamp on laws that are to old!!!!!!!!!!
Some "creators" use this error to steal content and get more money than the original creator.
It is not 1998 anymore. I have no doubt that DMCA, like many laws, began with the best intentions. However, as it currently stands, it is being used as a weapon for corporations to control the internet. I am a person who has mostly abandoned television in favor of YouTube-based entertainment, and one of my favorite pastimes is viewing reviews, critiques, and parodies of movies, shows, and video games. These videos are well within Fair Use, and the creators of said videos are well within their rights to seek a profit from their work. The study, discussion, and parody of popular media has long been a respected profession, be it the reviews of Roger Ebert or the comedy of Saturday Night Live. The internet is merely one more platform where professional entertainers and cultural analysts can take root, however DMCA is being used to suppress them.
The internet has changed. DMCA must be changed as well.
False DMCA takedowns happen everyday and original content creators are the victims, People who's content is well within fair use are continually having to deal with false DMCA takedowns. The issue is most prominent on YouTube but also effects creators on a wide variety of platforms and websites, From a creative perspective the internet is in crisis, and the miss use of DMCA is partly to blame. People on the internet, both creators and viewers feel that the DMCA is stifling instead of fair
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music), companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
today's the day we fight back, what these people are doing is wrong and now is the time we stand up and stop it.
DMCA - a shining example of an aging government. If our government can't update laws like this in an age when webpages and messages can be updated and sent in a fraction of a second, we have truly failed.
Thank you for making us look like complete morons to the rest of the world.
This type of censorship isn't justified and needs to be changed. This needs to be put into place to keep these corporations from bullying content creators who are expressing their freedom of speech.
automating something as important as justice for people who's freedom of speech is being threatened is wrong. This process needs to be changed so that people will get proper justice when their content is unjustly threatened.
Fair use is put in jeopardy by many people. Innocent content creators who are just using fair use to its full potential have to deal with all kinds of copyright problems day in and day out. Some have to battle with scumbags who repeatedly claim videos over and over again (sometimes, the same company will make multiple accounts and claim a video over and over). Some have to battle with people who flat out bully them into having to comply. Some have to deal with their revenue getting taken by FAKE COMPANIES that claim their content. This needs to stop.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
let's end this.
These policies that once worked for the Internet of 1998 are now being use to stifle and even bully creators on channels like YouTube. As it stands, just mentioning the name of a property without any clips or pictures within the video can get a video taken down without warning. Taking a video dancing to Michael Jackson music is grounds for removal. In order for this policy to be used as originally intended and not to bully creators out of making content that entertains, it needs to change with the times and not let people make false claims against YouTube content creators.
Companies take down videos on youtube all the time falsely just to make money of every youtuber. There is these shady companies going around claiming stuff that isn't even theirs, just to make money off other people. They even take down videos and photos with nothing to claim in it, with no music. Just because there is pictures of something in videos, or even talking about something.. gets copyrighted for no reason. Pictures fans take with celebs have been taken down for no reason at all, and youtube is under constant attack for this false copyrighting. Alot of youtubers including me get there song covers copyrighted, remix's copyrighted, there movie reviews copyrighted etc.. for no reason at all. There is no room to be creative anymore and this constant false copyrighting needs to come to an end. Youtube has been a safehaven, relaxation or creativity for many people. Please help the internet not be under constant attack again, especially youtube.
This is my own thoughts on the unfair use. It makes me sick that companies and others abuse the DMCA, and even more sick that these companies actually get away with it. Justice needs to be served for the innocent.
YouTube's actions have actually hurt the business of those who abuse the system. I can name several songs, movies, and tv shows that I would not have taken any interest in if not for the reviews that are being taken down. Even the negative. This needs to stop.
Youtubers, content creators, people who feed themselves and their families by critiquing and making content all within fair use, are being abused. Any other working people would be up in arms, and be protected by the laws set in place. Youtube, and other websites are abusing the system, with dated policies and broken referral systems, which can leave companies of people without income for weeks or months at a time. wtfu.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
This obselete, unregulated practice has cost millions of dollars in lost revenue and taxes. The DMCA needs to evolve in adherence to the current times they take place in. We (the artists and content creators) are protected by the Constitution of the United States and have also developed a major economic front, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and generating billions in revenue. Changing these laws will no not only benefit us, but the world economy as a whole.
I would like to address that I make a personal videos but if easily desperate studios don't want my videos ever seen, it's not right to cater to them based solely on their fed fear.
The DMCA takedown notice is an outdated tool that is being abused, and needs to either be updated tremendusly, or removed completely.
I am not a content creator myself, but I aspire to be one. I am subscribed to many, and over the last several years, many of the channels that I was subscribed to have either have their channels shutdown completely, or had some of their content removed due to "copyright" that should have been protected under fair use. These were not obvious breaches of fair use where they were uploading stolen songs or videos from other content makers, but the content was removed just the same.
People like Jim Sterling (Jimquisition), Doug Walker (Nostalgia Critic) and Brad Jones (Cinema Snob) have all had either legal action threatened against them frivolously (Sterling) when there is no legal standing, or loss of revenue and copyright strikes put on their accounts despite being within the grounds of fair use (parody and criticism) (Walker and Jones).
The internet has grown since the late 90s when this system was made, and the system needs to either evolve or be replaced with something better. Because it isn't working. a
As a reviewer, one of those who are directly affected by this issue, I am in a unique position to protest this abuse.
My work is intended as commentary and for parody purposes, and poses absolutely no threat to the financial well being of the companies in question. To have that work continually censored and removed without anything more than baseless allegations that I am a thief, attempting to profit from others intellectual property rather than my own hard work, is both false and insulting.
Many content creators I personally take the time to watch and support online have been repeatedly harassed and negatively affected by the archaic DMCA process. The internet is a continuously changing landscape, and by adhering to this incredibly dated copyright system many individuals will have their livelihoods put in danger. Critics in particular are suffering, as they cannot make simple points about the works that they're critiquing without putting themselves in danger of losing ad revenue (and therefore their income), despite how the work that they're doing is comfortably within fair use. The system is nearly 20 years old, and the world has changed considerably since then, it's time to improve the protection for those who have found their audiences on the web. Thanks!
DMCA is broken. If an account with 2 million subscribers can get taken down, then no one is safe. Just imagine, what about the hundreds of creators that are less well-known and never will be known simply because someone can use false claims to bring down an account. And the worst part is even when you do fix the claims through a lengthy process that can take up to months, what is stopping these false claims to happen again a second later? In the end, no one is being punished but the content creator.
Fair use is real and it is being abused. Major companies act like it does not exist, only for them to maintain control and power over the media. Fair use can help spread word of that companies product, allowing others to check out the original source material for the full price. This is an opportunity for companies products to be shared and recognized with their audience. By censoring people to use source material, it prevents companies products to receive the attention it needs for a profit, since people are slowly turning away from T.V and on to the internet. The people of major media companies should realize their actions and join forces with the internet in order to keep up with the times and continue to make a profit.
Allow me to begin by saying simply, the DMCA is utterly broken in every way conceivable. For years, people within Fair Use making content have been unlawfully censored and there needs to be a stop to it. Companies are asked to take Fair Use into consideration before taking down the video, but why would they if there is no penalty for doing so? There needs to be some/any kind of repercussion for filing false claims. There exists third party companies that exist only to abuse the DMCA to get free STOLEN ad revenue. One is literally called "AdRevForA3rdParty".
Please, if you take anything out of this message, if you take anything out of any of these messages, please remember that people have had their livelihoods jeopardized by these invade DMCA take-downs, and something must be done.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
DMCA abuse has run rampant, and has struck many of the YouTube channels I regularly watch. These channels produce content that clearly falls under fair use, and yet they receive copyright strikes from companies. These companies aren't trying to protect their property. They are trying to make a quick buck off of the products of content creators and/or stifle and silence them. This is unforgivable, and this DMCA abuse needs to end. I've seen copyright claims made for reasons that are clearly falsified. For example, the channel I Hate Everything was struck with a copyright strike on one of his videos for allegedly using a song in one of his videos, even though the song in question was clearly not played at all in the video. It's not just I Hate Everything either. Many other channels have to deal with this DMCA abuse. Channel Awesome and TheMysteriousMrEnter come to mind. Channel Awesome, run by Doug Walker Aka Nostalgia Critic, has been uploading reviews of movies without showing any footage from said movies because of the threat of DMCA abuse, even though if he showed footage it would fall under fair use. I will finish this comment with one final question. Where's the fair use?
My name is Dillon, and I am a content creator on a multitude of platforms and an avid viewer of YouTube content creators. I believe that the DMCA allows any platform too much power against our right under fair use. Copyright claims affect not only entertainment, but the livelyhood of these creators who's only income is what they make on the internet. Making entertaining content is difficult enough as it is without worrying about walking on eggshells to not upset YouTube or SoundCloud's algorithm and result in loss of wages.
I personally don't upload content very much anymore because I am afraid of losing my work to a copyright claim due to a sample in my music, even if I properly cite the source of the sample. Fair use is only violated when it is deemed that whatever copyrighted piece your using is the main attraction of you art, video, song, etc; NOT that it happens to be in said work.
Please, stop the DMCA takedowns that do nothing else but protect the interest of the claim holder at the trade off of another's free speech and income.
Hello. My name is Matthew, but I go by the user tag princealigorna on Youtube. I personally have not been targeted for a DMCA takedown, but I know many content creators that have. I a member of the "Bronalysis" community on the site. We are a group of fan critics that review and analyze the current generation of My Little Pony cartoons. Aside from maybe thinking we're the smartest guys in the room, we're probably the least offensive people you'll come across on Youtube. We're just fans trying to provide commentary and discussion on a show we love dearly. But ever since I joined the community in 2013, we've been under attack. Why? Because most of us use clips from the show to illustrate our points better, in the same style that say Roger Ebert did when doing his show. Now, a lot of the time it's not the DMCA being used against us, but Youtube's internal copyright match system, which is completely devoid of any human element at all and is entirely based on an algorithm, which is itself extremely problematic. But sometimes, especially for those of us that have branched out beyond MLP into reviewing other media, DMCA has been used against us, and in the most malicious and underhanded of ways. For example, a reviewer by the name of John Enter (MysteriousMrEnter) is currently being harassed by a broadcasting company in Australia for a review he did for his Animated Atrocities series (basically, reviewing the worst of the worst cartoons ever made). And by harassed, I mean they've tried to remove the video 3 times. First, the production company tried. He counterclaimed, and it was restored. Then the broadcasting company tried, while also sending him and email in which they claimed that American copyright laws don't apply to their property since it's an Australian property...even though YOUTUBE IS A SITE HOSTED IN THE US, and even if it weren't, AUSTRALIAN LAW INCLUDES MANY OF THE SAME COPYRIGHT EXCEPTIONS AS US LAW! It's at this point that Mr. Enter made a video publicly calling them out for that letter, after issuing another counterclaim and having the video restored a second time. AS HE WAS MAKING THAT VIDEO, this broadcasting company used a shell company to try to issue ANOTHER CLAIM AGAINST THE VIDEO!
And this right here is the major flaw of the DMCA claim system. Anyone can make a claim against anyone, at any time, for any reason. Broadcasting companies do not own the copyright for the products they air. Production companies or record labels or artists themselves own those copyrights. Broadcasters are simply distributors. Distributors should have no right to file a claim against anyone.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. People who have used no copyrighted material at all in their videos...that have done just simple personal vlogs...have had DMCA's issued against them...
Hell, another Youtuber I know, that goes by the name Mindlessgonzo, had a claim filed against one of the videos on one of his side channels that contains an FAA air traffic control recording from 9/11. The person who filed the claim happens to have made a 9/11 tribute album, and for one of the songs, he used this recording as a sample that he transposed over a personal cello piece. But this recording is part of the public record. There is no copyright protection on it. At all.
And these are just two of the stories I could tell, but I don't know all of them. All I know is the DMCA is being used to screw my friends over, for the most petty of reasons. It's time this law got a serious overhaul.
Fairness has frequently been abused. As an artist, I have posted fanart from which I did not profit online only to have it taken down days later by someone who didn't even have any stake in the matter. The true creator was credited for the work, but that did not stop someone from claiming to be the creator and demanding the work be removed. The actual creator, when confronted about this, stated that he was not the one who instigated this at all.
The internet is for everyone, regardless of who they are. However, people have been taking advantage of things and abusing things. Laws must change if innocent people are not to be dragged through the mud.
The DMCA is being abused. It is being used to stifle free speech, and steal money from creators among other things.
Please, please, please update the laws so that they protect the independent content creators as well as the copyright holders.
The content that has been targeted by certain copyright holders are the true jobs of the artists, creators, and employees creating it. With the fear of abuse from large businesses and corporations, small entrepreneurs are not being allowed to grow. These new artists and their evolving industries allow for more jobs, and cultural enrichment. A lot of the content (automatically and without trial) taken down is legal, and operates with in the law.
Please update these laws so that these law-abiding artists can produce their art without fear of abuse from large corporations and businesses.
Hello my name is Edward Boulton and I've been a part of the internet community for going on 8 years now or so. As I journey into adulthood I know my entertainment and the people who create it will be at serious risk of being censored and harassed. both hateful bigots and greedy companies have already endangered thousands of people's livelihoods, businesses, and passion projects though false DMCA takedown notices. They have censored criticism and even stole the ad revenue from videos as simple as two people sitting in front of a camera and talking. It is an horrible abused system that has run rampant on sites such as YouTube where it has even been used as a threat to intimidate content creators in a multitude of ways. Theses laws have given big business all the power while leaving the artist next to no recourse to stop the avalanches of claims on videos which obviously fall under the blanket of fair use and parody. It's been an ongoing problem for many years due to how much the internet has radically changed since theses laws were put into place in 1998 the year of my birth. They have existed my whole life and have proven to be an utter failure in upholding any kind justices or partiality for this new age of technology. With no punishment to theses false claims they will continue to be used to censor and steal ad revenue far into the future. So please I ask you to review theses outdated laws so that I may enjoy a stable and productive internet as I enter into adulthood the most challenging part of my life. Thank you and god bless.
The lack of fair use on the internet has made me, a singer, faced copyright claims for using instrumental music (which falls under fair use) and even for my original music. This needs to be sorted if musicians like me can hope to monetize on out own videos.
The company that claimed to own the music was a fake company that falsely identified the song, and prevent me from any profit I could have made.
The sometimes impossible battles that some people face on the internet when fighting these copyright claims or strikes are ridiculous. People are being silenced and harassed by claimants who abuse the copyright system. This needs to change.
I am someone who enjoys watching YouTube. This community means a lot to me, so by the time I learned that videos and channels are being taken down for unfair reasons, despite the videos being fair use. I couldn't tolerate this sort of act one bit. It's dumb how a strike prevents you from defending yourself against claims for six months. Content creators should have the right to defend themselves from claims no matter what. It is also infuriating how copyright holders keep the money made from the video they claimed, even if the claim is proven false they still keep the money and aren't punished for making false claims. The copyright holder shouldn't keep the money made from the video after the claim is proven false, because they are being rewarded for lying. The copyright holder should be punished for charging the false claims. The fact that copyright holders easily have the tools to make these false claims, proves that the YouTube fair use system is designed to be abused by these people. They don't have to present evidence to prove their case, so they can easily make false claims without having to worry about a thing. They should have to prove their case with actual evidence before the claim is made. Taking down a video review of a game or movie just because it was negative and because it used clips of the material, is a great Violation of freedom of speech. These copyright holders should be punished for violating the freedom of speech, not the content creators who are expressing this freedom.
The business generation has failed, oversight is something that can't be unmanned, and allow the power hungry to dictate how everyone should live, while being allowed to police themselves. Olygarchys are factories of human suffering and escapism at best. Abuse of power needs rules to keep it in check.
We cannot afford to lose self expression. If we focus on control and abolish self expression, then what is the point of humanity anyway? If that is your case, then we will become nothing more than savages.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I am a content creator for Youtube and Tumblr, and although I have never had a video taken down, I fear for fraudulent Copyright takedowns if I continue to create content on Youtube. This process will/has irreparably damaged many people and I fear that hearing the news about what happens to people because of these claims will steer away new generations of creators and will eventually cause the downfall of Youtube, much like what has been happening with DeviantArt and their ridiculous Art Theft regulations (or lack thereof).
I agree wholeheartedly with the following
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The victims can be targeted even if they do not use a second of copyrighted footage.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
My YouTube Channel was completly removed, even when two strikes used material under Fair Use (parodies).
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC3NIdiZF_E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFlgx2LTdeY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ez9wlDIb3Q
These put it all more eloquently than I could. but in short, the system is flawed, can be abused, and is regularly abused. It is possible to make money at zero consequence by issuing a claim and having the claim determined to be completely false. That is unacceptable.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
There is no consequence for false accusations. At all. Or if there is , it is so small as to be swept right under a rug with money and forgotten about. People make claims on content they do not own, on content that meets fair use standards, or just because they can because they can make a small profit from the monitization. Many You Tubers are victims of companies misusing the DMCA rules and are bullying content creators into submission. There is blatant unconstitutional actions being made against people right now and it needs to stop.
Change the DMCA. it needs to be remade to a moderns standard, as the rules defining it are not made for the internet as it is now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8 here is the video that led me to the site. The you-tuber in the video was a victim of the current DMCA copyright rules, and he should not have been.
The other big problem it the unequal treatment of you-tubers as well. larger you-tubers are not touched because of the power they could wield against YouTube, but any other less known person using the site is fair game for unconstitutional treatment.
I hope that the DMCA is made to change for the better, otherwise, you will likely have the largest movement against any harmful/stupid movements since the 1950s.
Copyright abuse is out of control on the internet. It needs to be updated to suit 2016
The DMCA has been abusive. There has to he.accountability for those.that make false claims.and I am talking monetary compensation for false dmca. Dmca not.being allowed.to.be done randomly.
This world is full by idiots who think they created the interview format or who dont care about the spirit of law. This law voted in to protect the right is now being abused. Remove it. Fix it.
(The rest is automated.)
As stated below, this is a giant issue. We just got done with an economic recession caused the lack of human oversight. Robo signing helped caused the most recent economic depression, so why are we letting robo signing impact people who make a living off user-created content?
If we need laws, it should be laws the make it mandatory for any take down notice to have HARD evidence as to copyright infringement not just some vague information. take down notices impact both individuals and companies. In some cases, companies like an idea that somebody created and discussed on youtube, gofundme, indigogo, or other social media site, and instead of negotiated with said individual they are sending a Take-Down notice to this person to take away this person's idea. How is this LEGAL!?!
I've seen too many times content providers I enjoy have had their content taken down by people falsely claiming ownership of their content and I am tired of it. Currently one of my favorite media critics, Jim Sterling, is going to court over his videos criticizing a company called "Digital Homicide" for their low quality software and this process started with a DMCA claim on his videos where he showcased bugs in their software, its low quality, and its inability to function as advertised.
On top of that, one of my favorite YT series - DBZA by TeamFourStar and Hellsing Ultimate Abridged by the same creators - has been taken down multiple times, by false and unfair DMCA claims. This law is just terrible and is harming these creators, on top of multitudes of others that I know, and do not know of.
The DMCA is atrocious.
Numerous YouTube channels (such as I Hate Everything and Channel Awesome) have been falsely accused of copyright, when such content is clearly under Fair Use. Certain cases have even taken down channels, completely liquifying entire work of rightful content-creators in an instant.
Even worse, certain individuals have taken advantage of this broken system. In order to steal revenue, people falsely claim copyright on completely innocent channels, which have little to no defense against them.
For years, I have loved and enjoyed the content of hard-working channels on YouTube. With the DMCA in place, these content-creators are unrightfully restricted and threatened by a broken system. For the sake of a just and rightful internet, please make change.
-Bryce Washburn
Listen well, or rather, read well, whoever is reading this. The entire purpose of the DMCA was to prevent copyright abuse and infringement of said copyright. When you upload a movie online, that is copyright infringement, and it deserves to be removed, everyone can agree to that. But the problem starts to occur when it's no longer just movies, when you have an entire network of videos - brand new content, reviews, parodies, etc. Because of this law and how it affects pretty much all content that contain any form of copyrighted material, this leads to a problem when copyright holders can issue a takedown to anything that they believe infringes their copyright.
First, people don't get any form of penalty for submitting copyright that is either incorrect, or downright false - in order for order to exist on the Internet, penalties, restrictions, bans, and even prosecutions have to be present. Second, there is a clear misunderstanding of the law itself - fair use is entirely ignored, and because of that, it's perfectly acceptable to take down a video containing copyrighted content even if it entirely respects the fair use law. Finally, and most importantly, the entire process is CHAOS. Anyone can submit multiple claims even if they are rejected, anyone can just randomly accuse someone and get away with it, anyone can act as a middleman and use the tool as the copyright holder to accuse someone, and to add to all of that, the process is extremely simple to do, so anyone could do a copyright takedown.
Although I am using Youtube as the main reference, and I am not a lawyer, I deeply hope you understand this and that I'm not writing this for nothing. Thank you.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 is a barrier to entry for new content creators who may want to create works for mediums like YouTube, Vimeo or Dailymotion but fear their work will be taken either by a large business with a vested interest in limiting its competition or by fellow users of a website who feel a particular viewpoint is too controversial or isn't in line with the majority's beliefs. I will not invest in camera equipment, audio equipment, editing software, and time into content creation because the risk of losing it all is far too great. As the years go by people are going to create more content and it needs to be better protected by the signatories to WIPO Copyright/Performances and Phonograms Treaty, video-hosting sites like YouTube, users and officials.
Sincerely,
Alexandria Anderson
Also I have to add that it is unjust to have a law that the majority must follow when it is made by the minority, especially when the majority must face serious consequences, while the minority suffers nothing.
What is going on is extremely unfair and not only affects the creators, it affects the viewers as well. We like and support the people we watch and don't want to see them get false claims that could harm them greatly. It's unfair and something has to be done. I'm in.
Just because life isn't fair, doesn't mean DMCA should stay unchanged.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. People have been bullied for apologies on videos where they are simply stating their own opinons about movies and TV Shows. Their right to free speech is being violated. This kind of damage can not be undone.
YouTube is shit rn because of this stuff
Fuck the Companies .I.
As a fan of Channel Awesome, I've seen particular instances of videos taken down for no other reason than disputed claims that have no weight. The process by which one can make a claim is unbalanced compared towhat it takes to fight the claim, especially when often the accusee has to wait for days upon days to learn why their video was taken down. The DMCA needs to be updated to better account for the changes to the Internet and create a balance by which false claims can be penalized strictly if made.
The DMCA does not work for those who need it. One of the most vital changes needed is a penalty for those who make false claims. As of now, one can falsely claim material without fearing any reprecussion.
Mi opinion es que el sistema esta llena de fallas y necesita ser revisada para las necesidades de hoy en dia .
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright lders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The DMCA is violating our rights to our freedom of what we believe in our works.
Please, protect our rights!
To start, my channel has been affected by this, as a small clip of audio I mean not the whole sound bite, from a game I was playing ended up getting flagged, though this was in my mind not much of a big deal. However Larger channels that I watch such as Channel Awesome, and Matthias have done some really great pieces of their own original works, and reviews that not just I enjoy, but also my friends and they have been heavily affected by DMCA to the point where even doing heavy modifications of their work to the point of being a completely new thing didn't help them avoid being flagged as not their content. This caused them to stop creating some of those amazing videos all together due to the frustration of having the possibility of being banned by YouTube. Why do they have to stop creating original content for everyone to enjoy such as my friends and I because of the broken DMCA System?
Time to get personal: For me, all I'm asking is that the DMCA be updated fairly. In this case, no one can claim content unfairly and such a law isn't abused any longer. I bet hundreds upon hundreds of people mention on how people abuse them so I won't get into that.
The DMCA Is broken in today's standards of media content it has hindered independent workers and YouTubers in the way that any major company can file a DMCA Take down notice with little to no impact on the company only because they don't like and or have a grudge with the person that is making their own media this goes far beyond copyright infringement and straight into bullying the DMCA is broken in these ways and will continue to be abused until it is fixed please do something to fix this because it is an abusive system.
If a company issues a DMCA Take down notice against a Youtuber or any other media source they will take small workers money and be able to claim that money with no impact to their own standings and or wealth even if the claim is proven to be false there will always be loopholes for companys to exploit but you can make those loopholes tighter and more harder to exploit punish those who bend the rules because if they can do it why cant the rest of america just because they have more money then most people is a disgusting and shameful cop-out and one I am hesitant to say most major company's use too often so if you do wish to help in anyway shape or form make sure you actually take into account all of those small independent workers just trying to make a living doing what they love to do the most
We need freedom of speech
I'm a content creator and viewer, with the way that the DMCA is set up, I'm afraid to create new content and fear for the creators I watch. This is due to the fact that corporations use the DMCA as a weapon against free speech and basically creativity. The DMCA, in it's current form is outdated. Fair use isn't being upheld and is even being ignored the longer the DMCA remains the same. Youtube, for many, is a way of paying the bills and making a living.
With how broad the DMCA is, copyright strikes keep creators who do parody, review, reference humour or cover songs from doing what they do. There're multiple companies that abuse the DMCA so that they can silence any opposing opinions. The DMCA has allowed the entertainment business into a cruel dictatorship with the corperations ruling with an iron fist.
DMCA has been misused greatly as of late. Youtube videos have been taken down when there has been no reason. Like when someone sits and talks about a movie or TV show, or does a review. People have been making claims on content that they don't even own! Videos are taken down, channels have been suspended unexpectedly, and usually for no good reason. It takes a very long time for Youtubers to even get a response, and sometimes they don't even get their channels back. How is this fair for people who have done nothing wrong? Whatever happened to free speech?
Antes de dejar en mensaje en ingles que viene por defecto quiero decir unas cosas, la ley de el uso justo ya no es justa, la regla esta adaptada para el internet del pasado, en estos tiempos necesita ser renovada ya que muchas compañias se aprovechan de los fallos de esta ley, tirando abajo videos en youtube que nisiquiera muestran ningún contenido, solo personas hablando en un auto, un youtuber llamado Doug Walter tiene un video en su canal Channel Awesome donde da a conocer muchos de los problemas de esta regla y da algunos ejemplos de videos que han sido apelados cuando estan en su total derecho por la ley, el sistema esta a favor de grandes empresas que no reciben ningún tipo de castigo en caso de estar mal, incluso pueden quedarse el dinero monetizado de un video aunque el reclamo sea falso. Espero que esto ayude en esta lucha para cambiar la ley de uso justo #WTFU
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political yexpression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Copyright itself is a sanction that needs to be in place, but the way in which it is protected needs massive revision to protect the future of free expression.
As a small content creator I am constantly afraid of getting a copy right strike since I won't be able to recover since I don't have any fans.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violaTions and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
It is stated in the bill of rights the freedom of speech. However, I believe that, thanks to the DMCA, YouTube creators and so many other people are being hit with copyright strikes on items that are in fair use, and companies are abusing said DMCA to prevent honest to god people from making money. This goes against the bill of rights. This is unconstitutional.
Hard working people who make videos (particularly on YouTube) are literally having their money and work stolen by companies claiming the work as their own, abusing a system that has no excuse to be as broken as it is.
I've seen a video that was two people reviewing a movie in their car, there was no music, no footage from the film, but it still got a copyright claim despite being nothing but those two people.
These laws need to be updated to protect people's rights.
Please, don't take away our rights to fair use. The Internet is an awesome place, and myself and many others hope for it to stay that way.
I'm an artist myself, I do digital artwork. As it stands right now, anyone can file a DMCA on my hard work and get it removed. I, and MANY of my friends who have gone through art theft and false takedowns in the past, live off the little profit I get from my art. If someone takes issue with my most popular drawing and DMCA's it, they get nothing bad to happen to them and I lose hundreds, thousands of views and people who liked that piece of art can no longer find me. People can steal MY intellectual property and DMCA my work, claiming they now own it, with nothing bad happening to them and all the bad coming back onto me.
This system is dated, it needs to be fixed. People need to be punished for abusing it, and it needs to be much fairer to the lonely artist or whoever that's still falling within their rights.
This latest debacle with the Nostalgia Critic marks the third time that a false claim as negatively impacted a content creator I am a fan of. The three incidents (Captainsparkles, Venom Sans, and The Nostalgia Critic) have prompted me to leave my figurative cave to stop by and say the current system for claiming copyright-protected content is immensely flawed. Luckily, this third time coincides with a chance to say something.
The three previously mentioned content creators by all rights ought to be in the clear- Original content, terribly constructed parody and reviews are (or in one case, were) their specialties- modification to existing sources creating a large margin of difference or entirely new creations with no connection to other media other than the circumstantial. Two of the three decided to play along with the existing infrastructure, despite the inherent difficulty. The third abandoned YouTube entirely, going to another video hosting site in the digital equivalent an exasperated huff.
The long and short of it is, I'm tired of the false claims putting a damper on my day, and many others are too. The sudden swarm of similar messages, likely with the same default text that will follow this last paragraph of mine, will attest to that. The end result is not simply some people not getting their daily cat video fix- people that we've grown strangely connected to are sometimes forced to close up shop and return to the "real world" because of this faulty system. Hopefully one of us can get through with these... Anyhow, back to the default text below. It seems to be accurate- I wouldn't let false information into something of mine if I could stop it. So please, good people outside these digital walls... give it some thought.
The current DMCA takedown procedures seem to be basically "Guilty until proven innocent"
As an enjoyer of parodies and reviews, and as a person with very strong opinions, I am solidly of a mind that Fair Use is of the utmost import to defend.
The DMCA has completely failed to protect content creators or enforce fair use laws. It has been consistently abused by both copyright holders, and third parties simply wishing a video to be taken down.
One only needs to look at the current legal battle between Jim Sterling and Digital Homicied, the developer of the game The Slaughtering Grounds, who initially reacted to Sterling's criticism of his game with making a claim using the DMCA. This is just the latest developer who has abused the DMCA to stifle criticism of their game, and maybe large game publishers, music labels, and movie publishers abuse this system to stop anything they make from being used under fair speech.
We need new laws and regulations, and the archaic DMCA takedowns need to end.
The law needs to be updated to fit the modern way content is created and shared.
I believe we've reached a new era of content creation, where this sort of restrictions should be much more flexible. Even me, an independent animator that sometimes uses Royalty Free Music, have been accused of stealing content from others and thus have lost weeks of earnings until my inpugnation was responded.
I believe we must either set new rules (more flexible ones) about fair use, because if we think it's fair that some corporations make unfair claims stating something is theirs and they receive money until they're proven wrong, then there's something really messed up in how we all think.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works
I've seen it before many people having their videos taken down for no good reason and just because people actually like Jerks or they own something the other person used and I'm sick of it. Please do something about this
I've had two false claims one of my videos where it was just my character on screen and me talking behind.
I lost two mounts of revenue from those false.
People who do false calms should be penalized for their actions.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright abusers who seek to shut down legitimate competition, silence criticism, and extract money from innocent victims.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system, and there are numerous ways to achieve this. First of all, computer algorithms shouldn't be designed to implement punishments against supposed copyright infringement immediately. A grace period is to be required to allow defendants to respond. Secondly, any monetary gain that is to come from works that supposedly infringe copyright should not be instantly given to prosecutors. Last but possibly most important, statutory damages need to be imposed for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. Just look at I hate everything and Derrick savage's cool cat saves the kids, not only the most well known, but also the biggest, doug walker's studio " the league of super critics", a fairly large company, considering the fact that their form of media is mainly you tube, the misterious mr. Enter, and his animated atrocities, a close friend of mine, mlp lightning speed, may be a victim soon, let's players ( a HUGE YouTube population) have gotten attacked species wide by Nintendo, YouTube poopers, a nearly extinct race of youtuber, are scared of false copyright claims, if emplemon is any example, as he was so scared, he changed the Simpsons color to green, (as well as "it's never ogre" despite the fact that shrek is more MLG territory). In all, this system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Exactly as it is written above, I don't want creative and legitimate content to be unfairly harassed and abused due to a lack of proper updates to the DMCA. Thank you for your time.
Much of my own content and that of other content creators have been falsely taken down by abusing the system set by the DMCA.
The rules no longer fit today's Internet, and it is too easy to have someone else's videos falsely accused of copyright infringement without any kind of repercussions to the accuser.
In the short time that I have become seriously involved with YouTube i have seen countless videos taken down with little to no legitimate claim. I mean when you punish some one who broke almost no rules and give him or her no way to fight back while other people do break the rules and are free to do so seems ridiculous and unfair. Not to mention the big corporations that are harassing creators some no older than 25 just because they played a song for a short while or they made fun of a movie.I have even seen a video that was striked for copyright for the use of shoes! SHOES!!! If that is not a sign of incompetence and buffoonery i don not know what is. Furthermore, it is a clear abuse of fair use.
#SaveJPop
#WTFU
Please let me own that what I buy and protect the right of people to create creatively valid derivative works.
The DMCA is treating copyright in an unfair and un proper way. They are using it to make sure the public does not hear anything negative most of the time about the films that receive criticism from people on You Tube. They should use copyright for the crimes that deserve it, such as piracy. I know all of this to be true since I am a retired critic.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Please change this!!
Although I am not an American citizen, the DMCA law has placed a terrible effect on all people who use American services, specifically on the internet. While the law may have been effective during the late 1990's, it is no longer reasonable to apply it today. Today, we are beginning to switch to online services in a similar fashion to how many people switched from the radio to the television. Contrary to what was originally believed, it did not cause catastrophe, but instead it caused a revolution of technology and entertainment.
The internet at the turn of the millennium did not have a lot of services like it does today. As stated above, the law was effective at a time where many sites would be used for piracy. However, today most sites are composed of original content.
Today, this law is not used to protect piracy, but instead used to make money off of the content made by smaller creators, as well to claim libel against those who are innocent. Many websites, specifically video sharing sites, have systems imposed to follow the DMCA. However, as not only are the systems broken but the law itself, companies are allowed to automatically (using a system designed to find keywords related to their products) file DMCA claims and, if they do not take the video down, they claim it as their own and make any profits from the video. There are also groups of people who take down videos of, for example, reviews that give a negative reception to their product. There are even people that claim videos and earn the profits of content they have no involvement in whatsoever.
The examples used above are not just common; these are issues that content creators have to face EVERY DAY. These claims, while sometimes are used legitimately, are mostly violations to the laws related to Fair Use. So now, not only are the content creators getting claims, but they are literally getting robbed. The companies that do that to content creators rob them (via claims), cut off their freedom of speech (via takedowns), and threaten/bully them (via threats of court action). The situation is so bad, there are companies from other countries that are trying to claim that they can sue using their laws, even if the source website is from the United States.
It is about time that this law is looked at and changed. Most people do make money using some system involving the internet. This is no longer 1999, this is 2016, about 17 years after the law was created. Yet, we have achieved many milestones in technology that could not even be conceived back then. All this law does is harm technological progression and makes every other nation develop beyond what is being limited. It is about time that things change in favor of everybody, not just the corporations. Thank you.
Hello I am a struggling artist who is currently working on projects in college, my time is limited before the deadlines and even I wish to dedicate this time to say, "Where's the Fair Use."
It's true I do not a have a Youtube channel, in fact I don't have any videos at all, but still I believe any form of fair use should be used fairly. If there are people who wish to have a career or a hobby in making videos, and those videos involve using clips or using names from other places, should be allowed to be used if they note the disclaimers and present copyright permission. If these people use certain footage of clips from movies, TV shows, games, news, memes, gifs, other Youtube channels, etc. They should be allowed to use it if it’s used properly and mentioned in a way that is saying they’re using it for the sake of education, entertainment, critiquing, etc. anmd giving credit to the sources and corporations they received it from. People rely on using certain clips or using footage to help present their work and they can’t use it, then there’s no point in doing anything.As long as we use it properly than we have the right to use it. A movie reviewer should have the right to use clips from the movie he/she is reviewing, an animator should animate whatever he wants to criticize or parody, a let’s player should use the footage he took of the game he’s playing. All of which without having the threat of having his/her videos being removed or channel being taken down.
Hell there was even a video taken down about three people reviewing a movie, and all they did was have footage of themselves in their own car and telling what they thought about the movie.People like them even need a website like Youtube to get noticed and share their work with the world.If Youtube continues to do this, then there is no right for free speech. For them to take away rights to use any video privilege and taking down channels for such simple and ridiculous reasons, not only is that not fair, not only is that fascist, it’s just down right un-American.
P.S. People should be handled by people, not robots.
Hello. I am BlurReflex.
https://www.youtube.com/user/BlurReflex
I make short confusing little videos that don't mean much to the internet at all. (4 views, 33 max)
Anyway, despite my glaring unpopularity with the masses, a few people felt that they should monetize (make money off of legally) music that I felt was open source but was the point of the video anyway. Even if I had violated the DMCA, the very fact that a claimant ACTUALLY Monetized off of it? What's the point!?
I am BlurReflex, Iv’e been making like, 1 or so videos for the past 5 years or so, and until now, I have never had problems with copyright enforcement on Youtube until this past year. My videos suck, and I only made them with a zero budget because I was trying to have fun and get a laugh out. But -get this- my videos are not only reported to Youtube, BUT MONETIZED BY THE CLAIMANT!
Exactly, and you DID hear that right. Someone out there is so scared that they MONETIZED my crap videos… what could they possibly be making off of them? It’s insane! Just #WTFYOUTUBE I mean #WTFU
Please make content possible again
People are using automated programs to make false claims to milk money/revenue off of advertisement of content they did not create and are using the DMCA rules to get away with it, as the process to counter claim takes forever. How some websites are set up, said content is either locked, or the revenue of said content is sent to those who make the false claim until a counter claim finally goes through and proves the false claim wrong, and there are no rules/punishment towards those who make false claims... there are literally business on the internet "Building" and profiting off false claims.
Companies take down Movie, TV and Game reviews which easily fall under Fair Use, often for using a few seconds of music, or seconds of footage of a film, TV show and at times even a game. Using the DMCA to silence Criticism.
Certain YouTube users break Copyright Law, send false claims, harass people, and most users are being harmed by the current DMCA, which was created in 1998 for the contemporary internet of that time period, fast forward 16 whole years and it was, is and will be abused by many people, corporations, etc. Some YouTubers are being abused by this system and the lack of help from anyone at Google made it more tedious to deal with, even if there are logical counterclaims, companies reinstate claims anyway because they are not punished, imagine if in baseball, you get restricted for every strike, that is what the DMCA is in 2016, something that needs to be updated for the rest of the internet.
People are using this to attack others, using it on people who aren't even using other's content to shut down their content for no reason.
Hello. My name is Gil Budar-Danoff (pronounced beau-dar Dan-off). I am a fan of the Nostalgia Critic's, and enjoy watching his content. Whenever I see a video of his removed for containing images of the film, I am upset. Because of these unfair exploitations made by companies, several channels lose money, videos, or their own channels. Sometimes, it is just, as those images were stolen for profit. But other times, they are channels trying to make a living for themselves, yet these companies take that away from them. I myself am a budding youtuber, hoping to expand my channel into something greater. But if these unfair changes continue, not just my channel, but ALL channels shall be in danger of being shut down. So please, stop these companies, and let us create content without having to check the rule book every other second. This is The Animator G, signing out.
Please fix this system. I've been hit multiple times as a content creator, and it's becoming hard to put up with this.
Might I also add personally that if this works that I will officially forgive the American Government for things like the bay of pigs invasion and the whole attacking Canada in the war of 1812 thing. That wasn't cool, but I will absolutely forgive that.
DMCA is abused and is ruining the internet.
It's time to bring the Internet back to the people, those who made it with our views and our time. I'm in!
Even I, just a small YouTuber with less than 1,000 subscribers, have still had another person successfully attempt to monetise my content, which is protected by fair use, when said person did not create the content, nor was he in any way an owner of the game I was playing. I had to wait the full 29 days after revoking the claim before my own monetisation could continue. Having seen the affect these claims have on full-time YouTubers, it must change.
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Yes, even a guy from Romania goes out of his way to sent a comment to the American Government. This stuff needs to be fixed.
In other words, it's garbage.
They also steal money because the one who strikes then gets all the money while your video is taken down. Money is actually being stolen here please do something and help these people so they don't have to live in fear for one day they open there channel and see it was deleted forever. Just because some one who has little to nothing to do with the movie steals the revenue. And they don't show the whole movie like some other channels. It only shows bits and pieces he'll even the trailer, which is open to the public, is being taken diwn. We beg you to put your guys foot down and actually put them in there place. So like if some one gets copy right strikes then they will show up in court and the money goes to the person who actually follows all guide lines to fare use. So thar is a resolution they talk about it briefly and everything is fair grounded.
I am a small content creator who just makes videos on YouTube. One day I received a copyright strike on my channel saying I used copyrighted material. And it was music, but the problem is it was the default music for i Movie. When creating a trailer, you are given a song to be in you trailer and no option to take it out. I had no idea this was consequential in any shape or form, especially since it was default and unchangeable. I also had videos flagged for no reason, unless Minecraft is violent or has nudity. It's like people know this and what will happen to me so they flag the video. The limitations were that I couldn't upload videos longer than 15 minuetes and no custom thumbnails
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is super-dang biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Please,this is very important. This affects our future and the way humans around the world communicate with one another. They won't stop unless this happens, since they basically have a monopoly on the entire system. They are threatening people, messing with peoples livelyhoods, taking down videos and content not because it's infringing on anything, but because they can. And who is going to stop them? Who is going to end our forced silence and lack of even the most basic human rights? You, hopefully.
It is also a horribly broken system that can be abused even when the copyright issues are already resolved since there is no restrictions of limiting the amounts of copyright claims on any kind of content. This means that the content can have numerous copyright claims even after being cleared from any sort of disparities between what's considered fair use or not. As a result, there is, unfortunately, no consequences towards the individuals or companies that create false copyright claims that can damage any content including if it is protected by fair use. Actually, even if the content doesn't use any copyright material, it can still be taken down without remorse nor a valid reason. There should be a stricter system to protect the individual's content from being attacked and abused by the copyright system randomly. We are in an age that doesn't tolerate being forced to silence our opinions nor being targeted by people who cannot accept our beliefs. We cannot live in an age that we cannot speak our minds if it would result into our livelihoods being destroyed all together. If this continues, it could start into a revolution where both sides could potentially end in terrible results. I want to live in a world that is open to new beliefs, not in a world that is forced to believe in opinions that won't benefit everyone. Please, for the present and the future, protect the Fair Use act so that we can live in a world that we can express our opinions without any complications.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for illegitimately taking advantage of legal penalties.
This system is hurting content creators. There is no account for freedom of speech or fair usage. Copyright Holder's file claims for people just talking about a certain product. There DMCA doesn't hold false claims accountable and even hurts people's finical lively hood.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
As an architect, I value the protections that the Copyright system provides to artists and creators of content. The problem, is that companies like Disney have extended the copyright term to an unreasonable number of years, to protect such things as Steamboat Willie, the famous cartoon of Mickey Mouse.
Also, corporations seem to be against any kind fair use a citizen wants to exercise. Whether it be educational, parody, research or review purposes, anything that interferes with profit, they want to destroy. And, who are the losers if these corporations get their way? Well, regular consumers, citizens, that want to save a little money here and there. Regular people that aren't making millions of dollars.
The dangers of Crony Capitalism are real. Please listen to the people. Help protect the little guy. Make it harder for the big guys to hurt regular people.
The current rules/laws online suck. We need to update it to current times to adapt to protect content creators who are not infringing copyright.
The notice-and takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The DMCA is being abused with false claims on Youtube, a platform content creators use to entertain and teach viewers. The DMCA hasn't been updated to account for today's internet. The internet has changed so much in 18 years and the DMCA fails to protect the content creators of the internet today. I want to protect the Internet that I LOVE.
THE EIFFEL TOWER ALLEGORY
Imagine that, one day, you decided to take an art class (whether or not this sort of thing falls in line with your character, I cannot say) and painted a lovely picture of the Eiffel Tower at sunset, which you then framed and displayed on a hallway for your friends and family to admire. Imagine then, that you walked down the hall about a week later and noticed that your picture had been torn down, with no explanation besides a note from the lawyers of Gustave Eiffel and Stephen Sauvestre, claiming that you were using their copyrighted architectural ideas, and they had consequentially taken down your drawing.
Now imagine that those lawyers were, in fact, two twenty-year-old men from Cleveland, Ohio who had ripped down your painting to sell for themselves on the black market for paintings, which is totally a real thing.
Now imagine that one day you got home only to find that your entire hallway had vanished off the face of the earth.
As somebody with no real life yet of which to speak and plenty of time on my hands, i.e. a college student, I spend a lot of time on the internet, including Youtube. All of those metaphorical scenarios I've described have happened to people. Reviews that use five-second clips from the movie they're talking about - which is completely fair use, by the way - are taken down, just because of the "copyrighted material" or the negative conclusion about the movie in question. A channel called I Hate Everything recently had a video copyright-claimed out of the blue by some fake company that tried to monetize on it, even though they had nothing to do with it. That same content creator just had his ENTIRE CHANNEL get taken down because of copyright strikes, even though all of his videos were perfectly fine.
Please, guys, whoever's reading this, the rules where this stuff is concerned HAS to change. So many good people get screwed over by this ridiculous, automated system. I understand that it's impossible to get people to manually watch and check every video ever released every day, but there has to be something better than what's currently implemented. Thank you for taking the time to listen.
Now here's the big paragraph that was originally in this box before I typed my ramble about the Eiffel Tower painting. Somebody did a good job writing it, so I'll leave it in for you to admire as well. Hope it doesn't make my story look stupid by comparison.
THE AFOREMENTIONED PROFESSIONAL-SOUNDING PARAGRAPH
Such victims are being striked for copyright infingement multiple times, even after being cleared, losing money on critique/parody videos that are legal under fair use, or having videos taken down by companies that don't even own the conent being critiqued/parodied.
There is little to no punishment for filing a false DMCA claim, which happens way too often. Countless channels have been taken down for bullshit claims that disregard fair use law.
Something has to be done in regards to DMCA takedown abuses. Without any grounds, copyright holders can bully anyone smaller than themselves into removing legal content from the web. Fair use SHOULD protect everyone, but it doesn't seem to. Something needs to be done to make it easier for smaller companies to fight DMCA abuses, as taking these issues to court is often too costly for the victims.
And I personally I'm a starting YouTube content creator and I want a chance to make a name for myself without having to worry so much that my content will be flagged and removed because of the abuse of this system. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to speak up a out this and have something done about it
All that was stated above and then some. I really don't want large companies to have the power to steal form others and censor opinions they do not like.
When it comes to Youtube especially, it breaks my heart to see people who I support and love have to go through a struggle every other day because of false claims and abuse. Youtube is a job. There are people on Youtube who live sadder lives than people with "real jobs." A lot of youtubers live a life of constantly working on content, day and night with hardly a moments rest. I've seen so many youtubers become sleep deprived and addicted to terrible energy drinks because of constantly having to stay up late to work on their content. They hardly have free time, and this is there job. This is how they make a living to support themselves. If "real work" had a system in which any random person could claim that your office work was actually theirs and take all that persons salary for a month, the world would be livid. But that's how it is for these youtubers. It's gotten to a point in which it's such an accepted system that real people don't even have to look for content to steal the profit from because there's systems now that do that automatically for them. If we can't revise this law to reflect the far increased capability of the internet, then I fear fair use and freedom of speech will lose all meaning to the greedy and powerful. If we can't protect freedom of speech and fair use on the internet, then we all might as well start double checking anything we put on the internet because before we know it we could be jail for a tweet criticizing the government.
On a personal note, I've found creators online that I've loved brought to tears as their lives have been torn up by relentless copyright hits when the content was not being abused.
Their voices, and soon to be my voice, as it is a community I have been devising my method for entering, has been stifled under the heel of vicious attacks like these for years, and I want to know that their future, and mine, will be protected.
Please step in.
Please fix this.
Thank you for reading.
-Stig Walker
Please protect free speech.
I you don't fully understand the situation further details can be learned from the video "Where's the Fair Use" at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
The abuse the DMCA has gotten so out of hand. Not only has it effected small entertainers and creators, I have even seen it effect people directly. Including a 17 year old girl who had created her own 3D works only for someone else to jealously and falsely accuse her of stealing. Dragging her through multiple court cases only to drop it once they got tired of dealing with it. It still remained on her head, and will no longer create, simply from the horrible negative impact it had on her. It was also part of her lively hood to be selling what she created. To much was taken away through this abuse.
Hello,
As you have probably heard, for awhile now the YouTube copyright system has been sorely abused. People who make their living on the site are being subjected to loss of their livelihood because of companies who don't understand how Fair Use works. Because of YouTube's system, anyone can claim copyright on anything, even if it violates the law. This can result in anything from a loss of money from the video to an entire channel being deleted. And to make matters worse, the person who claims copyright in the first place gets no consequences for what is essentially stealing. In some cases, they actually make money off of it by claiming third-party and taking the video's revenue. This has lead to many companies being formed, such as Merlin CDLTD, that exist for the sole purpose of falsely claiming videos and making money off of them indefinitely. And at this point there's little the creator can do to stop it. Countless channels have been affected by this, including "Channel Awesome", "I Hate Everything", "A Dose of Buckley", "MysteriousMrEnter", and more.
I'm not claiming that every case of copyright infringement is justified. There are plenty of examples where someone completely violates Fair Use, and those videos should not exist. But the other extreme is just as bad. Innocent channels should not suffer from ill-informed or malicious third parties seeking to make a quick buck or silence a negative review, but cases such as these are now commonplace. One must only do a quick Google search of "Where's the Fair Use" (WTFU for short) to see how much damage this has done. There need to be consequences for false claims, and YouTube needs to enforce them. Thank you for considering this message.
For more information, please visit these links to see videos from channels affected. They explain this issue far better than I ever could.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXf14eX_9Fg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjXNvLDkDTA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF2tCY281Rk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W-360iRCz4
Additionally, without proper action, you neglect the one resource that has skyrocketed the world into global communications and a network of people banding together for change. If you do that, you're neglecting yourselves and your country.
Hello
I am a content creator on YouTube who makes music reviews, movie reviews, and so forth. Every time I upload a review of songs for the year, it gets slapped with multiple false copyright claims - resulting in undeserved limitations upon my channel. Even when I justifiably dispute claims made against my content I get even more penalties.
I recently uploaded a video ranking songs from 2015, it clocked in at about an hour and 10 minutes. It got removed and de-monetized in less than 10 seconds. Of course it's completely transformative in nature and protected under the Fair Use clause, but there is no possible way they could have watched my video in its entirety to determine if the claims they made were false or true.
This proves that YouTube is purposely filing false claims against content creators' videos, among other things that is. I now have to meticulously and needlessly filter my already legal videos to ensure they don't get falsely removed - and even then it still somehow fails. This needs to stop. Now. This is a step we as a people need to make to progress, adapt, and catch up with the ever-approaching future.
Another problem with the current law is that it allows large companies to bully smaller companies and can actually infringe on the free market that so many people on the internet claim to be in favor of. If big content creators are seriously only trying to protect their copywrited material, then they shouldn't keep issuing take down notices on videos that review their products, even if those reviews are negative. They should learn from those reviews so that their next product can be better. The same thing applies to small production companies that produce original content that may "threaten" the superiority of these big production companies.
It is easier to stifle someone's creativity if you can stop their content from getting out in the first place, than it is to up your own game and genuinely innovate your own industry.
Finally, in all likelihood many of these production companies who are making these false DMCA claims know that they are doing something unethical. Even if it is, for the moment, legal. If they didn't know that what they are doing is wrong, then why are so many of them hiding behind shell companies that only exist to shield the higher ups in the original company from possible prosecution?
This whole thing is blatantly unfair to content creators who do their best to play by the rules of Fair Use.
By all means, put a stop to content piracy on the Internet, but get actual humans involved in enforcing the law. While you are at it, update the DMCA so that production companies (big or small) have a much harder time abusing it for their own ends.
Either update DMCA significantly, or destroy this fossilized mammoth.
This just doesn't hold up.
The following explanation is provided by Takedownabuse.org. However, I, Wilfredo Martinez, want to make clear that I agree with all its points, which is why I'm including it in this message. I feel it explains it far better than I could.
I'm nothing more than a simple user, that simply enjoys watching someone else creation.
I have heard stories of creators that received treatment that was nothing short of lies and abuse, from an Australian company that kept pulling multiple copy right strickes even after the video was cleared, yes while fair use laws are different world wide, the creator lives in the u.s. uploads to youtube, a u.s. company and his video fell under u.s fair use, and the creator was still harassed, so either the company didn't understand the law or they didn't care, this needs to stop.
(FootNote)
I was a content creator until my channel was taking down >:(.
DMCA is an outdated law that heavily punishes creators and should be repealed and removed from the books.
Si bien no soy un ciudadano estadounidense, eso no me detiene de ser un usuario de internet. Uno que disfruta del contenido ofrecido por los creadores de contenido como that guy with the glasses o screen junkies por poner algunos ejemplos. La adecuación del ley DMCA a las necesidades actuales seria no solo una victoria para crear un internet más diverso; sino también un precedente para que las legislaciones de otros países tomen cartas en el asunto en la dirección correcta en cuanto al cada vez más desfasado concepto de la propiedad intelectual.
While I am not a US citizen, that does not stop me of being an Internet user. One who enjoys the content offered by content creators as that guy with the glasses or screen junkies to give some examples. The adequacy of the DMCA law to current needs would be a victory not only to create a more diverse internet; but also a precedent for the laws of other countries to take action on the matter in the right direction as the increasingly outdated concept of intellectual property.
PS. I apologize if I misspelled something. English is not my native language.
The current system in place is absolutely ridiculous and requires an immediate change. The fact that anyone can flag anyone's video and effectively steal the money that the original content creator should be making is so wrong and completely goes against everything American. Innocent until proven guilty? Screw that! Give them a strike on their channel for up to 8 months. Make it so that they can't make videos longer than 15 minutes. And most importantly, just hand over the money in question to the alleged "victims." Remember, corporations are people too!
Are you serious? These are people's livelihoods. No where else in this country could anyone get away with anything like this. THIS IS THEFT and it is going on every day because politicians and lawmakers have no idea what they are doing when it comes to the internet.
Below are some of the major problems with the current copyright system as well as some potential solutions that can be explored:
If a claim is filed, the party that filed the claim should not automatically get the revenue that the video in question produced. It should be set aside until the issue is resolved. Also, large channels that have been false flagged in the past, multiple times, and have been shown to have not been in violation of the dmca should be given prime attention and in some cases the benefit of the doubt (however if they violate this benefit then they should lose their privileges). It shouldn't take 14 business days for a claim to be reviewed. This goes back to what I said about the large channels. These bigger channels (say like 100k + subscribers) or channels that make money off of videos should be looked at first so their issues can be resolved sooner than some nobody channel with 10 subscribers that nobody watches. Finally, probably the biggest point of contention I have with this whole system is that there is NO PUNISHMENT AT ALL for these ultra large corporations and assholes on youtube who false flag these videos. Of course they are going to keep doing it. They are STEALING money with absolutely no reason not to do it. People who false flag videos (especially those that are monetized) should get a strike put on their channel. The strike should keep that channel from being able to monetize any new videos for 30 days. Accumulate 3 (or possibly 5) of these strikes and they lose their channel for repeatedly abusing the copyright system. Please if anything is taken away from these suggestions let it be this last one. Something to this effect needs to be implemented or else people will continue with this system of abuse.
Thank you for reading this.
This needs to change
(Epic movie voice)
In a world where game companies can take down reviews...
In a world where fair use is abused by the jealous...
In a world where free speech is held back by maliciousness...
We have a faulty piece of legislature known as the DMCA.
Everything that reviewers, commentators and viewers have fought for has meant nothing.
But. Good will always triumph. We hope.
FAIR USE - coming out this April.
As a consumer of internet media, I have witnessed the DMCA law be abused nearly every day.
Examples of this are Critics being censored by companies who dislike them, Companies preforming take-downs on videos for higher search rankings, Content Creator's own work being claimed by random people, DMCA take-downs being used to threaten or intimidate creators, and general disregard for free speech or fair use by the Claimants.
As someone who uses the Internet for entertainment nearly everyday, I do not want one of our greatest inventions to be Censored and Repressed by an outdated law. The Internet has evolved so much in the past decade, but the laws surrounding it have not, lets change that, shall we?
Hi I've got nothing to say that's not covered by this default template so I'm just gunna use that, but know that I support the where's the fair use movement and the YouTubers behind it 100%
The following is the default comment, but that doesn't make it any less true:
--
The following are now my own words:
The mishandling of Fair Use by copyright holders would border on criminal if the law was not entirely on their side. Indeed, many of the ways copyright strikes and takedown notices are issued are blatantly ridiculous, yet entirely legal.
People have been hit with copyright strikes just for talking on camera - no images, audio or video was in use, but that was irrelevant; they were talking about content that fell under copyright law, ergo they were obviously at fault and should allow the company issuing the copyright strike to take all their earnings for that video. If this sounds ridiculous, that would be because it is, but that's the way the copyright system works.
Copyright strikes and takedown notices are also used to censor criticism and threaten online content producers - if a critic is negative in a review of copyrighted content, they are issued with a takedown notice to keep that review from spreading. If that sounds like a violation of free speech, that's because it is, but under current copyright law it's perfectly legal and is perhaps even encouraged in the industry.
This issue has ramifications far beyond American shores, too. As an Australian, much of the internet content I view is produced or hosted in America or by American-based companies. Even if content were both produced and hosted in a different country then this predatory attitude towards independent producers would remain - many nations take a 'follow-the-leader' approach with regard to many aspects of American law, with one of the major aspects being copyright law (due in part to much of the content in question holding American copyright). Making a decision to stand with the victims in this matter, rather than the perpetrators, would encourage other nations to do the same. The reverse is also true - please bear this in mind as you consider this issue.
As cited above, a financial penalty for false copyright infringement flags would be a key step in curtailing this culture of false flagging and copyright abuse. Another key feature to introduce would be mandatory checking of all copyright claims by a human being, as only a human can properly assess a claim to fair use.
The third crucial change would be to change where the money goes that is confiscated from, say, an internet video during a copyright claim. At present, all revenue that video generates is seized by the copyright claimant immediately and will not be returned to the content producer, even if it should turn out that the claim was entirely fraudulent. If that sounds like either theft or fraud, that's (again) because it is, but it is entirely legal. Depositing the money into a temporary account, and awarding it to the party that wins the copyright dispute after the fact, would be more reasonable. This would remove the financial motive for companies to issue false copyright strikes.
Finally, there is (to my knowledge) no legal route for the victims of fraudulent copyright attack to take after suffering damages and proving their innocence. After a video has been hit with an unsubstantiated copyright strike, causing a near-total loss in revenue and possibly many additional penalties (depending on where the video was hosted), the content creator has absolutely no legal response - they can't sue for damages, or anything else. If nothing else changes, this should at the very least.
Copyright claims are filed wildly, with no regard for fact or law. They are used to censor and threaten, or just for the financial gain of the copyright claimant, often with no base in reality (let alone any base in truth). The issue has roots in America but has consequences all around the world, and any change in legislation in the United States would have far-reaching impact one way or the other. The situation is not just harmful to individuals, it is also harmful to the rights the United States has sought to champion for the past two centuries. The laws must be changed, of this there is no doubt.
The internet watches with baited breath to see what decision will be made.
Further information on some of the incidents cited can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
Note that this is only one of of my sources, as the full list would take up an entire page, but is a comprehensive overview that cites several key cases of copyright abuse.
Many thanks,
David S.
I am commenting because of all the unfairness I have seen on websites. Particularly, YouTube. Some of my favorite content creators are reviewers, and while reviews are protected under copyright I have seen many different uploaders plagued by false takedowns. While all their videos are trans-formative, edited down, and voiced over many of them have time and time of again have had their videos taken down because of it. The companies/people whose content they are speaking of do not like the negative press, and therefor try to suppress those video makers freedom of speech. One channel has had the same video attacked over and over again by the same company despite YouTube clearing the strike multiple times. One channel has been basically threatened after giving a bad review to a movie that the movie maker would have his channel completely taken off of YouTube. One channel has been hit even when the video simply consisted of royalty free music, his voice, and pictures that he paid for. One creator was forced to abandon his channel after constant strikes placed on his completely legitimate videos, and had to create a new channel. I've seen companies issue takedowns through false names or middle man companies after their original strike was reviewed as fair by YouTube. All of these creators depend on their channels to live. It's their jobs, but constantly being bogged down by false copyright strikes hurts them. All the strikes are false, and there needs to be penalties put in place for false copyright claims. None of these cases would stand up in a court of law, but it doesn't matter on the internet. That is unfair. The internet needs a safety net for those content creators. It needs to punish companies and people who try to claim copyright on videos that are practicing fair use. It is hurting the community badly, and there needs to be a change.
With the DMCA in place, the content of creators is being silenced for monetary gain and has been used for terroristic threats by businesses to content creators. In doing this, they are being allowed to stifle our constitutional right of free speech and are being allowed to get away with stripping us of our content with no reasonable explanation. This is terrorism on a corporate scale, plain and simple. What these businesses are doing is reaping the rewards for other people's hard work, and since the grassroots American doesn't have the legal resources that these corporations have, and because the law is heavily biased towards them, they are being allowed to deny content creators a right guaranteed to us by our constitution. This is unacceptable. We are not an oligarchy. We will not allow these businesses to trample all over our rights. We won't stand down from this.
Pls take it down it is annoying to hear all of the news about companies being dicks
Nowadays, many people on YouTube use their channels to make a living. They may do reviews, lets-plays, skits, etc... However, their livelihoods can threatened thanks to copyright claims against their videos. With a copyright claim, the channel's ability to not only upload videos, but to gain revenue on those videos - which may be the YouTuber's main source of income - could be suspended until the claim is removed. This is a 'guilty until innocent' approach in a nation that should operate on the basis of 'innocent until proven guilty'. Worse yet, anyone can make a claim for about any reason, and they can even steal the revenue of the channel's videos during which the claim was made. This is a gross injustice that can be easily abused.
The situation becomes even worse due to YouTube's nonexistent support. Though YouTube claims that it will contact a Channel with a complaint within 24 hours, in reality many channels wait weeks before anyone contacts them. There is no way to call or contact YouTube in order to quickly and efficiently remove a copyright claim that has no legal basis. Thus, weeks of revenue may be lost before anything is settled.
I have seen channels get copyright claims despite their content being completely within fair use - reviews, parodies, and even mere car reviews where the only content is a few people talking about a movie in a car. Such channels are Channel Awesome, the Cinema Snob, ToddintheShadows, YourMovieSucks, and I Hate Everything. To elaborate, Channel Awesome received a copyright claim where they not only were not allowed to make revenue on their videos, but the person who made the claim could take the revenue that their videos would have made. Worse yet, if the basis of the claim is unfounded, the person who made the claim keeps the revenue. Naturally, the copyright claim against Channel Awesome was unfounded, since Channel Awesome is a review series that only uses clips with which to discuss and parody the movie, which falls within the bounds of fair use. The Cinema Snob - Brad Jones - has a series called Midnight Reviews where he and some friends get into a car and talk about the film; there aren't even any images of the films in these reviews, yet even one of those videos received a copyright claim.
Channel Awesome, and many other channels, receive baseless claims every day. Oftentimes, they are left with too many claims to deal with at once, and so time they could spend on their jobs is wasted through fighting off claims. To put this into perspective, Channel Awesome receives a claim everyday, and all of which they must fight off in a timely manner, lest their livelihoods be threatened.
Oftentimes, corporations will make claims to take down videos and stifle free speech. Music companies have often tried to take down ToddintheShadows' videos, even though they're reviews and thus fall within the realm of fair use. Corporations often makes strikes against film reviews to hide bad press of their movies. Sometimes, shield corporations are used to make copyright claims against reviews in order to hide who is actually making the claim.
The worst of all this is that if the claim is found to be baseless, the person who made the claim receives absolutely no punishment. As a result, anyone can make a claim, leaving many channels burdened with false copyright claims they must fight off. Failure to successfully make an appeal results in a strike, and with 3 strikes, they will lose their channels and have to start over, or get banned from YouTube in general. Thus, their general source of income is banished, even if there was no basis in the claim to begin with.
The United States of America has long operated on the ideal of 'innocent until proven guilty'. However, on YouTube, the system is 'guilty until proven innocent', leaving all of the power in corporations, trolls, and people who simply don't like certain creators. Free speech is stifled, revenue is stolen, and peoples' livelihoods are threatened. Aspiring content creators who are starting out don't have the power to fight off copyright claims to the degree larger channels to, and as a result are often powerless against these claims. It takes 30 days for the claim to run out or be reinstated, wasting a lot of time and money in the process.
I Hate Everything reviewed "Cool Cat Saves the Kids" received a copyright claim against David Savage, who had also provided copyright claims against other channels that reviewed his work, Bob Sheaux and Blinkk, and took down I Hate Everything's review to silence him. David Savage did not have to show any evidence or prove his case; he made the claim, opted to take down the video, forcing the channels to fight back with limited resources to remove the claim. Eventually, the time limit on the claim ran out, and there wasn't enough evidence to go to court, but it wasted time and revenue those channels could have made on those reviews, which were fair use.
Finally, if a claim fails to be appealed, then it results in a strike. If the channel receives 3 strikes, their channel is removed from YouTube, forcing the YouTuber to start over. Even 1 strike severely limits a creator, limiting them to 15 minute video and the inability to make an appeal for 6 months. Furthermore, removing the strike and trying to get the video back can take up to a month. More so, it's very difficult to get into contact with anyone, and there is a very limited amount of space to provide the defense in the appeal.
America is a country that prides itself in free speech. Thus, laws regarding Fair Use must be revised to support the free speech of millions of content creators against those who wished to abuse their power to silence them.
FREEDOM, FREEDOM, FREEDOM,
Good morning. In less than an hour, Internet users from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest internet battle in this history of mankind.
Mankind -- that word should have new meaning for all of us today.
We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore.
We will be united in our common interests.
Perhaps its fate that today is the first of April, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom, not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution -- but from annihilation.
We're fighting for our right to live, to exist.
And should we win the day, April 1st will no longer be known as an Joke holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice:
"We will not go quietly into the night!
We will not vanish without a fight!
We're going to live on!
We're going to survive!"
Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!
TL;DR: Your shit's broken and outdated, please fix.
Abusive actors are overpowered, please nerf.
The DMCA's old standards and rules let corporate big whigs with more money than they ever need bully people just trying to make a living off of fair use content.
The majority of people that make reviews, parodies, etc always state that they don't own the rights and even want to help the thing they are making content about.
The Nostalgic Critic is one such person. He's a funny guy with a good heart that just wants to help people and himself by making jokes and reviewing media. He's even the one that got me to come here because I want to help him and more people like him.
http://youtu.be/NoIL5qUI1p8
This video lists different ways Fair Use Claims get misused by companies with more influence.
People have the right to make content if they are following the rules. Please allow them to do that.
My favorite Youtubers might have to change the type of content that I enjoy all because of abuse of the system. Please fix this.
One of the core characteristics of US law is that it is flexible, that it can adapt over time to changes in technology, politics, and society. With that said, the current state of internet copyright law is 20 years old, and it is clear that it is outdated for a format that continuously and rapidly evolves each and every year.
As an online content creator and reviewer, I fear for my own security with producing videos over the concern that a larger company is going to abuse the online DMCA to take down my voice. As we have seen with YouTube, an affiliate of Google and the universal standard for most video recording, they have illegally taken down video after video to stiffle negative criticism, or to strip content creators and reviewers of revenue they would have made within the boundaries of Fair Use.
Of course, that is another issue in itself. It is also clear with the abuse of the DMCA that companies are violating Fair Use protection clauses that would allow critics, reviewers, and content creators to reasonably use the content in a way that educates or entertains their viewers. However, for some reason or another, some original content holders will go to extreme extents to nickel and dime their way to success, or silence individuals out of fear that their say will hurt their ability to make a profit.
What I want to see from the government is legal punishment and protections against individuals and corporations that abuse the DMCA. Of course, it is important to ensure that content creators have their work protected. The DMCA exists to ensure that nobody, for example, uploads a whole movie online and deprives that producer of that profit. However, the clear problem is with abusers who ignore Fair Use and the limits of the DMCA, and go out of their way to suppress the individual. Thus, I believe that legal punishments must be outlined against these groups that would take such illegal actions.
In the end, the voice of the millions is far greater than the voice of the few at the helms of these corporations. Please, take into full consideration of everything I say, and help do right by the constituents of this country.
I'm not a Youtuber myself. I just love to watch others have fun sharing their videos and enjoying themselves.
The fact that they get attacked for sharing opinions offends me.
I have many favorite youtubers fighting against this garbage, but two of my favorites were hurt.
Lost Pause's channel was deleted for one little photo from a video he made 2 years ago. But thankfully he had back up, but now he has to censor himself in fear of losing his channel again.
And MysteriousMrEnter, all he tries to do is watch crazy-bad cartoons for fun. And he keeps getting attacked again and again by the same people. He made a review about a dumb cartoon called Pixel Pinkie and the company who made it keep attacking him, even under different names.
Those are only two of the many who are being attacked. Nostalgia Critic, CreepsMcPasta, Mr Nightmare, IHateEverything.....SO MANY OTHERS
This needs to stop, this garbage. Must. Stop.
Please. When I see them, these amazing people who bring joy to so many others get hurt or upset, it angers me. These people do NOT deserve this treatment.
So stop this meaningless copyright garbage. I won't stand for it, and neither will these communities who support them.
WE WILL STAND FOR THEIR FAIR USE AND FOR OURS. SO WHERE IS IT? WHERE IS OUR FAIR USE?
The system is catastrophically flawed and irredeemably biased as it now sits, entirely weighted towards the desires of large companies and against the meager requirements of small and medium content creators/artists to use material in a transformative and fair use manner. It is important that the only voices heard loudly and clearly on the internet are not of those that are benefited by shutting the mouths of critics.
Enough is enough!
YouTube is a home for so many people, it has formed into a huge community. This faulty copyright system has pleagued our community. Some content creators have YouTube as their job, if they keep getting false copyright claims they could possibly lose their job. This is such a serious issue and it needs to be dealt with.
Where's the fair use?
This is a very serious issue.
I think it is fucking horse shit that a company can falsely take down a video to try to protect their brand and not get penalized for doing so
I did hear that some measures are being taken by youtube to strengthen take down abuse. That's good, but if anyone looked for an hour to see how unfair the talented creators on the internet are treated I'm sure one would lose respect for the copyright system. Please please please do something to help these creators. Many people, including myself use youtube to improve education and to hone educated destitution making for the better. Thank you and DFTBA!!!
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act may have been adequate back in 1998 when it was first passed into law, but no one then could have envisioned the Internet we have today. Nearly every video uploaded to Youtube is a transformative work and would fall well within the protections offered by Fair Use in a court of law. However, corporations are attacking well known Youtubers in order to silence criticism about their intellectual property. Google, who now owns Youtube, doesn't monitor DMCA take down requests and doesn't seem to show any interest in wanting to help the Youtube community counter false claims.
Not only is the DMCA being abused in a way that's goes against everything that the United States was founded upon; liberty, free speech, and entrepreneurship; but it's also against the entire spirit of the modern Internet as well. This law either needs to be amended to better reflect the Internet of today, or Google needs to start caring about the content creators that give Youtube its value every single day. Personally, I would prefer the former since Youtube is only one of hundreds of websites being harassed everyday by false DMCA take down claims.
TO ADD TO WHAT IS PRETYPED IN BETTER WORDING THAN I CAN MUSTER: Please watch these two videos from Youtube on the Where's the Fair Use movement going on right now. It clarifies EVERYTHING perfectly, better than I could have ever worded it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
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Copyright holders have given my YouTube channel strikes even though the content is fair use. This has made me loose revenue and has put my YouTube channel in danger of being suspended. Please update copyright laws, they are outdated.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Before copyright law, content creators had no protection whatsoever, and all works were essentially in the public domain.
This was the natural state of things. You had a right to copy whatever you want or could. Copyright law was a bargain: The public would lose those natrual rights and in addition, pay for enforcement of copyright law. In return, the bargain goes, the public receives more such works, because there is more incentive for content creators to produce them. In addition, because it would be ludicrous for the public to be paying for the enforcment of copyright forever, since it costs public money, this period of protection was to be limited in time. That was the bargain.
Unfortunately, that's not how things worked out. Over time, lobbying by large powerful corporations that do little but collect such "intellectual property", often without themselves actually creating it, have led to copyright law being in a state of perpetual non-expiry, well beyond the limits of what that original public bargain could reasonably have been created for. They use their catalogs of IP to block out the market and make exclusive deals, while the government and thus the people pay for their content protection forever. Ultimately, this stifles the creation of new art and content - except by those large firms.
The DMCA was an attempt to update copyright law. While it did not address the real problem at the heart of copyright law - that it has been warped to last for way too long in an attempt to consolidate power, on the backs of taxpayers and to the detriment of public domain - the safe harbor provisions in section 512 were at least an attempt to update the law to modern standards in some way, and are an important first step to protect the public from abuse by those larger copyright clearinghouses.
However, the DMCA was created before the modern, public internet where anyone can be a creator and the big copyright-holder firms such as Disney are competing for the same eyeballs as the man on the street with a cellphone camera producing content for Youtube. The democratization of content creation has shaken the industry and the provisions that protect the public from exploitation are coming apart at the seams.
The main issue is the intense lopsidedness of it all. DMCA 512 claims are being filed literally by computer programs. Sometimes maliciously, by the hundreds or thousands. Knowingly filing them against sites falsely, or just because its easier to shotgun a million complaints automatically and hope that the public gives up, even if those claims are incorrect. The penalties for filing a false DMCA claim with a targetted website are nonexistant and essentially risk-free. It can and has been wielded like a cudgel to silence criticism of products, critics of movies, and to silence fair use.
While the safe harbor provisions have been critically important, they need to explicitly exempt safe use in much clearer language, and there need to be serious and immediate repurcussions for filing false takedowns against fair use, even unknowingly (by means of automated robot filings).
In addition, KNOWINGLY filing false takedowns should be easier to prosecute and curb. The latest trick folks are using is to knowingly file a false takedown, which shuts a content creator out for up to 30 days, before rescinding it, by which time, their opportunity to actually profit off their own work has passed.
How did we get here? Since when is copyright law all about clubbing the public? It was supposed to be a brief, grand bargain.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I am person who enjoyed watching Youtube videos from content creators such as the Nostalgia Critic, Chris Stuckmann, Andre the Black Nerd, Angry Joe, Krimson Rogue, etc. They all provide quality videos discussing movies, TV, and other topics. It is crucial that action needs to be taken to make changes to the law to ensure copyright disputes are not abused on valid free speech and criticism. This abuse cannot continue. I believe human review of disputes is needed to make them less of a burden on the content creators. Google, Youtube, copyright holders, and content creators need to come together to create a better place for all who use the Internet to express themselves, comment, and criticize properly.
While it may be a good system on paper, in practice it is severely lacking good examples. Most take downs are by scumbags who want to make money. Currently the law is too broad and overused. For this law to remain in the future, it must be revisited.
DMCA laws are out dated. A cursory glance at an social media sharing sight will show a plethora of examples of both single individuals and large multinational corporations abusing these laws.
Very few informed individuals will argue that content creators have no rights to protect their property. But in the current DMCA system individuals right to use short clips for commentary and critique is being destroyed with no repercussions for filing false DMCAs. From a business perspective a large corporation is stupid for not flagging and destroying any criticism since it will hurt their bottom line and there are no repercussions for taking away the rights of other citizens to comment, criticize, and parody that corporation's property.
The very first amendment is the right to free speech. it is inherent to and central to what Americans believe to be important and critical for a free and open society. DMCA was fine for more simple internet but as the medium has evolved and the issues have become more complicated the current system has proven to be hopelessly outdated and desperate need of reworking.
This is an issue that has plagued Youtube creators for years. We need to push copyright into the digital, modern age. It's time to put a stop to these DMCA claims now!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censer content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. Or don't. I don't care
Below is a form letter- I'm sure you'll see many like it, and I think it's actually pretty well written. But that's meant to appeal to reason, something relatively foreign nowadays. So, I'll attempt to appeal to the ethical/emotional side of things in a brief enough way.
The takedown process of the DMCA is so woefully out of date that content creators, operating completely legally out of Fair Use, can have their work and livelihoods stolen by companies who face absolutely no legal ramifications for doing so. Some companies (Merlin, to name one) have actually stayed solvent because of their scheming ways, which use a DMCA copyright takedown on content on the internet, steal its revenue for the period in which the claim is in review, and then disappear without so much as a wrist slap. The internet is a new and scary place, something likely to be difficult to grasp for those not of our generation, but to damn a body of people just because someone doesn't understand the gravity of a misstep or a process of mismanagement doesn't diffuse the blame. Lawmakers (that would be you) are just as responsible for the stealing of legal internet content as the thieves themselves are- in the same way a police officer who stands witness to a crime, yet does nothing.
I would think, perhaps naively, that such grievous errors should be fixed.
And on to to form letter~
Seriously though, all the power being in the hands of copyright holders is well and truly against any vague idea of fair capitalism or democracy, if independent creators and reviewers can't use any content as is currently legal in our law without being harassed and bullied, stolen from, and intimidated illegally, what's the point of the law in the first place? It's not justice or protection of business, it's monopoly and barbarism.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of Questionable Validity and would benefit from human review.
*As a regular audience member on YouTube, I have routinely witnessed videos without any borrowed content get taken down for false claims.
So many creators explicitly credit their sources and use minimal sampling if they do use any, and yet still fall victim to takedowns which, under human review would have been obviously allowed.
Thank you very much for your time, as this issue desperately needs attention.
I'm speaking from personal experience when I say that the D.M.C.A., is outdated. The D.M.C.A. was created in 1998. The same year The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time came out on the Nintendo 64. This was a time when something like YouTube, was only a dream. A time where many BIG sites were created but ultimately failed. Many people have suffered from the D.M.C.A.. Home videos of kids dancing to songs have been taken down because of this. People haven't been earning money for things THEY made. People just TALKING about a movie have those videos taken down. Fair use is the doctrine that brief excerpts of copyrighted material may, under certain circumstances, be quoted verbatim for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research, without the need for permission from or payment to the copyright holder. And all of this abusage and taking down of content that does NOT infringe on that definition, is wrong. Movie corporations and Video Game corporations and other corporations that produce copyrighted material, are abusing the D.M.C.A.. And the community will not stand for this. We aren't going away. So either stop this, or the "Internet vs Corporations war" will begin. Stop. This. NOW.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyrigthis ht Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
It is unfair to punish people who only share their opinion on different medias. People have the right of the First Amendment; corporations are abusing the power of the DMCA. Please, make a change to this old law.
Okay, and now for a personal comment: There are two things I did like to refer to: An personal attack on a channel by a company, that NO OTHER channels gotten attacked by AND EVEN the channel owner asked permission. And then the Fine Brothers Entertainment REACT thing. Both of these show how people can indeed ABUSE these laws. The fine brothers may had good intentions, but with the Elders React incident, it wasn't going to fly. Also, for the other one, it is quite dated, but it still applies. I mean, the video is 2013, but the law was updated in 1998, so it still applies: http://youtu.be/QfgoDDh4kE0
DMCA needs to be updated so that it cannot be abused, and so that fair use can be practiced. In most of my experience DMCA claims have been used to movie studios or individuals in order to restrict criticism of their work. If a studio does not like a review, it will issue a DMCA claim, even if none of their copyrighted content is in the video. This includes videos with no footage or music at all.
DMCA claims are used to threaten and bully content creators into restricting their speech, and many have lost their livelihoods because of these false claim. The DMCA laws need to be updated so that there are real legal penalties for filing false copyright claims against content creators.
This means a lot to me
The DMCA is heavily flawed.
Anybody can take down anybody's creations (that are under FAIR USE) and nothing will be done about it. Either that, it will take at least "30 business days".
This system doesn't protect people's creations, it can destroy entire channels.
Anybody can take down anybody.
I think it is very biased and unfair that people's videos are getting flagged, and only for critiques and fanworks. People put a lot of time and effort into doing the things they love, and these people can destroy all of that, essentially in one click.
Please, take the time, and HEAR OUR VOICES. It is time to take back what was once for creators with a passion.
Many content creators are being viciously attacked by people who think they know what fair use is. These content creators are having their jobs and livelihoods threatened by the selfish people and companyies who give them cooyright strikes. It's sickening how videos with no music or footage are taken down. Yes, I've seen videos of people just talking about movies taken down. I've seen content creators get bullied from people like Derek Savage and Viacom. It's getting worse and worse. There are videos that get struck by the same company with a different account after the original account's strike got resolved. These matters must be dealt with, as this is getting ridiculous. Have a nice day.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) needs to be looked at in order to make legislation that is better able to cope with the changes since it was originally passed. Takedowns should not be automated and must not be used to take down legitimate work.
The legislation is ineffective at serving its intended purpose and is instead abused to shut down criticism or simply accidentally hitting work by being automated, targeting more than may have been intended.
Times are changing and the internet is more important than it ever has been before. It is time to prevent the DMCA from being abused and stifling progress that the internet can help us achieve.
So the main thing thats really happening is that people are putting up all kinds of content, and then other people are looking for all sorts of mistakes and cracks in the content where martial under copyright is used. As far as my understanding, people are trying to harass and shut down smaller YouTube channels and social media accounts by exploring the DMCA. So even if it were to hold up in court, it would be still taken down.
(https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8)
If this sort of thing didn't happen to people on YouTube trying to make an honest living using the actual laws in their favour, then things wouldn't be such a mess around there. It's to the point even I don't want to make a channel, or I'll get my teeth kicked in for abiding by the LAW. How backwards is that? This needs to be fixed.
[Original message]
I have seen many innocent people who are in order make a living entertain us the community with videos that they have poured their heart and soul in to, where they spend hours upon hours thinking of original content for us viewers to enjoy. However with the way our copyright system is right now many of these hard workers are being pushed to the breaking point, where they are scared to even release their own original content in fear that any company can just claim their video for take down. This in which lets the companies Acquire
As a journalist and someone who has worked with the Hollywood studios and press for years, I am still amazed at how poorly the DMCA is enforced and abused by copyright "holders" on platforms such as YouTube.
In the world of print and broadcast media, rules governing fair use, editorial content or parody are shields protecting content and news creators against litigation from copyright holders. Yet in the digital realm, the DCMA is often used in illegal, abusive ways to defy those rules, punish content creators (who are operating inside legal boundaries) and sometimes even steal their revenue. Even if the claim from a supposed copyright holder is found to be in error, there are no consequences for the people who made the false claim. They keep stolen revenue (YouTube shifts the revenue stream to the "holder" during time of the dispute) and can make as many false claims as possible.
The DCMA has become a virtual dinosaur in a realm that has moved ever quicker in ways lawmakers could have never imagined in 1998. It needs a complete overhaul.
This law is outdated and stupid. Copyright holders are getting money for no reason from people trying to make a living, it's gross get rid of it.
Companies should not be able to use 3rd parties to flile claims under DMCA with out being punished for false claims. The abuse is going too far and is unchecked if companies can have bots file false claims on people the are ligialy under Fair Use. These laws are two old and need to be updated.
With YouTube specifically, the problem is extremely consistent. Many content creators are being struck by false DMCA claims against content that falls under fair use. She'll companies abuse this policy to strike channels and protect themselves while claiming the ad revenue of the video claimmed. New policies should become standard FL fix stated issues.
I know of various reviewers who have lost funds and videos to false claims. I remember videos being taken down for mentioning a product, not even showing it. Copyright was made to protect creators, but now it's being used to stifle the creativity it was made to protect.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
People's jobs are on the line here. This is a real issue.
The above is a message prepared by Doug Walker and co. I wholeheartedly agree. The DMCA is stifling individuals in favor of large companies that are not creating content. Thank you.
Stop corporations from inhibiting the free speech (on sites such as youtube and other areas of the internet) and work of the real people you were voted in to serve. Citizens of your country and community, not the money of companies! They are running wild like mafia goons, even stealing money by taking funds from others hard work due to outdated laws. Do your job and give power back to the creators, not big corp. trying stuff their oversized wallets on the livelihoods of others. Myself and other citizens will be paying attention to those who are oddly silent on an important issues such as these.
As an archivist, I find that due to measures such as Youtube's content id and the way in which the DMCA is written, we are at risk of not being able to preserve our culture, our literary contributions, our society for future generations, all to protect the profit margins of already-wealthy individuals and corporations.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I, Brian Etie agree with the above message. I would like to personally suggest that the DMCA rework their copyright claims system. I believe that many websites such as YouTube or Facebook for example could benefit from this as well as the many users of those websites.
I have only ever uploaded three things to my channel. But my amv's track is blocked in another country even though I give credit to the original vocalist. But I am upset about this because it is affecting the people I follow, those I rely on for entertainment and to be a part of their experiences. This dmca is starting to remind me of sopa all over again. But instead of da,YouTube is being hit.
As someone who has just recently started creating content online, I've already been hit with a number of problems when it comes to companies abusing copyright laws to ignore fair use. I've had videos banned worldwide just because I chose to dispute the fact that using a 30-second audio clip with my original audio overlaid and original video in the background didn't constitute fair use. This needs to stop. I understand that some uses of copyrighted works do not constitute fair use. But when companies do not even have to prove that their claims on your content are just without making you jump through hoops, it's clear that something's wrong.
This system of "guilty until proven innocent" for those under copyright accusations provides no discourse for unjust copyright claims, and can impede artistic integrity and freedom. Change is necessary, and the powerless demand representation in this matter!
In theory the DMCA was supposed to help but now days the system is being abused by others. And the people who did nothing get punished while the people who literally steal other's video's are getting away with it and are in-fact, making a lot of money from stealing other's content.
Countless content creators have been bullied, harassed and even outright put out of work because of false copyright claims from powerful corporations and more. It's gotten to the point where freedom of speech and fair use on the internet is virtually non-existent. Please, as somebody who enjoys this type of content and who wants to one day create similar content without fear of being wrongfully silenced, help bring Fair Use back.
Free speech is stifled with wrongful DMCA takedowns.
This system needs to be fixed. Now.
DMCA is harming creativity through-out the internet. People no longer feel free to create the sort of content that they want to because they're worried a 5-second clip of something will get them sued or literally steal away their livelihood.
To whomever it may concern,
I hope you will listen to the Youtube content creators and the people who consumes it and uphold the 1st amendment that this country preaches so fervently.
Thank you.
I swear, the amount that innocent people on the internet get screwed over by all the exploits in something that is supposed to help them by protecting their content is actually ridiculous. The system is clearly flawed and you guys need to step up and do something about it. We are putting in our part as the community that is the internet, and we ask that you put in your part to make the internet a safer and overall better place to be. Thank you, -RandomRetardOnTheInternet
Make the internet great again
I personally don't create much in the way of YouTube videos. I only have a few, that I've never tried to profit from, but even I've had videos removed or muted because of one sound clip or song. However, I know several people who do use YouTube for their income, to drum up interest for their projects, or to just state their opinion on something, and they are being unfairly treated with the current policies.
Videos have been removed that don't even use copyrighted footage or music. How is it fair to take down a video of two people just sitting and talking about a movie? Or a review of a movie where they only use still shots and recreations to prove their point about something? The simple answer is, it's not fair. And it needs to stop.
Hello! My name is Alexander Macomber, community manager of ZippCast.com, a video sharing website. As with all video sharing websites, there is a necessary process to remove media that may have been posted in violation of copyright law. However, the glut of invalid, improperly filed, and downright frightening DMCA claims I have personally handled is alarming, and very telling of the "guilty until proven innocent" state of the Internet at present. Our organization has been threatened with numerous lawsuits when we denied claims on fair use media, or refused to process claims that were improperly filed or had no proof of ownership as required by the actual DMCA law.
The practice that individuals can go about making infinite claims to silence critics and harass individuals has hampered creative expression. It is troubling when users approach me, relieved that our site has the "novelty" of upholding and adhering to the DMCA law rather than capitulating at every turn. The protections afforded by ZippCast should not be seen as "brave" or "novel"- they should be standard practice, and amendments to the laws protecting fair use will go a long way to correcting this horrible imbalance that has left so many creative individuals woefully exposed.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
See this video for more information on how this has affected people:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6FvhaXnRmA
Hey we the people have the right to free speech and big entertainment is checking us, preventing us from living the American dream. I will Silver Quill mlp and nostalgic critic from attacks by raising my voice and demanding justice.
Myself and many others from the youtube community are thrilled to see that we're being given a chance to voice our opinion on how the DMCA is being abused. I'm not a content creator on youtube (and don't have any plans of becoming one any time soon) but I feel just as frustrated as the creators that have to deal with companies or just random people who have no right to be impersonating said companies or big names and get away with it. Thanks to Doug Walker (aka the Nostalgia Critic) he was able to spread the word about this and started the hashtag #WTFU (where's the fair use). I'm signing this in hopes that this is not some kind of April fools joke and will actually go towards changing copyright law for the better.
I have wanted to start my own YouTube reviewing show, but with the way Fair Use is ignored and with how the current DMCA is being abused, there is no incentive for me to start a business like that. And yes, it is a business. Many people are making their living now on YouTube as reviewers and critics. Anyone can make a takedown notice on YouTube really for any reason, and YouTube takes the video down without looking at it and checking if the takedown is justified. And even when the takedown is removed and the video found to be fine, the person or group or company that called for the takedown has no repercussions against them. Companies can make hundreds of takedowns a day but the person who put the video up can only fight 3 at a time.
DMCA, when it first came into being was ok for the internet of 18 years ago. It is failing now, and failing badly. The copyright laws in general are all out dated and need to be reviewed. Disney, as a for instance, should not still be holding the copyrights to movies 100 something years old! Please change the DMCA laws to better reflect the current way the internet is. And please KEEP checking it every few years!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against such abuse.
(My "input".)
Look, I have no problem with copyrights being taken down, but please, don't take away our rights.
Have a good one you people, take care.
Too many people on YouTube have been affected negatively for several years because of people that want to cause trouble or otherwise act maliciously. I'm in.
Where's the fair use?
For the past 5 years I have only had a bad view about the DMCA. It all started about 5 years back when my first YouTube channel was taken down just because I had a negative review about a product.
Things like that still happens and it heavily discourages me and many others from actually making any content.
Links to negative articles gets taken down from showing up on google search results, too.
DMCA laws needs to change completely if not cease to exist at all.
Giving one company on the internet the power to simply take away some one's entire life's work? innocent until proven guilty? yeah well videos are just taken down because of a claim, no actual review by a real person!! Bots and programs are good for things like full length copyrighted music, but for general content? It's just not practical.
Our lively hoods have been put at stake, and there is no liability for those who abuse the system currently in place. What's worse is there is almost ZERO accountability by YouTube and other companies running the systems.
The companies doing this are acting as if they run the system and write the laws, they do not take into consideration the fair use laws that are suppose to be in place to protect us as content creators.
Please take this situation very seriously, as MILLIONS of lives are affected by this, not only in a financial manner of speaking, but in securing the content that we as a society in whole enjoy and share freely.
There needs to be harsher penalties for people abusing DMCA takedown notices.
The current DMCA system is purely an abuse mechanism for companies to unfairly and aggressively attack content on the internet that contains copyrighted material.
Under fair use laws, many of these instances are protected as educational or critical pieces.
The current system in place gives too much power to the one making the takedown and does not punish false claims. This allows trolls or monetisation thieves to walk all over content that should be protected. Rendering people without income or simply without a voice.
More needs to be done to give the content creator more power, strip the claim maker of control and respect the rights of fair use the young new medium that is the internet.
What's wrong is that internet content creators that are not in violation of fair use laws are being controlled by copyright holders that are merely upset that their work is being criticized.
There is no checks and balances in the current system as copyright holders can just simply claim, as many times as they want by the way, that their rights are being infringed upon whether they have proof or not. This causes monetization of videos or whatever medium to be lost as well as my ability to watch it.
They are messing with people's livelihoods here as many people have turned places like YouTube into their full time careers because they recognize the the world is watching the internet more than cable or satellite, but copyright holders don't get that or they just don't care.
I'm trying to help my favorite channels be able to keep doing what they love help be a part of that.
I'll be honest here: I'm really sick of what's been going on with how Fair Use laws are being ignored and trodden on. It's quite worrying how many times smaller content creators are getting their videos removed from their own channels, videos where proper editing and careful attention to Fair Use laws were being followed TO THE LETTER, and yet some company decides that since their product is being shown to millions on the internet, that they've got a right to ignore the current DMCA laws in order to make a quick buck, particularly video game companies overseas. It's worrying, and it's sickening, and I'm just goddamn tired of it.
Please help us bring fair use back to the Internet!
From the desk of the Chief Executive Officer at the Specialty Pizza Consultants' Group, LLC:
In addition, copyright strikes are sometimes issued against the legitimate copyright holder for content that they themselves created and own, but will result in a takedown in favor of the claimant. At other times people without claim to the property will file a DMCA takedown for something that has long since defaulted to public domain. This has produced an environment hostile to smaller creators.
These are abuses of the process meant to protect content creators and encourage the production of more art and entertainment, but the end result has been making smaller creators in some cases unwilling to monetize their own creations, ultimately resulting in less art. Too frequently are creators demoralized after repeated illegitimate take downs of their work and give up on posting it to public places. This seems to run entirely counter to the end goal of the DMCA. Rather than encouraging creativity and protecting free speech, it is used to discourage and silence them
The internet is no longer an awkward medium to sell or promote products, it is now a thriving hub of entertainment and news and the current copy right laws inhibit the internet potential for a bastion of free speech and progress. We need to update our current fair use system to fit with how the internet is used today. People make their livings by making critical or analytical material on the internet and this is done all for the purpose of education or criticism and this needs to be protected. Please fix the broken state of the internet. Please.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
Creators took down a podcast of mine that had none of their content in it. This has to stop!!!
Please Take this issue to heart and work on it so we all can have a better future.
I have become a victim since several of my own youtube videos, which clearly fall under the pretense of fair use, have been removed simply due to the content creator not necessarily agreeing with the content of my video. I have also seen this happen numerous times with other youtubers. Where youtubers who rely on youtube as their source of revenue are losing income and ad revenue due to false claims. And even after the claim has been proven to be false, no punishment has been give to the false claimer. This allows large corporations to go around filing claims on any video they don't like and getting it removed.
The DMCA system, as it stands today, is being used as a very unbalanced and biased method of silencing and harassing content creators. The amount of unjust processes and actions being taken by several copyright holders are seemingly unlimited, and result in online presences and personalities being almost bullied into unfair situations that often involve removal or heavy alteration to a created work. Because of this, I feel that there should be preventative safeguards implemented into the DMCA, which can rightfully make a content creator have protection (under fair use) for any transformative work they have created. The idea of Fair Use should be a stable enough safeguard to help people that create transformative work, but it is clearly not enough to prevent actions taken by copyright holders.
If not this idea, I in turn suggest that there should be a way for false copyright claims and strikes on transformative work to not go unpunished. For the amount of cases I have seen where a seemingly "resolved" case of copyright infringement sways in favour of a content creator, as is determined, there is often next to no repercussions inflicted onto any company or distributor that has filed a false claim. This often results in third parties (in essence,) stealing revenue from content creators, all of which the party gets to keep, even upon revoking of said claims and deletion of the content.
In short, copyright holders should be held accountable to the same standards and justices of creators of content, most notably on sites like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media networks. The amount of power sanctioned to a copyright holder is unbalanced, and unfair to content creators. There needs to be balance.
I was going to delete the pre-made message below but I read it and it's spot on so I'll leave it. The fact that it's taking this long just to even have this become a topic of discussion is ridiculous as what is happening, at least on Youtube, is nothing short of thievery.
The DMCA has been abused SO much over the past few years its become a joke. I see hundreds of people creating content that they care about and took time to make get a copyright strike, get deleted off the website they are on, or even sued when they have stayed WELL with in fair use!
The DMCA was created when the internet was just born but we have updated the internet and the DMCA has become a big joke.
This NEEDS to be fixed.
people create content that depends on the DMCA to be able to tell when they are inside fair use or outside, many of them even do it as their JOBS!
people jobs and LIVES are in danger because the DMCA is not what the internet needs anymore.
This can NOT continue.
Save the internet.
Innocent content creators making videos under fair use are getting taken down illegally and it needs to stop.
--
The way the system is set up now, just encourages abuse from larger companies and scam artists. While the small content creators feel helpless. Shouldn't we be looking after our future rather then them being silenced by unfair takedowns. Just seems like this is growing too fast, and you lack the man power to review cases fairly.
The DMCA was created in 1998
Todays year is 2016
The internet grows larger every day. The simplistic and archaic ruling given to a larval internet is asinine when compared to how grandiose it has become over these last 18 years.
The DMCA requires an update to encompass this new growth, as I'm sure it will become outdated within the next 18 years.
Several content providers have been straight up censored, and or, attacked for the content of their videos, especially when they follow the rules. Strangely enough, the inverse is not true, people whom actively disobey the rules, and DESERVE a DMCA have been able to get off Scott free with stealing content. In all, Human beings should be the ones that monitor/screen these DMCA, or the DMCA should have a section to time stamp the video, and where it is supposedly "violating" the terms and conditions. A timestamp would save any hypothetical human teams a lot of time.
If you love YouTube, and love the people whom built it up, please fix this.
Fug da polic
This was read by me, and I firmly believe in what is written here is important.
Internet content creators have little to no rights. Some creators directly re-upload other creators content with no repercussions and on the hand other creator stay within the fair use guidlines and then recieve copy right strikes. Fix this backwards system
LET'S SAVE FAIR USE
LET'S SAVE YOUTUBE
LET'S SAVE THE INTERNET
I'm with those who want fair use for YouTube purposes.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works
Fair use is an important part of many countries. Taking such as thing away, would for less people to be happy since they can't use media in a way that does not constitute copyright infringement. If your customers aren't happy, they may as well start a boycott on a companie's goods and services. If everyone boycotts, that means less money for your companies now doesn't it.
There are so many people on the internet violating the fair use policy. Take Tyrone Magnus whom has been stealing content and putting the entire video on the left of the screen and to make it worse, he steals money from creators. But the worst he lies about it! He is not the only one. Most reaction channels do this and please terminate these "reaction channels" for copyright .
as a youtubeer i have been affected by spiteful people and companies FASLEY flagging my video, and trying to take my content as their own.
when it has been highly modified under fair use.
your guys truly need to fix this issue on youtube it is getting out of hand.
back in 2013 i lost all my revenue for 6mths due to false music claims
from wmg, and cd baby. the music that i use was royalty FREE music that comes pre-loaded in final cut. they somehow dumped all of this in to content id, and use this to take down video and people channels.
i was devastated after this happened. NO one should go through this!!!
While most abuse can be held by a court standard and if brought there could easily be distinguishable, there are others who simply do not have the resources to do this.
Most of those that cause this get off free, free from law.
All claims filed should be accountable for and no longer automated because all it does it strip entertainment and even money not only from the content creators, but those viewing the content.
If this is to continue this field will simply be for those that have come before the abuse, those that can actually handle each takedown, this is not fair for the creators nor consumers, just fair enough for the companies, corporations, and the troll wishing to make a quick buck or censor the use of free speech.
Because honestly, What are the use of laws if they are not upheld correctly?
Thanks.
I'm tired of people on the internet complaining about fair use laws. It is also annoying when videos get taken down for no reason.
I'm not going to waste my time, and yours, restating what I'm certain has been posted a thousand times. To make it short and sweet, the internet is a complex beast that craves attention and requires constant change. This being said, it is absolutely disgusting that legislation crafted before this millennia is dictating what is and isn't fair to be uploaded or posted. It needs to be reevaluated, but I'm sure this is nothing new considering how many complaints you're surely getting.
Which brings me to my second concern, I am so sorry you have to deal with all these messages, the shear volume is a testimony to how urgently the public wants this change, but I digress. This is probably a circus, for your sake, whomever is reading this, I hope everything can be resolved soon. Until then, allow me to formally apologize for all the distasteful messages you surely have to read.
I am so, so sorry.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), especially for YouTube and other video-sharing sites, is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders (and such video sites are too small to go up against giant multimedia corporations) and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. For example, in a review of a song, the review creator may put a 10-second clip of the song, so that the viewer can know what they are talking about when critiquing said song. These clips are susceptible to auto-claiming algorithms, despite falling under Fair Use. And the other 70 percent contains a lot of spam made for ad revenue.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review, along with creating systems that prevent abuse. In particular, systems must be put in place for an auto-takedown'ed video that falls under fair use to be easily re-uploaded.
Also, one of my favorite youtube creators, the drunken peasents, had their youtube videos taken down, because of a DMCA claim. They critiqued a video from another youtuber, and because he was offended he filed a DMCA claim. How is it he can get away with that without anything happening. Sure they could sue for lost revenue, but people should be afraid to abuse the law not use it for selfish reasons.
Scarce is a woman
I honestly think this is fucking bullshit, sorry for the vulgar but it is. It's bullshit that these company's can take down our time made videos and just fuck our whole day up. They can strike the video, forwarding the money from the views to them. Witch I honestly think is bullshit.
~BlackScreenMedia TV
There has just been too many instances where I have seen channels almost taken down or fully taken down because of people false DMCA. It's usually becuase that said person did not agree with the channel owner's comment. The DMCA is too easy to abuse.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Please hear us, it needs to change
These content creators are not breaking any laws, and yet, their rightfully-earned money is being taken (no, STOLEN) from companies that claim their IPs are being "stolen". Who's the real thief here?
I'm don't usually like to send form-letters prepared for me as my own statements, but I will maintain the entire statement from takedownabuse.org in my letter because I feel it eloquently describes the sad state of affairs in our copyright system. Having said that, allow me to say a few of my own words:
Under the current system, I have personally seen dozens of abuses occur. I have seen hard-working, law-abiding people have their legitimate work taken down under the guise of protecting copyright with no recourse. I have seen companies use automated take-down systems to remove videos that did not even contain so much as a single frame of copyrighted content, and many more taken down despite being textbook cases of Fair Use. But much more importantly, and I hope you will agree, I have seen unscrupulous companies intentionally take down videos they know for a fact, and have publicly admitted, they have no claim to specifically in order to censor commercial criticism of their product. This abuse is allowed to exist because the laws concerning the internet and fair use has not been updated in the last twenty years. I urge you to read the following prepared statements and consider them during your deliberations.
Sincerely,
Thomas Dowdy
Why I think that fare use should my down is that youtuber make good video but fucking shit people black mail them and it bad for people chanles are down after all the hard work that they might have done for years just down and not knowing what to do and some of these youtubers have quit there real life jobs to do youtube as a job but what if you wake up and go on youtube and see you chanle is down and mosr of the people that black mail a lot of youtubers good content they get the money that the youtuber could have used to make better videos and most of the copy right /dmca was make back than like 1998 now today internet /youtube for this case ajd the dmca is use for for bad not good
I think that if people don't wanna watch it DONT WATCH IT
Fair use is completely abused. I have many friends and people i watch on youtube and other online forms and fake copyright claims are constantly happening. Videos and other content are being taken down even when there is no content used in there videos. If it has gone that far then something needs to happen now. I want to become apart of this industry, but i feel like i cant because of this issue. This needs to change and it needs to now.
Sincerely,
Michael Thomas
The DMCA is abused by companys that don't even own the copyrighted material because they can steal ad revinue off of Youtubers that are covered by fair use, channels are taken down for videos that contain any form of copyrighted material, The same video can be taken down by many different companys that don't own the content even after it has been shown the video falls under fair use. Videos are taken down just for mentioning a copyrighted material, even when there are no images, footage or music that fall under copyright. the current systen doesn't account for the modern internet and needs to change so that false claims or claims that have been cleared under fair use are punished by law.
I don't think I can describe it any better than the default comment but let me just say I personally have witnessed someone's video taken down by a company who didn't even own its content. The whole thing DMCA, that's from 1998. It wasn't written for everything that's possible today, with video uploads and stuff. Fair Use is wonderful. It actually gets people interested in the source material, and then that movie, game, whatever it is, it makes more money, because more people are aware and or interested in it.
Some people think they make the law, and they take down videos because of that. like fair Use doesn't even exist.
I'm sure by now I can't tell you anything you haven't read before. Below is the default message. We only want peace. We're not promoting illegal downloads or uploading full movies. We're promoting harmless Fair Use.
I have left the default comment below. I mean you no ill will. I hope you have good days ahead of you.
dmca is being horrifically abused. People who have fair use in their videos have it taken down by others, mostly by big businesses trying to protect their money. Many people make their living off this and their profit (which is made from fair use videos) is being taken away from them. This has to stop.
I believe the first amendment provides us a right to say what they want to say even if companies and businesses don't want us to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
I just like to say I am not a user of YouTube but all my friends and love ones are most of them have been under fair use yet they get affected by copyright right claim even when they haven't used any copyrighted properties other then pictures they show very good potentials and only want to expressed there creativity and freedom of speech and open minded opinions and it burdens them that they have people who have the power to take away there creations due to some mention of there property good or bad YouTube and the internet itself should be a place of fun creativity where any person can make something big of themselves and even others and to go beyond limitation and create things that can bring enjoyment to everyone's lives and even inspire new forms of entertainment, awareness, information, and chance.
The DMCA has caused more harm than good as it has led to content creators and free speech being suppressed by corporations and individuals attempting to make a profit or stifle criticism of their works. It needs to be updated and revised to suit the modern world and only target true piracy and copyright infringement, rather than being a tool of corporations such as Merlin CDLTD or Egeda to profit off other people's works, or used by ignorant people such as Derek Savage to suppress criticism and opinions.
The DMCA needs to be revised so it can help online users create a free and open community rather than an arena where the rich and powerful control what is said and what opinions are allowed.
"There's a point, far out there when the structures fail you, and the rules aren't weapons anymore, they're... shackles letting the bad guy get ahead. " -Jim Gordon
(Put humans back in the in working cycle)
Several shield companies are created to protect the company making the copyright claim. Content is being claimed by those who do not even own said content. Videos of people simply talking on camera with no copyrighted material are being taken down. Some companies claim they created the law. DMCAs are constantly being used without factoring in fair use effectively breaking the law and making a profit form the monetization of the content creators. Companies use DMCAs as threats. Videos are getting claimed multiple times even after they are cleared.
Content creators are getting DMCA abused by Big companies like Viacom when they are using the content for reviewing, parodying or some honest opinion, some of these DMCA takedowns are related to harrass content creators if they don´t think their product is for their satisfaction and even takedowns with the DMCA are used when the content creator didn´t even used the footage of the movie/TV show, Companies use this as an anti-competitive tactic to make people use some kind of outdated technologic or cover some of the negative aspects of their product when they don´t accept that feedback like the internet reviews and it affects smaller content creators to share opinion on the product
DMCA are being abused in whys where if there was a negative video about movie. The company making the movie will take it down.
the youtube copy right system is bullshit. right now, people can claim content thats not even theirs, with no proof, and the video gets taken down with no questioned asked and a strike is put on the account channel owner. Since youtube works on a three strike system, three strikes being a takedown of the channel, this is a huge hit against the channel holder who makes a livelyhood on the content he makes. It doesnt even matter if its under fair use or not for someone to report it. Many times its just been that the person doesnt like the content thats being put up, either being a negative review of a movie or anything really. This system is an outdated piece of shit and must be fixed at once or thousands of people are endanger of losing their livelyhood
WTFU
G'Day m8
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I have seen many reviews taken down just because they were negative, hell a Youtube right now is being sued for a negative review. I've seen people bully content makers to take down their reviews. Hell I have seen videos were people just sat in their car and review a film WITH NO CLIPS OF THE MOVIE get hit and taken down through DMCA. Right now the big corporations pretty much control youtube and the little content makers and even the big successful ones are being bullied, robbed and unfairly suspended when they are clearly protected under the Fair use Act. Right now the Fair use act is utterly ignored and is just a fantasy on youtube because of DMCA. This stuff happens daily and is a major problem.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice-and-takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and false copyright claims who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
It also needs to be looked at by human beings and not machines
Hello, my name is Jared, and what you read above is the default template for this email. I'm here typing away late at night (late for me anyway) to tell you of this abuse of copyright. Though it has not affected any content I have, or will ever put on the internet, it has affected my favorite people to watch. Though that is not the main reason I am writing this. The main reason is due to my moral code, I believe that when a law is being broken, a wrong is being committed, or someone is just being a general annoyance, someone, if not me, should do something about it. And with the current situation going on, with people stealing entire videos and not getting punished, and people who barely take any footage of something, or even none at all getting punished, it is annoying to see such things occur. So I implore you, do something about the youtube copyright system.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The World Wide Web needs your help.
I've seen too many people on YouTube being copyright claimed to restrict their free speech even though their content is well within fair use. It's been going on for far too many years while videos that obviously are not within fair use are affected much less. It's extremely unfair and something needs to be done about it.
: Having several different organisations like Merlin on YouTube being able to strike videos for copyright claims regarding content in other people's videos that isn't even theirs to begin with signals that change must be brought in order to make a difference into this very different world we live in where the Internet both surrounds us and is a part of us.
Free speech is something we should all be allowed to have and having certain people take advantage of that through silencing people with DMCA copyright claims is an abuse of the current system in place.
With YouTube channels such as 'I hate everything' and 'Pyrocynical' getting copyright strikes on YouTube for simply abiding by fair use laws and not actually participating in copyright infringement shows how weak the stability of the current system is.
The current system in place is outdated and must therefore be updated to ensure proper use of DMCA claims towards people who are guilty of copyright infringement.
Having a system that can ultimately be abused in such a manner is a joke in the eyes of content creators around the globe.
As a music producer, having my songs get DMCA claims is ridiculous when the person initially issuing the claim has NO rights to the content in question. With these types of people and companies having this sort of power of this law that is supposed to take the sides of content producers is abhorrent and shameful.
Knowing that the Internet isn't as we once saw it some years ago is proof that lawmakers must act now to ensure it acts as a safe place for ALL content creators alike.
In order to put a stop to those who abuse this power.
In order to take the sides of content creators.
In order to provide a safer Internet for everyone.
PROTECT CONTENT CREATORS
PROTECT THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN AT THE HANDS OF FALSE COPYRIGHT CLAIMS
PROTECT THE INTERNET.
They need to fix this they need to make you make videos and if youtubers make money let them get the money
Hello,
i may not make any of the content that is being taken down. However, I do recognize the violations of the Fair Use Act that have been taking place.
I am a regular viewer of the content on YouTube, and here in the past several months, a large amount of content has been unfairly taken down.
Most of the content being removed are from videos containing reviews, which SHOULD fall under the Fair Use Act, because the uploader is using the content for educational or review purposes.
Another big problem that several uploaders have faced is copyright claims when there is no use of copyrighted materials, or copyright claims by companies that don't even own the content in question. And even when these factors are brought to light, the company still wins. And in the rare cases where the creator of the video got the clam removed and cleared, the company simply hit them again with the same argument.
This has got to stop. So many videos, and even entire channels have been unfairly removed from the site. This is an unfair and unnecessary form of censorship that hinders both creator and viewers from free speech. ---Thank You for your time.
The DMCA has been used as a mechanism to silence criticism and stifle creativity, creating a system that is rivaled by the Patriot Act for its sheer destructive potential.
Prohibiting consumers from rescuing media from DRM is absurd, and doubly so when they legitimately paid for it, only to discover that industry decided it would no longer support it. This is monopolization. DRM ties consumers to brands, which is incredibly bad for the free market. And, of course, it has done -nothing- to stop actual piracy, which is becoming the only choice for consumers who have been locked out of the content they own!
Illegitimate DMCA takedown notices need to be punished more severely, and the entire copyright system needs to be redesigned to deal with the 21st century world.
Tl:dr The system is being abused, make it so its not broken
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Over the past couple of years, especially on YouTube, its been known that people have been abusing this system, leaving people unprotected by free speech or Fair Use.
People that I love watching: MrEnter, Nostalgia Critic, YMS, IHE, Jim Sterling, TotalBiscuit, h3h3, even Boogie2988. These people have experienced companies abusing this system.
Where people or companies look at their own product being criticized, and they think "Why not just take it down?" And they're able to do this with this system.
Especially with people like MrEnter, even recently, a company has repeatedly taken down his video of a criticism of a TV show, where minimal clips are shown or are either talked over. The company has now stolen his monetization, taken down his video multiple times, and sent him personal emails about it. Where Viacom literally one day, flagged multiple videos of his, and had his channel striked as much as possible, taking down his channel for a couple weeks. IHE had his channel taken down too. Nostalgia Critic lost monetization for a couple days over one copyright claim, and somehow the company was still able to take it even over a CLAIM. YMS literally gets a claim on like every video he makes. What does he do? He critiques movies and tv shows. Mostly commentary. He deserves nothing he's getting. Jim Sterling gets flagged all the time if a game developer decides he doesn't want his game criticised. He's in COURT right now. Over a criticism of a game he made. Being sued for $10 million. They were able to take down his video multiple times before it came back up.
This system needs to be thrown from the internet. Its outdated. Its being abused by so many people. And all we want is our freedom of speech. We don't want to be censored because we offend someone. We have the right to say whatever we want, even if you don't agree with it. And with that, I sign the hell out of this.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted work.
This policy is flawed and I have actually used it to go against the positives of social media. It wa bullet proof because people knew how flawed it was after a brief explanation. A classroom of high schoolers saw the flaws in this system. Washington should too.
I'm definitely not the first to bring this up, but I and countless others will not stop trying to fix the broken DMCA laws in the Internet. I know you didn't come here for a lecture, so I'll make it short.
DMCA laws were made back in 1998, and haven't been updated since. Given our constantly growing society, these rules NEED to be given a work over ASAP! The amount of damage people have caused using this out-of-date system is astronomical.
They're being used to file content claims on content they don't even own, and get away with it! They're being used to silence smaller content creators and stifle free-speech, and get away with it! They're being used to have people simply talking into a camera with no copyrighted material whatsoever taken down, and get away with it! There are companies that believe they created these laws when they CLEARLY didn't!
The main company will often use a Shell company to shield themselves! People use unfair flagging and takedowns as THREATS! Disgusting. There are pieces of legit, fair use that are being taken down MULTIPLE TIMES even when the material piece should be protected under fair use. You know what th worst one is though? There are people that use DMCA laws that DO NOT FACTOR IN FAIR USE!!!
This is simply horrible and must be fixed. I'm not sure if it affects you personally, but I hate seeing my favorite content creator lose his entire channel, vlog, anything really, just because someone got mad over a fair, reasonable piece of criticism, satire, just everything really, because it's affecting EVERYTHING on the Internet.
So, I'm asking you as a person who believes the Internet should a place of fun and reprieve after a long day, and who loves others who think the same, to please end this dark age of unfair stifling on the Internet.
Please. We're all counting on you.
I'M IN
Too many acts of abuse happening because of this system have stretched the ability of content creators so thin that the fear of legal strikes against their livelihoods has been stemming the entertainment of viewers not just in The United States, but in the world over. The system is outdated and does not adhere to the demands of a free society where the expression of others can be easily seen on forms of internet media at a moment's notice. It's better that we stop the DMCA system before any higher acts of mass silencing are undertaken to prevent the views of others from reaching public light.
Arton YouTube is dying because of the blatant abuse of fair use, People who critic movies, video games, t.v. shows, etc. As a country that was founded to protect free speech, we're lacking bad and we need to show what we're about.
My (Sketch) personal view on the matter: I cannot go to in-depth with the issues at hand, as I am not well-versed in terms of politics, or other gritty details of corporations, but what I do know is halting the use of another piece of artform (be it film, game, or physical media) is a serious infringement of expression, which is more than just a sentimental value, but it allows or changes, and progression to be made in the terms of media, while allotting economic availability. As for the Fair Use Clause, it is under the rights of the independent filmmakers (youtubers) to make critiques and comments of their predecessors. As I have said before, although I do not know every detail of the by-laws of the situation, there is something that must be done: the private rights of the individuals must be protested from those of the corporate identity, and secondly, all claims and accusations of copyright infringement MUST be thoroughly examined before banning (ie, halting the funds of) the independent filmmakers, out of risk of counter-copyright theft.
That and I've had enough of false copyright takedowns, content IDs, etc. Time we bring Fair use back to the internet!
This law is dated and is only harmful in its current form. I have only heard of it being used to bring false allegations against content creators that I want to see content from. Large companies are bullying the modern small businesses - as the content creators on Youtube and elsewhere generate funds as a form of media and employ people. These companies have relegated this task to a machine-level of automation, at times even flagging their own videos under a copyright claim because they don't care what harm they do or to whom they do it to. Claims cannot be contested as the claimants do not respond and Youtube does not act quickly enough in defense of its creators. The very people that give Youtube life, the people that masses flock to Youtube every day to see, are not given protection by Youtube. These creators spend years building a viewer base that can be taken away under a three strike law, even if those strikes are under review. This is reprehensible. This is bullying taken to a completely new level of "We're big and you can't fight us." Please, to whomever reads these, consider who this harms. In an election season, many promises are made to help "the little guy" and "help small businesses." Well this is your chance to not make promises but to deliver them. Content creators wish to use content under Fair Use, and their viewers wish to see it.
I personally deal with these problems across my media and would like to see it change for myself and for other content creators I watch online.
TLDR: DMCA sucks
As a budding Youtuber, I want to know that my rights are being protected.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on both major and minor content creators and commercial innovation nearly everywhere you look the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. Today, abuse of this system is disgustingly common.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is prone to significant error and does not allow for any judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the total removal of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls. There is little that a content creator can do to defend themselves against those takedowns. All it takes is 1 DMCA notice and any content is gone without a trace. Even when content creators have countermeasures, the process to restore their content is often long, and for those who don't have the exposure to show how unfair the takedown was, it's often never resolved.
These are being used increasingly without actual ownership of a copyright.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims or more simply to harass those they deem fit.
The blanket treatment used on all content creators is an inhibition of free speech. Even when copyrighted material is NOT used, accusers are able to take away income, creative sharing, and a growing entertainment platform from up-and-coming creators and entertainers by submitting claims, and none of it is questioned. Our voices are stifled and ignored!
Copyright holders may worry about losing income to piracy. But when people discuss and share this content within the guidelines of fair use, copyright holders are given greater exposure and become interesting to a wider audience.
This discussion is long overdue and has been the topic of discussion for years. With our voices stifled for so long, it's about time that we were heard.
I Have experienced this as a video of mine was taken down for silly reasons of stupidity. This should stop.
The DMCA needs a massive reworking as many people are creating content under fair use and getting taken down through abuseful and false claims. People have the right to use copyrighted materials if they modify them in new and creative ways (like using clips in reviews or making art about them).
Yes, we still need takedowns for actually uploading the full copyrighted material without permission but most of these takedowns are in Fair Use.
People shouldn't be taken down for reviewing a movie just because the company hates the review, they shouldn't be taken down when just discussing it with no clips or audio from the material, and they especially shouldn't be automatically taken down with no review first.
I have not made content that was affected by this policy, but there are a lot of media sources of entertainment that I watch that have been dealing with these issues for several months now. These current policies are taking internet media down a road that does not look good, and I want to do small things like this to get my message across.
And I'd simply like to add that I'm a new creator to YouTube and on the second video I ever uploaded it was an insane battle of copyright strikes on things that were completely fair use and pulled from sites that were specifically meant for fair use. My channel isn't even currently to 10 videos yet and it's been far more of an frustratingly eye opening experience than I would like. Everyone who is involved with my channel is flat out stunned by the greed and corruption of this system and even though some big channels are getting hit, it obvious that channels that make enough money for YouTube are allowed the law to work on their side and small channels just starting and allowed to be illegally bullied. It creates an online environment that encourages more people to actually violate laws because trying to work within already restrictive legal confines only to have illegal copyrights from practically anyone be set against you, makes you want to say forget even trying to work legally.
I personally have received false claims, under this, by companies who are permitted to claim revenue with no proof under this system. I am only permitted to contest three complaints at a time, while companies may make as many as they want with no punishment for false claims. Further, any STOLEN MONEY is still sent to them regardless of if it is finally deemed valid. Not only that, but they are permitted to decide if their claim is valid, no third party litigation what so ever. And again, no punishment what so ever for false claims. I have even had claims made by companies that don't even have any thing to do with the claimed material. They are not only violating false use, they are outright claiming unrelated material as theirs, which is fraud.
Further more, they are permitted to ignore any attempt to contest the claim for thirty days, all while no revenue is being generated for the creator. This tactic is abused by companies to deny revenue to people during the first month of the release, which is the time in which a majority of revenue is made.
This is out right STEALING MONEY from people, FRAUD, and CENSORSHIP.
Not only that, but they are permitted to outright have accounts deleted without warning, because they lodge a claim regardless of validity. They have no burden of proof, and no punishment if they are proven wrong.
Skrew fair use
It is very broken and needs to be changed NOW I can't make a living any more
I'm leaving the automatic comment in quotes below my own comments in case I miss any points. I've read through it and it sums up the basics of the problem very well.
The biggest issue I've noticed in all of this is the lack of human interaction with the YouTube creators. If a video is taken down automatically or a company makes a claim or strike against the creator, there's hardly ever a real person from YouTube involved in the process of clearing it up. This gives a criminally unfair advantage to the companies that make these unjust claims and strikes.
There has to be consequences for companies that make false claims. People are now doing this for their livelihood, one of the many job opportunities created in the age of the internet, and there are incidences where a company will claim the money the creator is making as their own. If there are no consequences for these companies there is no reason for them to stop taking advantage of the system currently in place.
There are many creators that have even brought attention to movies or shows that might've faded into obscurity. This means that creators are encouraging their viewers to go invest in these titles. The companies are essentially getting free advertising for their products, and yet they still try to control and silence the opinions of the creators, regardless of whether it's a positive or negative opinion. Ironically, titles will often be praised more if they are given negative opinions, in the "so bad it's good" category of media.
At the very least creators need the tools to properly defend themselves against false claims and strikes. I believe the initial thinking behind all this was that companies always know best and YouTube creators are just doing what they do for fun. Perhaps that's how it started, but it has now evolved and grown into it's own business, and the law needs to evolve and grow with it.
Things have to start changing. We are not going away.
---
""
One of my favorite youtube channels, Anime America has almost been taken down on multiple accounts. We need to stop this.
You can not let laws made back when Aol disks could fill a landfill, when you no'one could use the phone so you can see and instinct message saying "you got mail". Look back on all the laws we have changed in the past 20 years. Laws are made to change.
First: the companies wants money in any way, so they just make copyrigth false claims and automaticly the video have ads in it, that means money for doing nothing i guess...
My channel got a strike for a parody video that i made and the person who send me the strike said that the video is a re-upload, and was not.
Please, just stop it, you want money, then sell you stuff and there you go!
Second (I dint write this BTW):
It has getting worse as time passes. Shell companies are being created to steal the monotization of content creators by abusing the Takedown system notices. Companies are issuing Takedowns for things they dont even own using said shell companies. It is insane. Some people are even receiving threatening emails from said company to try and bully people into removing their videos under erroneous legal claims if its something they down like such as a negative review.
Innocent people who commit no crime are constantly under fear of being unjustly attacked by companies who, a majority of the time, win the case without any defense for the content creator. This harms some people's very jobs and way of life and needs to be stopped.
Since the beginning of modern art, the exhibition analyzes, compositions and critiques of works in all its exponents have served other analysts, producers and the general public. Since Rene Descartes made an analysis of subjectivity as to its construction so far, through David Hume, who criticized the postulates of the same Descartes, then Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Unamuno, he performed a study in depth of the techniques used by these (and more) authors throughout history, by which as expressed through his writings. Taking into account the distances between contexts, this process evolved into the most immediate means, allowing a flow of information on the opinion (to a lesser or greater detail and thoroughness) which leads not only to his expression, but also his refutation. In this age of finding a globalized world, it is an error as to the condition of human being a legal tool that only serve elitists wills, closed and anti progressives, who refuse to accept the construction of the world and society as alien to his own person, that will transcend beyond the time it takes. We are facing a hypertext medium, which allows a massive and effective dissemination of opinion, invatible to the legal manipulations, both local and global, that only those who pretend point to manipulate the legal system to their advantage. And such a system, in theory, is created to ensure the rights and responsibilities of all alike.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Companies make money off of people who are doing hard work to build a life for them selves and these companies, just live off of their hard work like parasites.
Yup, completely agreed.
I have created a music review series called DANGEROUSLY ROCKIN' REVIEWS back in 2014, and started putting my episodes up on YouTube last year. Unfortunately, many of them got hit with copyright strikes and were taken down because I used audio and music videos that weren't mine. However, I edited over most of the audio and video that I used with my own audio, and every video that I put up contains footage that I shot myself. I only used them as evidence to support my claims, hence, I have been using them legally. What these companies are doing is wrong and needs to stop, especially for the good of the music world and musicians everywhere.
Peoples real livelihood are being threatened by larger corporations to us fair use against others who follow the instructions within legal boundaries. These content creators not only can lose the content they create one subject at a time, but the entirety of their website under false claims. Please update the laws to be in line with where the internet is in today's society.
The DMCA laws on copyright and fair use is simply outdated. Today's internet needs updated law to fairly allow content creators of the now produce entertainment or give feedback on things happening without having to live in fear of losing revenue from their hard work. Videos are being claimed for no good reason, which in turn takes away people's living and redirects it to someone who isn't deserving of it. This is one of many abuses of this system, which in and of itself warrants a change. I think the internet as a whole deserves that change.
I support this message:
This needs to be changed. The internet has changed so much and so quickly so regulations need to be changed to assist the evolution of technology. Copyright is being abused everywhere especially YouTube and there needs to be a change.
I am a aspiring writer, the ability to not have to fear that any of the work that I wind up creating in my life won't be abused by a company that feels they own my property. I have to admit that seeing some of my favorite journalists, writers, film makers, and comedians getting their hard earned money, money in which they need to live, being taken from them makes me fear for my own future as one. I beg that you please change the law to better suit the new era in which we live.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
Copyright is broken. It is not the will of the people. This does not represent me or 99% of the people in this country. It represents the 1% of the people who make money of creation.
The internet is my primary source of entertainment and I'm tired of seeing my favorite creators' livelihoods put in jeopardy by people who abuse the lack of repercussion for filing a false DMCA claim. I've seen case after case of people filing a false DMCA on someone to censor them, steal their revenue, or just to spite them. You need to update these laws to reflect the century we're living in, because this is beyond ridiculous.
If these DMCA takedowns continue, there will come a point very quickly where just posting a blank image or even just greeting another person will be outlawed. For many people sites like You Tube are a home, the only out reach someone has to the outside world. Please do the right thing. Thank you for your time.
I want all my favorite people to stay on YouTube
As a personal note, online media has become one of the largest source of entertainment, news, and information for myself and I would not want my favorite content creators to be hit with frivolous DMCA takedown requests out of spite or other nefarious purposes.
In a time where parody works, independent works, and small company/ individual critiques are essential within the Internet, now is not the time to let anyone take advantage of someone out of disagreement or censorship. We have a right to make our content as well and we should not punished for using parts of outside sources in a transformative state (and given proper credit). The Internet has grown too big for older copyright laws and it needs to adjust with the times and give the smaller creators a chance to succeed as well. Because even large corporations started off as small people too.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies and individuals that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies and people issue takedown notices for content they do not own and frequently this results in them receiving monetary compensation for another's work while possibly temporarily shutting down the content creator. Some companies use other companies to issues takedown notices themselves. For several sites, issuing a false copyright claim has absolutely no punishment. There is no motive other than an ethical reason to not issue a false claim. As was once stated, man's greatest capability for evil comes from that fact that we can justify anything to ourselves. With that noted, this is not enough. People need to be able to be reprimanded for issuing an illegal takedown notice. This cannot continue. If content creators are severely reprimanded for copyright issues, the ones who issue copyright strikes must also be severely reprimanded. As it stands, there is little motive to be a content creator and more motive to be one who issues strikes and attacks against them.
This is not okay! We will all be harrassed for this! It is NOT okay.
I'm completely honest when I say that the fair use policy is completely out of date! The fair use laws where written before sites like youtube where even invented, so it's not at all fair that they should carry through to these sites. The laws indicate that basically you must go through extreme things just to keep your own original piece of entertainment up just because of a song or even just a person being present! In this day and age, this is completely ridiculous!
It's unacceptable that content creators that are using content still have to worry about some tosser not understanding what fair use is supposed to be or what it represents. The internet was built from scratch thanks to fair use and our love for sharing and expanding on other people's content.
I wont stand for systemic bullying enabled by executives who know jack shit about the internet.
The internet has become a place were people have real voice. Be it through simply talking into a camera, to making amazing animation. The internet is a place that thrives of creativity. DMCA removes the freedom of creativity. The system abuses individuals and had no repercussions for those who abuse it. It does not take a lawyer to understand that abusing this system is illegal. If the internet is to remain a place that always anyone to become a topic of discussion the DMCA must be removed.
I have been a content creator on Youtube for years now, and it has been a constant battle to fight for my right to talk about the things I love. Despite my content falling under the fair use clause for multiple reasons including such things as commentary, satire, and criticism, multiple videos have been taken down, and caused damages to multiple channels that I have run on Youtube over the years. Once I was given a DMCA claim under a company called "A Deal is A Deal", which never was a company, it was later revealed to be someone who did not like our content, and used the law unjustly to erase our content, due to fact it was a critique of their video. Which fell under the Fair Use claim due to it's properties of commentary on the media. People are misusing this outdated system to bully, threaten, silence, and damage their financial income.
I, Phillip D. MacKelvey, have read and stand by the following, and have added my personal observations at the end, beginning with "Personally, I have noticed":
Personally, I have noticed multiple cases of fair use violation on YouTube. YouTube's claims system makes a mockery of the concept of fair use and of freedom of expression as a whole. One of the claims I know of, in particular, would have no doubt been overturned by anything less than a completely corrupt court of law. Attached are 2 YouTube videos that provide an overview of that case. This is just one of a multitude however, I just don't have time find another. (If possible) email me if more examples of the DMCA's failure are required. Also attached is a video by popular YouTube personality "Nostalgia Critic" sharing his thoughts on the brokenness of YouTube's copyright claims system, and by association, this outdated law on which it's founded.
attachments:
Case in point, Derek Savage vs. "I Hate Everything"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzXSQ5f08sA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ZmVheuxpo
Nostalgia Critic's overview of the problem titled "Where's The Fair Use? - Nostalgia Critic" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
I watch this guy known as Demolition D an anime reviewer . His videos were constantly taken down whenever he made a negative review. this is wrong
While the following is recommended comments from the website takedownabuse.org, I want to further express my support for this cause and the removal of wicked automation which comes with living in such a technical founded society. Please keep American tradition of having the People involved. Thank you for your time and attention in this matter.
It heavily favors big corporate interests. It allows them to abuse it with automated take down requests which can take days or weeks to contest, and when you contest them, they can just deny your request and pretty much have little recourse. It allows them to be very heavy handed about not allowing for any legitimate fair use, and in some cases can cause the actual rights holder to have to spend inordinate amounts of time on their claim. For example, NASA had video taken down by DMCA because a youtube news video used their free to use footage in their news article and their bot detected a match in NASA's video and issued an automated DMCA takedown on it. Its so easy to abuse like this and contesting a takedown is orders of magnitude harder and more expensive than the takedown itself. And guess who has a bigger legal department.
I have personally seen many instances of blatant abuse of DMCA. Many clear cases of fair use are being flagged in the automatic system or companies making claims without merits.
ly biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Copyright law is a fickle thing, something that is abused regularly. Not only by people pirating but also by people taking down things that are legally correct under the notions that they are violating copyright laws.
Many content creators that do reviews, parodies, informing, or anything that is protected by law is taken down by being simply flagged. Maybe because the person doesn't agree with it, maybe because they just don't know the actual laws. But it is too relaxed and anybody could do it.
This should not be happening, and because of that, I stand by stopping DMCA takedowns.
Plenty of my videos have been taken down and became unnaccessible to other countries, just as plenty of my friends and favorite channels on Youtube have been taken down.
This needs to stop.
Yes, there is a problem. I'm not the type of person to try to explain it. Just do your research, maybe some of the other comments will explain it as well.
Above is there prestated argument, but it holds true. I am a developing content creator and already held down by the effects of copyright issues and overprotective tendencies for media that resembles another in some miniscule way. It's hurting my chance to pursue a goal I strive to complete because every minute I'm creating is backed with another five for ensuring that it won't be at risk for an arbitrary, copyright infringement matter.
(My own message on the bottom, most of this is just a copy and paste)
_
Hi. I'm just another small person on the internet. But i felt like i really could not let this slide, so i'm joining this probably massive amount of letters/messages you have.
I left the long message above because i still feel it does justice. But i felt like just using that would not be enough, so decided to write this myself.
I have been using the internet for as long as i can remember. But the internet I remember is no longer the internet that exists. Companies are filing fake, bogus, and downright disgusting copyright claims that are destroying content creators. It is starting to become a normal event, where a company will just file a copyright on a video/image within terms of fair use, simple because they want to silence them about their opinions (usually negative) on the company's products.
Basically, the US 1st amendment is getting run into the ground. Content creators start to fear posting negative reviews for a belief that they will get falsely striked and get everything the worked hard on removed, just because the corporate/creator did not like what they had to say. Good content creators left and right are getting strikes just for voicing their opinion. It is starting to come to a point where i would classify it as some sort of "dystopian" system. It's not cool, and it should be stopped.
So what's the point of all of this? Frankly, i'm just another part of the mass. A mass that wants content to be free again. And this whole entire mass is only asking for this broken system to get cleaned up.
I really don't know if you sift through and read all of these, but if you do, thank you. And if you don't, no hard feelings. It's probably busy in a copyright office.
Thanks.
Andrew Mulligan
Hello,
I'm just a viewer of internet content, primarily the Channel Awesome team, and I don't have anything to say that hasn't been said better by others. I'm just supporting and if these are being read, everything under this hasn't been changed from the Takedownabuse.org template and you don't have to read it all again if you don't want to.
Thank you for your time and effort.
What's wrong with the DMCA? The fact that it hasn't been updated since its first implementation in 1998, for a start. This act, as it stands, simply cannot continue to hold for the Internet of today; its principles are outdated, and its effects are devastating. I and many others have had to deal with videos being taken down or revenue being lost on account of content allegedly violating the "fair use" policy, when in fact no such violation is being committed. This is oftentimes not even the result of human content claims - many companies simply use an automated system to detect copyrighted content, and this system obviously leads to a great many false claims. What's more, certain commercial copyright holders are abusing creators, harassing and threatening them to cease production of their material and stifle their voices; companies have no right to do this, but because of the current DMCA, they do have the freedom. Preventing piracy is one thing, but this is a matter of corporate entities overstepping their boundaries and acting against the very policy of fair use. On behalf of the thousands of online content creators who have been affected, I implore you to re-evaluate the Act and give us back our legal rights.
I have watched many content creators on Youtube flourish for their talent, but are being squandered by DMCA take downs. They want to make a parody video or a tribute video but someone says they aren't allowed to do that. When they ask why, they aren't given an answer or are talked down to for trying to make a video in the first place.
What is supposed to be a tool to aid creator's rights is now being used to block any content regardless of fair use. Many creators simply use it to block negative content towards their product in violation of free speech. This is unacceptable in this day and age and needs to change.
Yes, there is an argument in that many of these people aren't making their own content and are just "talking" about what other people make. But I never watched those channels for the original content, I watched them to see the people who ran the channels. In many cases I wouldn't have ever seen or heard of the original content if it wasn't for those channels. Yet when the channels talk about the original content in a negative manner, they can be taken down even with fair use. Why is that allowed? Why are the channels being punished for not doing anything wrong? Why are these matters being controlled by bots instead of people? And also of note: Why aren't people who issued a take down under false pretenses punished in any way?
DMCA take downs have become an easy method of bullying by people with little understanding of how criticism or parody works. The system in place ignores freedom of speech and fair use to help people block the opinions of others. It is an outdated system that needs to change.
Bogus copyright claims inhibit free speech, steal revenue away from content creators, and promote monopolies on digital and physical content. Consequences need to be set in place for people who abuse the DMCA to harass other people. The person who makes a bogus copyright claim that takes down a Youtube video, for instance, should be liable to pay the amount of ad revenue that that video would have likely made for the uploader if it had not been taken down. Please take a stand for freedom by updating the DMCA to take account for modern technology with a mind for penalizing harrassment
This is a problem that must be solved now. Internet content creators are just like filmmakers and creators of television shows, just newer. Imagine if say, the newest disney film could be banned from ever being seen again, just because a random company claimed it infringed on something minuscule they own.
The only reason these makers are looked down on, is because the Internet is a fairly new way for ideas to be expressed, and new things are always frightening to big corporations, who believe that Hollywood and cyberspace cannot coexist, as filmmakers believed that tv and film can't coexist. The big companies feel that just because the new creators don't have mega millions of dollars, they are insignificant, and their work does not matter.
Remember the disaster called SOPA? Well, this censorship is the exact same thing. Thank you for your time.
-Just a kid who wants to make an impact on the world.
Many of the Youtube videos that are taken down do follow the rules of fair use, by using clips from movies and TV for the purposes of critique, satire, and education. In fact, these videos benefit studios by promoting their content for free. Unfortunately, these corporations would rather censor the internet than try to work with it.
Also there's alot of things happening on Youtube with fake companies only claiming videos to harass and steal the ad revenue off of the videos.
- That was a pre-written message by takedownabuse.org. I've read and agree with this statement. Everything else below is written by me. I'm going to copy and paste this in several pages to help support a new DMCA.
With the DMCA act-I have a tiny youtube account with a few videos. I've never had any real interaction with "DMCA" in that I mean there are users who have videos that are fair use and there videos get flagged and taken down. Videos that just talk about a copyrighted subject get taken down without using any copyright footage at all, even footage that would of been what I understand is fair use. Companies abuse the DMCA witout thinking about fair use. Shell companys will strike videos on youtube to protect the larger company.
There are other laws and practices in other sections of medias I'd like to get focus to. A lot of media laws just get swept under the rug. The every day person might not care about video copyright laws, or my personal concern video game laws. But one problem at a time and here is an opportunity to start fixing some of these flaws.
I'm from Canada and my opinion may or may not matter because of that but heck I bet on my floppy little head that some new laws/acts can help these companies out and help youtubers out and people all across the media. Laws that can't be abused.
My names Edwin thanks for reading this.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most importat types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undo
The DMCA has been used to make improper and false claims against legally legitimate videos, with no penalties.
The taking down of videos and tweets on the internet is sometimes okay, but in a situation where people are altering laws to make money off of someone elses content it is 100% wrong and needs to be stopped.
Content creators have been harassed and are being pushed out of an industry that has changed America and the whole world. Websites like YouTube are being strangled of their creative freedoms and constitutional given rights to produce content in a competitive Entertainment industry. We are a capitalist society yet we are trying to kill a new landscape of artistic freedom where great ideas can be made. Almost everyone in The United States has access to Internet and can voice their opinions, yet companies are abusing a system meant to them. Don't
let the common American loose one of their biggest ways of voicing their opinion. If America were to lose its freedom of speech, what would happen next?
To ignore this is to ignore free speech
It is time for the digital millennium copyright act to update it laws concerning fair use. What was created to help the internet is now hurting it as the recent laws allow big corporations and other copyright holders to have the work of video and music creators taken down and their revenue stolen as internet content creators such as nostalgia critic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI, i hate everything https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH-8PqS84qA, and mysteriousmrennterhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghpiMKueZM8 will attest. There needs to be more harsher penalties for false flagging and copyright claims as well as more manual involvement in assessing these issues. I love that the internet is a place that allows people to have their voices heard, so lets work to keep it so that no one’s voice can be silenced.
All this and more -vvvv- Make the internet safe for creation.
YouTube, no, Internet in general is one of the most important parts of my life, and I've seen some of my favorite bloggers and content creators get shut down because of how poorly the DMCA works in favor of them. I've seen how freedom of speech has been vandalized again and again by big companies who don't care about their audience anymore.
This has to change to REALLY protect content creators and fair use. This is ironic tho, since the DMCA was supposed to protect internet content from being abused.
Also fuck the people who thought it was a good idea to begin with and not expect back lash
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
We all need to come together and change or update the DMAC law that was written back in 1998. This law is very outdated for the internet of this age. I have not had any attacks by this law myself but YouTubers that I love watching had issues because of this law. I am very angry that this law is still around. We really need to do something about it and make the internet something to be protected and loved.
I want to start with something that isn't pre-written. I personally don't know how the DMCA works or how it affects people, but I hate seeing content creators I really like and support have to deal with copyright claims and everything else that comes with the DMCA. I trust these creators when they talk about the system working against them so I support them in this cause.
Furthermore, I am an aspiring writer who may have to rely one day on the internet to potentially make a living out of my skill. With the way things are now, I do not feel safe about possibly pursuing that venture.
Most of my entertainment comes from the internet and the videos produced by small, small companies or independent people. Some of these videos are taken down unfairly. I'm sending this message to you in hopes you can help these people who I've grown to love watching.
Thank you,
Elizabeth Ziesmer
Please listen to us, DMCA are abusing us.
Hello, while I may not be a person who was ever personally effected like this, I have seen many people who have been effected majorly, most prominently on YouTube, with content creators being harassed while completely under fair use, sometimes repitiously, as to some, this law is considered pretty vague, however, I hope there can be a change in where this law can grant a content creator a lot more protection, as I've seen some people extremely discouraged, nearly to the point of quitting what they consider their life's work.
Thank you for reading this, hopefully this brought some impact, no matter how small it could be.
Based on use of YouTube, it appears that multiple content creators are affected by false DMCA claims that affect their ability to upload videos and make money off of their work. In general, the disputes seem to be resolved in the favor of the parties uploading videos that reference copyrighted content under fair use guidlines (and rightly so), but the process takes time, and is apparently without consequence for the entities that make the false claims.
Artistic content and freedom is something worth protecting.
Hi. I have been accused of copyright when it was just a Damn Daniel joke. I thought this was just gonna be a funny video but no I get copyright strike for it. This needs to stop now. Also, I have been getting copyright strikes from songs that are on YouTube that you are aloud to use!! I DON'T UNDERSTAND. PLEASE SAVE THE FAIR USE
I am against false DMCA claims and support freedom of expression on all platforms
I have had copyright strikes on both channels, one of my videos was taken down by mistake so I never want this to happen again to anyone so please stop this law.
Thank you for your time.
Dmca is piss!
Get dat Shit outta here!
Fair Use on YouTube doesn't exist at this point I believe. Copyright Claims are being made on videos that are clearly promoting the content of others while the video creator isn't making any money. This falls under Fair Use but videos are still being taken down. There are videos all over YouTube clearly falling under Fair Use that are being taken down. YouTube is under attack with Copyright Abuse. Please do what you can to stop this infringement on our Freedom of Speech!
I've seen videos my friends make get taken down by those claiming copyright. They made a recreation using sock puppet but because they gave a bad review to the movie it was taken down. There was no offensive content, and it was pretty funny. No actual footage was used. The company even claimed two other videos and sent them an email that basically states (in legal slang) that if they try it again, they will be sued.
This is insane and some repercussions need to be in placed for false claims!
There are users in the internet that dedicates to distribute or sell complete copyrighted works; it is completely fair that these ones get punished for their actions. Other internauts implements parts of works made by other authors in their videos or images respecting the terms stated in this law, but they receive the same sanctions.
The objective of DMCA is to assure the protection of copyrighted content not giving companies a tool to make their products untouchable for the consumers.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are abole to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The majority of the entertainment I enjoy is youtube based. Every single internet-based entertainer or reviewer I watch has been negatively effected by abuse of the Fare-use. Reviewers and analyists lose monetization over false claims. Third-party shell corporations harrass and target innocent content creators. This is rediculous, that law was written in 1998; It has no use in the modern internet!!!
Many content creators on YouTube have received false claims from greedy companies wanting to steal their monetization revenue. These claims go against Fair Use, and many times, these copyright claimers don't even own the copyrighted material used in the video. Videos are getting flagged for sharing opinions or ideas certain people disagree with or speaking their minds. This is ridiculous, and all of these actions go against Fair Use and Freedom of Speech. The DMCA policy/law needs to be revised for modern day to allow content creators the freedom of expression without fear of being taken down or their rights taken away from them by immoral people and companies.
Where's the Fair Use?
#WTFU
The DMCA was created to prevent copyright infringement online back in 1998. This was made with good intentions, but it is still for the Internet of the late 90's. The DMCA is no longer usable for today's web because it's something entirely different.
Today, anyone can post videos, pictures, opinions, and the sort. But the DMCA is being abused to silence critics and to unethically make money.
This makes it hard to watch the content that people want to see. In the past few years, the internet has been growing as a source of content for people to enjoy. Hollywood knows this, and it's scared. So to get some gratification, or relief, they make false copyright claims on videos, declare content made by others their own, and bully smaller content makers to do what they want.
In short, the DMCA worked 15 years ago, but now we use an entirely different web. The DMCA is now a source of fear among original content creators, and online content consumers. More false copyright claims are made than legitimate ones, and not by a small margin. The laws need to change, for a modern internet.
I have seen many reviewers be hit with false copyright claims and have some reviews receive multiple claims, and many companies use shell companies to protect themselves when making such claims.
Cool Cat Saves Kids, Event Horizon? Those names sound familiar? They should. They're just a microscopic percentage of cases out there where YouTube Content Creators have been unjustly slapped with unfair and unjustified Copyright Claims. It's extremely unfair. This has gone on for too long now, with many being unjustly taken down by those who think the law is in their hands. And the Content Creators on YouTube ARE being fair towards the rules placed down. They don't deserve all they've been through.
In my own personal opinion. This DMCA has not been used fairly and in fact has only been abused.
Content creators are being harrassed and robbed by unjust copyright claimers, their videos get taken down and ad revenue goes to the accusers until the case has been settled, even if it was a wrong accusation!
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Let people procted his right over their work
My life hasn't been very long, in fact it has been very short, however the Internet has been so large and overbearing in my life that to imagine a life without it is too hard for me to think of. Through this experience I've seen trends come and go and all in all this has been the worst content detection has ever been. People spend hours upon hours writing, editing, and compiling information for a review and to see that content maker lose money with a click of the button for having a dissenting opinion on a movie is wrong. Fair use needs to be updated to reflect modern culture, as such I request that it be revised to fit an era full of people who can create shows more interesting and more visually active than shows from two decades prior. Thank you for reading this message.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw
I'm not an important person, or some major youtube celebrity. Matter of fact I'm just an everyman. I went through my phases and stages and ideas, and like any other content creator I wanted to share those ideas. It just so happened that I decided to take two small samples of copyrighted music, and remix and play them together as a Mashup/Remix given they sound very similar.
Technically I should have been protected under Fair Use because it would be counted as a Cover and/or Remix, and not a blatant distribution of the song. But one day I log on to my account to find it has been disabled due to a copyright claim. After it had been put back on, it suffered another assault, and then another, and another. My inbox had a new message every week and it didn't stop.
Keep in mind this was the only video of mine that was not completely original content. It was so distressing to constantly clear the video and have it put back up that I almost gave up until I personally emailed the company, one of the music groups whose music I had used, and politely asked them to stop and that I was protected under fair use, and so on.
I was met with an obviously copy/pasted letter that no one bothered to erase [Recipient Name] and place my username inside. So after some digging I found the subcontracted company that they used to comb through youtube and find any video they deem as negative to their music and pull a copyright flag.
I corresponded with them for a very brief period, and it took the threat of legal action against them for violation of fair use, as well as online harassment before they finally submitted and my video stands to this day. But the simple fact that I had to do this is utterly despicable. It is such a blatant and obvious perversion of what the DMCA was originally intended to do.
I might also add that the company in its final response letter neither apologized, nor attempted to make peace. Instead they simply taunted me with "We hope you are more careful with what you upload in the future."
The government makes the laws, not companies and corporations.
I had multiple cases where my Videos from Youtube containing footage from Nintendo games were taken down by completely unrelated companies for their content which didn't existed in their videos. The DMCA should be changed in a way that only the copyright owner should be able to send copyright notices, nobody should be allowed to send takedown notices multiple times to the same content and similar things that makes this law the most hated in the internet
As a youtube content creator, please change this policy.
This really isn't right that companies can inhibit the livelihood of individuals. using this outdated system any company holding a copyright (and even one that does not in some cases) can file a claim with websites like youtube to remove content that would be protected under fair use, if brought to court. this can even result in the money that the content creator would make from their work being withheld and even being given to the one filing the claim. whats more there is no consequence for those who file these false claims. the ones who file these claims have harassed and even threatened content creators. this is WRONG. that is why the DMCA needs to be updated to reflect todays internet to protect content creators in these cases and punish those who abuse the claims system in place.
if you care to watch Doug Walker's video wheres the fair use or themysteriousmrenter's video on his ordeal concerning pixel pinkie the latter is angry but i believe justifiably so and shows in detail some of what Ive described.
thank you.
This has gotten to a RIDICULOUS height of pure madness. These false claims need to end NOW. And the only way that is possible is through the staff at YouTube. No, the staff at Google. Honest people are getting their videos wrongfully taken down and their money stolen. As I previously stated, this needs to end.
The DMCA and all laws that file under it are highly outdated and no longer fits the internet of today. The systems put into place on various websites such as Youtube and Twitter very much abused for financial gain and/or threats against those who post content under the laws of Fair Use. In addition, the process for which these claims go through compounds onto the issue itself, which many who write these infringement claims exploit.
Copyright claims are used to instill fear upon users of the internet and content creators alike, and it is in no way okay. In addition, many companies use automated bots to write the claims so they won't have evidence against them. The laws need to change in such a way that corporations and hateful users do not have such a vast and wild advantage over creators on the internet.
For those who enjoy parodies and critiques that operate fairly, having these mediums attacked and stripped of rights is not only upsetting but also deprives us of a major source of learning and entertainment.
We need to take a hold of what claims are true and false as well. Why are random people able to put a copyright claim on a video and get rewarded for it? Why is Hollywood able to steal revenue from YouTubers who make reviews even if the clip is being talked over? While my channel, a Korean pop music video reaction channel, may not be covered under the Fair Use Law, many channels that I watch faithfully are, and it's not fair that they can be constantly and sometimes fraudulently put on hold because of a copyright claim that they would be covered over.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE FIX THIS MESS. Hollywood, music companies, animation companies should NOT, under ANY circumstances, be allowed to STEAL money from the creator. Put the money in a side account and have someone review the video and make a decision. GIVE THE INTERNET AND YOUTUBERS A FAIR CHANCE.
There is heavy bias in favor of corporate copyright holders in the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), allowing it to be commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Due to the Lenz v. Universal Music court sanction, companies are able to scan content posted to the internet for possible copyright infringement and issue automated takedown. This process is flawed, and does not take into account fair use laws, Thus allowing for the vast censorship of completely legal creative expression on the internet.
It is a common theme throughout the United States justice system that the burden of proof lies with the accuser. However, with current DMCA Takedown policies, that concept is reversed, automatically considering the accused guilty until proven innocent. Without requiring companies to provide evidence of copyright infringement, content is immediately revoked without any human review necessary. On top of this, those issuing the takedown are given the final say in almost any dispute, unless the dispute is brought before a court of law. This process can take months. Instead of protecting the rights of intellectual property owners, as was the purpose of the DMCA, it is now used as a weapon against free speech and as a tool for harassment.
Several examples of such abuse can be found throughout Youtube, with many channels having had their videos taken down, their monetization removed, and even in some cases their entire channel removed when it was obvious that no copyright laws were violated.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. In addition to this, those whose sole income is through their Youtube account can be especially devastated by this, and could even be forced into bankruptcy, especially considering the lengthy appeal process. This kind of damage can not be undone.
On top of this, there is virtually no penalty to those who violate and abuse the DMCA. Copyright owners can claim infringement on content completely unrelated to their intellectual property, and face no legal repercussions for the damage they caused.
Also for the love of all that is holy, get your shit together with this...
I do believe you can take videos down but not channels. Big YouTube channels do this for a living and if you take down their channel it is just like firing them from their job that many have been working on for years.
I have personally seen some I've my favorite creators unfairly hurt by companies who abuse the current system. This needs to stop. Changes need to be made
Hello. This letter comes from a concerned and worried individual about an issue that has been a big problem for videos creators recently.
Many people around the United States and world have been creating videos for the website known as Youtube for years. It's always been a place for growth and getting you name out there. In recent years however it has also become a possible field of employment, with several individuals making a living off of this career that started as a basic hobby.
However many of these content creators, especially for people who create videos in the fields of movies and video games, have been struggling to maintain a solid financial footing due to how Youtube itself handles copyright law and the DMCA. This has been happening for several years, but has gotten especially bad over the last couple months.
Basically, there are 2 kinds of copyright-related problems a Youtube video can be tampered by. The first is a copyright notice, which is issued automatically and usually means that the claimant claims all money made off of the video.
These were most likely originally added to take revenue from literal reuploading of the claimant's work. Now this is all find and good, but this doesn't account for transformative work in any way shape or form. This is a huge problem because movie reviews, gameplay, Let's Plays, music reviews, and countless other sorts of videos are going to have money siphoned from their hard work due to Youtube's automatic system.
it also seems like some companies have found ways to abuse this as well. It's so bad to the point of which many Youtubers blacklist movies or games from entire companies because they're going to essentially make money off of their transformative content whether they like it or not.
You can dispute these claims in the name of fair use. However while the claim is being disputed, the claimant still makes every penny off the video, regardless of the outcome. This is worsened by the fact that claims can take upwards of a few months to dispute. Most views a video will most likely get will be over the course of the first couple days.
The second kind of copyright issue is called a copyright strike. These must be issued manually, and guarantee that the video will be taken down immediately. It also strips the video creator of several features for months at a time. Some of these include the ability to upload videos longer than a particular time, and the ability to collect any revenue on any of their videos. This is obviously a huge problem for people who create videos for a living.
These are issued manually, and due to current copyright law, Youtube must take down the video at once if a video gets one. However like with copyright claims, strikes can also be abused to a gross degree.
The most common story you will hear here is someone uploads a review of a movie or video game that has been deemed awful by the general populous. The creator of the film/game will discover the video and basically silence criticism by issuing a copyright strike against the video. This takes the video down and messes with the video creator in a number of ways.
Not only that, but it appears as if the current system in place outright encourages this kind of behavior. One can issue a strike against any video from any channel for any reason without even having to reveal a scrap of personal evidence. There are also no consequences for this behavior whatsoever.
I would like to now list several happenings that have occurred over the last several years in the vein of claims or strikes messing with an individual's channel. I'm going to refer to most of these people as well by their online personas, for I'm not quite sure what many of their real names actually are.
One of the first ones I heard about was when TotalBiscuit created a 3-hour long podcast with a couple friends of his. Nintendo decided to claim revenue for the entire 3-hour video because there was 1 minute of gameplay from a Pokemon trailer that he decided to use as an intro.
Nostalgia Critic, Your Movie Sucks, and I Hate Everything have all been victims of the strike scenario. They have all reviewed an objectively awful movie. The director of the film, unreasonably angry about the entire ordeal, issued strikes to all 3 of these channels. He went a step further and threatened all 3 with legal actions by impersonating a law firm.
Similar stories happened to Jim Sterling and that TotalBiscuit fellow I mentioned earlier. They reviewed 2 awful games, both of which grabbed the attention of their respective creators, who both flagged the videos for the sake of silencing criticism.
Mario Maker is a game in which you can make your own Super Mario Bros. levels. A common practice on Youtube is for people to send their levels to popular Youtubers to see their reactions. WhiteHawke suffered a strike simply because he stated that he didn't like a particular individual's level. I personally find this one especially petty since the creator of the level didn't even make the game. They just made a tiny level using the software.
I discovered a story about a man named Chibi Reviews who sits on his porch and video blogs. One of his videos was also taken down due to a strike. This one is especially scary because not only was the video absolutely fine and devoid of anything that could be considered copyrighted (he was literally sitting on his porch and talking) but we don't even know who issued the strike in the first place.
Team 4 Star was taken down via 4 simultaneous copyright strikes which completely shut down their entire channel for several days. The scary thing about this one is that to this day, many still don't know how this happened, though Team 4 Star themselves believe it to be the work of bots. So apparently you don't need to even issue the strikes yourself, you can just have a series of robots do it for you.
There are countless other stories out there. One last thing I would like to say is that I personally find it terrifying that Youtube themselves has done nothing to fix or amend this in any way shape or form. Many of these systems are run by robots and it's nearly impossible to contact an actual human at the company.
It also seems like Youtube doesn't do a thing unless the victims themselves are already set or extremely popular. Most of these stories I mentioned did end happily for the video creators, however the only reason why was because they were able to be vocal about the problem due to their popularity. Youtube simply isn't going to help you of you're outcry doesn't affect them. It's a system run by the super rich, and it makes it almost impossible for smaller creators to get any attention whatsoever.
I hope something is done about the way copyright is handled on the internet. The DMCA laws were written back in the 90s, however the internet has evolved tremendously since then. Current copyright law is not suited to protect the people who are doing nothing wrong. In fact, in its current state, it almost always hurts them.
The DMCA laws allow people to claim copyright infringement when no copyright infringement is to be found. This includes things protected by fair use laws (such as a video rebuttal including aspects of the original video, or parody versions of popular shows), and things that do not include anything other than new content.
Disputing these claims are nigh-impossible, even if the original video is not guilty of any crime.
At the very least, the people enforcing these laws should be penalized when they are overly strict (i.e. when youtube takes down a video that does not violate any laws, they should be penalized), or the people falsely flagging the video should be penalized (same situation, but the false flagger gets penalized instead)
The internet is a place of and for the people, a place to share, connect and grow. When you limit it with false or inaccurate claims for selfish reasons, you limit people and possibility. You crush the chance to grow and innovate. You snap those connections and break the ties that people all around the world have formed. And in the end, no one benefits, because you have taken away the power to share, and you have taken away free speech and fair use.
Before we get to the form letter, we need to discuss the small but damning trend of people abusing DMCA takedown procedures to literally steal revenue from content creators.
Fake law firms have been claiming to represent obscure artists and begun filing copyright claims to seize revenue. This seized revenue remains in the fake law firm's possession even after the claim is reversed. There is no penalty to the fake law firm.
This is a tactic also being used by real law firms ordered to make DMCA takedowns on supposed violations of fair use, described in more detail in the form letter below.
-------Form letter begins here:
As it is, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is biased in favor of already disproportionately powerful companies and corporations. In 2016, the barrier of entry for creators, people with creative energy and ideas, is lower than it's ever been, but a lot of creators work within the realm of fair use especially commentary and criticism. And many of those creators, including myself, have been steamrolled by intellectual property copyright holders.
It's undoubtedly important that copyright owners have legal protection of their ideas and property, but the reality of copyright and fair use shows the DMCA has experienced stunted growth alongside the internet. When it's not only possible but common for Tuner Broadcasting System, Inc. or Electronic Arts to have an unmanned program that issues implicit SLAPPs against students with hobbies or established critics on YouTube, there's obviously a systematic problem that needs to be corrected from inside.
Copyright laws seem to skew generally in favor of the people with the loudest bank accounts, as in the perennially growing lifespan of copyrights and the Disney-style privatization of the public domain, I hope the United States Copyright Office will serve as an active agent in the protection of legally underpowered creatives and ensure a future of American works worth continually preserving instead of leaving it up to the men behind the big logos who would just as soon turn the American tradition of discourse into one long commercial.
The DMCA can be something to revolutionize the way we view entertainment, and the world of the internet is a strange and wonderful place, but I think what you guys aren't realizing is that people need to survive from it, and without the proper security in check, it seems to be doing more harm than good. It's hurting people's career's, profits, and the community with how it's being abused, and if you take some consideration, maybe you can see what's been going on since 1996.
As a content creator and a fan of many original content creator throughout the internet I feel like it's a shame we as a whole have been stifled and become homogenized because we're not free to say or create anything without the fear of a DMCA claim.
It has gone so far that you can get a DMCA claim even for talking about something you've watched with your friends on a recorded video uploaded on Youtube.
It's an outdated law that needs to be reformed to fit the present time.
As someone who is sick and tired of seeing original content being taken down from DMCA claims. Please. Fix it!
The DMCA is causing tremendous amounts of damage. Content creation is moving from large central locations to many smaller new content creators. Since the DMCA has no way of punishing false take down claims, people are using it to take down footage that they personally dislike, for reasons that can vary from wanting to suppress a bad review of their business, to just having a grudge against someone.
To make matters worse, large corporations have built robots that go around automatically flagging things, without having a human check to see if it could be fair use first. This is CHILLING, and could destroy a new entertainment medium in it infancy.
I realize that there needs to be something to protect existing copy right holders, but, if that something is something that also can be abused to stop competition, then that is the wrong something.
High key this is such fucking bull shit
It's time to finally stop copyright abuse, It's time for a change, a good change.
Agree with all of this:
List of known channels on youtube hit, and their content provided:
Brain Scratch Commentaries
Nintendocaprisun: Let's Play
Chuggaaconroy: Let's Play
Nostalgia Critic: Criticism
WILL?!?!!!?: Criticism
TheMysteriousMrEnter: Criticism
ALL OF WHICH ARE PERFECTLY VALID CANDIDATES FOR FAIR USE
Thank you
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyrt Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I've seen it abused countless times, taking down videos and channels on YouTube that in no way violated Fair Use, including a fan-made dance animation of a character owned by the YouTuber that posted the video of it. I've seen malicious targeting with it, used to attack people that some person or company didn't like. All of this is possible because the rules have no requirements of proof, and is severely impacting freedom of expression.
As time goes on, these rules are being abused more and more often, often by shell companies that hide the true sender. If we ever want to make the internet a free place, the DMCA has to change.
For all of human history creativity has been a immense part of our existence. We all crave each others views,minds and imaginations, therefore when somebody creates something amazing people will want to make more things based around that. Humans are social creatures and when that sociability is restricted we are never happy. You must see that our future lies with the internet. Humanity as a whole has connected themselves together around the world in one big network. So please, do the right thing and stop bogus takedowns using the DMCA. Don't go down in history as the bad guys and be forever remembered as the ones that stifled the internet. - From a member of our species
On 18 DECEMBER 2013 3:55 PM, this article was published:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130667-YouTube-Issued-Copyright-Claims-Against-Miracle-of-Sound
You can also look no further than Jim Sterling's history with DMCA takedowns.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The use of a song and/or content used in a non-monetized YouTube video should not be given a strike unless the uploader directly claims he owns the content. Monetized YouTube channels should be allowed to use copyrighted content as well as appropriate credit is given to the original producer/creator of said copyrighted content. Using a song in one of my un-monetized videos does not mean I am trying to steal the content, or claim the song as my own. This needs to change if we want to uphold our rights to free speech and the creative process. An artist cannot be an artist without materials to work with.
(I'll leave the default text in case it's necessary)
Hi, on youtube my name is AGM, and i'm a reviewer and a movie commentator, and i'm in because when i'm making a review about any product like a videogame or a series, most of the time they ended up being removed from monetization or taken down instantly.
I did a review about an internet animation called Vete A La Versh and in just seconds the video was blocked, thankfully i did not have a copyright strike, but the weird part was that i tried to upload it again and my video was considered ok by the dmca system. Which actually confuses me because that showed me that the system needs to be updated, since not even the DMCA knows what is wrong or right
And i have a lot videos that got copyright infrigements just because there are footage of the product i'm reviewing. This would make sense if what dominates in the video is the product, but most of the time the infrigement uses as evidence moments when i'm talking and leaving the product's audio muted. So again, i'm not asking to remove the system, i'm asking to fix the system.
The Fair Use is supposed to let people make a review, a parody or a commentary about videogames, series or something like that, but unfortunatly the system is not allowing this properly, because companies or even just random people uses the DMCA system to pretty much control Youtube and what can be shown for their own sake, so please, make sure that normal people can use The Fair Use
I'm AGM, Thanks for reading this
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The DMCA is very flawed, and with the ability for anyone, anywhere to make content rising over the past 10 years, we need to fix this broken law being used abusively and unfairly.
I've seen the harm this causes to the Internet. It happened with open-source programs, Internet videos, to name a few, and it'll happen again, unless we do something.
#WTFU
We wish for this not to be a problem please, we only ask for what is true and fair for all, i ask, whould you not wish the same? or whould you let some one take over all you have worked on because they just want to or mad at you for something that they did not like about you, and they use the power for bullying or abuse of others, there are so many loop holes all we want is to be treated fair, and end this for once and for all.
so please, give us this, not because we may ask or we cry for it from you, but because, it is what is right, after all is this not what helped us build this country, being fair, wanting to do something no one did, be all the same, all for one and one for all, that no one is as big or small as the one next to them because our true size is only based on what we are whole together not whole as one person, please we ask that you help us with this and help us bring what founded this country of united states of america, many years ago my grand father and mother said they where proud to be apart of this and even fight in world war 2 for the right reason's, and even made the inflight refuling system, but gave it up to the air force, trusting they will put it to good use and it did. this country was founded on the backs of so many, but they even now say that they are so ashamed to be here to even see what it has become. and it is because of stuff like this, when is it freedom when we have to push and shove for even a bit of a right of freedom, i only wish that some one with heart, and who also knows that it is not to late to stop this and that this country can still go back to the way it was before, just do the right thing, please.
I'll make my comment short and concise. The DMCA Takedown system (especially when used in cases regarding youtube) is incredibly broken and unfair. As a lover and creator of online content, I rely on fair use to keep this community alive.
There have been countless cases where creators have been unfairly punished and abused by this system, and even some cases when they've received downright wrongful strikes from completely fake companies. The people who abuse this system get off scott free, and receive no penalty for the perjury they have committed.
Copyright should be protected, but I believe that the DMCA should be revised to better protect fair use for the sake of content creators.
Thank you for your time.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was created for an internet in 1998. It was never predicted this form of media would grow at a rapid pace to where it is today. While the internet moved into the 21st century, the DMCA was never updated to match the rate of the internet.
YouTube created Content ID in 2007 to match the guidelines of the DMCA. It was proven in Lenz v. Universal Music Corp that companies won't take fair use into consideration and only cared about their image to consumers. It has now gotten to a point that companies will abuse the system to take down users that want to share and criticize content among friends, family, and the world.
Content creators had to go through:
- Having to fight off hundreds of false claims with only three appeals going at once on a daily basis.
- Harassed and bullied to take down content.
- Had videos taken down, even if they don't show and/or mention copyrighted material.
- Have monetization taken away with no penalties to the claimants for false claims.
- Had channels taken down with no legit explanation.
- Threatened to be taken to court by development teams.
- Have the same video be taken down multiple times, with no penalties.
- Forced to pay ransom or have their videos taken down.
Users have little to no defense against the false claims constantly spread around YouTube. If all claims were taken to court to be analyzed, most would be considered fair use. For every false claim the holder makes, no penalties are charged. For every claim issued to the creator, they have little power to fight it off. Piracy is illegal, but so are the issues mentioned above.
An updated version of the DMCA would be the first step to a balanced fight on the internet. With laws protecting fair use, it would lead to a new form of media where content can be used for criticism, celebration, satirical satire, and education. This could be the next major entertainment movement since the 1950's. This can't happen until the people can watch their favorite entertainers, knowing they won't go away in a blink of an eye.
People get their vids taken down for videoing CLOUDS!
I myself have been the subject of countless copyright claims and takedowns for online videos I've created. Most of this work qualifies as fair use. Other work is completely original and yet still targeted. In either case, my work has been subject to copyright claims from companies that do not consider fair use as well as individuals and organizations that have nothing to do with my work nor my content. Furthermore, when I fight these claims, there is nothing stopping them from happening again from the same or different claimants, which has my content disappearing at any point, and re-appearing when my counter-claim expires the dispute, which can take over a month. This is disparity is particularly damning with fair use which allows artist and content creators to remix existing work to create new experiences and yet is completely ignored by the current powers that be. I understand that companies cannot inspect all online content, but there needs to be checks in balances for defending copyright creators who are currently guilty before proven innocent and preventing abuse by malicious individuals and large copyright that ignore copyright law by using the DMCA to shut down content creators.
It's high time to update the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for the digital age of the 21st century in 2016.
Even art websites such as Deviantart or Tumblr.
The DMCA takedowns on YouTube have only become more and more ridiculous as time goes on and It would really be nice if they could update the DMCA for the modern age. Most of the people that have had DMCA takedowns are either movie reviewers, reactors, and anime content creators. And it's really unfair for them because they are up against huge companies with little or no chance to fight back thanks to YT's bullshit system. I think everyone needs to change for the better, and for the DMCA, the time is now.
I'm using this as a chance to support my friend and her crew who have put so much of their free time, not to mention blood, sweat, and tears, to develop a parody of one of their favorite shows, much in the vein of TeamFourStar and their Dragon Ball Z abridged series.
The project is called Project Voicebend, and it is a parody of the hit show The Legend of Korra. Her videos fall completely under fair use and she even adds her own edits along with written fan scripts and voices.
The channel, Project Voicebend, is constantly being harassed by Viacom, who falsely takes down many videos posted with no reasonable explanation other than that they can.
Please fix this, and allow my friend to keep making what she loves without the stress and hassle of being bullied by a company who clearly does not understand the legalities of the situation.
Thank you.
It's not right for corporations to stifle free speech. Making parodies and reviews is legally classified as free speech, a Constitutional right. But don't take it from me, here's a much better way to phrase my feelings...
""
Clearly something has failed here.
Over the last few years this has become a more and more abused flaw. From content creators who are parodying movies, television, books, or video games. Or people making fan content based on these things ranging from art, music, reviews, fiction, or just plain mentioning a company, or film, or piece of media are being attacked, severely sometimes, by peoples who don't want what is
being said, reviewed,or created to be seen or shown.
This is not always a bad thing. Sometimes there are clear abuses from media being ripped straight from their original source and played as loss of revenue to whomever owns it. I get it. I really do. Things like these need to be managed more efficiently.
However. There has been blatant abuse of the current system From TotalBiscuit infamous Day One Garry's Incident review:
http://tinyurl.com/oc4232l
Studio Ghibli absolutely destroyed the tribute to Spirited away that Artist OZWorkshop made that had music from the films in their video:
http://tinyurl.com/z5b7te9
To the more recent removal of several of Channel Awesome's older and newer videos. explained in greater detail here:
http://tinyurl.com/gup5x5c
These were created with time, love, and dedication. either to the fan-base, to their viewers, or to the media itself. And are frequently torn down with nary a thought to the genuine work that went into making them, or the spirit of their creation. In the end people created these videos, art, music, whatever because they love the subject they're working on. Be it for the creation of great things, or the tearing down of horrible things.
There may have been a time where a copyright claim could and should not have been held accountable for not having been found to contain any copyright infringement. That time is long over, due to the gross abuse of false claims that end up damaging not just the revenue of the creators, reviewers, and original authors but the overall lack of penalties that these false claimants have.
A company can send a false claim based on a review and the creator can do next to nothing. They don't have any support from the website hosts, trying to fight against all false claims are an uphill battle.
The rationale for the claims process must include enough factual evidence to support the claim. And the claim should be reviewed by a neutral human review board paid for by the hosting entity. False claims must provide restitution, equivalent to profits lost by the harmed party and the claimant refused reclaim on the same work.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said :
"Copyright assures authors the right to the original expression, but encourages others to build freely upon the ideas and information conveyed by a work."
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of @questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
Youtube is a platform where many individuals hold their livelihood, host the results of typically thousands of hours of work, and rely on its revenue system as a source of income. The current DMCA copyright act that stands is greatly outdated and allows for false claims of copyright to be used against these individuals, regardless of the type of media they produce.
This current DMCA system causes many individuals to have their work censored or removed, even if what they produce stands within fair use. The current systems also allows for illegitimate companies to copyright strike content that they had no involvement in producing or have no rights of ownership.
Thank you very much for reading this, and I greatly hope that this system will be adjusted for the modern way that digital media is produced.
-Roydon Goggin
I have seen far too many good content creators lose their hard work to an unjust system. One that lets people make false claims with zero background check into the matter. Its time for change.
This is a seriously dated law that's harming digital entertainment on the internet! It's being used as a tool to disrupt legitimate businesses and entertainments that aren't even infringing on the copywriters of other companies! People with original content are having videos taken down, and websites disrupted because of false claims, and are hiding behind this ancient law while doing it!
The DMCA needs some major updating and enforcement. False DMCA flaggers should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law which has not been happening. DMCA False Flaggers are a huge problem for content creators and face no consequence for stealing money from people who are supposed to be protected by fair use.
I've known people who I talked too about the problematic situation on Youtube, which involves the fair use problem over music. She already released a video on her experiences with the DMCA + the copyright claim, which not only affected her videos, but videos where her music is use even though she gave permission. Also, it's affecting not only Youtube and Twitch, but every social media and video sharing site of the whole Internet world.
The system is outdated.
Corporations are slaves to money, they don't care about the rules or who they're messing with.
Creators ie. people who take full advantage of free speech, are constantly oppressed by the fat cats of the world.
Creators shouldn't be nervous about uploading something that's clearly in fair use.
It's a simple as that.
The idea that people are not allowed to entertain their right to freedom of speech is an asinine notion. We who live in the USA should have artistic, religious and intellectual right to post and upload on the internet for whatever reason we might think it needs to be put there. That is the right that was fought for by not only our military but our founding fathers themselves who chose to embrace a society where every man had the opportunity to put his word in on the subject. Such inflictions of violations of rights should be looked at and stopped immediately, as some of them are in worst case scenarios, blackmail.
For more information, please refer to this video as it explains the issue of false copyright claims far better then I ever could.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
To the people of the US, as someone not living in the US, thank you for your time in listening to the struggle we face now.
I am a senior in high school, and part of my graduation requirements is to make a senior project. For my senior project, I am making a video review of a movie. I want to use clips from the movie to commentated on it, but because of this outdated system, I am scared to even try to make the video, which is not a feeling this system should give people.
Many of my favorite youtubers have been affected by blatant abuse of YouTube's copyright law. Channel awesome has been hit with multiple strikes even though his videos fall under fair use, resulting in loss of revenue and companies even stealing the monetization of his videos. I Hate Everything made a review on cool cat saves the kids. Even though it fell under fair use, the video was removed and the director had been harassing him for a while. At one point, his channel was temporarily deleted due to another copyright claim, and he only got it back after making a fuss. TheMysteriousMrEnter has been repeatedly hit by copyright claims and most recently, he got a strike on a review and he filed a counter claim. Since his videos fall under fair use, the stroke was removed, only for the same video to be struck multiple times. Companies are abusing the fair use laws. Some companies will claim videos they have no ownership of at all only to steal the monetization. Youtubers are being harassed and free speech is being stifled.
*To whomever reads this, the important thing is that an extension of free speech is under attack which is protected by the First Amendment. Youtube being a prime example of people who have expanded on either others' creativity (protected by Fair Use) or their own unique ideas have been abused by companies who feel that they can either bully or silence competition. Many people on Youtube who are considered popular make a living off of Youtube from the many people who enjoy their material. I myself love watching parodies, instructional videos, critic reviews, and so on because they offer some new insight on something I was either curious about or that I find extremely enjoyable.
I am asking you to consider the issues if this abuse of Fair Use policy and consistent attacks on people who are just expressing what they love to talk about. Thank you for your time for consideration.
I am simply a YouTube watcher I enjoy its content and love it's creative community. However I know many you tubers who have been harassed and had there videos taken down unjustly. I also have wanted to start a channel of my own, but am afraid because of all the things I've seen with fair use practices. There are companies out there that now they have no consequences even if they claim a video and then found they are wrong. We are talking about people's lives here and they are basically being robbed. So in conclusion I hope that this comment helps even a little bit, and hope that one day I can make my own channel and not worry about having my videos taken down just because. WTFU
While it is true that there are a lot of discussions which need to take place regarding the copyright system as it applies to the Internet, these discussions need to happen with regards to the Internet in 2016, not as it was nearly 20 years ago. They also need to happen in the open, where average people and content creators of all shades can have a voice, not just the corporate and political interests who can sometimes benefit most from the system as it is right now. Hopefully, this process will begin a larger discussion regarding Copyright in the digital age by reforming the DMCA.
Youtube is my prime source of entertainment and this is true for a lot of other people. It hurts content creators and it's a real cheap scumbag move to take down and steal monetization without any effort or work. They receive no penalty for doing this and that's just not right. Thank you for your time. Have a nice day.
The current laws are unfair and out if date, they need to be updated to reflect our current society. Fair use should be protected.
I have been using the internet as a primary source of entertainment, education, and general information exposure for a long time, and time and time again I have seen the DMCA used to hurt people who have done nothing ethically or legally wrong.
I have seen people make transformative art have their spirits broken by DMCA takedowns putting an end to their work. I have seen critics of art and media have their livelihoods threatened time and again by automated DMCA requests, and I have seen people try to make political statements about corruption only to have the subject of their criticism file frivolous DMCA notices to get them censored on the grounds of a two second fair-used clip involved in the discussion.
This is unacceptable. The DMCA exists to ensure that the intellectual labour of every man is profitable, not to be a creative, economic, and political scourge on those too small and tired to fight back. Furthermore, even with the DMCA piracy of digital media has not been decreased a whick. So, it failed at it's goals and created vastly more problems. This is unacceptable, and must be corrected.
It gives companies free reign to fuck over content creators, take their content, broadcast it, then turn right around, and kick them in the teeth. If you want the benefits of the internet, and people creating content, you can't punish them for it
At the end of the day, its a broken system. I have been given copyright strike after copyright strike even when im well within fair use.
Almost all my church's service videos are "monetized by the claimant" despite not showing any content from other creators. They have been taken down without reason and are being attacked despite our own people putting forward their talents uniquely and without other media. This is Fair Use, and we need the fair use back.
I will say I am not a content creator or youtuber but I have been a loyal fan of many youtubers and some have been taken down under this abused law of copyrighting. Some examples range from a simple reactor named Jaffaarchfiend who watched videos and gave us his reactions on the content when he followed the strict YouTube and copyright laws, but in the end he got his entire channel terminated. Then from bigger sites such as Team Four Star who have been on YouTube for years and without warning they lost their entire site, the reason for this termination was ridiculous because they create a parody show not to get rich but for entertainment and the enjoyment for the fans. Luckily through their fans help and outrage over this their site was back up however several videos took longer which included several countdown list which was on their own personal opinion nothing to do that deserved being copyrighted. Many people I've seen even including myself are fearful of making videos because this copy right law show no help for the content creators only for the company's who can delete us with a button when many just give personal opinions on things or do things for comedy. I ask you in this modern age where technology has vastly upgraded from when this law was done in 1998 shouldn't this law change as technology has.
Some of people playing Let's Play of games my company created using artistic license and other free musics have their video taken down by people abusing DMCA on those free access audio tracks (not the creators or owners of the copyright). By the time the videos are returned, they have lost revenue and I have lost coverage which, in turn, means lost revenues for me.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content
Hi. Although I have not really made any good headway on youtube yet but I still want to. However if the DMCA changes for the worse, this future will never happen.
This is not an issue that will be solved by ignoring it.
Through the current DMCA policies, there are no repercussions for trolls, and automated systems to abuse claims against CONTENT CREATORS.
The most egregious violations is to CENSOR any and all criticism directed anywhere.
The internet of today needs laws that have been updated to reflect the current reality.
I am a new content creator on YouTube. I do it to inspire others, entertain, and make a difference. I do not monetize my videos. Before I use any music or other media in my videos, I always research to see what copyrights the works are claimed with, or if the author gives written permission for their works to be used. I follow guidelines for fair use and in no way infringe any copyright laws.
However, my videos still get claimed by third parties.
I like to make my videos enjoyable for everyone in every way that I can, including being ad-free. Whenever I get a content claim, ads are forced onto my subscribers, and a third party exploits my original work - which I put hundreds of hours and huge amounts of work into to make - to make money for themselves. Not to mention that they are also claiming someone else's media (such as a song) - that I used fairly and legally - as their own. I knew that this [their action] was illegal in most countries before I even started the countless hours of research that I have done on copyrights and fair use.
A specific case I am dealing with now is against an entity that claims to be a Canadian-based record label. Using the name "Dream Crusher Media," they constantly claim music that I use in my videos as theirs. However, anytime I use music in my videos, either:
a) the song is copyright-free
b) the artist gives written permission on their channel or website for anyone to use their songs
or
c) I have personally asked the artist for permission to use their music and they gave me approval and/or a license.
Dream Crusher Media's alibi is that they represent these artists and claim the music on the artists' behalf. As I said, these independent artists allow anyone to use their music as long as they give credit or meet any prerequisites, which I always make sure to do. Many of them also state on their websites that they do not license or sell their media to third parties or record labels.
I tried to reason with this "record label" but they responded unprofessionally and with hostility. They even have a comment which they copy and paste on videos in which people call them out. The comment is just their front stating that they allegedly represent the artists. It is full of grammar errors and flawed logic that contradicts itself.
I disputed some of their claims, giving them links to the licenses and obvious proof that I was using the music fairly. They ignored my disputes, reinserted their claims, and restated their false declarations. Anytime this happens, I set the video to private so they can't make any more revenue from it. Then I re-upload the video from a backup on my computer, after making changes so Dream Crusher Media can't claim the video again.
I have spent hours shedding light on Dream Crusher Media and have collected enough evidence to prove that their assertions are bogus, actions are illegal in the United States and Canada, and that they are exploiting dozens - if not hundreds - of small YouTube channels such as my own. I have released some of these videos of stockpiled proof on my channel. Others I am keeping in private locations until I find a way that I can use them to support my case.
I'm sure Dream Crusher Media is aware that I have proof of their illegal activities. However, due to the DMCA and the current YouTube copyright claim system, they continually get away with it. Since they go unpunished, they continue their actions, not caring that they are breaking laws and infringing peoples' rights.
I have contacted other victims and the artists whose rights are being infringed so I can join forces with them to fight this unfair abuse.
I am not currently considering this, but I have thought of the possibility of seeking a class-action suit of some kind against Dream Crusher Media. Has society really come to the point where a stressed-out high school student with good intentions has to think about taking legal action just to protect their rights to free speech and creativity?
Thank you for your time.
My channel name is Rhokinics and I'm asking, "Where's the fair use?"
#WTFU
#MakeYouTubeGreatAgain
As someone who is working hard to start a podcast this year, I have witnessed more and more people getting unfairly shut down and censored for providing content that would be deemed legal in a US court of law. Such abuse threatens my own right to free speech and fair use. Like many others, I do not have the means to afford lawyers or fight for my rights in the courts. If the abuse carries on and reaches my humble little podcast, that would be the end of my livelihood. This abuse of the legal system is mostly affecting YouTube right now, but it could easily spread to affect many other places on the Internet were content creators hope to seek a safe refuge.
I know I am not the only one who is aware of the abuse. There are tons of videos on YouTube addressing these issues, hoping that someone is listening so that the system can be changed. Even if not many people opt in to this, you can find out for yourself how many people care about these issues by searching for the following:
#WTFU
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
#WTFU (where's the fair use)
Youtubers who make their living off of videos that are struck become victims, losing monetary value that video could've provided them. That video could've paid their rent, fed their families, engaged the fan base. Creativity should be fostered, not censored. #AllYoutuberlivesmatter
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
As an example, YouTube provides an option for people who posses a channel on the website to monetize videos they post there via ad-revenue. Initially, YouTube takes a 50% cut of the total funds generated by the video, then the content-creator's multi-channel network (if he/she is affiliated with one) takes a percentage of the remaining income. Whatever is left is then, finally passed on to the content-creator.
YouTube has a system called Content-ID that allows copyright-holders to file works belonging to them with YouTube for them to flag videos on their website containing the material-in-question. Should a video be marked by the Content-ID system, the monetization right for that video are immediately transferred from the individual who originally posted to the copyright-holder. Now the individual may dispute the claim with YouTube and the copyright-holder through the Content-ID system, arguing that the video falls within fair-use as laid out by the DMCA. Ultimately, this process can take up to 30-days or more, and even if the content-creator wins the dispute, he/she does not receive a single dime of the money produced by the video from the time it was flagged until the claim was lifted; it goes to the copyright-holder and YouTube. Policies should be implemented where the revenue generated by a flagged video is placed in a reserve account while it is disputed by the content-creator and the copyright-holder until the issue is resolved. When the dispute is settled, the winner winner should then receive the money from the reserve account.
YouTube's Content-ID system works from a guilty-until-proven-innocent mindset that can easily be abused by anyone to harass, threaten, and potentially lethally damage one's means of earning a living on the website.
Examples of the issues currently going on YouTube
Our original video on Fair Use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFA...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0W...
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (STILL going on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J0...
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ...
Team Four Star's issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkc...
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nU...
Chibi Reviews gets a DMCA for talking about snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWys...
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company - MMA company thinks it makes the law!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXo...
Mr Enter and the saga of DMCA after DMCA takedown on the SAME video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtw...
NFKRZ and how ransom is now on YouTube!
I want the harassment of people for being different on the Internet to stop altogether
I honestly believe that everyone should have the right to post what they wish on the internet albeit a clip on YouTube or a tweet of a product and have that right to post protected. YouTubers and the like shouldn't be scared to post videos or anything else up just because a company of any kind is getting uppity. If anything them showing the clip or product would help get the word out their of that company's work. It's stupid to have content censored or taken down. We aren't China who are dictators when it comes to anything that is in the public eye. So please let Youtubers post and people tweet what they want.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content thaon political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.t is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
This is very very important for creators and viewers alike... If you want to go after people go after people actually violating these issues
The DMCA system has been abused very heavily in recent times. It is being used to silence people on the Internet by removing videos, pictures, etc. Many people use the Internet as a means of income, and content they produce can be DMCA'ed by just any person with an Internet connection. This causes them to lose some of that income, and when the DMCA is proven illegitimate the money is not returned. This silence tactic is being used with the worst of intents. This needs to end. When it does, free speech online will finally be truly free.
The current means by which the DMCA is run allows for little to no leeway in favor of content-creators, be they online entertainers or educators, or actual critics.
It also allows for those who do not like people talking about their work to silence criticism and information by submitting false claims.
We all know that copyright infringement is a big issue when it comes to the internet, but the current popular ways of combating it is unjust, unreasonable, and the epitome of unpleasant.
..........Guys seriously
Where's the fair use??? I hate the System now !
I know bolth small and large youtubers who are constantly afraid of their content being removed due to their playing a clip and commenting on it. Their fear reduces the amount of content they put out, which collectively makes YouTube fall short of it's full potential
The DMCA is a flawed system built for the internet of yesterday, an internet that no longer exists I believe the DMCA must be updated to accommodate the new way of sharing entertainment and news because I have seen too many creators have their content deleted because someone flagged it for unfair reasons, because they did not own the content or the content being flagged was completely fair use, with the current system it is too easy for people to get away with technically illegal acts like false copyright, especially in a day and age where people live off of revenue obtained by the internet, too many times have peoples lives been destroyed because someone dint like content and it was far to easy to obtain the revenue or delete it all together . so i say we must change this to restore fairness and legality to our currently majorly flawed system
The copyright system is being abused on YouTube. From creators getting content taken down even if it is altered in a way that fits under parody or fair use. To people using their original content and still getting it taken down and put under copyright. Because of current copyright laws free speech is being taken away on the internet. Free speech on the internet needs to be more defined. There needs to be serious consequences for those who abused fair use on the internet.
There are people that have made this their main home income for a long time and there are some who are being taken advantage of who didn't do anything wrong
Yeah, this needs to be stopped. Not much needed to be said here.
Any attempt to take away the Internet's freedom is a bunch of bullcrap.
Taking down awesome videos just because they didn't put a disclaimer. SHAME!!!
We want fair use! Fuck all these rules
Suck my Russian strudel dick
The DMCA's purpose was meant to prevent the unlawful stealing of digital content from its creators. It was meant to secure the safety of free speech, free information, free content, and free market, protecting the rights to one's own content and all earnings and social standing made from it. Unfortunately, this is not how it's being used.
The DMCA is being weaponized by everyone ranging from large companies trying to unlawfully censor criticism to petty individuals who are on personal vendettas against others, often times for dubious reasons.
An infuriating example is the currently ongoing battle that Youtube content creator "NFKRZ" is having with a songwriter, who appears to be blackmailing him for $1,000 in "royalty," literally holding his channel for ransom by copyright striking his most successful videos due to a seconds-long sample of a song that he was merely featured in (it plays as an intro to each video), which puts NFKRZ in danger of having his channel deleted.
And there is far more; simply researching this subject for a matter of hours can tell you everything you need to know on how the DMCA is being abused, however I'm sure the government is at least somewhat aware of this. Nevertheless, this law has been turned on its head and used for a purpose contradicting its original meaning. Please put an end to this before the content creation community of the internet devolves into chaotic abuse of laws.
As you have been getting emails about this, it is obvious that your action to improve and update the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is imperative.
With regards to YouTube especially, creators that I genuinely care about are having to deal with false copyright claims. Not only does this affect the creator in a harshly negative way, but the viewers, anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 people are being cheated out of new content from online personalities that we love.
I urge you, please at least implement a system where companies or individuals that file false copyright claims are punished. This is important because three YouTubers that I watch (There are more out there) had their channels either entirely shut down or were unable to make money due to false claims. If nothing else, please find a way to get money back to the creators when the DMCA is falsely claimed for the good of the creator and for the good of their audience. Content creators typically use the money to fund future videos, so any money possibly earned is important to them and to their audience.
In summary, to advance growth and promote a platform that gives every creator hope of achieving their goals and making a living, please reform this act to one that does not destroy the hard work of up and coming creators who make new and interesting content for the profit of a company that abuses current acts.
Ultimately, art can suffer and I will not stand for that.
The process on the whole is archaic and DMCA needs to be revised to protect content creator using fair use.
People have been way within fair use, but their video or even their channel has been taken down and doesn't get put make up for days, in some cases weeks after it originally happened.
In addition to all of this when a creator can get taken down because of this even though they are protected by fair use, you know the system is broken. Also, if people make jokes about singing part of a song and getting taken down, something is completely wrong.
The best way to learn how people feel about DMCA is to listen to them, and conveniently enough there are many videos from people who deal with DMCA on regular basis; And all of them make their opinion clearly stated. The system is way off kilter and as a result many people and there work is suffering. DMCA is past due for a update.
Thing is, don't have robots enforcing copyright law for dubious media companies. Robots don't know illegal content from legit content. This makes the system ripe for abuse, especially with no consequences for abuse. These abuses cost legitimate entertainers, critics and average people money when mistaken take downs occur and they never get that money back. Fix the system. Make it fair.
PLEASE SUPPORT FAIR USE CONTENT CREATORS. I have to believe there's a person who'll read this. This is our free speech frontier and we need the people who we have elected into office to do their job and protect it.
On sites like YouTube, content creators have seen their work be flagged multiple times, despite successfully fighting the strikes in the past. These same people have also been hit with takedown notifications by companies who do not even own the content they are claiming was used unfairly. Some content creators have even been threatened by companies who want to censor their work by flagging their content.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
Hello. My name is Tre, I am currently a student in Florida and as a part time hobby I play video games, and I sometimes record while doing so. My You Tube Channel isn't that big yet I've been hit with automated copyright claims, and I can only fear the day that someone gives me a manual strike.
To be honest, I've probably been watching You Tube content since I was eight or nine, I've grown up with the site. I was inspired by it from a young age to want to make You Tube content. Originally I did some dumb sketch like content that made no sense, but now many years later I've been doing constructive critique of video games on my channel, mostly being small indie games being a passion project of the developer. The internet honestly is overall a pretty vile place, we have a easy way to harass people across the world, while being anonymous. We have a hidden side filled with all sorts of things ranging to purchasable drugs to child slaves. But then there's the good side of it. Critics trying to explain why certain things shouldn't be done or scientists explaining some natural phenomenon with some crazy explanation that you wouldn't hear in a classroom.
That's the internet I want to protect. I want to protect people like those of GamerGate that weren't the trolls or harassers but the actual people wanting change in Journalism, specifically for games. Those people became a sort of public figure trying to clear the name from the biased journalist sites, yet they've made headway. I want to protect the TotalBiscuits and Jim Sterlings from people like Wildgames Studios and Digital Homcides from potential copyright strikes, that if done over three times in malice could be not only directly steal their ad revenue for those videos, but shut down the whole channel, and stopping and revenue gain as a whole. And by doing that practically ending their career for a short time. By not trying to modify this law, you're allowing people with no right to do so take others money. And it's not like there's no cases of this, there have been and all that's happened was out of court. Some people have been wanting lawsuits over this but guess what companies don't want to go to court so it'll eventually pass over and guess what nothing will change. The content creator keeps that ONE video but in the future gets more strikes and claims that stack up. I believe things like that are in deep needing of change. Please for everything the internet stands for now, change it.
This is very simple: if you as the copyright holder believe that someone is taking part in misusing your work, you take that person to court. The system as it is is being abused heavily by many companies worldwide to hurt content creators on a regular basis, when it is supposed to be a simple process: sue the person doing the alleged infringing, or leave them alone.
I Don't have more to add than what has ben said before, but i can say, i know many friends that have or had problems with it, i can't understand why this happens, because while there IS wrong content, most i see, are legal and just, i don't know why many people are losing Money (and their jobs) just for a error or overlook.
I did have a problem with it, and it was a small thing, a song, a song for 4 seconds in the background was heard and i was faced with a strike on youtube, but i edited it out, but i left 2 seconds on (error of mine) and yet another strike... 2 seconds of a song! or even less!
that's why this is important, if the internet IS freedom, this need to be regulated rightly
listen, youtube is in a horrible state, copyright claims left and right, but never targeted at the right people. someone could just take down a video using the copyright claim, even if the video didn't do anything wrong, and yet videos that do break these laws just slip on through. so all in all just fix the system, if people did this in real life, they would go to jail, even if the punishment is smaller for people on the internet, there needs to be a punishment.
A lot of creators have lost their time dealing with unnecessary strikes,spams and false claims for no reason whatsoever. As a viewer this affects me as well since I am not able to enjoy their work because of this. It's about time we did something about it.
I have personally seen too many instances of copyright holders abusing the system provided by the DMCA in order to censor legitimate criticisms of their products, created in compliance with fair usage guidelines.
Similarly, I've seen companies attempt to claim copyrights on ridiculously general terms; which can then be employed by their teams of highly-paid lawyers to threaten small-businesses trying to make their way into these emerging markets.
I am a firm believer in our free-market system. It is what made the United States what it is today, and continues to make us an economic leader in the world.
The continuing function of our free-market system relies heavily on two major freedoms:
A.) The consumer's ability to make informed decisions on how they vote with their dollars.
B.) A small-business's ability to enter in to new markets and provide fresh competition.
We can't have strong competition in any market place, if new competitors are living in fear of being sued into bankruptcy over baseless claims made by their much larger, long-standing competition.
And we can't have a thriving marketplace if consumers are able to be censored from offering relevant critique of goods within that marketplace.
The Internet makes possible the largest markets to appear in recent history.
Information and entertainment delivered via the Internet is a fast-growing industry, and has been providing many benefits to our society as a whole. I know it has the power to provide countless more benefits that we are only beginning to be able to conceive of.
The DMCA system in its current form is seriously stunting the growth of these emerging markets, through countless abuses perpetrated by copyright holders who face no legal repercussions for their behavior. I believe wholeheartedly that the current system is working against the interests of the great majority of United States citizens.
I urge you to work closely with those in the Internet community to find ways to repair this broken system, and stop the abuses by these companies; allowing the United States to continue to be a bastion of free-market success, and a pioneer in these Internet markets.
I'll keep my own comments brief, since I am not the most informed or well researched individual. That said, I think that it's clear that the DMCA needs to AT LEAST be reviewed and updated considering how the internet has changed since its creation. In the past the system worked, but today it is just as easy for someone (usually a higher corporation or a stakeholder in a company) to use it to erase small competition. There is no penalty for calling a "false positive" and usually no action can be easily taken by the victims to defend themselves. This is most prevalent among content creators who use free-to-view services like YouTube as a livelihood.
In short, the DMCA and its functionality deserves to be reviewed to consider how it could be changed to ensure that it protects all, and not just a few.
Below is a pre-made form. It contains more information that I have chosen not to edit.
Although I am not affected yet it's just a matter of time because in the future I will also be a internet content creator and currently if someone did not like the content they can bully a youtube channel by a false content id claim and afterwards take your money or shutdown your channel.
I believe this is not right at all is why I sign this in hope to change this law to at least be fair to people making new content.
Thank you for reading.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Ok, before the form letter begins, let me say some things. I am not a creator of videos on YouTube because of the copyright issues. I want none of that. I won't lie, I'm not entirely certain that I understand how companies can feel threatened by those of us on YouTube. Yes, I know about video piracy, and, by all means, stop that sort of piracy from happening. But, people like Doug walker (AKA the nostalgia critic(if the critic reads that I didn't capatalize his last name, I'm dooooomed)) are really more Hollywood's side. Like the sports coach who teases, insults and harshly critiques your performance, Mr. T.N Critic is trying to point out some of the flaws in films so that they can do better in the future. I'm not saying to let YouTube run wild, just take some time to update the system. Now back to your regularly scheduled form letter
For example, many videos on YouTube have been taken down by automated companies for content that doesn't even belong to them. Yet they have no repercussions for incorrectly claiming and getting peoples' videos taken down for no reason. This includes videos that only make mention of the content and do not actually show any of the pursuer's property. No one can own conversation between people.
This cannot continue.
As it currently stands the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is out of data and insufficient to meet the needs of modern day media. In its current forms it is all to easy for large corporations to use the DMCA as a means to intimate and quash critics and smaller competitors . Corporations are able to issue unfair DMCA takes notice far to easily and with little to no repercussion. Mean while the victims of said take downs are left with completely insufficient safeguards and are disproportional damaged by even the most illegitimate DMCA take downs. As such I would highly recommend that provision are put in place to protect creators from frivolous takes down, and to punish and discourage those who issued them. In particular I would ask the United States Copyright Office to take a close look at the use of automated take downs which allow companies to issue far to many take down notice with far to little oversight. Finally I would urge the United States Copyright Office to further extend the deadline for the submissions of comments. I am aware that the deadline has already been extend and the current time line for the study makes it difficult. However this is an incredibly important issue that effects countless people. There are many people who could give valuable insight on this matter, as the shear number of comments you are currently receiving undoubted demonstrates. However for reasons that I am currently unaware of, this issues has some how flown under the radar of the public at large. That was until today March ,31, 2016. As I'm sure you've notice there are currently an influx of commentators scrambling to meet the deadline they are only now becoming aware of. Many will still submit as this is an important issue, but many more will never get the chance if the deadline remains where it is.
Hahah, nerd. Imma keep what was here before as I assume it's there for a reason, but I also wanted to let whomever reading this know that Smooth is best Queen.
SO YEAH!!
I am tired of seeing innocent content creators being abused by selfish companies banking in on the broken system.
Some of my favorite content creators on YouTube are even scared of posting anything anymore. It shouldn't be like this, it's not why this law exists.
It's unfair and it needs to change
times have change many things are different now, they have adopted to the times,
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. False notice-and-takedown claims are used to silence content creators while giving them little recourse to protect their material. On many social platforms, particularly large ones due to the lack of resources to investigate, false claimants are not deterred in any way by punishment, but are instead allowed to continue to notice-and-takedown content with disregard to previous false claims. Individual pieces of media which have already been cleared of false allegations may sometimes be served a second false notice-and-takedown, even against the same content which was already reviewed and found to be in accordance with the DMCA.
I have unfairly lost the ability to make videos as long as I want due to a false YouTube community guidelines strike I received. This needs to stop.
Also please see to that "reaction" videos that are in clear copy right violation get punished, they steal money from the priginal
Fossilized laws are creating and altogether unwholesome environment for content creators on the internet. As an artist and blogger, realizing that the fair use laws are attacking perfectly normal, respectful people is disappointing, to say the least.
We need the fair use laws to be updated and adjusted to better correspond with the internet of today.
In layman's terms: "This sucks. Fix it."
Hello. I hope you take time out of your day to read this.
I would like to say that the DMCA has done a lot of good for a lot of people. Copyright claims are very important on the internet and should be handled correctly. Without the DMCA, all over the internet people would be distributing and taking credit for things they do not own. But not only do copyright claims need to be handled correctly, they need to be handled
carefully. For example, many many people use youtube as a way of making money. They make a living off of their content. It's a real career.
But what happens when a clumsy moderator comes across a channel they think is "taking credit for something that is not theirs"? In many cases, they terminate the channel. Now lets think of the person who owns that channel. If the channel was terminated for a reason that wasn't true, they just were fired for no reason. They just lost all those wonderful videos and wonderful subscribers. They just lost everything. And you may be thinking "This is bad, I guess, but it's just that one unlucky person who was fired for no reason." That's not true. This is happening every day. Every day people get videos and channels taken down for copyright claims that they were not taking credit for. Now I could go on for hours about how this is affecting people and affecting me personally, but I just want to close this up by asking - no, begging you to look further into the things you decide are "not right" or "abusing credit" before you delete it. Forever.
Please, on behalf of everyone on the internet, listen to us when we speak up about this. Please. Thank you for taking time to read this and I really hope you take this very very seriously. Because I do.
Dear Congress,
So, I've been following the "Where's the Fair Use Campaign" since it began, and the abuse of the DMCA is kind of becoming a nightmare. Censorship has become a severe problem across the internet. Not only are companies using it to make a few dollars off the videos of YouTube content creators, but it has also been used as a weapon to censor videos containing negative opinions on movies and far-left activist movements.
I understand that companies need to make their money, but please, refine these laws to prevent pointless video removal and ruthless censorship by people who don't want dissenting voices to be heard. President Obama made a speech a while ago at a college campus, calling on the necessity of free speech not only on college campuses, but in the United States. Free speech is what keeps our democracy going and keeps people free, and the internet is one of the greatest tools for people to get their voices out there, for good or ill. The DMCA has been abused, and is preventing free speech. So please, rework this law into something that benefits the people, not corporations and so-called "activist" groups. Benefit everyone on YouTube and everywhere else who just wants to make good content.
For once, do something good for this country.
Sincerely, from a humble and concerned citizen,
Ezra Effrein
I completely agree with the statements above. The internet needs creativity in order to evolve. Media corporations have a history of trying to cripple new technology they regard as a threat, VHS being a classic example. They have always been proven wrong.
When Media corporations embrace new technology everyone benefits,
music downloads for example.
Abuse of fair use is a direct attack on the First Amendment.
The internet needs your protection. You have a chance to make a positive lasting difference.
Please listen,
Thank you
DMCA is a fossil by today's internet. We need strict punishments for false claims, a side account for revenue being held from those struck by claims, please stop this legal robbery.
Hi, as a fellow non american citizen I just wanted to chime in the conversation about the DMCA and bring some troubling points about the current system of copyright take-downs. I wish to write so to help protect the people that produce the content that I love watching.
The DMCA is an outdated law. It was made in 1998 when the Internet wasn't as big as It is now, and when things like youtube weren't not even around. The law that worked to protect content is now being abused. The DMCA now works against free speech which I believe is a vital value in America and to the world in general.
There has been many cases where the DMCA was used to silence criticism. Youtube channels that don't even show content of the movie (not even a trailer) have been taken down just because a company didn't quite like the reviewer's opinion. This is utterly outrageous and nobody should stand for it. I don't want to live in a world where the only ones who have a voice are the big corporations bullying everyone who disagree with copyright claims.No channel in youtube is safe, no one has been clear of copyright claims by a company and many get them many times a week (even tho their content is being used under the fair use law). Fair use should be taken into account to judge these cases but the DMCA blatantly ignores this.
Another thing that the DMCA does is that It limits creativity. You can't even mention mickey mouse without your video being taken down, and derivative fair use content are not even allowed to exist without some copyright claim falling into them. Channels have been adapting to this, but the copyright laws are restricting more and more what is and what isn't allowed .I fear that eventually the Internet wouldn't even be recognizable as we know it.
Also thanks to the DMCA even content without any profit can be taken down. A family video can get a strike if a song is playing on the background. A guy sitting in a room sharing his opinion with the world can be given a strike if he uses a protected images to illustrate a point (under fair use law). This is unfair, people shouldn't this scared of creating content and sharing It. U.S. copyright laws should be used to protect the creators of original ideas not working against them.
I write to you the people at the U.S. Copyright Office hoping for a change. I want to see a free Internet, and the DMCA just doesn't fit the bill. I hope for a reform of this law to contemplate fair use and remain optimistic about what the future of the Internet will be.
I've been a YouTube watcher for many years ever since 2005 and to bully, steal, scare, extort ect; it's disrespectful to put a false copyright claim on someone's video if it's under the fair use act. What's the point of having an act such as that is YouTube content creators aren't kept safe from vicious attacks, that a simple critical review of a movie, TV show, game, books anything if people can't be protected? I also learned that if someone is making a living off YouTube (you know a living that puts FOOD on the table) however can that person survive? They can't if they keep getting copyright strikes, critiquing is a form of "freedom of speech" whether what you're critiquing is good or bad copyright holders shouldn't be allowed falsely accuse someone with a strikes because they can't handle positive or negative feedback. A goal in life is to learn from our mistakes so that we can get better at whatever we do to achieve personal growth as a human being, how do we as humans achieve this goal if we are hiding behind mommy copyrights apren. The answer? We can't. If the company's are aloud to take someone else's money and never have to deal with any repercussions is strike is dropped that the one who caused the strike faces no punishment for falsely accusing someone of cropryright infringement extortion is illegal and false strikes aren't? Because to me and a lot of people can see that there's no difference to the two. Extortion is extortion just dressing it up in legal name doesn't mean anything. Corporations are stealing money from hard-working content creators. They're not just sitting around doing nothing but place a camera in front of them, just like any film or what have you they write scripts, edit their own videos by them selves and want nothing more than to make their viewers entertained and happy. Which is what Hollywood was and should still be based on.
My name is Alex Farnlof I watch YouTube for talented, insightful and creative people and I want them to be happy and most importantly safe when making their entertainment for so many people.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedohhwns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Laws are being abused on an obnoxiously large scale. I've personally had claims filed on my content from people that don't even own the content shown. It's painfully broken.
The internet is for free expression. Save youtube content creators, and save The internet. notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I don't appreciate that reviews can be taken down simply because the creator simply doesn't like the criticism his/her work. I don't appreciate that a company can take down a video regardless of whether or not images of the work was even used. But above all else I don't appreciate that so little can be done for the critic to defend him/her self from copyright strikes meanwhile a company never has to pay for a false claim. #WTFU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI.
You are using an incredibly outdated system, one which accounts for thievery and constant abuse. Look at the state of YouTube if you need proof. Reviewers are in constant battle where they deal with people, companies, idiots, ect. all making false copyright claims based on this system. And these atrocities that are being committed are not the only ones, I can list plenty more, and would if I had the time, so, if you want proof, watch critics on YouTube, look at Nostalgia Critic, look at Mr. Enter, hell any single one of them can say, from experience, how terrible this system is and how much harm it has caused.
And youtube is being a Bitch
Copyright holders are abusing the DMCA to threaten content creators who operate within the laws of Fair Use--for example, reviewing or parodying the copyrighted object. They are also using the DMCA to steal the revenue that those content creators are generating from their original work.
Copyright holders are abusing the DMCA to silence critics of their works.
The DMCA is dated and exploited. People who file claims on someone else's work should face repercussions if those claims turn out to be false. Copyright holders need to be aware of and respectful of Fair Use laws. Instead relying only on a computerized system to detect a copyright violation or process a claim, we need real people reviewing the targeted work to determine whether or not it qualifies as Fair Use.
Take down the reaction channels on Youtube! And prohibite people from uploading content from youtube to Facebook with out the original creators permission!
I've seen hundreds of my favorite content creators within the past three years or so, have to remove videos, cut corners and even in some cases be forced to remove their entire channel, which becomes their business.
-
The amount of content creators I've seen hit with false claims is astronomical. We can't let creators be bullied by corporations or movie companies. I myself have had false claims, and I'm not famous or well known at all.
I'm a cover artist who plays piano on YouTube. Big companies have matched the tune of my original takes on their songs and are now earning money off them - this is NOT fair.
So please, keep fair use a thing.
It's ridiculous of how corporations can so easily harm content creators that have broke no laws. Fair use is being abused and ignored in the way people, especially companies take down videos that don't break fair use laws. Certainly critics, who have their videos abused because creators fear a critic's free speech. The laws should be abided, and no one should fear their livelihood or their content being threatened when they've done nothing wrong.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse, and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, all too often resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
I agree with FFTF's remarks on the state of DMCA application and share their concerns, especially in that DMCA claims can be used improperly, in many cases without basis or merit, and in many cases without regard to the culturally vital institution of Fair Use, and without risk of statutory or other damages to those abusing DMCA claims. In the sphere of creative works on the Internet, notably on YouTube.com, this imbalance has perverted copyright from a legal tool of defense against theft into a weapon to threaten and defraud actual creators. In cases I have heard of through the #WTFU movement and social media, parties with no copyright claim will even strike completely original musical and video works in order to divert compensation for these works away from the creator and to the baseless claimant.
FFTF's statement:
I have read and agreed to the statement below, that was auto filled for a comment. I also have to say, due to the issue, many reviews and pieces of entertainment that I either watch regularly or wanted to see a specific creator's new piece have been falsely reported and shut down online just so that someone else can quiet a voice they don't like, without the proper permission from even the company that actually owns the material used. Or to, bluntly, steal someone else's money from something they put a lot of work into creating. I think it is wrong, and it is hindering the internet, and us as a society, from progressing.
Due to our technological advances, there are many people who now use the internet to gain access to their entertainment. Watch shows, create, and interact with others on a grander and easier scale than with other forms of media. The abuse of this system is not only hindering this, but corrupting the process. Some of these creators go out of their way now to not use any footage from specific pieces they are talking about, and still their videos get taken down.
This needs to be updated and balanced more fairly.
Corey.
---------
While the DMCA was a somewhat good idea when it was started, it's become nothing more then a weapon against people that are creating their own content. Reviewers such as Roger Ebert or those found in the New York Times Book Review would not be allowed if the DMCA applied to anything other then the Internet. Imagine the Ladies' Home Journal or TV Guide being forced off shelves because Warner Brothers didn't like Gene Shalit's review of a movie. Imagine the New York Times, Washington Post, or any other host of newspapers having to destroy entire editions because 20th Century Fox had an easy way of removing them because of a bad review or they just wanted to control the message. This is what happens weekly on the Internet, a form of media delivery that has spawned multiple billion plus dollar businesses.
The DMCA is hurting small businesses that pay massive amounts of taxes, and it's stopping Americans from creating their own businesses. Companies not even in the United States are able to issue DMCA take requests based on laws that don't cover the US, but companies like YouTube/Google/Alpha and Internet hosting companies like NTT Verio, Amazon Web Services, Savvis, and the like, are forced to obey those take down requests because they are afraid of being sued in court.
What needs to happen is that fair use, something that the US court system has reaffirmed time and again, needs to be specifically strengthened in the digital age. Fighting piracy is something we all should take seriously, but fair use is something we all should take even more seriously. Just because a crime is committed doesn't mean everyone should be punished. And that is what is happening now. Anyone can claim to be a copyright holder on the Internet with no burden of proof. Actual copyright holders can create shell companies to protect themselves from making false claims to silence critics and reviewers. That is something that is just not right.
Take down "reaction" channels they are complete fucking bullshit!
^--- The pre-generated text is pretty accurate. DMCA is another case of fighting for the good of something only to counter-intuitively drive it into the ground. Like the wars on drugs, terror and poverty.
The modern copyright system is utterly broken. with works taking ages to enter public domain, it is absolutely needed to have a fair, workable system regarding fair use that protects the content of creators other than the original. if the DMCA continues to exist in it's current state, Parody is threatened by it's mere existence, Reviews can be silenced upon a creator's whim, and large groups hold undue, non-democratic power over US citizens.
As a Writer who owns a Copyright to my own work, who wishes to extend into visual and audio media, I can recognize that fair use in it's current state is under dire threat. I am willing to take the high ground and not wield this fundamentally broken law as a weapon, but I am an individual with deeply rooted principle. Corporations have no higher calling in this regard, and will only stay their own hand in this abuse if it is forced; either by public perception, or, hopefully, by a vastly more fair and just law taking the place of this legal dinosaur.
Technology has become vastly more powerful since 1998. the DMCA is about 1/256th as nuanced as it needs to be in the modern, digital economy.
Many of my favorite youtubers have had to struggle with being unrightfuly charged with copy right and it's getting out of hand. As someone who is starting out in YouTube I want to not only help my favorite youtubers but also myself in this matter.
Examples of the issues currently going on YouTube
Our original video on Fair Use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0Wpn1zmU
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (STILL going on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J03pUizE
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ9U8YLY
Team Four Star's issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkcWbvnN0
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nULnD9OQ
Chibi Reviews gets a DMCA for talking about snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWysPctePw
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company - MMA company thinks it makes the law!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw
Mr Enter and the saga of DMCA after DMCA takedown on the SAME video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtwVOZ0Yc
NFKRZ and how ransom is now on YouTube!
Relive 1998 here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1UY7eDRXrs
Space Jam circa 1996 still alive - http://www.warnerbros.com/archive/spacejam/movie/jam.htm
It's messed up fam.
This process started out as a good idea, but the DMCA isn't built for today's internet. Many of my favorite youtubers and really everyone on Youtube is suffering because of it. Sure there are the claims that are needed, but most of the time it's claims that would fall under fair use or are just false claims for the sake of being mean. And those like me who simply watch those videos lose out on enjoyment that would otherwise brighten up thier days.
This process needs to be changed over to a new system that would allow content creators on Youtube to make their videos without the fear of those videos unfairly being taken down and their channels removed.
The fact of the matter is: Everyday I am getting more and more frightened to express myself on YouTube, Twitter, and other social media. Knowing full well that just the mention of a movie, TV show, or book could bring down a hailstorm of lawsuits, and have all my hard work and freedom to express myself taken away by an over zealous, computer controlled monitoring system that exists not to protect the users online, nor the media mentioned or used, but the multi-billion dollar industry. That is unfair, and terrifying.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is made to protect content creators, but instead is being used to opress them. Companies dont even look at what they are trying to claim as their property. Sometimes they take down videos in which two people are discussing a movie without using any copyrighted material, which is ridiculous.
DMCA is extremley dated and needs to be updated to todays internet standarts. We want to protect the internet that we know and love.
"The doctrine that brief excerpts of copyright material may, under certain circumstances, be quoted verbatim for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research, without the need for permission from or payment to the copyright holder."
This is the definition for fair use, and yet it seems that many sites such as YouTube ignore fair use in so many ways.
Criticism seems to get the biggest brunt of this unfair treatment, with reviews of things like songs and movies being taken down for showing 'copyrighted material'. This is unfair, and it is against the Fair Use doctrine. This kind of thing is not a rare occurrence, it happens every day, with some people and groups even claiming copyright to things that they do not hold copyright to. A third party such as Viacom should NOT be able to claim copyright on a video review of a show it distributes. It does not hold the copyright claim, and should not be able to take down content containing such material. Third parties seem to abuse this practice the most, taking down videos that fall under fair use, and even taking them down again several times after the claim has been fought against and the video put back up. I implore you all to take a good hard look at this broken system, and find a way to fix it.
The same thing can be said for original content creators, someone can have a video with their own characters and music in it taken down, and fairly easily, just for being based on or parodying a program that already exists. The system is far too biased in favor of those claiming copyright, and the videos that fall under fair use have to fight tooth and nail to stay up at all, sometimes fighting multiple times.
This system was put in place to protect copyright holders, which is important, and is in itself a good thing, but this system is now being abused to keep people from saying negative things about a program, to keep people from sharing something they love, even keeping creators from making their own original content inspired by something they love. It is unfair, and needs to change.
Fair Use is important, and it must stop being ignored. Protect reviewers, creators, comedians, all those who gain revenue from their work, help us make the internet a place where fair use is treated as it should be, fairly.
Thank you for your time.
All of my favorite content creators have been negatively affected by false DMCA claims on youtube. Loss of ad revenue from flagged videos and the deletion of videos is just unacceptable.
Freedom of speech is something that isn't just a foundation block for America, but something every human being deserves. People who are well in fair use of material are being harassed, hurt, and basically stolen from when their videos are being taken down after all the hard work they pour into it, because of the DMCA. Stop the abuse, protect free speech!
I've just started a YouTube channel where I talk about movies. I started off by reviewing Zack Snyder films leading up to Batman v Superman, so mind you, these films are over 4 years old.
All my reviews feature a picture of the official poster released by the studios and they are positioned right beside me where I talk about the film itself.
A few days ago, I received a copyright claim by Warner Brothers on 2 of my videos, both of which are of the same franchise. The first one was for 300 and the second one's for 300: Rise of an Empire. Never did I show footage from the film in my videos or even pictures from the actual movie. My entire video only features a poster.
I want to watch reviews and have fun! Keep them cat videos coming, Internet!
The DMCA isn't fair! There are creators who are being harassed, penalized, threatened, and downright bullied even though what they do is completely legal. There are people who will take down creator's videos even though these creators are protected by Fair Use. There are even people who are deleting videos when there is no content from their movies being used! You have to do something to help protect the creators! Please!
shrek wouldn't have wanted this for us
pls :(
The problem of taking down videos, shutting down channels, and silencing people around the internet needs to stop. Many people well in their legal right to display videos of other media have had their videos taken down without any kind of warning what so ever. The people need to freely express their opinions on the internet without some random person taking down a video with such ease. If such websites like Twitter, Twitch, and especially YouTube, are to continue having problems with DMCA take downs then this problem will become something that no one can control. As a fellow man and American citizen, I urge you to give the rights back to the American people and let us have our free use without being silence. Thank you for reading my message and I hope you listen to the voice of reason.
My favorite content creators have been abused using this law! People losing money, their livelihood due to a law I'm favor of corporations
#WTFU please fix it :( i don't want to see this anymore
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Furthermore, the current system in place puts all the pressure on content creators. Copyright abusers are able to abuse the system to silence critics, steal revenue, and shut down content creators without repercussions. Even if a content creator files a counter claim, the copyright claimant can ignore the counter claim until the claim runs out, there is no impetus pushing the system forward. This creates a chilling atmosphere for content creators as they sit with strikes and claims against them that can pile up and penalize them even though they have taken actions to disprove copyright claims. The laws as they stand need to be rewritten to put the burden of proof on the accuser and not the defendant.
Nota Bene: Stop trying to fix something that isn't broke and start fixing the things that are you inimical dingus dingleberries.
Please let there be a bigger difference between fair use and copyright infringement! Many forms of media that are taken down by large corporations because of supposed copyright infringement are actually promoting whatever entity or subject is involved!
The system is extremely outdated seeing as how much the internet has changed over the last decade or two. It's not fair to have someone's content immediately taken down without question when their work actually falls under fair usage.
To preserve freedom, commerce and human rights, the laws governing the digital world must be made by an independent body relying heavily on the consensus of the tech community, including users, designers, service providers and content creators.
And further more, youtube has played the role of abusive little brother while big brother sits and does nothing to protect the new age method of expressing the ultimate american freedom: freedom of speech, so important in fact that the founding fathers who created this country made it the first demand to king george 3 while trying to break away from the tyrannical grasp of great Britain. Not updating this law is spitting in the face of everything that makes the united states of america the land of opportunity, the land of freedom and the land of hope. Why you may ask? Because making videos on the Internet from simple cat videos, to comedy sketches to videos that grasp more serious topics such as death and alcoholism and suicide are works of art, some may think that this is a passing fad but people make a living off by pursuing their passions on sites such as youtube and videos, and they don't love it for the cash, the fame or even to put their wealth of video making skills to good use its to enlighten this otherwise bleak and painful reality we live in in this day in age with stories and comedy, to comfort other people who are struggling with similar issues, to keep us up to date on what other people are doing around the world. This is the way of the future and times are a changing and changing fast, we cannot move forward with an antiquated law meant for a different internet. In the 18 years since that law was passed the Internet has grown into something bigger than we could have dreamed of, the Internet has united an generation of young people from all walks of life in every corner of the globe to inspire change and speak out for what we believe in at home and abroad. Now these young people are all grown up those ideas and ways of changing the world for the better can become reality. So I beg of you please update this law, it is crucial that the DMCA is updated so that the next generation can experience the same freedom and the same voice we experienced growing up, thank you for your time.
This policy has allowed corporations, to bully censor and rob entertainers and creators without any chance to defend themselves. These rules are antiquated and no longer applicable, as well as a detriment to our first ammendment. By allowing this, we are allowing corporations to act however they please at the expense of anyone they choose.
There seriously needs to be more regulation on DMCA takedowns, if not a crime to falsely report DMCAs. It is becoming a dangerous problem for more than just YouTube personalities; this is starting to encompass the idea of free speech as we know it.
As it stands, anyone can make a claim, despite not owning the content they flag as their copyright. This madness needs to stop before entire industries are stifled by this thoroughly unethical practice.
Short of 3 years ago, a big video game company, SEGA, abused the system in order boost up search rankings for their own upcoming release. Removing people's videos, and even shutting down channels for just speaking about a decade old game they made, without any video footage of the game in question at all.
Small and large copyright holders using DMCA to shut down critique videos that fell squarely under Fair Use. Artists and companies having their own content copyright claimed because some music labels thought they had any right to do so.
The DCMA is an outdated policy that is hurting honest people trying to make a living doing what they love. The DMCA in its current form is being used as a tool for the big movie studios to push their weight and their money around by attacking content creators with bogus copyright claims. This may have worked in 1998 but it is 2016. Now is the time to revise the DCMA and update it for the 2016 internet.
I got copyright claimed on a song I played on piano. The song, though a cover, was originally transcribed by me, shared with less than 20 people, and all citations were provided. Big companies now earn money off said video. Do they really need the 0.0001 cents, do they really need to compromise the quality of the video? I'm afraid to speak up. This is not fair.
Fix this.
Copyright infringement is a problem. I'll come right out and say that stealing another person's work is a crime that must be punished.
But funny thing, people who are using copyrighted content legally and are following the guidelines of Fair Use are the ones being punished. People who review movies, do top ten lists, commentate video games, review TV shows, or cover songs are being struck down unfairly. I don't know if the people in Washington know this, but people make a living off of YouTube. Making these videos is putting food on their table. And I for one am not going to stand by and watch these people have their lives thrown into havoc because of a bogus copyright claim or strike.
Have I mentioned that people are abusing the system to a point of it being ridiculous? To file a claim, you don't have to show proof that you own any of the content. This gives the claimer a huge advantage over the content creator. Most content creators suffer from this. Why? Because of a nifty little tactic that these people use. You see, when you claim there is copyright infringement on a video, you can chose to take any monetization on a video during the time of the strike/claim. Most of the claimers do not actually own any of the content, and they just sit back, collect the money from the video, and when the time on the strike/claim is up, move on to the next victim. If that isn't stealing, then I don't know what is!
Even people who aren't using copyrighted content and getting copyright strikes. For instance, a man on YouTube by the name of Chibi Reveiws recently had a claim/strike on his channel. The video? An update video where he talked to his audience while he filmed on his front lawn. No clips or music, just a man sitting on his front lawn. And it was claimed as copyright infringement.
There are many more examples out there, but I'll run out of time to type them all. At this point, you should see that this system not only threatens very livelihoods, but in many cases has been used as flat out harassment. In any other situation, you should be able to strike back and the opposing party should receive punishment. So why not here?
#WTFU
Personal note:this is incredibly wrong is happening is say the a few laws around copy write need to be changed
Content creators that are little more than entertainers are being unrightfully censored. Critics are being taken down and having money taken out of their pockets just because they're criticizing a piece of content, but isn't that what critics are supposed to do? The abuse of copyright claim is silencing the opinions of creators on the internet. This is in direct violation of the First Amendment of the United States, and having the DMCA stay as it is simply gives people a loophole to continue to do so. If there is any love for the constitution, this Act needs to be updated for the modern era.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. We see time and again, in both politics and in our private lives. But with crooked officials and domineering bosses, you can take steps to change the situation and move past it. With DMCA, there is no escaping or defeating those that abuse the system, not while there is no repercussions for those that disregard both the letter and spirit of the law and attack content creators. The Internet is supposed to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and information on a global scale. Many people decry censorship committed by governments; the abuse of the DMCA is basically censorship that could be done by any random person with a computer.
Millions of people have the ability to create stuff for the Internet, and millions more enjoy that content every day. Help keep sites like YouTube as environments that encourages creativity, passion, and hard work; not sterile and stagnant, stifled by those with brute force methods.
notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I am Spencer Slye and I approve this message.
In its current form, the DMCA has created problems for countless talented content creators. Companies have taken advantage of the flaws within the DMCA, removing content when they feel the action will benefit them, ignoring the rights promised to the creators. These incidents happen frequently. These incidents can happen to anyone. Many content providers' careers have been utterly devastated by these companies, which will simply remove content they find unsatisfactory and use the DMCA as an excuse for their unnecessary and unlawful actions. With the ever changing focuses on different forms of media, restrictions need to accommodate these changes and transform with them. The DMCA needs to be inspected, and serious changes need to be made. We, as content creators and citizens of this nation, wish for our voices to be heard. We deserve our rights to freedom of speech and fair use.
The DMCA's lack in proper maintenance of internet copyright laws is seriously negatively affecting not only content creators I support, but myself. False copyright claims, stripped of monetization, and entire take downs of channels are preventing me from watching content I very much enjoy and harm the creators. Not only that, but money that was STOLEN from the content creators by the people who have filed the copyright claims is not returned. There isn't a separate account of any kind to filter out this system that can be used as a money making scheme. These channels fall well under fair use and it's not that damn hard to see that either. This is illegal and it's time to step in and serve some justice. This is America goddamn it.
I have noticed that some of my favorite content creators that i support have been abused by copyright strikes and the reasons for the strikes are generally non existent Ive seen channels targeted and taken down with the abuse of these strikes. you tube is no longer just viral videos it creates jobs there's editors, cameramen and people who act and provide entertainment and they depend on the videos being up and not being unfairly torn down with a strike under false context. Ive seen people make a video where its just them talking in there car and it was taken down for copyright reasons if this is not safe content to post then there is clearly changes that need to be made.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works. another option could be to have the videos income still flow to the creator and have to go through the process of being judged as an abuse of copyright before its rights are transferred as to discourage strikes for the purpose of stealing income.
More information summed up in these videos (which do not belong to me, but explain the issues far better than I can):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
As a relatively new online content creator, my experience with the systems the DMCA has helped create is limited, but even so I have been a victim of unfair claims against my content. Videos get their revenue hijacked, and even after the situation is cleared up, another claimant is ready and waiting to try and abuse these systems to control the content I create. I have deleted video series I created simply because the continual claims against them were getting to the point of harassment that led to stress outweighing any benefit posting the content could achieve. There is no recourse for abuse of the system, and this situation needs to be rectified.
As someone who aspires to work in Hollywood, I believe it is time for Hollywood to evolve and open the doors for new content creators and original ideas. We can only reboot and remake and sequalize certain franchises for so long. And as a writer, I enjoy criticism and watching Youtube content creators review certain Hollywood works. I seek originality in life and a Spark to inspire others. These internet reviewers help us appreciate the works of the film and music industry. Art is to be appreciated, and what is art, if it cannot be discussed and analyzed on a number of venues? It is time to stop fighting and a time to come together across the board.
I am in absolute agreement with the following. Here's to the future of the art industry and to the future of art and culture! May we ever thrive! Cheers!
As a starting youtuber I worry for my future in creating content because of the twisted acts forced upon the videos that hit the Internet. I've seen others who have started before me, that have inspired me, stopped in there tracks because of this movement. Please, I don't want to have to give up my dreams and passions as a budding content creator just because of some loose rules.
Fix the copyright system, please.
The fake copy right clams that many people are having to deal with are getting way to out of hand. It's becoming extremely unbearable to say the least. YouTube's "copy right" system is tottal bull, in all honesty it allows ANYONE to take down ANYTHING even without any proper proof that they own said thing or that the youtuber is doing anything wrong.
I want to use any type of music I want. I shouldn't get in a strike just because I have some music on my video. its not like we can say we made it or anything.
John
I have wondered why my fair use doesn't exist for the longest time. I sing on Youtube a lot - I make cover videos... Yet somehow, even in simply covering the song Let It Go from Frozen - it was taken down in multiple countries. The strikes weren't even correct! It was a parody of Let It Go, and it got three copyright strikes, one for the Vietnamese official version of Let It Go, one for the German official version, and one for the Spanish version. I sang it in English, with my own parodied lyrics. This isn't how the internet should be! I shouldn't have to let my Vietnamese, German, or Spanish fans down - they should be able to watch my video! Stop the bull! We need to protect our free speech!
For example, we did a video, and it got a claim on YouTube. The video's claim was one of us doing monologue. Here's the problem, there was nothing remotely copyright claimed. We were the victim of an auto or robotic claim as it just dropped off 10 MINUTES AGO.
I've had my own work claimed by people, people doing reviews without any footage are getting claims. There are game journalists being BULLIED by companies using the poorly guided DMCA takedowns, and folks like me have lost income due to these false claims.
The internet and user created content is the future, cellphones come up with YouTube and other apps for watching these, and companies want to keep us from doing what we love.
WHERES THE FAIR USE!!!???!!!
I have had a video that was for school taken down because of one of the songs in it and I barely have a channel. This is very dated and it's saddening to see YouTubers I watch get affected by this and have to work around a law last updated in 1998, 18 years ago. Look at how much the internet has changed in 18 years. This needs to be fixed before the next president gets elected.
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
In my own words, I enjoy what many youtubers like Markiplier, Nostalgia Critic, and many reactors. The DMCA fails to protect people's content from people that just do it to mess with youtubers because they either don't like them or because they gave their movie/game/song a bad review. The DMCA is nothing but something to destroy the lives of people that want to share what they want to and get paid to do so and give many people joy and happiness in this world.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet, as it permits copyright holders a level of power that can translate into total censorship of ideas and opinions they may find unsatisfactory relative to their personal desires. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls (individuals who falsely / maliciously file a copyright claim without and right to do so) who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Hey! Listen!
This is bull crap, and it needs to end now!!!!
I've been making videos on YouTube for almost a decade. My videos are highly edited fan works, that take at least a day, sometimes even a month, to make. I only do it for fun and make NO money from my work. Yet, my work is for nothing because it just gets taken down the same day, without being seen by fellow fans. I don't upload full movies and shows, but highly edited homages, less than 5 minutes, obviously not long enough to be a full movie or show.
This is the new media. This is the newest mass form of expression. Don't let it be tarnished by negligence and greed.
Now here's the automatic stuff below.
I have seen countless Youtubers be harassed for videos they post. Greedy companies trying to make profit off of somebody else's work. Most of the time it is a company who claims ownership of a song or clip, yet the song or clip is no where in said video. There is a channel called I Hate Everything and he got flagged for using a copyrighted song in a video. The claim was posted by a company called Merlin. They were claiming the video on behalf of the artist of the song. I Hate Everything contacted the artist of the song telling him that the song wasn't anywhere in his video. The artist personally responded to him saying he didn't know of any such company nor called for a claim on the video. It is greedy companies like these who hurt the livelihood of content creators who should be protected under fair use but aren't for unknown reasons. Please help content creators.
Hello.
I am very happy to be able to act in this horrifying case. This is probably only thong I can do to make this better.
DMCA is old. It is dated, not fitting today's reality. Youtube copyright system is based on this fragile fossil, and this allows (and always allowed) many companies and some greedy people to abuse content creators. Many of them destroy those creators who don't like this copyrighted content, but also many of them don't even have rights to ANY content. There are companies created ONLY to make false claims and take off monetisation. They are making money from nothing and have no consequences, beacause false claming is allowed. This has to be changed. When claim/strike is false, or it abuse Fair Use and is not rightful, there has to be consequence. Many youtube channels and their creators had problems with this. They are really creative, talented and vise people. They are working really hard, and their time, hard work and money is being stolen by people who seems them as danger (unlikely) or easy was to have some cash.
This has to be changed.
Below is ready comment about DMCA, made when I got in the page I'm sending it. I am fully agree with all of it, so it stays. #WTFU
All too often, the DMCA is regularly abused whether it be to silence critics, stifle free speech, or outright steal. These transgressions are committed by many, including large corporations, small-time thugs, malicious copyright holders, and avaricious frauds. And each instance of these deceitful takedowns is an attack on the ideals of free speech and fair use with the weapon of censorship. One thing is clear, this system is broken. Content creators do not have enough power, and the system desperately needs to be fixed.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies and individuals are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies and individuals that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies and individuals that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
*sigh*
The fact that this is something that even needs someone like me (Someone who -really- prefers to just be a spectator), is VERY sad. To be forced to defend fair use, FAIR USE, is ludicrous. This isn't a problem that can just be dealt with like a fly, it's not just annoying it's an actual problem for actual people.
I'm just a small child, but even small children understand that a lack of fair use on something with as much impact as this would be more then just obnoxious, jeez.... it would be a pity, a real tragedy.
This system is outdated and is in need of AT LEAST some major tweaking. Its ruining the careers of many of our beloved Youtubers using Fair Use. Allow this automated essay to explain:
The DMCA, as it exists now, favors people who own content. Normally, this is fantastic! People get to use the process to protect their content.
However, a great deal of times, they're used to take down content that falls under fair use, without any real recourse for the person making the transformative content.
I don't know what the answer is, but something needs to change.
Please Fix!
I follow channels on YouTube such as Channel Awesome/Team That Guy With The Glasses/The League of Super Critics, Anime America Podcast, and TeamFourStar. However, in recent months, I've noticed a large problem with DMCA take-down notices. While this is understandable with channels that monetize their profits and certain companies getting nitpicky about their material being used, not all of it is. Channel Awesome is merely reviewing movies and such, only using clips from the movie for a small portion of their videos. Anime America Podcast only uses clips to make comparisons. TeamFourStar doesn't monetize their videos at all. Yet what all these channels have in common is that their videos were taken down. Thankfully they were able to get their channels back, but it was a lengthy process and they could lose them again.
I myself am a part of the entertainment industry, or rather I will be. I am a music education major and once I finish my degree, I intend to teach young minds how to sing. I have a microphone so occasionally I do recordings. However, due to a problem from an overseas company with my old channel, I've pretty much stopped posting anything to my YouTube account other than silly dog videos and convention videos. This sucks because I love to sing and with the internet being such a large place, I'd love to get feedback from other singers on the things I record.
Copyright Office, please stop these bogus DMCA take-down notices. Though there is an occasional theft incident where the person uploads full episodes of television shows, all the channels I mentioned have done nothing to violate the copyright laws. They credited their source material and only monetized certain parts of the video...the parts they made. These companies are claiming copyright to things that aren't theirs and it's ridiculous.
Thank you and have a nice day.
I don't think I can say anything that hasn't already been said, but I have to add my voice to the right side of this argument.
it hasnt been working needs to be updated and fixed
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright
holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This
system has had dire effects on political expression,
, and commercial innovation
on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to
against abuse and companies that infringe on
users’ free speech need to be
responsible.
While copyright is a good thing it is being abused and is destroying america. Time and time again I have had nothing but problems due to fake claims. These thieves take off with money that should be mine on content I make. Millions of others have the same issue and I find it piss poor that most will not be heard because very few even know you want feedback on this.
Some things that are copyrighted I did supposedly are actually copyrighted I did too much they were just using something from the Creator's idea and then trying to put it into their farms and their own stories but usually they get taken down because of the original story.
Lost Pause was a cooperate and I'm really sad for that. He had his channel took down for 3 weeks and it was bad. He still got the channel back but still get the copyright claims.
I have seen far too many times where a DMCA takedown was used to just silence critque ..this is not what it meant for and should be updated to help prevent this from happening.
We need balance in this immediately.
It is such bullcrap that people take down other people's content on websites and social media, this needs to stop. Its America and we have the freedom to post and share our ideas any way we want to.
It really depresses me to see my favorite youtubers taken down just because of some pompus jerk who doesn't understand fair use.
A common method for detecting copyright content, is by using automatizated software or bots to detect audio or video which has been registered, which by itself its faulty and prone to false or wrong detections.
Most or if not all companies and services shield their faults by blaming the software itself, going unpunished for their fault. I suggest following the principle that not knowing the law doesn't shield from liability. The same have to be done with faulty software, if the software is failing, the ones employing it or at least the developers should be liable in case many persons are affected.
Just like happens when a error for example with a embeded system for a car, which can be dangerous in some cases, like not working the airbag, locking the doors in a fire or crash, not running the engine because a error in software is causing. In those cases the most commong is that the company has to compesate the users by either giving a refund, repairing inmediatly or risking to being sued, or even jail for important systems. In the last years any company or software abusing the DMCA goes unnoticed by the court, even worst, they encourage for wrong doing. So by starting by implement simple things such as:
1) Faulty software should be fixed in a time no longer than 1 month, or else it should be banned and a fine to the party employing it in case it keeps on use.
2) Implement a kind of reputation system for companies and copyright holders when comes to fair use. If a party is found to repeately fill false copyrights complaints. Any future complaint should first be submited to a special court. Meaning they can't contact any host nor possible copyright infractor without previous approval from said court.
3) Allow hosting sites to ban copyrights holders in case they deem necessary to continous infractors of false copyrights complaints, with no chance of being liable to copyright infraction for a period of time (from 6 months up to 2 years) from the copyright holder.
4) Allow users to demand and even sue, host sites who repeately fail to aknowledge fair use. Asking them to fix their policy and compensate affected users in case the fail to do so.
It's important take account of the called "copyright trolls". Said individuals an companies are defined as, those who fill copyrights claim against any other company or individual for infringing their IP (Intellectual Property), but the complainers are not making use of their IP. Too common in software, where a patent is registered, but said patent is never used by the party with said patent. And they use said patent only to sue a party who decided to use it.
This practice sets a backdraw to innovation and scientific work. By limiting the use of an idea, they are damaging any involved person. A simple fix would be to set some rules such as:
1) Any patent should first be presented and working before being registered.
2) Any patent not being used on a frame time (1 year as a maximun) will be revoked and lost.
3) Any common word or phrase, including foreing, or public domain shall not be viable for trademark.
Thanks, hope this helps. Since this is a really an important issues since it affects worldwide and it's not limited to only one country.
the dmca is being used as a threat, in fact videos with nothing to do with anything needed to be copyrighted are being accused by the dmca and the accuser faces no punishment for this in fact the accuser keeps all money stolen a cool idea would be to see the accuser punished if wrong because they are walking away with someone else's well deserved money and preventing their fans from watching their videos two examples being (the one who started this) nostalgia critic and bandit incorporated sometimes videos get hit even after they are cleared
There's a huge problem with fair use on the internet. I constantly see videos being removed off of YouTube for no reason. Videos can be flagged for copyright abuse for absolutely no reason at all, with videos showing only the creator's content. Also, there are many popular YouTuber's who make videos reacting and talking about other people content, even after giving credit. It's not okay for a video of someone giving their opinion on a video where they're clearly not stealing the content to be taken down. Plus, even after a video has been put back up after being unfairly struck down it can be taken down again. This needs to be put to a stop and I hop that this comment can help with this important cause.
DMCA's are being used to styfle the free creatice spirots of the NEW internet of today under dated, old rules and need to be upgraded to be more acyive in Protecting the creators of TODAY's Internet.
Such broad and unbalanced enforcement of copyright also has the effect of preventing potential content creators from producing content for fear of being subjected to persecution even when their work falls under fair use. The internet has grown such that content is highly influential so to silence potential creators with fear tactics like automated take-downs is detrimental to the natural development of modern society.
Great youtubers and fan game creators have been getting hurt by people abusing these copyright laws.
It's not fair for someones favorite youtuber to be struck by copyright abuse just because he said one "mean" thing about a game.
Only if the work is a true act of copyright then it will be taken down
I feel the fair use system is abused by people with power. In many cases, those who have their content struck are using fair use, while others, who don't follow fair use rules have no punishment.
The DMCA was an innovative law back when it was first passed, but the Internet has changed dramatically since then and the DMCA is now so far behind the times, people have found ways to abuse it to exploit people who create content online. Many critics are being effectively censored by copyright holders who ignore Fair Use (and the recent court ruling requiring them to consider fair use) to take down reviews that they don't like, as under the DMCA, there really is no penalty for false takedown claims. Automated programs scan for pirated material to take down, only to incorrectly send false notices to content creators who didn't even use a smidgen of the claimant's copyrighted work. Online platforms like YouTube are forced to sit on the sidelines while the people whose online content makes those platforms great are harassed by false copyright claims. This has been going on for years, and there are many documented cases.
It is long past time to overhaul the DMCA. It may have been designed to be a shield to fight for copyright holders in the battle against infringement, but it has become a weapon that has been used to target our very freedom of speech.
Personally, I can understand why so many corporate companies wish to crack down on people using their prducts on the internet. Piracy is off the wall, and people are indeed legitimately stealing footage.
The only problem is how extreme the proccess actually is. Under the fair use law most dubbed overviews or videos used for critique, satire, or education should be legally allowed, yet still companies like Viacom, fox, and don't continue to claim videos that do not infringe copyright multiple times, and even under different names.
The worst part is, if the claimed is incorrect, he suffers absolutely no repercussions. In fact, many companies have attacked achannels, been repelled, and still found ways to steal monetization and attack the video yet again after a period of time. In the end, the fair use laws are unfairly one sided, and must be corrected in order for balance to be restored.
Im against companies taking down videos and tweets and twitch streams getting muted just because of a song playing in the background. I want contant creators not to be scared because of supposed copyrighted content. Large companies are using money to bribe people to say good things about their product and if not boom its gone. Finally Nintendo has been stealing youtube revanue with these partnerships allowing them to take a piece of money of a content creators check if they have a nintendo product in their video. Please fix this were watching make the internet great again please.
Copyright holders should be protected- But so should critics! This system is being horribly abused, and the abusers are profiting from it. These people issuing false takedown notices are literally digital thieves hoarding money from the artists and critics who create. It's one thing to make up lies intended to hurt a company, but criticism is an opinion, which should be protected by free speech. We're quickly spiraling backwards into a world where no one can say anything bad about anything ever. I, personally, like to live in a world where someone can warn me about whether something is good or bad before I make a purchase. It's like checking the produce at the store before you buy it, so you don't waste money on a rotten fruit.
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And further more how can we keep bashing the internet entertainment industry when it brings in so much money and jobs into a nation that desperately needs it.
The DMCA is an outdated method of dealing with copyright violations on today's Internet. It effectively inhibits the rights of free speech and fair use, and creates an unfair monopoly on the side of the content creators. Takedown notices are often sent at videos that do not merit them, and sometimes repetitively so. A video that is cleared one time should never be flagged again. This causes people who earn their living by posting fair use review or parody videos to lose income and face undeserved legal action. Meanwhile, large companies can continue to harass these video makers with impunity. This is an atrocity that must be rectified. Please update the DMCA. The Internet has evolved since 1998, and the laws governing it should too.
The rules of fair use have been strictly ignored to the point where people have been getting copyright claims and strikes constantly for the wrong reasons. We can not keep this trend going, we can't let content creators live in terror, getting their hopes and dreams crushed for actually following the laws of fair use.
Well, I say it's WRONG! People have the right to use content without asking for permission, as long as they only use clips and not the whole thing, plus adding something to it that makes it significantly distinct to the original.
Do something now! Leave channels who review and only use clips from the original alone, and focus more on those who play videos in their entirity without the permission to do so!
#WTFU
#MakeYouTubeGreatAgain
Shell companies and underhanded tactics encouraging a dark network of abusers of a law designed to help content creators, Please look back into the design of the DMCA for a modern audience. the law currently does not apply to a modern internet and the things created on it. please modernise the discussion with the most appliciable means.
Thank you
Derm MCGuigan
Delhi Belly productions
http://www.youtube.com/pasticheofskin
DMC has its uses and it's place. But it needs to be tweaked/ updated to reduce the heavy abuse that is growing in not the spirit of our freedoms and allowances. Fraud, intimidation, and theft (all crimes) are being perpetrated in the name of DMCA claims that are hard to impossible for the average person to defend against.
The DMCA was created to protect intellectual creations and is proving to also be a tool to harm intellectual creations by others (commonly the little guy)
The system is supposed to be fair but firm and it can be better.
I am not a content creator but a viewer of online content mostly movie and game reviews the recent takedowns of these is important to me without a unbiased review of a product how could i truly know if it is worth purchasing or renting I dont blindly follow them but they do make it easier to make a decision on weather I should purchase or avoid some media a 60 dollar game or a 15 dollar movie I certainly do want my moneys worth out of them but without an unbiased review from various content creators whom have similar tastes it harder to be willing to give my attention or money to some product
So many great and beloved and innocent critics have been harassed for using the natural right of free speech to give their opinion about a topic.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I have personally seen legitimate content created by the creater taken down by a 3rd party that has nothing to do with the content in question.
I have seen, read and heard about Companies abusing the system to silence critics from "harmful criticizing" when a product is not made properly.
I have personally have had more than 5 videos where I had NO Intent to put ads on be flagged and monetized by a third party company.
I have personally seen Companies such as Nintendo and Sega turn against content creaters in showing gameplay in certain games.
Due to them stating "The video you have posted has stolen content
and demand the removal of such" on a VIDEO GAME.
This is terrible as gameplay does not fall under the rules of Media such as movies, TV shows, even less than comercials that are publicized to the world.
The system needs to be upgraded to standard rules of today and tomorrow. I request that individuals who know about todays internet rules and usage WITHOUT the hands of Lobbyists inflicting any influence
into these changes. As more harm could be done instead of good.
The people who use the internet such as yourself would have issues just by live streaming what congress is doing today. To the president of the United states would have companies that could simply claim a piece of footage or music as their own and throw in ads for their personal gain.
If you have children who watch videos such as let's plays, these videos are part of the parties that can be effected by this. Personally as a content creater in Youtube. I have to deal with choices that could end up having my account shutdown because some company feels they are above the law. I can see my right in freedom of speech will be taken from me as I would try to tell my fellow viewers of my opinions of any subject. thank you
I am a huge supporter of copyright holders and believe in compensating artists for their work; however, in a free society I also believe in a forum for critique and satire in order to further discussion. In today's society creating online content has become a way to express who you are a fundamentally communicate with others more so than publishing articles or research in traditional venues. That is why fair use is important to small and large content creators and should be important to artists who value their freedom of expression as well. Even myself a small youtuber has had to deal with false claims on my videos that I eventually won but not before I lost income unfairly. This is a very important issue so please respect fair use and do more to enforce it is upheld not less.
I am a sheep who did not read this through.
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There are a lot of people/creators that suffer from this, i like to give attention to the channel Jan Animations/Jan Animation Studios who made the content based on Hasbro MLP characters and had lost the argument against them, because there wasn´t a "fair use" for him, he made similar animation like the show but he didn´t put any of the TV show, he didn´t even review them or put anything show related to his animation more than a single background character. Funny thing that the video that has an actual character of the show was given a by pass, maybe for being a parody of a song with a video in it. But the moment he wanted to create something like a mini series of a character that only showed in the show like 4 seconds, that´s a no no no, right?
If anything for what this guy has been throught is not fair, some persons got a chance to fight back, he didn´t got it. Where is his fair use?
I qould like to write it myself and not use some kind of "prewritten" content.
I known that this kind of point would be reached in time, since people are usually attached to money more than what they did to earning it...
People like "world of longplay" and many others ARE NOT making profit on someone else work... someone else work ALREADY HAD a profit.... youtube videos showing conten MEAN someone is doing a work (buying the game, recording, commenting, ecc.) and is in NO WAY related to steal the work of company or someone PRODUCING the game itself....
A song is meant to be heard, a video is meant to be watched but a game is meant to be PLAYED!!! There's no way that showing someone playing a game can be related to "steal" something about the game itself.... If something so foolish will pass, many other action like "hey, you shown a building I CONSTRUCTED" could be true.....
Even if in a short period of time this could be beneficial for someone and won't hurt many others, in time the situation will escalate and ALL (i mean you who is reading if someone will ever read this) will be afflicted.
My 2 cents
Copyright is an important thing to have on the Internet, it stops thefts of any type of property whether it would be music, film, song, etc.
But these days the system is broken and outdated, it seems as though most of the time everyone abuses it for petty reasons.
Updating these conditions would do a great service, specifically to individuals who have a job as an Internet personality but run the risk of losing their job because of the abuse of the DMCA.
In America, our judicial system states that you are innocent until proven guilty. Large corporations are able to use DMCA to flag content creators and take down their videos even when those videos are heavily edited, re dubbed, or rewritten. When they do this, the revenue that the content creator would have gotten from their work goes to the copyright holder, even though their copyright does not apply to the video, and clearly so. And yet rampant flagging and take downs of parody videos, top tens, and reviews are a real problem today. The reason? Because in the eyes of the DMCA, content creators are GUILTY until proven innocent. Flagged content is immediately taken down, the revenue siphoned off to the copyright holder, and afterwards the video is returned, but the money is not. countless numbers of false reports flood just a single website like Youtube, and the companies that flag them do not get fined, do not get penalized, do not see any repercussion for their actions. They use the threat of copyright flags as a way to bully content creators, threatening to get their channel removed if they dont stop making videos with the copyright holders material. But as long as that content falls under free use, the holder has no right to flag that video. They should be obligated to asses what IS and ISNT fair use, and should be penalized when they dont. Slandering someone with false accusations is a crime. If words heard by a few dozen, printed on a newspaper and seen by a few hundred or thousand, can be used to hold the speaker accountable for false accusations and damage to a person's reputation/career, then flags seen by MILLIONS, stealing THOUSANDS of dollars from legit content creators and deleting channels that have an established fan base should be used to hold the person or business making the claim accountable for damages as well.
It's time to bring the DMCA up to speed with todays technology while embodying the spirit of law and justice that make this country great. It's time for you to ask Where's The Fair Use?
Long story short the legislation surrounding fair use is extremely dated, and lags behind today's level of technology. As a copyright holder I'm a little startled and afraid of whats to come if something isn't done. i believe that copyrights should be defended, but that what is happing now is ridiculous. There are many videos that were frankly, just fine and should not have been taken down.
Youtube's copyright system allows practically anyone to use blatant theft. People on Youtube should have the right to use content under fair-use. They are content creators themselves and deserve to express themselves.
I say this as a person who find a lot of entertainment from Youtube, and as a fan I feel responsible to fight for content creators I support. We will not stand ideally by. #WTFU
Social websites which are established as an american institution, YouTube in particular, operate under american DMCA laws in order to protect against piracy. Said laws, however, are not written yet to meet the standards of today's much more advanced Internet, mot of which involve the application of fair use in a massive user-content based environment such as a social network. This has made the DMCA highly malleable to people and companies looking for an excuse to bypass the first amendment's right to freedom of expression. Example situations have involved (but are not limited to):
1. Organizations from foreign countries using their own national laws to take down content as well as replying to complaints with insults such as stereotypes, as is the case with the YouTube alias TheMysteriousMrEnter.
2. Other content creators such as TheFineBrothers strategically using trademarks and strikes in an attempt to assimilate all content established under arguably an entire Internet Genre into their brand.
3. various users experiencing strikes for content not involving any copyrighted material.
4. corporations censoring negative reviews through partnered companies
5. establishments taking down content for properties they don't own
6. computer based content ID systems issuing notices based on error and the inabilities to understand fair use.
7.businesses using company policy as opposed to law in order to issue strikes.
Issues like this are especially dangerous as the easy access of the modern internet is slowly making other mediums obsolete. Americans have more noticed, as the internet becomes more and more synonymous with free speech, that practices involving DMCA loopholes utilized by corporate sources have invoked the atmosphere of an almost cyberpunk online eco-system. even more controversial being the introduction to the concept of wealthy brands stemming from users using similar practices on the website from which they obtained success. This is notable as it creates a threat of a cannibalistic society in where voices struggle between each other to be heard. These Concerns can be easily spotted in movements such as "Where's The Fair Use" (#WTFU).
In order to Protect American rights through the Internet, new standards must be established. those who issue false DMCA strikes, claims, or take-downs on internet user content should be held responsible for violating the first amendment and receive a significant fine or other such consequence. the use of computer technology to locate copyrighted material should be much more limited. If a false strike is responded with these appropriate actions, strikes and take-downs should be lifted in order to allow re-post or re-upload. United States law must be held accountable for the ever expanding definitions of our first amendment.
by the way, if this turns out to be an April Fools joke, I blame myself.
i my self, have been wrongfully claimed on youtube because of a songs that was in fair use. But because companies feel they have the power they can wrongfully claim my videos and try to take money that i am trying to earn from my account. also i have noticed a lot of content creators that i support have had their videos wrongfully taken down due to invalidated claims. i have seen companies that don't own the source material, claim the video just so that they can create an other stream of revenue for them self. sometimes I've even had videos that royalty free music on it, taken down because i was drawing a fan art of my favorite character or show, to show my appreciation for said show.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. If the DMCA remains the same as it has been, it will only continue to benefit those who are looking for a quick "cash grab" margin of profit from use of their content, regardless of whether or not they have a right to the potential profit in a given context anyways, and also people who would rather abuse the system to lock legitimate content out of the reach of the public, regardless of whether or not their content was copyrighted in the first place, or was even theirs to begin with.
The DMCA is poorly instituted and harms many people, this is used to hurt many peoples way of business. The freedom of speech is under attack with the DMCA, change should be had and the action should be swift.
Yo this is some straight up bullshit. Fair use is broken, check out Channel Awesome on youtube for an example of why. Link for the lazy
https://youtu.be/zVqFAMOtwaI
DMCA takedowns have affected me in a variety of ways. The most immediate is through my own desires to use youtube to express my own ideas. I would find great interest and pleasure in communicating my own opinions on music, games, television and movies. I would also like to profit from my efforts. However, the thought of having my works censored and having others profit from my work with absolutely zero repercussions leaves me in a situation where starting such a project is a huge risk to my own self esteem and works. Why would I want to undertake such a thing when others can undertake such actions against me with no risk to themselves if they don't like what I say? Why would I want to make a video that someone else profits off of with nothing for myself, or put up something for free only to have someone profit off of it (such as what's happened to ADoseofBuckley). The fact is, the current state of DMCA takedowns is a passive form of censorship. It makes it much harder and much riskier for someone to start up a youtube career so to speak when it's so easy for companies to rip down content they don't like, or to profit off of someone's own opinions.
Secondarily, it affects my own viewing of Youtube. Many of the people I watch and follow can be very critical of their respective media targets, whether it's film, music or television. This can result in their works being highjacked for the profit of others, or risking their products being taken down. Some are on questionable ground, such as TeamFourStar who use actual footage of DragonBall Z and Hellsing Ultimate to create their works through heavy editing and re-dubbing. They do not directly profit from these works. Other people I watch use footage or music/sound to critique the media and thus undertake a risk on their livelihood every time they put up a video. This also affects my own habits because I enjoy following their opinions.
DMCA's need to be changed in some way or another. Money should not change hands, especially permanently, when there's no proof of violation of fair use. Channels shouldn't have their works censored due to a difference of opinion. A channel shouldn't be shut down when they use works in a legitimate way that's covered by fair use. Meanwhile other youtubers get around the entire issue by using a small screen, but show an entire trailer (or even a fellow youtuber's video) in the foreground with little or no commentary and no repercussions.
Something has to change. Either the process or punishments for wrongdoings. Both is probably what needs to happen. Trying to censor someone's opinion just because you disagree with it, because it hurts your feelings is wrong. And that's usually the case of what is happening. Taking someone's money, or taking profit from a non-profit video is not okay, either.
This copyright system is broken, either take it down or fix it. This is being used to harass content creators.
The DMCA does not account for the rapid transfer and creative processes in today's modern media. The law, as it currently stands, is outdated and needs to be changed for the benefit of our society. Technology changes over time, as does the needs of our society. I believe the law should reflect on those modern changes so that it can provide the best protection for our people. And in this case, help to cut down on the sheer amount of harassment currently plaguing the internet.
The DMCA as it is now massively favors the accuser, putting almost all the burden of proof on the accused when the only proof that should be needed is a look at the content being shown. Oftentimes it doesn't even get that, being sent a take down automatically, despite the fact that such take downs disproportionally hit legitimate reviews while having little effect on the content they are supposed to hit, which generally finds ways to circumvent it. This bill is out of step with the way our internet works in the modern age, and is often used to disrupt the business of reviewers and to suppress criticism with little to no risk for the one sending the takedown to begin with.
Thank you in advance, i hope we all can improve.
Hello my name is Heidi Schoessler and I am writing you this letter because although I am not a youtube content creator I am still effected by the unfair rules that subvert the copy right laws that are placed upon them.
I am effected because at this point any company any person even bots have been able to claim content as copy righted. Worse though is the fact that even when it has been proven that the content that has been created is valid under copy right law it can still have claims made against it time and again.
Because of the way that the world has changed since the creation of the internet this is a huge issue not only because many of the people who are having their content removed depend on the revenue as their lively hood but because it creates and environment that is completely stripped of free speech.
as long as we the people are afraid that saying the slightest thing wrong or just having and image in the background of our video can have our content removed that in and of itself creates enough fear to prevent creation at all. But then knowing that on top of that your content can be taken down without any notice before hand based on a claim that has no authenticity at all completely destroys the entire system. it allows not only large Businesses to completely control what is said because if what they want is not adhered to they can take down content creators work but it also allows for fraud by a single individual who does not even own the copy right.
The current system is flawed and allows for complete subversion of free speech because yes you can say whatever you want and put it up online….However if just one person does not like it they can claim copy right on everything and have your entire body of work taken down or receive the minimization that you would have been making off of it.
The people deserve the right for fair use! It's not right for the DMCA to take away freedom from us!
I keep getting claims on my videos where I have anime pictures and once I got a copyright claim on a vlog with FREE USE music that I could use w/o a license. I am just like a small business being bullied and destroyed by a bigger company, how are we suppose to grow if we keep getting shut down by company's who abuse the law. This is our livelihood.
As an educator, I find using familiar content is more relatable to children jy
Now, personally, i wanted to say that most of the media(series, music, movies etc) that i get to pay for, its media that i mostly get to know it because of the video of someone that uses it or because i get it whitout paying firts but i like it so much that i ended up paying the price once i get the money(it kinda works as a demo), and most of my friend do the same as me and probably a huge number of people do the same, consumers that wont get to know your products if you retrict the use of them in the media. fair use gives the authors free publicity for they work, even if they dont realize it, if you dont stop this you will make more damage than anything else
This is not right and there are a lot of youtubers that are hating on it. There are so many videos that others can't see or probably never noticed the video so that's why videos should not get copy righted.
I don't think it's fair that our stuff gets taken down, stuff we make and work so hard and spend so much time on. Video gets taken down, accounts get shut down. It's unfair.
The Internet at first began as an entertainment system, but as time grew on it became more of the economy than anything. YouTube for example makes millions of dollars by advertisements alone, and once the youtubers are given that blessing off shouldn't be dealt with lightly. Although most are oblivious to the occurrence of copyright harassment it just makes it worse for those that have to deal with it themselves. It has effected me because If cannot see content on one's channel then that person loses the ability to gain popularity, losing followers, and eventually becoming a thing of the past and YouTube doesn't have a valuable channel to make money and I don't have a channel for entertainment. This is not the treatment youtubers should be given considering how YouTube is meant to be accessible and enjoyable. Too many people go through this and it is seemingly untouched by the government. So notice it and give it the treatment it needs.
please stop fake fm a takedowns and help save our free speech some of my fav yotubers are being taken down unfairly for no good reason like mr enter and nolsalga critic so please help me and protect freedom of speech and don't let the system be abused
I've read many stories of people making satire and fair use works and even utilizing public domain content only to have the DMCA used by copyright holders to incorrect demand takedown of this legitimate content. It is unfair to strike down contents swiftly without also having a process that can dispute this takedown on an EQUAL footing with so-called copyright holders.
(also Youtube algorithms are stupid and broken)
We people are fighting for proper fair use, please take that into consideration.
To put it simply, the DMCA laws are being abused. Companies have been able to blatantly violate these laws and warp them from their original purpose for their own gains, shown by their taking down of fair use videos. These companies are violating the first amendment by silencing these creators.
Please, introduce oversight into the system. Copyright infringement needs to be overseen by a third party, and penalty systems need to be put in place to fight against false claims.
Right now, these laws are curbing piracy- they're restricting free speech. As Americans, free speech is what we value most. That's why it's the first amendment.
Thank you for your time.
Seriously. This system is completely unfair to the content creators and is in DESPERATE need of a major redesigning.
For what high corporate companies has done to people's content has gone too far. With how the Internet is continuosly growing to the point it's become a key part in social activities, people shouldn't have to face consequences for having their voices heard. People should be able to express their opinions for work through social media in their own creative ways. But how can they if these corporations still take down their content when they're given fair use? This problem needs to be put an end soon so that everyone can not only create their fair share of content, but also express their own ideas and opinions.
Dear Copyright Office,
I know you are getting a lot of these emails, but hopefully this will be read at some point. I'm taking the time to write my own concerns in my own words, because I know you probably have a few hundred copies of the suggested letter already.
In principle the situation with Youtube content creators really sucks, but I have not had to deal with any of it myself. I have only posted a couple random videos to Youtube so far, with no monetization or anything, and pretty much no views. It's fine, I'm not trying to do this as a hobby or a profession. Those who are, are having their copyright violated all the time by the presumption that anyone who accuses them of copyright violation is correct.
What I actually do want to do, is produce a game that I can then declare is 100% safe to be used in the production of video and audio content. One of the reasons for Minecraft's success, for Undertale's success, and for many other Indie games' success, is that anyone could make a video about those games with no fear of the creators claiming copyright on those videos. It was free advertising for the game creators, and worked amazingly.
But so what if I declare that I will never claim copyright on anyone else's videos? It doesn't matter, because anyone can claim copyright on anyone's "behalf" and STEAL from independent video producers. I live in the U.S.A. Let's say someone also in the U.S.A. (to make things simple for you, the U.S. Copyright office) does a Let's Play of my game. As things are now, someone in the U.S. or even a foreign country could simply claim copyright on my behalf and steal all of the revenue from the Let's Player on that video for at least a month.
People are claiming copyright on Bach and Beetoven. People are claiming copyright on other people's personal vlogs. Channels that blatantly do violate copyright by posting copyrighted works in their entirety with no alteration are going untouched, while creators that make legal derivative works, and sometimes even completely original works, are having their channels taken down.
The Youtube situation is not the only reason why the DCMA sucks, but it is one of the most current and public issues at the moment. The damage to software copyright and consumer software rights is too lengthy to go into here, but don't think I'm overlooking or forgetting that part just because I'm complaining about Youtube.
We don't need a new trade agreement for foreign countries to adopt DMCA-like policies as if there's nothing wrong with the DMCA! We need Americans to be protected from abuse resulting from the DMCA for the last two decades! (It sucks for foreign content producers too, and my concerns go out to them, but as the U.S. Copyright office your responsibility is to U.S. citizens.)
It would be just lovely if all of this was fixed by the time I actually publish my game, and I can simply declare publicly that anyone can make a commercial video featuring my game with no fear of harassment, theft or abuse. That would be just superb.
I made an educational video regarding research I conducted with the ethical/moral challenges of using drones. My video was taken down from YouTube by Sony entertainment and from other music studio companies. I only used an image from a film and a short 8 second verse from a song within my educational video.
I felt harassed and strong-armed by these corporate industries that unfairly took down my video.
I know plenty of people who use the internet for various purposes and time after time I hear about how the messed up copyright system is stopping them from making content they want, particularly on sites like youtube. Some just don't want to go through the hassle of lawyers. Some are afraid of their content getting removed permanently, losing revenue in the process. Etc.
I, myself, attempted to get into making content on the internet and did my own research on copyrights and such. I began to doubt my own studies as I saw people getting their content taken down despite following what I believed to be Fair Use. It turns out that my knowledge of Fair Use wasn't flawed, but that the systems are being abused online. Much content that falls under Fair Use is being unfairly claimed and people are making money off of other people's work. Again, youtube is the primary source for this as it implements a system that proclaims the accused guilty until proven innocent and involves only reward and no punishment for false accusers.
Copyright and Fair Use needs to be reevaluated for internet purposes. The internet makes it easy to share and spread information quickly. Because of that, people do indeed abuse it and share what they have no right to share, but people are so afraid of actual violators, that they've lumped anyone who shares anything into the same category and it creates one big mess.
Where's The Fair Use?!
WTFU!?
-Puff30826
This is also a direct violation of the First Amendment which is the American Right to Free Speech. Many years and too many trials that go all the way up to the supreme court about Freedom of Speech violations. This is a direct insult to our rights and should be 100% illegal.
I don't like guilty until proven innocent while people who don't have any right to the videos eat profits from them.
This is not freedom.
I have always been fascinated by popular culture (especially geek culture). I love discussing topics like movies, video games, comics, etc with my friends and family. I have always had thoughts and ideas that I've wanted to discussed with a wider audience. I've had the idea to do a YouTube series where I review movies/TV shows and talk about topics related to geek culture. But because of the antiquated DMCA laws I find myself hesitant to do so. I'm afraid that the videos I make will be taken down so sometimes I wonder if it would be even worth it to put in the effort to make the content at all. I, like many other content creators, am afraid of having my thoughts, words, and creativity stifled by people who either don't understand copyright law or people who abuse the system because they don't like what I have to say. I understand the need for copyright protection laws but believe that the current system is broken and is in desperate need of reform. I am signing this petition because I want to have a world where future generations can share thoughts and ideas without fear of being silenced unjustly.
I personally think that these are only the largest cases, and that there are smaller but still serious ones.
I deserve these rights, and the U.S. Government has Constitution obligation to give me them.
Also I'm sick off living in fear of being sued by big productions because they dislike my opinion about them. They don't respect fair use or freedom of speech. Let's take back what is rightfully our content.
The DMCA has been, since it's birth (and I say so with contempt), a tool for high-profit individuals or corporations to control the sources of information and entertainment, in order to keep any and all cultural spheres under their guise and will. It is a law that only enforces the impossibility that is the Internet free of piracy and theft, since the other side of that coin is authoritarian control and the abolition of any and all freedom on the digital world.
One can only ask what is the real purpose of the "freedom" so often called forth as a trophy of the USA, when all that is to be seen from the outside is freedom for the few rich, powerful and lawless ones, given free pass on preying on whoever weaker, seizing their work, property, their life for a single cry of "unfair use" of what can come to be a word.
If this even comes to be read, do take in consideration that many, many people from outside the USA are being affected by the DMCA even if barely knowing what the law is (they are not your citizens, they do not need to know your laws). I can say for myself to be watching closely with something of hope for a better deliberation of this law, yet I know in my spirit to not be the only one.
The internet's ability to critique, report news and comment on current events and culture needs to be protected in the same way that the press is, and right now bullying from shell companies, sensitive persons and multinational businesses is stifling free speech in a horrific way that any reasonable person would deem unethical at best, and more realistically illegal. The DMCA needs to be drastically altered to take into account the Internet of today.
DMCAs and other copyright laws are in desperate need of revision in light of a 21st century where people animate videos inspired by their favorite movies and TV shows, post reviews and commentaries and generally use content in ways that could've never before been predicted. As such, we have an environment where countless creative works and commentaries based on other media are technically illegal and can be taken down for stating an opinion someone disagrees with, or by a troll.
Fair Use is being abused, it's as simple as that. While I'm sure it was created with good intentions, the reality is that Fair Use is being used almost universally to harass content creators, or make half-hearted, greedy claims to try to make a profit without any effort. Meanwhile, the content strikes create serious problems for the creators, whose livelihood depends on making money from their work on these videos. To be blunt, I have nothing but contempt for companies who will abuse the law for their own monetary gain at the content creator's expense, or the petty revenge some people who gain a little power try to exact with it.
As a small time youtuber i have seen the problems with the current system first hand and am still living with the idea that every morning i can wake up to all of my work undone because some one failed 3 fake copyright claims and there is nothing i can do about it.
The current system for DMCA actions is broken. Even as someone who is not affected by it or with deep knowledge of law, it is clear as day that the current abuse of DMCA laws have become an epidemic that companies are abusing to this day.
Even though the law in place was originally designed to discourage and punish copyright offenders, it is not being used as such today. In fact, the current manner in which people are abusing the system range from immoral to illegal. Whereas some companies decide to take down anything that they want because they see their product and ignore Fair Use as a whole, others straight-up harass or steal legally-earned monetization by going through loopholes that do not affect the falsely-accusing at ALL. There have been, and still are to this day, MANY incidents that the wrongly-accused victim could not only be punished for doing nothing wrong by legal standards, but could also get the opponent charged for an illegal crime that they are committing in the process.
While it does hit the people who have done wrongdoing, the current system that is upheld is used primarily to abuse its unfinished doctrine to either intimidate, control, or steal from innocent people who are doing no wrong. If you are a person who wishes to see true justice, then this current system is the polar opposite of what should be done and needs a thorough revision to minimize such abuse.
There is a serious problem with DMCA requests being abused, especially on sites like YouTube. There are companies that prey on YouTube content creators because they are aware of how difficult it is for users to fight these requests. They often use robots to simply DMCA request a number of videos every day. They do not care that the request is illegitimate because from their point of view there are only two outcomes: either the video is taken down or the ad revenue for said content is transferred to them. Fighting the requests requires a creator not only to reveal their personal identity but also to agree to being sued in federal court. Most people simply don't have the resources to do so.
Some form of proof of unfair use should be required in all DMCA requests, these automatic take-downs are having a very negative effect on YouTube content creators and thereby also us viewers.
I'm glad that you are doing this study because even though this is about US copyright law, the status USA has on the internet makes this an international issue. It's very important that someone finally has a good hard look at it.
I am sure you have read a lot of form letters today and are not interested in reading another. If that is the case, I ask that you please skip a majority of this comment, but please read the last paragraph as it is completely original.
Please understand that even though the numbers for this information might not seem like they are significant enough to warrant your attention, it is more than likely due to the fact that many of the groups of people that would be hurt by better balance in DMCA laws or closer inspection on takedowns are also the groups that would normally be first places that those hurt by the current processes would find out about this information. Social media sites don't want more human influence for these laws because that would require actually hiring people to look over these cases that should be open and shut in favor of the creators, but instead are just considered open and shut in favor of copyright holders because it's easier. Please, take the time to read these letters and know that these laws need adjusting so we can stop this great injustice.
I am a youtuber am constantly batteling false claims. I have been Robbed and can do nothing about it. because no body is willing to protect me.
The DMCA as it was written back in 1998 is woefully inadequate for the world we now live in. The law hasn't been updated to reflect the changes in technology and it shows. Content Creators are constantly battling copyright changes even though they are well within fair use territory. I've seen channels use clips of copyrighted works for transformative purposes such as critiques, commentary, parody, satire and such be stricken down by takedown notices. I've seen home videos made by people who wanted to share a funny moment at home be taken down by record labels simply because someone was listening to a song in the background despite being barely audible. I've seen videos that consists of nothing more than two people sitting in a car discussing a movie they had just watched at a midnight screening be taken down despite there was nothing worthy of a takedown challenge in the video (no video, no pictures, no audio of songs playing a radio, just silence and the voices of two people discussing a movie). I've seen people constantly fighting challenges left and right coming from shell companies designed to protect the copyright holding company from having to do their dirty work for themselves.
As if that weren't enough, copyright claims have even become a tool perfectly designed to harass and intimidate. I've seen people tell stories where a video that only consisted of the channel owner talking to the camera be taken down false copyright claims by people falsely claiming they are the copyright holders. Instances like these harassment claims and the shell company claims are perfect tools for disrupting an innocent channel owners income since their channels are their livelihoods. These claims have the effect of siphoning any and all money from videos that could be going to the channel owner and giving it to the individual making the claims as "compensation" for violation of copyright despite being perfectly in the clear within fair use.
These innocent owners can't even dispute it since the burden of proof falls on them while the person making the claim doesn't have to. If I wanted to right now, I could go to anyone random persons page and fill a false copyright claim and not incur any legal repercussions like I would if I made a false 911 call. The DMCA as it stands now is a perfect tool to stifle creativity and free speech since the people who are frequently targeted are people who are starting out as content creators and have little to no recourse to help fight off these claims. In fact there are many videos out there on YouTube which discuss what to do in the event of getting a copyright claim if you're starting out and the answer one will see more often than not is do nothing and take the hit. Why? Because the burden of proof and possible legal fees that come with disputing the claim. Again, since the burden of proof falls on the person who received the claim, the person making a false claim incurs no penalty and can freely do it again. There are people who have had claims on a video get cleared up only to immediately see that same video get hit with three or more claims.
The law needs to be updated to better help the people who are getting false claims and punish those who make false claims. Unless these things change, the law can and will be used as a tool to control the content people can create on the internet. It will control what people say and what people feel instead of being allowed to generate discussion. "Will this video get hit by a claim? Will the next one I do? Will I lose my channel and the income that comes from it?" These were concerns and thoughts that didn't exist in 1998 when the law was first passed. 18 years later, those thoughts, those concerns exist now and it's time to make sure the law works fairly instead of being a one-sided bludgeon that only works in favor of companies striking down anything that an automated algorithm that arbitrarily decides something is violating copyright or for someone going around making bogus claims simply because they can.
The law needs to be updated to better fit the world we live in now, not the world as it was 18 years again. Until then, many people and myself will be asking "Where's the Fair Use?" every day a false claim is made, or when an innocent content creator has their livelihood toyed with. This much more than just updating a law, this is about the future of free speech and the threat someone out there can just decide what can be said, what can be created and what can be shared without any legal repercussion to them.
Thank you.
------------
I had a friend who's video was taken down by some guy who had nothing to do with it. I want to go back to the old days where we could use any music and show any content! Plea
People file claims on content that they don't even own, DMCA's are being used to inflict harm on individual creators and are being used to stifle free speech, people just talking on camera with no copyright music or footage are being taken down, Some companies believe they create the law, DMCAs are being used without factoring in fair use, DMCA's are being sent by shell companies to shield the company sending the takedowns, people use them as threats, videos are getting hit multiple times even after they're cleared
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
The DMCA is one of the worst things to happen to free speech and expression
Too many times have I've seen videos or entire channels on Youtube vanish without a trace. The Internet is an incredible tool that allows people to voice their opinions, share their creative talent, call for help in a time of need or simply connect with people around the world.
But such a power tool is currently being abused by people and corporations alike out of greed, spite or glee.
The current state of YouTube and DMCA has made it so people can claim the work of others as their own with as little as simply saying 'That is mine' and this upsets me, because the content creators that I care about, eagerly await their next upload are being robbed of the revenue I and many, many others generate by watching their creations. Revenue that they need to live and to improve their work so that they can create better content. But this money is being given to some anonymous person who said 'You stole my work, give me momey' which is a complete lie.
I'm not saying that companies have no right to protect their copyrighted material so long as it is in fact a violation Fair Use, which should protect transformative works like reviews, parody, research, news and other things. But often the reasons for take downs is for lining their own pockets with money, because they disagree with the creator or because they simply wish to be a jerk.
There needs to be punishments just in place to dissuade people and corporations from extorting creators through false claims.
I might be one person, but the Internet is my second home and will not stand to see it violated by people who only care about their own selfish gain.
YouTube's fair-use policy used unfairly against YouTube's content creators. the fact that there is such a problem on a platform that is for everyone is something that needs to be addressed immediately.
the issue is that people are taking advantage of a broken system, where honest people are being labeled as criminals and the people who are doing the wrong thing are not being punished for braking the rules of YouTube's community guidelines or the rules of YouTube.
if anyone is reading this then, thank you for getting this far. there is an action that should be brought to your attention. I am talking about the #WTFU (which stands for where's the fair use) action on YouTube, considering that I haven't herd to much of it around YouTube (the action not the problem) means that it is still a small group of somewhat popular YouTube trying to give other honest content creators help with the injustice that is going on at the moment from the nasty/evil content creators.
these people's job is YouTube and in some cases, YouTube is all they have got. if they lost YouTube, they lose their livelihood and income which (in extreme circumstances) they could lose their lives, all because that the system is broken. now the background is out of the way there are many videos that can be referenced.
here is links to videos explaining what the problem is in general and also some that explain how to fix it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjXNvLDkDTA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF2tCY281Rk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3_LHq_kjnw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC3NIdiZF_E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFlgx2LTdeY
these videos are far from the only ones, this problems need to end soon before more lives are ruined and more people quit YouTube.
please fix these problems.
Individuals and corporations have abused this in order to get want they want; therefore, an updated version of this law needs to be passed.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Currently, the DMCA has been warped and perverted into a champion for illegitimate copyright claims and base theft. Mountains upon mountains of abuse are laid on content creators who have committed no wrongs against the system. The entire notion that the revenue from a video goes to the claimant before the claim is even proven to be valid is absolutely absurd! As it stands, the DMCA is legalized theft and a platform upon which honest content creators are bullied, harassed, and stolen from by parties with no legitimate claim to the revenue generated. The DMCA must change and it must change now.
The one thing I want to mention is that Fair Use needs to be enforced, and the fact that companies are actively bullying people is harmful to so many talented, creative people. It's unfair that people making a living by talking about something they love and giving a fair and valid point about movies, or video games. And everything they're doing is bullying to the level that the mob would be impressed. It's something that needs to be investigated, and youtube is where you need to look. I'd recommend looking into a channel called TheMysteriousMrEnter. Look into how he's being bullied by an Australian company and even insulting him, and belittling him. There's also the issue with another channel (yes, the name isn't the best) called Channel Awesome, where they do parody reviews, and some of their videos that contain no footage of the movie at all have been taken down, simply on the name alone. There are several other examples out there, and it's getting to the point where it's discouraging people from trying to do something they love. That's not fair, and this needs to be looked into. Thank you for your time reading this, and have a nice day.
It is being used to unfairly strong arm individuals who wish to fairly create content; sometimes even solely original content that does not draw from any outside sources. This needs to be addressed. Our country is supposed to be one of free speech and creation but our laws, this law, is being used by the corporate to stifle the individual.
Only a Highschool student soon to graduate, I hope that I can bring something to the internet that I was able to create from my inspirations wether it be a video or simply and opinion!
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
So I can't find full episodes of tv shows on Youtube but I can find reactions to full episodes on youtube. You guys have no idea what you're doing.
At the very least, lawmakers should consider updating the DMCA.
I'm sure you're getting a lot of form replies, but this one is based on a person experience.
I had a video removed from YouTube because of a takedown notice. The notice came from a company that sells background music for films. The film used their music but was produced thirty years ago. At that time, my company had an agreement to use this company's music, but the documentation for that is long gone since I sold the company. As a result of this, the film and my client who produced it using legitimately licensed music can't use this important piece of his work. I treated the client and the music company according to correct protocols and licensing, so I consider the DMCA takedown bogus, but I can get no response at all from YouTube to get the audio to this film restored. It's enough of a burden on them, I suppose, to enforce these takedown notices.
I urge the Copyright Office to consider using the legal system in a manner that allows prosecution for copyright violation but not punish legitimate users of copyrighted material.
Thank you for your attention.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and is too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgement to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition, extract money from innocent victims, or even just increase the search rating of their own content with sweeping, blanket takedowns of videos with certain keywords.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses; robbing them of revenue until they can resolve the takedown, or causing them to loose their entire online presence. This kind of damage can not be undone.
This type of bill is outrageous. The internet is different, and you can't catch up with it. Passing this bill would be a huge mistake by this organization's. The internet has drastically increased in its use. Trying to suppress a natural growth will not work. I strongly recommend this organization to absolve the content creators of your backward law.
The law needs to be updated to better fit the characteristics of today's internet versus the one which the DMCA was initially made under.
In addition, I feel as though the system no longer works for the purpose it was originally intended for. As with many things, the world has moved on while legislation has not.
There are so many things I could express to say how much Fair Use is important, but this video really does it for me, and expresses just how much it is being abused by big corporations. Fair Use is incredibly important, and there needs to be a balance and penalty for the people who send false claims over and over, and torture content creators, costing them revenue, sometimes their channels for a time in the process with no consequence.
There needs to be a change, and I hope this is another step towards that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
While I don't particulary work with videos and such media.
I enjoy watching all kinds of channel that makes reviews, analysis, previews, curiosities, etc. of current media, specially games.
I don't it's fair that people that work with this media have to confront day-to-day strikes and other problems that have little to no-solution to protect and recover their money.
The internet should be a place for people to be comfortable being themselves and with their work. Working in such coditions isn't just unacceptable, it also seems a restriction to those rights.
The fact that these companys can come and "copyright" peoples original content and make money off of it is bullshit and should be stoped. Youtubers spend endless hours creating there content to earn themselfs money, but when one of these companys come and get a fake copyright abuse on them so they earn the money is stupid.
This shit has gone on for too long and has only ramped up recently. These false claims can be used by anybody for any reason. To stifle creativity and actively negate criticism. Now companies can silence people warning the public about the shit that they are doing. Now someone can steal a hard working creators' money and never have to give it back even if their claim was rejected! What are the three basic human rights you are supposed to protect? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness! What's that last one? I can't hear it and neither can anyone else these days. If you want to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America, stop letting people rip away our free speech. Fix this problem now. It is your duty to your citizens to protect their rights.
The amount of abuse I have seen online has been absurd, I understand that copyright needs to be protected and people just can't steal characters or assets from movies, films, games extra... But I fail to see how making a video about how good that piece of entertainment is and showing HOW it's good is a bad thing? Not to mention that legitimate criticism of lack luster content needs to be protected because protecting the consumers of the world from wasting there money on bad content not only helps the consumer but rewards the really passionate and well deserving content creators of a job well done. Right now the system is being abused to try and hide bad reviews of a lot of lack luster products claiming copyright although it should be protected under fair use. Please update the DMCA to allow free discussion so that I, as a consumer, can make more informed decisions about the products I buy
I am a small content creator who makes his own music and uploads it on Youtube which I happen to earn a small add revenue off of.
I've noticed that anyone is capable of stealing that add revenue from me by simply abusing YouTube's horribly outdated copyright ID system. They do not need any evidence or reason for Youtube to take action and the whole process of giving away the add revenue to the claimant is done before I'm even notified about it.
This is especially scary because anyone can be affected like this. A lot of people earn a living like this and they all stated how insecure they feel because they have a job where they know they could be shutdown in a second.
The content creator doesn't receive any money even after disputing the empty claim, and the dispute process takes 30 days in which the claimant is given the option to respond to the appeal. If they do then the appeal is ignored by the content creator completely. It's a horrible system that favors the criminal.
As a person who uses the internet for most of my communication it is vital that this law be looked at and revamped for the modern internet. I am an actor and writer by trade. A lot of new content creations online are ways to get noticed for jobs and things that can help my career. And I bet you are saying "Well Jon, just make your own content."
That's just it. Even if I own the content, if I release it on a website such as youtube someone else can claim a copyright claim and take down my own stuff even if it's cleared. We released a short film called "Dawn of The Stalkers" as part of a campaign to fund a larger film. The threat of a copyright claim could shut that down. Countless other creators I know are in fear of this not only killing off their own content, but it also cuts into their revenue as creators on websites such as youtube. This has to be looked at and revised.
Now why should it be revised. Well the same reason as every other law should be revised. Case in point look at standards and practices pre-1980's and then post-1980's for the "Saturday Morning Cartoons". The business models for toys and everything else changed once things were updated for a new era that didn't see as much revenue come from such things and it brought up a lot of creative new entertainment. I'm not saying let everything be fair use. If someone violates the rules of fair use then please do stop them because that's not fair, but things that have a fair use and copyright allowance shouldn't be taken down without looking into if it actually does violate things or not.
A lot of the vidoes and channels that dissappear because of these actually bring more viewers to the things that they reference. Case in point. If I see an internet review of a new horror film that hasn't been seen yet, but someone see's it that I trust the opinion of I'm gonna go out and watch it. If they use a clip from the film or the poster or even given out promotional material from the film with permission from the filmmakers...they can still get taken down just because someone "claims" it.
I'm not asking you to uplift all restrictions but I'm asking you to look at it this way. It's 2016. The law was written into effect in 1998 where sites like Youtube, Vine, and anything else weren't even able to be ran due to limitaions on data. So ask yourself is it time to ad adendums to it or not? I think so. Because if you don't it's not gonly gonna stiffle entertainment online but also the economy of the internet.
Creator creates content. Creator gets paid via advertising or what not. Creator then spends money to make the show better and also on other things. This is a way that some people create a second job or even a full time based on their viewers. As long as they acknowledge where things come from I think it's a fair use of the material because it reference and says who owns it. I can't tell you how many movies, songs, or video games I've seen people buy just based off of essentially FREE advertising on these videos from people. So please look into revising the law. It'd be much appreciated because this is something that can affect independent filmmakers and producers of content for years to come.
Thank you, and have a wonderful day.
Fix this. This has stifled creativity and burdened those who are creators right to express themselves completely. This is an infringement on our basic right of speech, and has smothered potential creators willingness to participate before they can even get off the ground. These are people I respect, enjoy, and look up to, and if you won't give us the chance it will stunt and smother that potential. Please don't allow this to keep happening, and fix this issue before it cripples this young medium.
Seriously guys, this is ridiculous. FIX IT!
Though below the comment has been made specifically for this moment, I would like to put in my comments about it as well: The DMCA's processes has been fervently abused by those who have more financial power than those who do not. They use their computer algorithms to automatically attack small content creators who are only utilizing the culture that has been established in this world to expand upon and create new culture, and are being destroyed by the big wigs. This process is unfair to those who are only trying to make content and be artistic. This abuse of the system is strangling a generation's creative spirit on the internet. This should be stopped. It should be in favor of those who create, not those who are already millions of dollars ahead of the small creator.
I want to fight the false copyright issues that happen 24/7 on my favorite Youtubers. I'm cheering on for whoever's in charge now.
We need a chance!
____________________________________
This has been a problem for quite some time and is seriously abused, please look into this and preserve the freedom of the internet we all cherish - fight for the future!
I have had 2 channels terminated by this fair use crap I'm sick and tired of it.
Hello, I'm John and I've been wanting to make videos for a while, but with recent controversy with DMCA, I'm afraid to put up videos because of the abuse of such practice. The takedowns with DMCA have led to individuals having lawsuits filed against them (like Jim Sterling). I fear what this means not only for individuals but for our First Amendment right to free speech. If individuals can be sued for their opinions, and not have the ability to defend themselves in court, then it does not bode well for America. Stop these takedowns.
Stop letting the abuse continue.
On Youtube, there are a lot of people who have been using the DMCA to steal the content of others. There have been a lot of content creators who have had revenue taken away from them because people who were not the original owners of the content they created reported them and were unable to make anything from the video they worked hard on. Also, there are content creators who were just talking into a camera with no clips or music, and had the video taken down because of the mention of a movie or video game.
I'm not one to openly post content to the Internet lightly, but I personally know people who do and I would like to see changes made to the system, like those stated in this letter, that they and others are protected as well as those like me who are invested in online content for its practically in everyday life as well as entertainment.
Bogus DMCA takedowns are quite literally criminal, and should be treated as such.
DMCA related takedowns can and have been easily abused to take down content unfairly. It's especially troubling that they are often used in an attempt to stifle people's views with absolutely no regard for fair use laws. The DMCA needs to be completely overhauled to reflect how much the content on the internet has changed in the past 15+ years.
I add onto the above that I think it is especially important that there should be an incentive against making copyright claims when one has not conformed to a reasonable degree of confidence that the content they are claiming is infringing is really infringing. As it is, it seems like people making copyright claims have no reason to care whether a claim they are sending might be false. I have even heard of a company which sends notices based on IP that they do not even own, in order to get ad revenue. And even in the more usual case, where a company just sends notices for all the things that are detected as maybe having infringing content, as far as I can tell, they do not have any incentive to care about whether the content they are sending the claim against actually is infringing, because there is no cost to them if it isn't.
I believe that all laws, rulings, etc. should be considered carefully to make sure that the incentives that they create are not harmful. I believe that the way that some parts of the DMCA currently work creates harmful incentives, and therefore should be changed to not create harmful incentives, or the harmful incentives should be corrected in some way or another.
I was personally such a victim of a false DMCA takedown claim for a 'Youtube Poop' video I had made back in 2009, back when I was still a minor. The person that had filed a takedown against me was known as Norm Augustinus. Since my video was protected under fair use, I filed a counter claim with this man, and had come under harassment by him ever since with threats of civil law suits and (false) police reports that would be allegedly filed against me. I heard nothing from him since, and my video has been restored with a stirke against me. The current system is being used as muscle for illegitimate purposes, just because someone doesn't like that someone else is using their content that, despite being in their legitimate and legal right of free speech and fair use, are using it in a way they don't like. Better checks and balances need to be made, to ensure all parties involved are fairly treated, and that content creators are not treated as guilty until proven innocent with strikes following their record in every moment.
So all I'm asking is, where's the fair use? #WTFU
With the requested action this will bring a fair field where others can exhibit themselves without the lingering detriments of those that would abuse it for self gain.
The DMCA was put into place to protect hosts from the illicit deeds of their users and while the actions it was created to address continue, the DMCA is woefully inadequate in today's internet environment. While pirated movies, music, etc exist and will exist, and this system was in place to defend content creators from such things, today it is often being used to censor, silence, and steal from a new generation of content creators.
Eighteen years ago, Youtube, all of social media, did not exist so expecting the law to predict the future would be unreasonable, but the DMCA needs to be updated to the current world: a world of living room film critics, of backyard film makers, of video games and their industries overtaking older media. We now live in a world where anyone with a camera can be a critic with hundreds of thousands of viewers, but few of the protections afforded to a newspaper critic with a fraction of the readership. Fair use protection is afforded to both in theory, though devilishly difficult to prove when the expensive court system is the only way to defend your livelihood. To make things worse, those are just the problems with the honest, large companies who, wrongly, perceive themselves to be under attack.
There are many companies, some shells to protect parent companies from liability, who falsely claim content causing loss or theft of revenue to the content creators. They are given a wide time window to perpetrate these abuses and face little risk from the individuals and small companies they attack, as going to court is the only recourse and costs are prohibitive even if your case is solid. I have seen this play out over and over, sometimes to the most ridiculous degrees.
Mike B on Youtube had a DMCA claim from Sky Italia over the word poop, spoken by Mike B, with no way you could ever link it to Sky Italia for a myriad of reasons I'm sure you can instinctively draw up. There is no reasonable legal recourse for a single man operation to hold a foreign media company responsible for fraud, which this case most certainly entails. There needs to be built in protection for both sides, not just the established one.
Brad Jones of Stoned Gremlin Productions has a series called Midnight Screenings. He and friends go to see a movie, then do an off the cuff review in the car. There are no clips, no lines, just people sitting in a car and talking about a movie. They have had multiple fights with movie studios attempting to remove these videos, all of which are very obviously fraudulent, but again, there is no real penalty for filing these claims. This must change.
For examples of the more traditional type: Doug Walker, John Bain, and Jim Sterling. Doug Walker or the Nostalgia Critic has been reviewing older, nostalgic movies of the 80s, 90s, and more recently up to current movies. He had been using a fairly standard format, clips with a critical script delivered on camera, much like Roger Ebert did for so long, though Doug adds a lot of comedy as well. This has changed recently due the increase of claims against his videos from the studios that made the movies. This is, as was for critics past, present, and future, covered under fair use doctrine as a critical review, but unlike in the past, there is no protection afforded by another large entity like a television network or newspaper. Again, this needs to be addressed.
John Bain, better known online as TotalBiscuit, had had, and spoken quite loudly about, many run-ins with the DMCA over clear Fair Use work. A critique on the game Day One: Garry's Incident was claimed by the developer to stifle a negative view on a broken product, which did not go well for said developer. The fact that this censorship was even possible to attempt needs to be addressed. More egregious was Sega, who blanket claimed every video, which included on of Mr. Bain's, that even mentioned their game Shining Force in an attempt to force their own content on a remake of the series to the top of various search engines. Blatant abuse of the DMCA such as this must be stopped within the law itself.
Jim Sterling has a series where he looks at independent games on Steam (the prominent platform for selling and playing PC games). One of these episodes looked at a game called The Slaughtering Grounds by developer Digital Homocide, which became infamous not for how awful the game is, but for the reaction of DH, which responded by taking Sterling's video and plastering bile-laden reactions to Sterling's comments about the game. This also did not go over well and has led to escalations, a hostile interview, calming, and now a lawsuit by DH to Sterling for defamation, harassment, and various other claims due to not being able to take criticism and having access to a copyright system with critical flaws.
There are many, many more examples to give, but I believe these should be sufficient for the moment. The DMCA was created with purpose and serves its original purpose well, but needs to be updated to the modern day; a place where everyday citizens are interacting with the copyright system on an unprecedented scale and need to be protected just the same as Disney and Viacom.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is
protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
As a content creator on Youtube, I've personally experienced not just the inconvenience, but the monetary loss of having big media companies and their farmed-out watchdogs take down videos that clearly fall under fair use. The copyright system is now fundamentally broken, since there are heavy penalties for alleged violations of copyright law, regardless of the evidence, yet many companies and bitter content creators routinely take down content falsely with no punishment.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I have a very small Channel. very few subscribers. With everything that's been happening lately with the lack of fair use, its made me hesitant to try to evolve my channel. I'm afraid to try harder and get more subscribers. Because i know if i DO get more subscribers my Videos will become a target for the people who abuse Fair Use to make money for themselves. money that BELONGS to the Creator of the video. Every week i see another one of the Youtuber's I'm subscribed to has received a copyright strike. resulting in a video being taken down or WORSE, their channel being terminated. If highly popular channels aren't safe, what chance do I have. Please bring back Fair Use and protect content creators. Cause here's the thing. Were not going away. Big or Small channels. it doesn't matter. were gonna continue to fight. So Please, Help us to win.
It is punishable to infringe copyright, so why not make it punishable to make false claims against someone, and the punishment be what would have been imposed on the person who the claim was filed against if it went through as truth.
Alright, the thing is, YouTube is a job for many people. It can become a job for many more. The state of things and how easily they are abused ignoring fair use is absolutely terrible. I ask of you that you please help try to change the state of things, for the viewers, for the people whose livelihoods depend on it, and the people who are seeking a likelihood im this but can't or are too afraid.
There is no fair use anymore. The reason behind this being the corporations have too much power. Copyright laws are being abused by these big, multimillion dollar corporations in many areas of the Internet, especially YouTube. As an example of this, I will talk specifically about movie reviews on YouTube.
There are many people on YouTube, whose primary source of income, is their YouTube channel. These multimillion dollar corporations are in a way bullying content creators, such as movie reviewers on YouTube, from getting their main source of income by filing phony copyright claims. The creator then loses income while the claim is under review. When the claim gets resolved and it is found that the content creator was legally using, for example clips from a movie, under fair use, the content creator gets no monetary payment of the money lost during the claim, with the party who made the illegal claim gets no punishment. This makes absolutely no sense! This discourages content creators from making new content, and also prevents emerging content creators to gain popularity.
This is just one scenario when this abuse is running rampant across YouTube, and the entire Internet for that matter.
Please, protect fair use. Protect freedom of speech.
Or at least (AT LEAST) add a side account for the money. PLS
this issue hits me hard because i am a content creator and an artist, art could become my main source of money.
*also ive seen many videos of harmless clips from movies like star wars. Small 4 minute clips taken down for no fair reason and i hate it. Ive seen a few of my faorite youtube channels taken down. I wanna make my own movie review channel but im afriad to because of this. So please fix the law.
FREEDOM! LET IT FUCKING RING!!!
The fair use law protects parody, education, and commentary on copyrighted material, and by law, these small content creators cannot be infringed their rights to the fair use law. Large corporations are bullying these content creators, wreaking havoc in their lives by taking money that should rightfully be the property of the content creator, as well as prohibiting their right to free speech, by threatening them with copyright claims that they are unable to do anything about. Please repeal the DMCA law, as it is not well suited to the internet of today, and is abused and used to push small content creators into silence.
DMCA is a huge problem for the little guy who are creating content with the safety of fair-use. I believe that DMCA are only to favor corporations in an unfair way. It seems obvious to me that it used to help companies that do not need help. It drowns out the new comers.
My biggest issue however is that it does not penalize the plaintiff for making false claims and puts the burden of proof and innocence on the defendant this makes so that anyone can shut down and punish a content creator with no consequence. If I would change one thing is to make the burden of proof fall on the plaintiff. He must prove that the defendant is guilty of copyright infringement. After all as far as I remember in this country you are innocent until proven guilty.
Thank you for paying attention to my comment. I hope you have a lovely day.
Cheers.
Internet trolls are trying to ruin the fandom community by taking down amazing videos, edits, and fan arts. We need to stop this or else everything will get out of hand the first ever internet world war will happen.
Yep, I pretty much agree with all of the below.
Companies like Viacom, New Lines, and various other TV/Movie companies "helped" bully YouTube down to using a robot to detect copyright. It has an impact, forcing internet critics (whom should be largely protected by the US Copyright Laws) to take down videos that would otherwise be alright to show on TV or newspapers. Reduce the powers given to the corporations over copyright, replace the automated machine giving false judgement with actual people, and give more power to the people who do critique various media. By leaving the system as it is, the corporations are able to bite down and take away critical rights we hold as Americans, namely Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
Corporations are filing claims on content they don't even own. They are hiring shell companies to flag the same piece of content multiple times, even AFTER it had already been cleared and deemed "fair use." The act is being used as a method to harm individual creators and to stifle free speech. Some content creators have reported lost revenue and harassment, even threats of takedowns over fair use videos that they created. Even people talking on camera, with absolutely no copyrighted video or music have been subject to a DMCA takedown.
This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
It's honestly just not fair that peoplr who put in honest work into their content that they make sure FITS all of the Fair Use requirements that their content gets taken down or even destroyed for a simple penny or two. It is very unfair and companies should realize and respext this and not abuse it.
TL;DR: The system is a fossil, it needs to be updated to reflect today's internet, not 1998 internet.
(I accidentally hit send before I was done, anyways)
This is supposed to be the land of opportunity and where we have a right to free speech. But we can't do that when companies can make false copyright claims and censor/shut down a person's whole business. It's not only immoral that companies have such power, but it is un-American and unconstitutional. The DMCA is outdated and in serious need of an overhaul, which is why I support the statement above. Thank you.
DMCA is broken. Any worth it had in protecting people's intellectual property is actively stifling it instead. Rather than being used to preserve rightful ownership, it is at best being abused by pranksters and at worst used used by large corporations or businesses to stifle opinions and to steal income frim content creators. Creators well within their right and definition of fair use to practice their craft. This has gone beyond inept and has delved into malicious, and the lack of oversight and checks and balances is staggering. We must reform!
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Instead of protecting creators and and fostering creativity, it penalizes them and makes it impossible to evolve within this growing medium. Please don't continue to support this massive imbalance of power in regards to expression and free speech.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and malicious individuals who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Seriously, Its just abuse at this point.
On a more personal note beyond this general message that I agree with: I at one time planned to be a content creator myself. Unfortunately with how the system is and has been for a very long time now, and having the additional effects clinical depression; I felt that even if I did create something, my creativity would be stifled by a false takedown that I would have difficulty fighting because it favors the aggressors and treats you as guilty before proven innocent. I believe the DMCA is supposed to be for the people to protect copyright, but in the state that it is in right now it is heavily abused in favor of large corporations, trolls, and botting programs with no repercussion when making false claims. I don't want to create content just for it to be either taken down or worse yet; have the monetization go towards a party that had nothing to do with the creation of that content and is only claiming it in order to steal the ad revenue despite having little if anything to do with the content.
In addition to these changes to the DMCA, I am in full belief that the rules for fair use needs to have their definitions clearified and expanded. Things are just too vague right now, which leaves both the original copyright holder and the content creator that used copyrighted works in a sort of limbo. The content creators need to know more clearly what we can and cannot do and the copyright holders need to more clearly know what they can and cannot claim infringement on, especially if the DMCA were to be modified to include punishment for false DMCA claims.
Thank you.
Gregory Olson
I get that we shouldn't upload content created by other people, such as an full anime episode, or a movie. But being able to take that content and change it into an animated music video sparked a passion in me. But becuase I had 12 seconds of a 1 and a half hour movie in my video, my channel is gone. It was a birthday video to my sister. I showed it to her on my laptop, but she wanted to share it with the world. And we can't. I feel like there's something wrong with the system. It's not well defined enough. It needs more specifics and less broad strokes. The Internet has changed since 1998 when the DMCA was put into action, and the law should change according to the society we live in. People and social norms change. The clothes we wear, the way we talk, the places we hang out and the things we can do, it all changes as we grow as a people. I want to bring the Internet back up to speed so people can stop using the DMCA as a threat, and exploiting the law to steal revenue without having to prove Anything. There needs to be some sort of punishment for false claims. Start there. And thank you for listening.
I'm not a highly educated man, but I hope it helps hearing my point of view.
Good humans with good hearts should make the call for who should be punished and rewarded, not dial-up age laws, machines and ignorant business heads. No matter how far we go into the future with technology, human minds will always be the greatest (judgemental) force on Earth.
I am too a content creator and my work is being taken down and even stolen for profit. Making my income off of my work is very important to me and when large companies unfairly remove my videos and even claim that they have the right to it, effects my livelihood. My family and friends support what I do and I can't show them with nothing for it in the end. These chances and dreams are very rare and not everyone has the opportunity that I was given to help make my dreams come true.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is outdated and was made only in the infancy of the internet. The world is different now and so we need to ratify the DMCA or even make a new one. One that is fair to all and brings punishment accordingly. Large companies like Viacom and Paramount abuse the system and try to police the internet where everyone is suppose to be free. These companies are nothing more than bullies who are run by greedy CEOs.
This is not okay and there has to be a change. This is not a joke and serious ramification will continue to persist if there is nothing done about this issue. I speak to you all not just a legislator or a congressman/woman, I speak to you as a human being to try and make the right decision. Please here us all out and help and create a better future.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I've been using YouTube as my main source of entertainment for a long time. I have seen content creators, both big and small, recieving false copyright claims on their videos for various reasons. Many of them create YouTube videos for a living and the current policies can be used to cripple them. The DMCA needs to be updated for today's internet.
THESE ARE NOT MY OWN WORDS BUT I FULLY AGREE WITH AND SUPPORT THIS MESSAGE
Lot's of content creators are being affected by the DMCA.
Please hear our call for help and fix this issue. This outdated law needs to take into consideration youtubers who, for example, critic movies because this law is been used by hollywood to hide negative critisism towards a movie.
For more information, check this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
The people who take down videos for no reason or steal money from these people is wrong. These people are attacking free speech and are piratically stealing from these content creators for the most pathetic reasons. People have the right to say what they want and critique any movie, TV show, video game, etc. It is their right to do so under fair use. These laws need to be changed or updated. This this needs to stop.
Dear Washington DC,
With the internet and primarily YouTube becoming the new place for entertainment these days, Hollywood is leeching off of the content creators because.....they can't take any form of criticism even if their movies make over a billion dollars: Star Wars 7, Avatar, Transformers 4, Minions, Frozen, Toy Story 3, Avengers 1 and 2, Jurassic World. The irony is that two years ago, Hollywood received a taste of its own medicine when North Korea THE INTERVIEW was released in theaters. But Hollywood didn't realize that and to this day continue to pull off what North Korea did but ten fold. Universal also did this to Nintendo when they falsely claimed that they owned King Kong and Donkey Kong was infringing on that property only to have the cat let out of the bag and countersued by Nintendo for a large amount of money. Hell, Universal suffered another financial loss when EFF sued them for false claims on a video of their child pushing a toy cart and dancing to a Prince song. The difference between that and false claims made today by any corporation is that there are no penalties for the companies that send out false claims. It doesn't matter if people don't even use copyrighted footage or sounds as EVEN FILMING YOURSELF TALKING IN FRONT OF A CAMERA TALKING ABOUT MOVIES OR ANYOTHER MEDIA IS ENOUGH TO GET YOUR VIDEO TAKEN DOWN (Ask Brad Jones)! This is shameful in a time when there is now a billion dollar club for all the movies that exceeded box office expectations and shows that people actually need to watch the god damn video before taking any action. It wastes time for the companies and the content creators and there needs to be a punishment sent to those who not only send out false copyright strikes, but also take away monetization and revenue from content creators for using their footage or music. Now piracy is something that needs to be dealt with, but when it's at this level of censoring free speech AKA fair use. YouTube needs to start being run by human beings and robots again. The channel/creator is guilty until proven innocent and this needs to stop NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In other words, GROW UP HOLLYWOOD AND GET WITH THE TIMES OR INVENT A TIME MACHINE SO THAT YOU CAN GO BACK AND LIVE IN THE 50's FOREVER! EITHER WAY, THERE ONLY ONE QUESTION TO END ON:
#WTFU?
Yes, this is a form letter. But I agree with it and support the need for a review and change in how copyright protection works.
It isn't fair how even if a false claim is made, it is automatically taken as being right, and the person getting their content claimed by another could face financial losses based on this. This system puts all the power into big companies, or liars, and takes away most from smaller ones. Youtube channels such as Channel Awesome, I HATE EVERYTHING, NFKRZ, Idubbztv, and many more are getting their content falsely claimed, while people such as the reactionist community and SoFloAntonio can do whatever they want. #WTFU
I've seen many of my favorite social media people being taken down, but for what reason? Someone who dislikes the content posts a fake copy right report but even though the original person did everything he needed to for copyright reasons but at the same time, he still gets taken off. I'm a Brony and we have it hard. Since there are so many haters in the world disliking us, they see an opportunity to get rid of a few of us from social media but we belong there as much as they do. Please fix this for not only our sake but for every victim of fake copy right strike there has ever been.
The system is corrupt.
The DMCA, and the principles behind it, are noble and valid their own respects. However, several corporations, such as Nintendo, Konami, and even Sony have used this system to unjustly remove criticism and fairly used content for their own personal agendas and gain. People also file these notices on content they don't even own, either pretending to be the content owner, or blatantly attempting to steal revenue from said content. Right now, DMCA take-down notices operate on a shoot first, ask questions later (if the creator goes to court, that is). Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? I understand that this is not a court of law, but the same principle should stand when someone's livelihood is at stake. I implore you, please review the currently outdated DMCA take down system. All it is used for now is censorship and theft, and it needs to be stopped. Thank you.
Millions of creators around the world have been robbed from numerous copyright theives who think that they can just get away with it. Not this time.
The copyright system has been abused lately. Huge companys such as Viacom, Nintendo, Fox and man have been taking down reviews that follow the rule of fair use. Some even go as far as abusing the system with people such as Derek Savage. Creator of the Film "Cool Cat Saves The Kids" There has even been a certain user that takes down videos with false claims. Making the user who created the content not get paid.
The balance of this system is broken and corrupted. Some videos that follow certain fair use laws are being taken down while they won't bat an eye at some other creators who are breaking every copyright policy there is
Video on youtube that are following Fair use are being taken down all over youtube. There are some very talented youtubers that rely on this site for income, and the broken copyright system is getting in the way of that. Please fix this problem or hire people that'll make #Makeyoutubegreatagain
Fucking fix this! Save fair use!
The DMCA is being used to silence free speech, and while some people are big enough to make waves about the abuse, many smaller names who have a right to speech are being silenced from someone wielding the law in an unlawful way and are unfortunately not punished for the crimes they commit.
more info:
Please, please revise the DMCA for today's Internet - not the Internet of so many years past! Please consider the following, it means so much to me and so many others who use sites like YouTube and DailyMotion and many more:
Don't think it's Wright that people can take down channel when they use 5 seconds of there song in there video
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor contentt is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
There needs to be human over site, due process, and a straightforward way of filing a grievance in the event of a wrongful removal. We're all aware of the many take downs due to similar titles, and there are many more in cases of fair use and satire. There has been a surge of creativity from everyday people with the advent of social media and video sites like Youtube, but I fear this creativity may be stifled with overly pejorative laws and automated court orders.
The DMCA has been abused!
I have seen a numerous amount if people affected unfairly and harshly. People file claims on content that they do not even own. The DMCA are being used to inflict harm on individual creators and they are being used to stifle freedom of speech. There have been people just talking on a camera without any copyright footage or music are being taken down. Some companies even believe that they made the law. The DMCA are used without factoring in free use. DMCA are being sent to shell companies to shield the company's sending the takedowns. People use them as threats. Videos are being hit multiple times even after they are cleared. These long list of problems need to be fixed. People have lost money and time that they cannot get back because of these problems. Everyone is at risk as long as the copyright law stays as it is.
None of the above was written by me, I've read it and agree with what the author of said writing stated so I'll leave it as is. Now for my personal message I don't know if anyone will read this but on the off chance here's my opinion. i spend around an hour each day watching YouTube videos made by content creators I've watched over the years. One hour out of 24 each day is a large sum; and among those content creators I've seen multiple go down for days, weeks, and in some cases forever. The reasoning behind this is that a company wants profit off of someone else's creations, normally i'd shrug it off and say whatever that's just how economics and capitalist society works. However I don't believe it's right to allow people who actually give a damn about a community they establish and the videos they create to be destroyed simply to deny a possible profit. Fair Use under the 1998 DMCA can currently be manipulated however major companies like in order to take other peoples' profits and take down YouTube channels. Even if the rest of what I've said makes no sense or is irrelevant it's plain to see that technology has changed within the last 18 years whereas the DMCA has not. If a great many people are experiencing severe issues with a law and it's clearly not kept up with the development of said law's subject matter then legislators have a duty to their constituents to update these laws with the interests of their represented districts in mind. Without doing so legislators wouldn't be doing their jobs in protecting their constituent's First Amendment rights to free speech. If anyone did get this far in reading my letter and does want to help, just take a look at the law and the people it affects and change it to help the people rather than put them down, you owe them that much at least.
Thank you for reading.
Sincerely,
Ashton Green
I made a lot of artworks, they took a lot of time. 3 of them got stolen while I even put some watermarks on them, but they cut it down. These stealing assholes must be taken down.
Fair use law has been ignored and abused by larger companies, which is clearly illegal. However, they bully on small time creators with little knowledge of the law in order to profit from the work they made. As a published journalist, published entertainment and arts reviewer and an online critic, I am aware any content I use will follow into copyright under the presumption it will be reviewed upon. If I decide to use humour, like many online critics do so now, it falls into fair use under "Parody".
Please consider our views and how we abide by the law. If action is not taken upon stopping these companies, lawsuits will follow and will be won by us. But at what cost? We will lose so much precious time and money in vexatious, frivolous and necessary lawsuits.
Yeah, I've noticed that people keep getting attacked about using images and sounds and such when they follow free use. I think it is unfair. People are getting hurt because the companies either don't understand fair use and are ignoring it. It is stifling free speech. I don't want to be scared to try to talk about things I like if people are going to abuse the copyright thing when I try to follow the fair use policy. If you get curious it is a big topic on youtube. Fix it please.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too often used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has been detrimental to political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Content Creator's content daily are being taken down by unmodern DMCA claims. Most of the time it is for no reason at all, yet the content is still being tooken down. This happens even when it is someone just talking about some topic, without copyrighted music or anything. I'm not even mentioning the point that this is a way to upright threaten others! Don't you think this is an act of harm against our right of free speech? Our right as Americans to share and create content? Please just stop these fake copyright strikes and bring back fair use to both YouTube and the entire internet.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music), companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
DMCA was a mess before it was originally put through in 1998, and it's getting worse as time goes along. The law was made by people not in touch with online communities and culture. The law either needs to be revoked entirely or heavily reformed to match the times.
The DMCA law has a world-wide effect for content creators all around the world.
Please please please, look at the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
This alone can explain whats wrong with fair use better than anything I can say. I'm sure this has been linked multiple times but its the best personal compilation of whats wrong with this system.
My own thoughts: In all honesty, the DMCA as it's enforced right now is too heavily biased towards corporations. Worse, false claims have caused many to lose out on their own chance at making a modest profit from videos they don't own, or more importantly to me, just showing off their own creativity for fun. The rules need to be changed as this archaic system does no one but businesses that would exploit the public any good. Now back to your regularly scheduled copy/paste quote below.
The notice-and-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The notice-and-take down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet. Additionally, this means that even if a copyright claim can be proven to be unfounded, the same claim can be made repetitively (again, without any penalty to the claimant). A fairly recent example of this is the scandal of fraudulent Youtube claims made by Merlin CDLTD. The company made money and to my knowledge is still making money off of videos they have no right to claim as copyrighted. One video I would cite as evidence of just how ridiculous this situation is would be "Fake Content ID Trolls Bite My Bait!" by Youtube channel UnknownArchive. This is especially significant considering many making their living on Youtube via video monetization have little to no alternatives to the Youtube video streaming/hosting service to post their content. On the topic of monetization, companies should not be able to make money off of copyright claimed videos on Youtube when the company's claim has been proven to be unfounded due to fair use (I would even propose that the company would be responsible for reimbursing the afflicted channel for their lost revenue with an additional fee attached for the company's fraud or mistake).
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review, like I have mentioned in the above paragraph. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works. Additionally, I would propose a system in which a company claiming copyright infringement would have to write at least a paragraph detailing exactly how claimed material infringes on a copyright (this would discourage flippant claims). I would also increase pressure on companies to reply in a more timely fashion to persons trying to work out a copyright claim with the company in question in a professional business manner. Lastly, I would like to see some sort of appeals system within the social media outlets in question wherein a person trying to file a counterclaim to a copyright claim could talk about their problem to an actual person rather than being forced to rely on an entirely automated system.
Thank you very much for taking the time to listen to my concerns!
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The text below is not written by me, but far more professional. But my short take on this:
Copyright is important to protect works of art.
But recently mostly through youtube, the DMCA has taken on absurd turns, claiming videos and content that was clearly fair use and shut it down because it used small proportions of the film/music or text to make a completly new product. Please change it so this system can no longer be abused by big companies to shut down smaller ones or get unearned revenue from their work.
Thanks so much.
Yeah what ever happened to having an opinion
Hey, please fix Youtube
The notice-and-takedown process is in desperate need of an overhaul and should be reworked for modern times. Content creators are being given the short end of the stick here. A lot of favoritism for big companies is being shown here when they can easily take down anything they please, even when a content creator has done tons of work to essentially make it his own
Ok, the above just about covers it.
As a citizen of the United States (and a user of youtube), I implore you the following message on behalf of Doug Walker, rightful content creator of Youtube:
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is entirely biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs to be completely removed and an entirely new system put in place, if this is not possible then it should be re-written from the beginning to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review, I personally suspect up to 50 percent, yes half of all takedowns, are in fact a violation of free speech and fair use.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions do nothing for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have only benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extort money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone and the fact it has gone on this long will not be tolerated by the public much longer.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use or websites that commit takedowns without human review first, should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be completely removed as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 is horrendously outdated in regards to today's Internet and technology. It strongly benefits companies, giving them far too much power of common people and users.
Such abuses can be seen with websites like YouTube where the site is essentially obliged to implement automated systems for detecting and removing copyright-infringing content. Unfortunately, these systems are impractically and largely ineffective, as they have instead been used to attack and hurt users and content creators who are acting completely within the guidelines of the DMCA and Fair Use doctrine described within. When a company like Blizzard can have its YouTube channel flagged for hosting one of its own game trailers, something is very clearly wrong.
The DMCA either needs to be completely replaced or reworked with provisions that better protect content creators and users on the Internet. These new provisions should still protect the rights of companies, but it should not be designed in their favor.
Copyright in the United States is not working in the modern era. The traditional media has desperately and continuously tried to stifle creativity and innovation on the Internet, as it is rapidly succeeding their own content. They need to be better incentivized to actually compete with new media, rather than just keep trying to shut it down. They need to either adapt or die.
Copyright is supposed to protect the work of creative people everywhere, but as it stands in this country, it is primarily being used to control works and use them as tools of control over other creators. Fair Use needs to be better outlined and defined as actual law, not just a mere doctrine for users to cling so desperately to for safety.
To the United States government and copyright office:
Please stop bogus DMCA takedowns and protect free speech!
My own comment before the below statement that I have read and 100% agree with: This has devastated people's lives, and using common sense beside having been amongst it, and has killed people. Who can blame the people who committed suicide after some of the absolute ridiculous things that have happened. When people die for profit, something is wrong.
I appreciate what the DMCA was designed to do. It just doesn't do it well. The DMCA was suppose to protect the rights of copyright holders, and that's a good thing. But the problem is that the DMCA gives far more consideration and power to large corporations, without any protections in place for smaller groups and individuals.
The result is the DMCA being used as a bludgeon by large corporations with far more money and legal resources to bully smaller, legitimate companies and startups. It's being used as a tool to not only stifle creativity, but stifle competition, silence criticism, control what ideas citizens can consume and express, and ensure their monetary monopoly. I only wish this was hyperbolic.
A large company can file a DMCA claim against anyone at any time for any reason, whether said reason is legitimate or not. If a company deems you competition, disapproves of any criticism you express against it, or even simply wants to stir up controversy at your expense, they can. To get hit by a DMCA claim is to be declared guilty until proven innocent. For a small content creator it means, immediately and without any due discourse, having your content removed or compromised. It means having your reputation damaged. It means having your means of income damage or even stolen. Yes. Stolen. On Youtube, for example, a company that files a DMCA complaint can monetize their target's content. Fighting the claim is difficult at best. Both YouTube and the claim filer respond slowly and inconsistently. Even if a content holder successfully refutes and defeats the complaint, the DMCA-filer still keeps all the money earned by their target's content.
Imagine if someone you barely know came into your place of employment, accused you of robbing their home, and garnished your income until you could prove you are innocent. The police are always too busy to help. And even if you prove your innocence, your baseless accuser suffers no consequences. If this does not make sense to you. If this seems unfair. If this seems abusive. That's good. Because this is the situation that many content creators find themselves in.
This is a complex issue that should not be ignored, swept under the rug, and forgotten, because this issue affects everyone that uses the internet in any way. The rights of copyright holders still need to be protected, but it needs to be done in a balanced way. We new need laws that protect the rights of all content creators, not just the largest ones. We need new laws that recognize Fair Use. We need new laws that hold accountable those that would abuse said laws. We need laws that take into account the internet and the issues of today, and not those of nearly twenty years ago. We need new laws because our current ones are failing.
The DMCA is broken. It needs to be fixed.
The current algorithm system is broken, attacking content creators who make a living from the content that they produce, and is impairing their ability to live properly. Major reforms to the content ID system are needed to make it fair for creators, seeing as the current system is heavily biased towards the complaining party, and incredibly unfair to the content creators.
It's about time this law gets updated.
The DMCA is nothing short of completely broken and the current takedown notice process is being abused constantly to censor critics and stifle free expression. Copyright holders both big and small use takedown notices to remove content without any proof of actual infringement or any oversight whatsoever. Content producers livelihoods are at stake and individuals without a large enough following to generate outrage are left with no recourse when they discover their content as been removed (sometimes automatically without any impartial review or human in the loop).
The current copyright laws in out country are frighteningly draconian and balanced heavily in the favor of rights holders. Copyright holders who abuse the current system face no penalties for false or fraudulent takedown notices and they repeat this behavior because there is literally no downside to them.
YouTube's current policy of automatically re-routing ad revenue to copyright holders issuing a claim against a video is downright abhorrent. Some trolls even submit takedown notices against content they do not even own. And ownership is never even verified before the revenue starts to be siphoned, or the content has been removed.
Even if a dispute is found in favor of the individual, the revenue that went to the copyright holder does not go back to the individual, rather, it stays with the copyright holder who issued the false DMCA takedown. No one can expect this abuse to go away if there are no consequences.
The DMCA's effect on free expression and fair use are nothing short of chilling. Without a legal avenue to fairly and evenly dispute takedown claims, we cannot expect the behavior of copyright holders to change.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I have seen many Youtubers, like IHE and the Nostalgia Critic, get taken down because of unfair copyright claims. This law is in desperate need of a facelift, and all the companies who abused it need to be given the consequences of their crimes.
I have personally seen too many people affected by the DMCA, and as a computer scientist versed in security, I can say it needs reform.
Why do this? Yotubers spend time to make this videos to entertain others. There might be some haters but there has to be 1 person that likes it. Why take it down? A person might have taken 1 montb just to get clips. Dont be a bitch. People dedicate time and effort towards these videos and you just say one little thing and decide to take down the video. So you have a hobbie and want to share it so you post it on youtube. You wake up and see your video is a sucess. The joy is a good feeling until something happens. Your video is takin down. Why? There is no reason at all. Check at my youtube channel tomorrow i will be talking about this topic https://youtu.be/0MSKStNHg_Y
The system in place has prevented me from making my radio show if discussion. Do reviews and any sort of video even though ive stayed in withon the laws of copyright. The system in place is harmful to people like me who try and make a living making online parody satires and reviews please fix the internet
As a minor content creator, who started using Youtube as a video sharing platform half a year ago for my reviews, it is nearly impossible for my channel to advance to the next level within the boundaries set by the DMCA, both in terms of content and influence. False DMCA claims and takedowns not only discourge but outright kill any chance I might have for creating heavily edited videos that are different both in theme and form. In short, DMCA abuse squashes creativity on a regular basis, and prevents me and every other content creator in my country, be they minor or major, from delivering the content our audience wants to experience.
I want everyone's rights to be protected both in the real and the digital world, but in its current form, the DMCA is doing the exact opposite of that. It prevents me from getting financial compensation for my work (and will continue to do so in the future, when I might try to turn my channel into a greater media hub), but most importantly it stops me from creating the content that I and my subscribers want to see. This is why I urge you to revise and modify the DMCA, so that it may tolerate the content creators working under the protection of the Fair Use law.
The situation has reached the level of absurdity. Videos are being receiving DMCA based takedown notices despite not containing any copyrighted material. Going after a video that consists of nothing but a person talking about something is an attack on free speech itself and is indicative of a complete lack of restraint. It is precisely small content creators, and not powerful corporations, that need protection now.
Also, at only 36 views, one of my videos was taken down, I've reuploaded it but I'm afraid it'll get taken down again, it's time to take down abuse
This should stop, people are loosing their channels and hard earned money.
We need to change this now!
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
This affects not only the community of YouTube or the internet, but also it is a sign that you guys will listen but also have the simple process to co-operate with people who are either in their knees begging for help to those standing and demanding a change in rights to the right side. To make this change is tough and that is understandable but its tougher dealing with all the people demanding for justice instead of just being flooded with desperate people. I know as a person who lives in the life of freedom believe that this mess has gone long enough UN-cleansed, the time to change and re-organize this catastrophe is now, Now is when people have the spirit, the time and courage to speak their mind as any human being would! so please with the respect, not i but the whole of these people demand a righteous stand against this disgraceful act that which the corporations are taken advantage of in an illegal manor.
the list of those who have been affected:
Jim Sterling
Themysteriousmrenter
Channel Awesome
Anime America
Lost Pause
The Anime Man
Your Movie Sucks
I Hate Everything
Drwolf
Joshscorcher
TeamFourStar
CinemaSnob
Potatobombkyle Lego Productions
CinemaSins
AlternateHistoryHub
Jontron
BadComedian
Sargon of Akkad
Chris Stuckman
Bobsheaux
Sheeleシェーレ
BrainScratch Commentaries
NFKRZ
Pyrocynical
The Gaming Czar
Games Repainted
AdoseofBuckley
Totalbiscuit
Matthias
ToddintheShadows
Angry Joe
ElectricDragon505
CentralDerp
Krimson Rogue
EyeOfSOl
Dragon Mage
CreepyMcPasta
And more to count for. #WTFU
The DMCA is a fundamental breach of the civil rights of the citizens of the United States of America. It is an outdated relic, and a constant source of abuse and harassment. It is a tool of destruction of content, of the free market of ideas, of fair use. Claims are filed spuriously, sometimes even by third parties without a real stake, and go through automatically- these claims act as if the defendant is automatically guilty, and innocence must be proved at the full expense of the defendant at little-to-no risk to the claimant. Reform is mandatory.
People must be protected from false copyright claims.
About six videos that I've made have been copyrighted, and all have been under the rules of fair use. One of my videos has even been muted from all countries cause of a certain song that was placed in the credits, and it was simply a video of my top ten favorite Brony analysis. This abuse needs to stop today.
SAVE FAIR USE!!
Every day, I'm afraid to get on the Internet because I'm afraid of what I'll see. Which channel is being attacked today? Who is suing who? These aren't just faceless organizations, they're people. People who've found their niche entertaining, informing, and sharing with the world. And we have shared with them in turn. Our experiences, our love, our laughter. Some we have followed for years. Others are just starting out. But one thing holds them all as equals. They need protection. Your protection. Because the way the DMCA works now, they cannot defend themselves. I implore you to consider your actions here carefully. Your decision will shape the future of the Internet, for better or worse. Don't simply consider what is legally right. Think about what is morally right.
Think of a person you love. Not a person you know, but a person you love despite it not being a "real" relationship. Maybe an actor, a songwriter, or anything else. Now, imagine that a massively powerful force is wrongfully trying to destroy your chosen person's life, and you will understand what people are going through here.
Not to even mention the people who are actually having their way of life thrown into limbo. The people who may not always be famous, or even good people, depending on who you ask, but still deserve a good fair use system.
Now fix this, and we'll have an amazing community where artists do not have to worry if their work will be targeted by some giant corporation.
PS: Next take a look at the public domain laws. Trust me.
Where's the fair use?
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Fair Use needs to be updated to truly be fair for the internet of today.
#WTFU
While I can understand the necessity of such a law, it has been clearly and grossly used to further corporate interests and be an intimidation and extortion tactic without any repercussions. I am writing with the hopes that the DMCA be written to more fairly reflect its original intention, and not be a tool that will continue to be abused without consequence.
This sort of law is definitely hard to keep up to date in technology world we live in today, where the internet and the platforms we use are always changing. But that does not mean we should not try even if it's impossible to actually keep up with innovation in the grand scheme of things. I have watched as a bystander for years as I have seen DMCAs used almost always unfairly without consequence. It is a harsh reality when I say I have seen the DMCA used properly probably only 5% of the time, where the other 95% of times I have seen it used as a censoring or intimidation tactic. Please address this issue as fairly as you can, and I'm sure the whole world will follow in our example.
A Concerned Citizen,
Hector Ramos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw
This is someone on YouTube who has fought off multiple false copyright claims and is currently fighting one now, on a video that has been claimed multiple times by the same people. This needs to stop. This system is completely broken and it needs to be stopped. This system needs to go.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of the big corporate copyright holders and is abused censoring content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
People are abusing the copyright system to silence critics and differing opinions on Youtube. The people affected lose a lot of money because of these accusations and this should not be allowed.
It's absolutely wrong for people just to claim rights on someone's hard work. No one can upload anything without having someone claim its theirs. This needs to be fixed to stop this madness and bring freedom of speech and fair use back. If this doesn't get fixed, youtube will never get any kind of content ever again because of the fear of having your work copyrighted.
I've noticed a lot of channels on youtube have been getting their content taken down and claimed, companies (shell companies) who don't even own the content on the video are claiming it! The claim system is being abused and videos get claimed again even after they've been taken back after a false claim! I even saw a case where a person uploaded a silent video with a still picture and someone claimed it... they clearly didn't even watch the video, they just claimed supposed audio in the "video".
There's been attacks to youtubers from movie developers to take the video down out of spite for a bad review on their movie and stomping all over freedom of speech! They've even resorted to taking down videos of people sitting in front of their cameras talking about a movie, even faintly hearing a piece of a song in the background of a home made video will cause your video to get taken down! This is a problem for the big youtubers sure but at least they can fight, what about the little youtubers who don't really have the resources to fight? We don't need to only protect the small voices in the community, they need all the help they can get and shutting them down before they even start is not good!
Companies even go as far as to think the law is whatever they say goes and while we do try to respect it for the most part it's not the truth at all we have a right to comment, parody and talk about it!
I've even seen cases of threats and possible scare tactics have been used to try to get people to take down their opinions, reviews, parodies, etc!
There's also the case of people filming themselves while watching a video with no change to the video, while reviewers only show snippets, clips and alter the content more than enough to fall under fair use these "reaction channels" are straight up posting stolen content with their face plastered on it, devaluing the original video.
Thank you for listening.
Ps. I'm from Puerto Rico and yes, it's american territory.
Before i post my own comments regarding Fair Use, I would like to state that I am leaving in the default section that appears on this webpage below because it was eloquently written and quite fascinating. I am looking to become a content creator for the website Youtube.com, and I have published several videos. One thing that is an ever present fear in my mind when I publish a video is whether or not it will be taken down. The current system allows for harassment of individuals who provide content fairly and is used by many to attack users of the site including but not limited to theft of monetized income, theft of intellectual property, silencing of free speech (a right that I hold VERY dearly) and worse still, those who issue false claims against creators are confident in the knowledge that they will not have any corrective action taken against them. In more detail, if a youtube user creates a video that is their work, it can be flagged as someone elses work and the money that would have been made from that video will go to the person filing the claim. The system treats the rightful owner and uploader of original material as though they are a criminal, with no third party to review what has happened and determine whether or not it was really fair use. This is wrong.
I suggest Change, youtube's support department is non existent and not easy to get a hold of. This copyright system cannot be entirely virtual as computers are far too exact in their judgement of Yes or No to something, and I have had far too many encounters where a computer was wrong simply because the software was programmed wrong, or coded poorly. In the case of the current system, the automated copyright flagger will automatically without question, ban a video with no thought to whether or not the person flagging it is factually right, and will favor their ability to take down a video simply because they are the one who filed the claim. Please implement a system that is more subject to human review, and is capable of being fair in it's judgement of copyright law. Please implement an easier support department and better ways to get in touch with aforementioned department. Please implement penalties for false claims on videos to discourage people who actively seek to take down other's opinions or subvert their hard earned revenue. Please change it, for the better of the creators, and please make sure it works. The solution for government ages ago when we founded the United States was to give it to the people, and I suggest openly and wholeheartedly that the internet belongs to the people, and as such should have laws to protect it for each and every individual who uses it. Thank you for your time. Below is the stock comment that came standard with this webpage, I am leaving it in because again, I found it far more eloquent than I could be.
I am not a creator of any kind. However I am a frequent watcher of videos on youtube. I've noticed quite a few channels and videos being flagged, copyright striked, or even taken down completely by false charges. There's nothing that happens if you give a false claim to a video. In fact its all profit for the person that uses false copyright strikes.
There's quite a few channels such as Channel Awesome, Anime America, TeamFourStar, and I Hate Everything, and various others who's gotten strikes for dong absolutely nothing wrong. If there's even a change to the way the copyright strikes happen it'd be such a great help to these people who make their living off of these videos. In the case of TeamFourStar they do a parody of DragonBall Z and they had their entire channel taken down for a day due to these false strikes. Despite the fact at the beginning of every video they say it falls under fair use.
If there was even a change to the point where any money that would be lost is put into a side account that won't be given to either the person who made the video, or the person making the copyright strikes. That'd be such a great thing for these people who's very livelihood is on the line. That way they don't lose most if not all money that video would have made them.
Some people will even do this to reviewers like Angry Joe, TotalBiscuit, Jim Sterling, and so many others. Just for the fact they didn't like what they had to say about their game. Besides the reviewers saying what happened and calling them out on their actions, nothing will happen to them. Even if its something as small as making it so they have to prove exactly what is wrong about the video, that'd make things a lot better for the content creators on Youtube. Even if the site hired a group of people to look through the copyright strikes they get and choosing if its right or wrong would help these people a lot!
I have seen creators on the internet either abused or banned just for giving an honest effort to entertain or inspire other people. Please don't let people lose their jobs they love just because they love their jobs.
Hi I'm Cooper. False DMCA abuse needs to be stopped. As a millennial who spends a portion of my time online watching videos for entertainment, I know how wrong a false DMCA can be. It's ruined many peoples source of income and revenue when the victims have done no harm to the people filing the claims. Bring back free use. Bring back free speech.
They go after those who bring in high revenue or original content. Companies continue to make false claims on some original content or repeatedly takes down the same videos. We are beginning any one who cares to see how the system is broken and doesn't fit with todays internet, to see how the system is exploited by these companies.
From Colombia, supporting the free speech
Its annoying knowing that big companies can just sue us youtubers because we used the legal fair use in our videos
Therefore,with this comment i hope the DMCA will open their eyes and see how their moronic and bogus copyright has wrongfully affected artist and people alike.
Sincerely,a 13 year old girl from Indonesia.
Also I'm just here for the history
As a video creator, I don't want to upload my videos and hope that I don't get copyrighted and have my content removed. I work hard at this, and the fact I can't get anywhere with this wall in front of me is frustrating.
Even though the DMCA was created to protect content creators right now it is being used as a means to censor freedom of speech. Even though Fair Use allows an individual to make a movie review, a game review and even a video game Walkthrough and Parody, everyday you see DMCA notices from not only corporations but random people the "Patent Troll"(I'm not sure if that's the right terminology to use) if you will using Youtube's Content ID System to try and Silence and sometimes even succeed in removing one's channel off of the site.
Why is it so easy for a takedown of a video or just put some kind of strike on one's channel because of the DMCA? Because of Automation Notices because God Knows going threw each video to see what's fair use and isn't can be a nightmare. The DMCA needs to be update for the internet of today and not of 1998, even though we see court cases siding with a Youtube User about a Video staying up or the courts saying Common Sense needs to be considered before issuing a take down notice Corporations still just issue a take down notice because its just the simple thing to do.
I feel because the DMCA especially on Youtube since takedown notices are so automated the Content ID System NEEDS to be a paid for thing and not Free for anyone to use. It may still be a pain but its better than any Tom,Dick and Harry to use Youtube's Content ID System and go on a joyride of abuse.
I also feel the DMCA needs to penalize Corporations in falsely issuing Takedown Notices of ANYTHING that is clearly Fair Use and make it difficult for them to issue a Take Down Notice.
As an Example Team Four Star who works directly with the original makers of the material was taken down on a major Distribution Platform by a robot owned by a party who had no rights to the original content. In a court the owners of that program would have charged with theft.
Although none of my videos have been taken down, i have seen a lot of other peoples videos taken down unfairly... the system in place now it way to old and outdated to serve any good purpose anymore and needs to be either fixed, or replaced entirely.
Here's something that basically sums up everything wrong with this system:
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is broken, and does not reflect 2016 and the current age of our online content. There are too many empirical examples of wrong doing by companies and scrupulous individuals who can issue take-downs and make claims for income from online content creators without any way to argue in their defense or safeguard their earned income. Complaints can be made to companies such as YouTube, such the volume of abuse and the timid nature they demonstrate for fear of push-back by major industries creates a haven for abuse. Content creators, not just internet celebrities, but regular people using the internet as a creative or business outlet are being punished under DMCA. The rules need to be updated, and those making claims, especially false claims, need to be held accountable.
please fix this, i have a lot of friends that are having there channels being messed with, and it needs to stop
this needs to be updated its not the 90's any more
I don't want to be at risk of the current Fair Use system when I eventually get my DeviantArt page up and running. I only want to make people smile with my drawings of already existing characters from popular media. I just want to make people laugh with stories about characters from one universe being transferred to another, and having crazy adventures while they are there. I want to brighten up someone's gloomy day with my artistic talents. But I might not be able to if this law isn't changed to fit modern times.
Please be considerate and nice.
The DMCA as it stands allows companies to orchestrate the removal of videos from YouTube, as well as the temporary or long term blocking of videos. Logically, a company should only take action when a user's work legitimately threatens the company's success. I have next to never seen a company have something taken down for any good reason. I have seen videos and livestreams blocked and sometimes removed on the grounds that they were somehow infringing copyright, when in reality they reference and show segments of the company's material for the sake of commentary and review. When a movie or game is cut into hundreds of pieces and only segments are shown at a time, nearly inaudible and spoken over almost always, it is no longer a competitor to the official released movie or game. It is a reaction video, and people watch it for nothing more than the reaction of the user to something they often cannot even see. I, and others, have been extremely cautious in what I put in my videos because I know I may be falsely accused. I have seen videos get blocked while showing nothing but the user's own webcam. It is clearly automatic and clearly unfair to the user, not just because they are not showing the material at the time, but because the material deserves to be shown. Companies should only become defensive when the product is threatened, and having watched YouTube for nearly a decade, I can say that most instances are not threats to companies at all; just harassment by these companies.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted material.
The way the DMCA is currently structured allows it to be rampantly abused by Copyright holders against critics and content creators who are operating completely under fair use. A copy right strike on Youtube, for example, can be placed without the copy right holder to have any regard for fair use and without a neutral third party to check to see if the copyright claim is even legitimate. This allows copy holders to effectively silence any criticism and in some cases steal ad revenue off of videos. And the copyright holder can intentionally prolong this silence and blatant theft for up to two months before they would ever have to go to court, effectively stealing money from content creators and silencing criticism at the most crucial time for that criticism to be available, with absolutely zero repercussions.
For example, a Youtube channel called I Hate Everything (IHE) made a video review of a movie called "Cool Cat Saves the Kids". As his name suggests IHE was rather harsh against the film, but was still operating under fair use as he used footage and audio from the movie to illustrate his criticism of it. Despite being fair use the movies creator, Derek Savage, filed a copyright claim against it and held IHE's Youtube channel hostage for a full month. And on top of that Savage used the copy right system as a threat against IHE, saying he was going to contact the creators of other films IHE had reviewed to convince them to also file claims against his channel. And after three copy right claims against a channel, even if all three are proved to be false, a channel would be entirely deleted off of the site. And since many content creators use the site as a full time job, including IHE, that would effectively destroy his livelihood and his portfolio of the work he has done in the past. And as for an example of theft of ad revenue, you could look at a Youtube channel called Channel Awesome, home of a Youtuber named Dough Walker who calls himself the Nostalgia Critic. He made a short review of the movie "My Neighbor Totoro" where he recommended the movie. Again despite being under fair use he was given a copy strike from Studio Ghibli, the studio that made the movie. And it didn't just take away monetization from that one video but from everything that was on the channel and all videos that were made and posted after the fact. And it went on for three weeks while Dough was unable to get any response from Studio Ghibli or Youtube to discuss the matter. And Dough was only given back the ad revenue after he publicly spoke out about what was happening to him.
And on top of that are the automated systems, which can take down a video or take ad revenue with absolutely no human interaction involved on either side. For example of this you can look at the game company Nintendo. Nintendo has set the automated systems so that if you were to make a ten minute video talking about up-coming games, and showed a ten second clip of a publicly announced trailer with the audio removed and replaced with the voice(s) of the people who made the video, it would still take the ad revenue away from the person(s) who made the video.
And copy right holders can make as many false copy right claims as they want as there is no negative repercussions. Some companies and even some Youtubers, both big and small, use this as the default way to speak out against criticism. Some companies even going as far as to hire smaller shell companies to do it for them so they can deflect blame. And most of the victims of these false copy right claims are to small to be able to fight this in a court of law, lacking the funds needed to file any kind of class action law suit.
The DMCA needs to be brought up to fit with the modern internet or it will simply continue to be abused against people who simply cannot fight against it. It is heavily biased in the favor of the copyright holder, and only helps to stifle the creativity that is abundant on the internet today.
(My apologies for not being very articulate on the subject.)
I support this because there are many thing that i would like to upload to my channel, but can't because of these annoying copyright claims #wtfu
Fair use is something that's essential to video media I consume everyday, and essential to the passions and lively hoods of plenty of creators whose content I'm consuming. Those creators have shared their struggle with how difficult it is to deal with random and unpredictable take down notices that are unreasonably sent and acted upon without fair review.
The current policies on fair use effect the Internet in unpredictable largely negative ways, takedown can be completely unreasonable, fraudulently filed, and such bogus takedown notices can cause damage that a creator has no way to appeal.
The DMCA gives too much power too copyright holders to manipulate fair use into their favor, and in it's current state it's destructive to people who care for the content they fairly use, and it infringes on the free speach and peace of mind of modern creators.
While the internet has been evolving and constantly changing, the DMCA laws have not. They have just sat their and fermented while people have used this and the forever changing internet as a platform to abuse what the DMCA laws were originally created for in the first place.
A big example of this is what is happening with youtube. When a creator gets a copyright strike they are forced to give up personal information about themselves while the person/company can be as anonymous as they want. This in turn provides an easy way for people to make many false claims without any repercussions.
It's a problem when creators that follow the fair use laws get punished over and over again by having their videos removed or getting copyright strikes. They only use parts of the original material and make it transformation and different. Yet when the issue is finally resolved and the video is back up or when the strike has been removed, they don't get the money they lost from the ad revenue from the video. That goes straight to the false copyright claimer and they get to keep it. That is one of the main reasons why so many false copyrights claims are made. So people can make a quick buck and steal from the youtube creator.
It is even worse when videos that have no music, no clips from tv or movies, nothing that can be deemed as copy written material gets copyright claimed. It could literally just be someone talking in a camera and yet they are also targeted. Not only that but when a video has been cleared of all copyright claims, that same video gets targeted and claimed over and over again.
In order to support everyone that uses the new and improved internet the DMCA laws also need to become new and improved. There are many things that need to be fixed so that the innocent people can no longer be punished constantly for doing the right thing while the guilty don't even get a simple warning.
Before the copy pasted message, I must say that the DMCA is a system that must at the very least adapt to how the internet is now. I have personally seen many content creators get shut down by those abusing the system. You may see what comes next as white notice at this point but know that it is important to take into consideration for the future of the internet and I'm not the only one saying it.
Equality of distribution is a milestone that has not been reached. Distribution pertains to the creation of a product, whether that be a fully funded movie or a Youtube video, while equality refers to the opportunity for people to view your content. For example, a funded film is usually advertised months in advance while a Youtuber will have to rely on the recommendations of other, more popular, Youtubers or recommendations of fans for their content to be viewed, sometimes after said content has been posted. As such, the Youtuber has to rely on connections and quality of their final product for their content to be viewed. Meanwhile, larger corporations use their influence to obtain consumers. While I do not fault corporations for being as large as they are, they should not be allowed to abuse the rights they have purchased, especially when Youtubers and other content creators have not infringed upon them. Furthermore, they are taking advantage of an outdated system to attempt to salvage a sum of money from people who rely on that sum for income. Were it that Youtube was taking responsibility for their website the corporations might not be able to get away with their miscarriage of financial security. However, as Youtube will not lift a finger the situation requires intervention. Such intervention would require an update of the DMCA as well as the discouragement of copyright abuse on Youtube's part. If these two things are done it will lead to balanced opportunities of content distribution.
I agree with what was said above.
tl;dr STOP ABUSING THE DMCA!
Sometimes people's LIVELIHOODS - the only way they make money, put food on the table, support their families - are being taken away by an outdated automated system. This is absolutely terrible and it needs to stop. People's lives, homes, families could be at stake every time one of the monetized videos are taken down.
TAKE ACTION. Content creators need their Fair Use.
I'm not an internet content creator, nor am I a US citizen. But not only do I aim to be a content creator, I also follow a great many people who are content creators and would-be content creators who are US citizens. And the archaic DMCA system is a constant shadow looming over the progress they can make.
I've been following the "Where's the Fair Use" movement since it got started this past February, and I've been watching it explode with outcries from the creators that are legitimately suffering under the DMCA. My voice might not carry as much weight as some, but I put my voice behind theirs;
Bring fair use back to the internet.
The DMCA is severely outdated, it does little to nothing to help the current state of the internet flourish. Creative sulpression, freedom of speexh cruahed. This is not acceotabke by todays standards.
The DMCA is currently being used wildly incorrectly by people who don't even own the Copyright in question.
I used to run a small but profitable YouTube channel. The channel was my sole source of income as I am a disabled person and the money I receive through government assistance only barely allows me to have a place to live and the required power, water, and other services that are necessary for a persons survival. To say I am below the poverty line is a massive understatement as people how only get a 20 hour work week and work for minimum wage do far better than I.
I no longer run that YouTube channel because a group started claiming my videos as their own using the DMCA, taking down my channel and steal what little revenue I made from said channel. The group in question not only did not own the Copyright but had no connection with Copyright Holder (In this case Sony) at all. Why were they still able to file enough claims to take my channel down? Because the current way the law is written allows even unconnected parties to file false DMCA claims and to do so without any repercussions as it can be done totally anonymously.
That was only the final nail in the coffin for my channel however. In the months leading up to this final claim Third Party groups began using copyright strikes to actively steal my revenue by making false Copyright claims against any video popular enough to generate money. They are allowed by the current system to claim ownership of literally any content and take the advertising revenue even if the content creator wins the appeal. This can take up to two months during which time any and all advertising money goes directly to the claimant, even if they made the claim falsely and/or do not hold the copyright in question. This can be repeated even if you win your appeal against the false claimer, there is no limit to how many times they can claim the video but there is a limit to how often you can appeal. Why? No one really knows.
This doesn't even cover the fact they can claim videos in which no copyrighted material is used. As an example; I made a video in 2014 that was just me standing in a friend's garage talking about political matters and United States history. A group claimed that video and by the current laws I was guilty until proven innocent of Copyright Violation for 15 days. 15 days my sole source of revenue was stolen from me as I lost the ability to monetize any videos on my channel until my appeal checked. The worst thing is that my appeal was rejected at first even though the video contained no music, no film or television clips and no images besides myself. I was able to appeal again and in win but only after a month had passed and I wasn't able to recoup any of the last revenue. They simply made a false claim and stole from me using the DMCA.
The reason for this is that companies like YouTube and other major video hosting sites (of which there really are none other than YouTube) use automated systems rather than having living, breathing people look at the videos in question. This massively favors false claimers as they can claim any number of videos as their own regardless of if they actually own the material in question and just let the automated system steal money from the pockets of the creators and give it to them, even if the owner wins their appeal the weeks of ad revenue is not returned to the owner but instead stays with the false claimer.
The current DMCA system is also used to strip people of their free speech on a constant bias. If someone doesn't like a video another person makes they can simply make a totally false DMCA claim against a channel to have it shut down. The false claimer can even make more than one claim against a channel so as to ensure total censorship of the users content. In short it can be used by people who are offended by someone's content to silence them. We are granted free speech by the First Amendment but that is so easily taken away from a single click is a clear violation of said Amendment. Where is our freedom of speech in this situation? The answer is nowhere, we have none, we are totally beholden to the whims of those who disagree with us. This simply isn't in line with our constitutional rights.
The current law was made long before internet sites like YouTube were even imagined or, in fact, possible and thus the law is a burden on content creators of sites like YouTube. As written the law can be abused so easily that Fair Use might as well be nonexistent.
That's right the law is currently used to stomp on both Free Speech and Fair Use, if that is how the law is designed to be used then it conflicts with our constitutional rights that we as Americans should be entitled to. I'm not saying there should be no Copyright Law but instead a new law that protects the rights of individuals and the rights of Copyright holders equally. We live in a different world from what is was in 1998 and the law should be changed to reflect that.
To return to my personal story and my closing argument. I no longer have a YouTube channel, the constant attacks stripped it from me both physically and spiritually. Physically in that my account was taken down for false claims against content that was mine by Copyright law and spiritually because this sent me into a deep depression that I've yet to fully recover from. I'm disabled and I wanted very much to be able to live apart from the needed government assistance. To make my own way in the world despite my disability. I thought YouTube was the answer and for a time it was but as the Law is now I don't see how that is possible. Help me help myself, please reconsider the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and update it to take into consideration the new way the internet functions. Not just as a place for communication but for entertainment as well. Thank you for reading this.
-Joshua Thieman, Washington State Voter.
In late December I had made a Top 10 video reviewing the best railfanning channels on YouTube which involved using other peoples work for review. Unfortunately two days later, my video at first was taken down by one of the content creators that had their video in it. Thankfully the video was put back up, but in the time period that was expected. YouTube stated that the video would be reviewed and put up in 10-14 business days. Unfortunately I had to wait much longer than that. I had to email YouTube's copyright email in early January. After all of that hell that I had went through, the video was put back up. All of the hard work that I had put into the video was wasted by someone having to claim my video considering that I had the legal right to use it since I was using the content for review. It also amazes me that I gave the content creator a good review, yet he still had the audacity to false claim it.
Also the fact that critics and reviewers of content are being silenced by corporations. The biggest example was assassins creed unity. The game was broken on release and Ubisoft silenced anyone who wrote a negative review, Or in totalbiscuit's case where his review of a game where the developer game him a review copy and then took down videos that were protected by fair use laws, along with videos that were not even about the game.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review.
YouTube videos that are just a person sitting in front of a camera and talking about random topics, snow in one case, are getting taken down. The system is broken.
All around me on the internet there is talk and proof of the DMCA and fair use law being abused to censor criticism of a product. Some companies take down reviews of movies or television shows that cast their films in a negative light, usually rightfully so, but that's a different matter. It has been and continues to be used as a threat from the creators of the film towards the creators of the critique. Sometimes it even happens when there are absolutely NO copyrighted music or visuals in the video, it is simply the reviewer talking towards a camera.
It has also been used by people who don't even own the content in the first place, thrusting people's lobs and livelihoods into jeopardy for no reason at all. And because there is little to no penalty for falsely doing this, it goes entirely unpunished. Inexcusable.
The world has changed a lot, and is still changing very rapidly. It's time to update the laws and procedures so this abuse of an outdated system doesn't happen again.
The DMCA is deeply flawed, and only with sufficient revision can it be brought in line with the ideals the country was founded upon.
The DMCA was intended to protect those who created content, but has worked to protect those with the best attorneys. It has been used to stifle free speech and even research.
The DMCA bans acts of circumvention, even to the point of disallowing backing up of content for personal use, much less to allow for any fair use.
The DMCA has been used to stifle competition by potentially blocking competition by empowering restrictive end user licencing agreements (EULA) that violate the first sale doctrine, and limiting anything with an electronic component from being worked upon - everyone from John Deere to Lexmark and even makers of garage door openers have attempted to use the DMCA to limit competition.
Numerous examples of using the DMCA to limit the research and publication of security flaws in everything from Sony Rootkits to problems in HP Unix systems, it is a tool that is used by corporations from potentially embarrassing, and definite security issues that place not just the corporations, but many users at greater risk. The DMCA works against having a secure internet.
In addition, the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
i don't have much i can say on the matter but it has effected every youtube personality that gives criticism. mostly by the people getting criticized taking down the criticism with the busted system
examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0qoD3viXL0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LngM35WUvgw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC3NIdiZF_E
A few words of my own: Every single creator I watch daily on YouTube has been hit with false DMCA claims at some point. Rarely (if ever) a law suite follows, but the video can be taken down and/or the revenue lost or taken for as much as a month. There have been cases, where a review copy or a press-pass has been given with the explicit permission to make a video and then has a DMCA claim filed on said video. There have been cases, where the automated system has taken down music form the channel of the singer themself. We, the consumers, lose hours of our entertainment of choice and cannot support (through adds) the creators we like. And they, the creators, lose money and time and are under constant threat of losing their channel and their livelihood. An update is direly needed.
It is ruining the free speech we all enjoy. It is truly a joke and is nothing but an easily abused system that needs to be put under control.
I watch videos on youtube, and I see videos constantly on youtube being taken down, or the one who made the video is not getting revenue for that video. Even though they were the ones who spent time, energy, and soul into their video. And then some big corporation claims they were using footage from that video, but ignoring fair use. That innocent content creator is now losing money to this big corporation that doesn't even need the money. These corporations are stealing from these people. Content creators are being harassed, stolen from, and nothing is happening! You can't really blame the companies for this because this youtube copyright system ALLOWS it to be abused. It allows creators to get abused. It needs to be stopped. Bring fair use back to the internet. Because it's not just youtube creators at stake, it's everyone.
I've personally seen so much good stuff go to waste. It's time to change.
^this appears to say it all.
Let's make YouTube great again, crush these corporate nutjobs.
The DMCA is abused. Someone else wrote this comment below, but I agree with it. I want to start a YouTube channel, but am extremely concerned with if I will receive copyright strikes on my parody videos.
As someone who's had people I've respected, friends who've been scared away from the internet because of the fraudulent nature of many of these cases there needs to be a change to the system. A friend of mine had a video on Youtube claimed on the basis that his commentary was "owned" by a third party subsidiary, and the video was never restored from what I understand. And many a video that dares to critique or ventures into satire will inevitably fall into the trap of the DMCA and they will be at the hands of the automated system to have their content restored. It's time to adapt the laws to the rapid evolution of the internet and stop the atrocious abuse of content creators, it's time to let the internet reclaim its Freedom of Speech.
Jacob
I hate how popular Youtubers are constantly getting their channels strikes and have their money stolen by these companies, so annoying. I don't like how it happens and I'm just glad it hasn't happened to me yet.
Protect the people that work hard to create outstanding content for their fans to watch. Don't let false copyright strikes and other licensing bullshit to screw them over.
I agree with everything that has been said above. It is very important that we do not discourage those who make a living or otherwise depend on the internet. If these laws are not updated soon, it would mean the end of free will on the internet, and it would mean the end for hundreds of thousands of people who could no longer support themselves or their families.
All of the comment here is important, but I need to say more.
The DMCA is an archaic law based on a time when the internet was a barren place. Now that we have turned the internet into a wealth of knowledge, communication and entertainment it means that the laws have to change, too.
The DMCA is being used against indie creators, right down to children. It's stealing from those people without due process by privatized corporations that are exploiting the law, and these people are not getting their just deserts for taking away from these creators.
Fair Use and DMCA has to be amended where proof of stealing from the original creator is necessary so websites like Youtube are not plagued by people making false claims, using it for malicious retaliation or stealing profits and income from those who would not be prosecuted in a court of law due to no evidence.
Yes, sites like Youtube has its own responsibility so it does not harbor stolen media, but these laws have allowed people to take advantage of systems without penalty for false claims.
In the end, our freedom of speech and right to grow is being impeded by the privatized corporation because these laws are written the way they are. Theft is illegal and yet it's happening because of these laws.
Please revise these laws and do not leave it so open where they can be abused and exploited by large corporations and people who intend to be malicious.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for POSSIBLE copyright violations and issue AUTOMATED takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I agree with the copy paste text below this but I will also add my own words to it. DMCA's are being abused. Big companies send them out in the thousands to squash small groups or individuals who are trying to make enjoyable and more often then not better content then the original. These new creations don't take away from the original, they enhance it. I personally listen to a type of music called nightcore. People take songs and remix them and put them up on YouTube. Most don't try to profit off the song as they don't own it. They just want to enjoy the music and share. If I wasn't subbed to these channels I never would of come across the original songs in the first place. My problems with DMCA's really only pertain to the way they are used on YouTube. There is no penalty for sending out false DMCA's. SomeWittyEntertainment makes a parody of an anime. They have made nine ~15 minutes episodes. Every single one was flagged by a multi billion dollar company for copyright. Every single episode went down for two weeks and then came back as every single claim was complete bull. Change the system so this crap can't keep happening.
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Current copyright law is so antiquated and vague that it lets corporations infringe easily on creators' 1st amendment rights under the pretense that what those creators say about their content harms the profitability of their product maliciously.
I addition to this, I would just like to point out some examples of people this has happened to. Doug Walker, who goes by the alter-ego Nostalgia Critic, makes reviews on movies and has naturally had several copyright claims. However, in an effort to prevent these claims, he switched to using clips from trailers and still images &/or acting scenes out with his own group of actors. However, this still didn't work and he still got a copyright strike. If the problem here is not evident, allow me to explain another person, Brad Jones. He is another movie reviewer who does a segment called "Midnight screenings" where he and a couple of friends go to see a movie and immediately after film their reactions. Despite using no clips, images, or anything from the movie, one of these videos was flagged for copyright. Overall, I hope the government realizes that this act is outdated and detrimental towards creators online. Thank you for hearing me out.
I've seen people file claims on content that they don't even own. I've even seen videos taken down of just individuals talking on camera, with no copyright footage or music. Videos will even be taken down multiple times after they've already been cleared.
The dmca is a very broken and messed up system that unfairly can lead to YouTubers getting videos flagged or even some channels terminated.
This rule needs to at least be updated because there's millions of people who just try and upload or entertain with no harm, whether its original or fanworks, creators alike will be harassed. DMCA's are being used to harass, stifle, threaten, and are being used against creations that the sender don't even own. The DMCA is being abused and this needs to be changed. They're being used without any fair use.
Entities that issue takedown notices, are not accountable in any meaningful way. The courts are simply not a viable option for redress for individuals with limited funds who have been subject to improper takedowns. There has to be some mechanism to provide proof of rights ownership and immediate monetary consequences for abuse of process.
#WTFU: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBxdeEke0CcXOBPShLJGYt26ibEmwQ4Z4
People file claims on content they don't even own. DMCA's are being used to inflict harm on individual creators and they are being used to stifle free speech. People talking on camera with no copyright footage or music are being taken down. Some companies believe they create the law. DMCAs are being used without factoring in fair use. DMCA's are being sent by shell companies to sheild the companies sending the takedowns. People even use them as threats. Videos are getting hit multiple times even after their cleared. Creator's DMCA takedowns in almost all cases has resulted in lost revenue and harrassment. Please, we'd think this is the time to make positive change for current and future internet users. Thanks for listening.
I can not take this any longer! I want things to finally change.
Cannot tell how many time that I have seen small channels on YouTube that have been restricted because someone wasn't happy with they said about whatever topic is or what they used or do it for the hell of it. YouTube is a site that you can become famous for many forms of entertainment or to share with your family or friends and now in days it could be taken down for some dumb reasons or other for what a negative response to a product and/or the fact that they used or talked about it.
We need someone to do something about these things, need to show these companies push these creaters around and pull their money away that they work hard for. They need help and YouTube can do a better job to protect content against
I agree with all of this ^.
The DMCA is constantly abused and had been responsible for many videos from my favorite YouTubers being taken down unfairly. I think it needs to be either heavily revised or eliminated completely.
Add: as a creative, I can personally say the DMCA has done nothing but hinder the inherently derivative nature of content creation, not just on the internet, but as a whole. The iron grip large companies hold over what by all means should be fair play and the sluggish speed of buearacracy in an increasingly accelerating space, the laws governing the internet need to be highly flexible, favor the individual creator over the corporate copyright or trademark hold, and designed not only for the internet of today, but the internet of future. Thank you for reading.
When it comes to these issues the United States are a role model for a large part of the modern western world.
So all that was copied, but from personal experience, DMCA is broken.
Many of my personal favorite content creators get their content taken down by companies abusing many of the copy-right rules on Youtube.
(This is my own take and issues I have had)
On a personal side of things I use websites like YouTube to upload school projects for many of my classes, and I even state there is no monitzation and they are for school. Yet if a company sees that have a song or product in the background, my projects get taken down or I get copyright strikes. For an example In my Editing Theory class we had to create a montage of a wedding, there was some background music that you could barely hear, and it was copyrighted and I couldn't edit it out without cutting a major part of the project out or muting the part where it was, but then it would affect my grade. As part of the Fair Use and the DMCA I would like to see things such as school work if stated, should also fall under this revision as well, or at least some shape or form.
This system has helped a lot when it comes to me being a creator so people just don't steal my work and take it
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet. Additionally, this means that even if a copyright claim can be proven to be unfounded, the same claim can be made repetitively (again, without any penalty to the claimant). A fairly recent example of this is the scandal of fraudulent Youtube claims made by Merlin CDLTD. The company made money and to my knowledge is still making money off of videos they have no right to claim as copyrighted. One video I would cite as evidence of just how ridiculous this situation is would be "Fake Content ID Trolls Bite My Bait!" by Youtube channel UnknownArchive. This is especially significant considering many making their living on Youtube via video monetization have little to no alternatives to the Youtube video streaming/hosting service to post their content. On the topic of monetization, companies should not be able to make money off of copyright claimed videos on Youtube when the company's claim has been proven to be unfounded due to fair use (I would even propose that the company would be responsible for reimbursing the afflicted channel for their lost revenue with an additional fee attached for the company's fraud or mistake).
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review, like I have mentioned in the above paragraph. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works. Additionally, I would propose a system in which a company claiming copyright infringement would have to write at least a paragraph detailing exactly how claimed material infringes on a copyright (this would discourage flippant claims). I would also increase pressure on companies to reply in a more timely fashion to persons trying to work out a copyright claim with the company in question in a professional business manner. Lastly, I would like to see some sort of appeals system within the social media outlets in question wherein a person trying to file a counterclaim to a copyright claim could talk about their problem to an actual person rather than being forced to rely on an entirely automated system.
Thank you very much for taking the time to listen to my concerns!
U.S. Code, Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 107: “the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright”
As long as the government fails to protect Americans who express themselves within the parameters of fair use from corporations who censor any opinions they take offence with, freedom of speech, and with it the bill of rights, is as good as dead.
Please reform DMCA.
As someone who watch more YouTube than TV i can say that these people are the future of the entertainment industry. But are constantly under attack from people who want to silence them and the change the represent. It just pains me to see these very hard working and talented people afraid to make content because someone want to steal money from them or silence them for what they do. Please fix this for all those people out there that only want to make our lives better.
While it is important for those who have their content stolen to have a way of stopping its distribution, the DMCA is as harmful to those who make content as it is helpful. Large companies have an incredible ease of removing their content in whatever form, which is fantastic for them. But smaller content creators who make parodies, reviews or satire are easily hurt under existing law. For an average person with a creative project that uses corporate content under fair use, (whereby their addition to that existing content is the focus of the project, rather than illegally redistributing it) the threat of legal action is real and frankly terrifying. This allows large corporations to have undue and illegal sway over small scale entertainment groups. A hostile review might be censored to artificially boost the perceived ratings of a movie, or a parody sketch shut down for fear of it overshadowing the original property. And this doesn't help the industry as a whole, rather only those making the claims. Smaller content creators can be stifled or outright destroyed, as their audience is removed from them by force. This will degrade the entertainment industry as a whole, as smaller creators are removed before they have the chance to move up in the industry. Right now a large company can get away with doing something as shady or outright illegal as pressuring their detractors because there is no false claim penalty. Any claim treats the person who used copyrighted content, fair use or not, is treated as guilty until proven innocent. If they are guilty, it ends there. However, when they are proven innocent, they merely are returned to good standing, while nothing happens to the claimant copyright holder. This means that a copyright holder can simply claim everything and anything it wants, and with any luck, content creators, who are protected under fair use, but unwilling or unable to fight, will be forced to concede their ownership and profits from a video. Or worse, their ability to make videos can be removed entirely if they fall prey to multiple unjust claims and the system declares them to be a criminal element, such as Youtube's three strike system, where three concurrent strikes can shut down a channel completely. The DMCA needs to be replaced, or at least altered, to make this kind of action illegal. Just like a court of law, (where, ultimately, a copyright claim could end up) those who make false claims need to be punished.
Some of my favorite content creators have been hit with false DMCAs that have resulted in their videos being taken down, copyright strikes against their youtube channels which, in turn, resulted in their video lengths being shortened to 15 minutes.
My own youtube channel has been affected by false DMCAs. I've had copyright holders stake claim to any ad revenue my video might make, despite my video falling under fair use.
The time for unnecessary censorship is over. Fix the DMCA.
"
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone."
I agree with all that is said here. I would also like to draw attention to monetary losses that have occurred within the current system, specifically on YouTube. As it is now, anyone can make a claim on a monetized video and seize all the ad revenue that comes from the video while it is being reviewed, a process that can take weeks. The person who posted the video has no chance to see any of that money, even if the content of the video is not deemed to be a copyright violation.
Please help fix this problem. So many great youtubers have been falsely shut down, flagged, or had their ability to get payment taken away. Companies and just horrible people in general are abusing the system everyday. Hard working youtubers are getting shut down due to this. Anime America has had dozens of videos unlawfully blocked or taken due to false copyright claims on their vide6even though it was a LEGAL REVIEW. Channel Awesome had their payment taken away due to the same reason. I can name many other youtubers who also suffered the fate of false claims against their videos. Please figure out a way to fix this so youtubers can still do their jobs and make a living so us fans can come back from a hard day and just watch our favorite youtubers without stressing if that person is gone or not. Make YouTube great again!!
I am a huge supporter of #WTFU (Wheres the fair use) because I've seen TOO many videos being taken down because they have a 6 second clip from another content creator in there video. This is getting worse over time and people are really abusing it, it needs to be fixed really soon, because people are getting pissed off, including me
These issues have been escalating beyond what the YouTube company can handle, with this change you can make it easier and help us in need for this situation. These big corporations are taking advantage over the little people with false claims that stop people from not only doing what can be consider their hobby or a way to spend time and enjoy but also in a serious not their job! Some YouTube Channels have it like a business hiring other people to work with them so its not just one person per channel thats being affected here. With assurance i believe you guys can make a fix to this and stop this abuse once and for all and the future people will shine this day as a glorious time the internet once again protected people from this unfair abuse. i myself have not been affected by this personally but many people i think are just really great people need their voices to be heard and it needs to be solved. please help us and thank you for listening.
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I've seen several videos on YouTube be taken down even though they should be protected through fair use. I watch a lot of Anime reviews and Anime Music Videos and they help me find shows that look interesting to me and I go and watch them legally, whether through Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll, Funimation, etc. Same with reaction videos, it makes me go find the original content to watch it legally and then rewatch it with these reactors. I don't know why anyone would choose to watch a reaction video to something they haven't seen. Rewatching it with the reactor, though, that gives off a feeling of community and friendship and quality time, even if we don't know the reactor personally. All of the videos should be protected through fair use because they are altering the original material, commenting on it, critiquing it, saying how they feel about it, whether through words from their own mouth or through music. I feel that these videos, for the most part, help the original creators of the content rather than harm them, and I feel like they are being wrongfully taken down, and I know I'm not alone in that.
Youtubers have reasons, and reasonable ones, for them their videos to be not taken down. Yet, copyright claimers and other bs things can take down their videos with NO good reason? This unfairness should be stopped.
As a regular user of Youtube, I have witnessed the disappearance of many videos of some of my favorite Youtubers due to false copyright strikes. While for me, that is only a little sad, for them, their whole life is at stake because they can't fight back although they should be protected by the law.
As a fitting countermeasure, implementing a penalty of some sort for false DMCA takedowns and giving the creators more ways of fighting back would improve the situation drastically.
In addition to the pre-made text I feel as if the monetary incentives for copyright take-downs on YouTube need to be discussed more. Companies have a monetary incentive to remove videos as they then receive any add revenue the video would generate before it is reviewed. Due to the disproportionate amount of claims to those who can review them, this practice can disenfranchise many who make a very tenuous living by producing videos.
While there is absolutely an ethical to the concept of copyright protection, the modern system allows for, and even encourages remarkably overbearing and harmful behavior toward smaller independent entities with very little way to protect themselves against the automated actions taken by corporations whose copyrights are not truly being violated.
I think that the idea of having a protection and fair use of content is absolutely important. However, the existing system under the DMCA unfortunately is outdated in our rapid age of the Internet. I think that we need reform for this as it is currently being used to abuse the system rather than uphold our honor of it overall.
Thank you.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital world Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
as it stands now, companies that put false claims on video's to take their monetization away get to keep the money they made from it even after the claim has been proven false. A company called [Merlin] CDLTD seems to have dedicated their entire business to unrightfully taking the money that popular video's make.
Get your shit together.
The Fair Use Law is outdated, and is in need for a major update so content creators of the web can be protected.
False companies are filing claims on these videos, and taking money away from the original uploader who didn't do anything wrong.
Hell, ONE GUY'S VIDEO WAS TAKEN DOWN WHEN THE VIDEO WAS JUST TWO GUYS TALKING ABOUT A MOVIE!
NO COPYRIGHTED MUSIC, OR FOOTAGE!
Look, we know major shit is going down like ISIS, economy, etc.
But Fair Use is still important for the people of the web.
So please, can you people update the law?
If it's not fixed, THIEVES will run around taking down content and get money.
WE NEED PENALTIES FOR THESE CRIMES!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders a use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Where's the fair use? Many creators on Youtube are now making a living making content including reviews. While piracy should still be against the law, talking about shows and movies is fair use. It actually inspired me to check out some of these shows and some have since become my all time favorites. Please fix these flaws in the DMCA system.
A lot of other people who are going to be signing this petition are going to be giving the same copy-paste comment that everybody else has given here, which is a very structured and laid out comment, but not how I want to instigate things around here. I'd like to give my own comments.
Now, as a very amateur content creator, and one who does YouTube as a hobby so they can just take a video file, stupidly edit it, maybe with some fair use video clips or sound files, and upload it for people to get a quick laugh at for however long the video lasts. I've run into a few issues with the claimbots and the bogus instigations of YouTube being a bellend with how it looks at "claims", and from this, the worst I have suffered is my videos being monetized, muted or taken down for the act.
But it has been much worse for other YouTubers.
In the past couple of months, the amount of YouTubers who have been affected by the false takedown copyright strikes has been accelerating and growing, so much so that some YouTube creators and cohorts have become scared with their videos being taken down so much that their content for their fans has been limited.
There has been "I Hate Everything", or Alex, and how his YouTube account was terminated for a few days by the creator of a movie called "Cool Cat" that Alex used clips from under a Fair Use policy, using the clips in a satirical and hyperbolic manner to entertain fans, but due to the false stupidity of the DMCA and other clauses such forth, his account was terminated for "Copyright", despite the fact that full, unedited videos of the WHOLE Cool Cat movie have been uploaded to the internet.
There has been "H3H3Productions" and the issues they came under in a similar way to Alex, this time involved with the content overseer Fullscreen, wherein H3H3 used video clips in FAIR USE terms to critique and parody a prank video by a partner of Fullscreen, and Fullscreen ordered a false "Copyright" claim for FAIR USE.
There are so many more cases, be them for small channels like my friend who linked me to this page, TotallyNotSirius, at 600 subscribers, or be it extremely larger YouTube accounts like IHE at around 400,000. I know my view seems to be only limited to YouTube, but this Fair Use and DMCA bullshit is pretty much used on YouTube in the grandest and most bogus view of schemes. It is either education immediately of large companies, and any companies with power, to show them what constitutes FAIR USE of their media, or it turns to the terms of rewriting and fixing the falacies and idiocies with Fair Use as a whole.
Thank you.
The idea that companies are allowed to take away revenue from content creators is beyond ridiculous. It is literally theft. You can't make laws that support studios in danger of losing money, only to turn around and start making money from other people when their work is stolen. The fact is, most tv shows & movies are no longer fun to watch unless we see someone with a brilliant mind & sense of humor discuss them, make fun of them or even rank certain aspects of them. This is just how we entertain ourselves, so bogus DMCA takedowns do nothing more than make life difficult for everyone involved. Often times, if it weren't for these same youtubers, we wouldn't even know that so and so game, movie or tv show even existed.
Copyright used to be a thing that was used responsibly. I now however, see my favourite creators being striled for copyright despite fair use. This really grinds my gears to see my favourite makers get shaken down. It's like watching a family member get scammed and i want it and need it to stop.
Please put an end to this awful system. I'm tired of seeing content creators I love to watch get abused by it for no good reason.
Aside from this, I have seen firsthand situations where music, television and film related videos used parody in their nature, and still have been flagged as copyright infringement. These same videos clearly credit their sources and still were flagged for takedown. hey have applied for reversal of the takedown, succeeded, and been flagged AGAIN. This system of the DMCA is outdated in a constantly and quickly changing time. If its recommended to get a new computer every 5 years, then there's no excuse that the DMCA should be running for close to 20.
Examples of the issues currently going on YouTube
Channel Awesome's video on Fair Use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0Wpn1zmU
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (STILL going on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J03pUizE
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ9U8YLY
Team Four Star's issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkcWbvnN0
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nULnD9OQ
Chibi Reviews gets a DMCA for talking about snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWysPctePw
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company - MMA company thinks it makes the law!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw
Mr Enter and the saga of DMCA after DMCA takedown on the SAME video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtwVOZ0Yc
NFKRZ and how ransom is now on YouTube!
Relive 1998 here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1UY7eDRXrs
Space Jam circa 1996 still alive - http://www.warnerbros.com/archive/spacejam/movie/jam.htm
This system is not good because it is made for abusing content creators like on YouTube and it's just not right.
The DCMA takedown process is often used to censor individuals making really good remixes of songs, which I feel like falls under the domain of fair use. This is censorship, plain and simple. You cannot stop an idea. The DCMA should be aimed at individual services knowingly making an unfair profit off hosting copyrighted content, and shouldn't be this giant waterhose taking down every instance of an audio fingerprint.
Laws have not kept up with modern needs of new companies, and arguably force existing companies into forcing actions they may not want. Harassment has been the most common use of the current law. Not protection. It has become the equivalent of throwing a brick through the window of the business of a man you disagree with, and can be done automatically.
I reuploaded a Youtube Poop a couple months ago that I made a while back and I received a copyright notice about it and the video got taken down. The Youtube Poop largely featured a weird music video made by some trolling teenager and the copyright claimant claimed it was that teenager (whose went by the name Ryan Bane) and had a strange email address (boxitush@gmail.com). I'm sure that was a copyright troll and I hope this petition can fix this shit.
The current form of DMCA served well enough in the past but, like many such things, it could not predict how far the medium would advance in the future. As long as it gives way to those who would abuse it, it will be as less a shield and more a tool of oppression. Copyright holders have a right to protect their ideas and property, but thats not what DMCA is being used for right now. It is used to threaten, intimidate, and silence those who would express an unpopular opinion. More scrutiny is needed in this process, so that it cannot just be tossed around at a whim. Some kind of punishment must be implemented for false claims.
This is yet another copy of the basic comment but I agree whole-heartedly with everything mentioned here. Save Fair Use.
(I agree with all this, and I am a content creator myself. This is very important!)
Just a smattering of example grievances:
-Some claims are being made on content which people don't even own themselves.
-DMCA is being used without factoring in fair use, rampantly. Every single day.
-Often times these DMCA's are being sent by shell companies to protect the actual group sending the request from any potential harm or backlash.
-It's being used to inflict harm on individual creators and to stifle free speech.
-They're even being used as threats.
-Some videos are even being hit MULTIPLE TIMES even after having already been cleared!
-Some videos are being taken down when they contain no music, no images, nothing but people on screen speaking by themselves without any copyrighted material in them.
-Some companies even make the outlandish claim that they've created the law. Absurd!
PLEASE stop bogus DMCA takedowns and protect free speech! It is a very very different internet than it was in 1998.
Many content creators are having their videos taken down, even in circumstances where they have already cleared any infringements. This is because of the system being so easy to fool, as there is no filter, or checking system in place. It can be seen as a form of harassment on these individuals, and causes many problems for them.
For instance, videos with no copyrighted material are being taken down, shell companies are being used to abuse even more the system and to silence criticism.
As someone who both consumes and creates media online, the creative environment that the internet fosters is of great importance to me. Probably a good 90% of everything that I read or watch uses the internet as its means of production and distribution. As such, when content disappears without warning, or the creators of said content are issued takedown orders or threatened with lawsuits when they've done nothing wrong, I find it deeply troubling.
It is painfully obvious to those in and around this online environment that current copyright application is broken. The number of times that I've seen content claimed by a copyright holder when the content obviously, inarguably, falls under fair use is staggering.
Nowhere is this misapplication of copyright law more egregious than Youtube, where nebulous corporate entities acquire copyrights and then apply them to any video they can get away with - blatantly abusing the one-sided nature of Youtube's Content ID system by skimming the ad revenue off the claimed videos while the creators try to regain control of their content. The fact that there is money to be made off such an incredibly obvious exploitation is unconscionable.
Currently the claim process for online content works only for those willing to abuse it. We need something better than "Claim first, ask questions later, and steal ad revenue in the meantime".
People take down video's just because they don't like what is being said or flat out stealing money from video's
The DMCA is being abused on Youtube to harm content creators that are not breaking any laws, but are nonetheless bullied by corporations that file false claims against them to stop them from exercising their fair use rights. The system is deeply flawed and unfair, and it hurts creators the way it exists now. The internet is a global phenomenon, and how the DMCA is applied to online spaces such as Youtube has a huge global impact, and so the US government has a responsibility to take action in order to rectify this shortcoming.
It is absolutly rediculous that great youtubers are being screwed over by somtimes just meaningless companies and people taking down their videos and somtimes EVEN THEIR CHANNELS i find it absolutly stupid that this problem hasen't been delt with yet it is truly REDICULOUS!
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyithrighted works.
Too many companies are using fair use as an excuse to take down videos that simply show negative aspects or a negative opinion of their product(s). Other people have also used it to simply take down videos of people they don't like as a way of cyberbullying that person and their channel.
I am writing to voice my opinion on the DMCA system, as it currently exists. The main issue is that the guidelines and regulations have to change to catch up with the times. The main point though is that there is an issue with the system. It is way to easy to game. Giant entities have been able to use the DMCA to stifle criticism, and other times downright forbid it. As an example, Jim Sterling is a critic who writes video game reviews. He, however, has been forced to take down his criticism by video game publishers because they claimed that he was taking their content. Throughout all of his videos, he provides his thoughts and opinions on the games, and often times when a publisher doesn’t like his review, they have the right to remove it with no warning. He is well within his rights to use the gameplay in his videos for reviewing the games, and only his negative reviews seem to be targeted.
On the other side of the coin, it is almost impossible for small companies to keep up with people who steal their work. Corridor Digital is an independent film company who makes their profit by releasing videos on Youtube. But often times the full video is ripped and put on Facebook without so much as a credit to where the source material was found. Any time somebody watches the video on Facebook, they are not compensated for their hard work with the ad revenue of the thief in question. The same goes for Matthew Inman, who is a fairly popular comic writer. His comics often find their way to other websites without a reference to the source material.
Both of these cases cause the people who make the content and live off of the ad revenue suffer and/or are silenced. I have a suggestion in order to try and fix this issue though. A) Make it required to site where any and all copyrighted material came from. B) A fine has to be given to someone for someone who DMCA claims something that is under fair use, paying for the damages caused by doing so.
Hopefully this is all helpful, good luck with the rewrite (hopefully)!
This is being used in multiple unfair ways. Its being used to silence dissenting views online, collect revenue by issuing numerous false claims, attack creators for personal gain, and to strangle the use of copyrighted material in a legitimate setting. This has to end, it does not benefit the internet as a whole to have such a draconian statute controlling the use of copyrighted materials online. Not when the claimants are favored, without having any negative effects when they are proven false multiple times.
While I haven't personally experienced this abuse, I've seen users like IHE (https://www.youtube.com/user/IHEOfficial), Bobsheaux (https://www.youtube.com/user/Bobsheaux) and others who were practically harassed by one Derek Savage by not only doing false claims of lawsuits against them, have their sites shutdown under flimsy copyright claims, but also had the gall to defend himself with one video with rather misinformed concepts of Fair Use, which he later took down as he was constantly been proved wrong on everything he said by the Internet. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FmTbag5Lz0).
Personal comment:
Personally I am shocked about some of the stunts companies use to bully reviewers on youtube by makeing false claims and making their every day life hell, just for trying to entertain millions of people on youtube, just because they disagree with the review. But it goes further then that where not only independent companies do this, but also large companies like Nintendo and Capcom abuse this because they simply are to scared of negative feedback, so they just send false claims while the reviewer in question is not abusing the fair use at all. Even then just talking about it without showing anything from the footage or any audio. That shouldn't be possible. Especially since reviewers on youtube actually started doing reviewing as a job, living from the income they get from youtube views. And sure, they could make the claim that youtubers giving movies or games bad reviews will have impact on the companies income, but it is not wrong to warn people about a bad product, and that is what reviewing does.
------------
It was because of copyright infringement that my resources to content to Ant & Dec have become limited. I can no longer enjoy as much as I use to and I've been living with this for months. You may think it's no big deal they're just videos. But I believe that every fan whether American or British should be allowed to enjoy their content. And Ant&Dec have allowed me to find comfort in the light of darkness, strength when there's weakness and friends so far as in another country. I am insisting no DEMANDING that this be stopped and the restrictions to stop. So what you say? All you have to do is update and bring back those videos. I would be extremely grateful if it happens. Thank you for your time.
Though "Fair Use" is meant to keep truly original content from being stolen and copyrighted, it is overused and abused on the Internet and most noticeably on YouTube.
Anyone who uses YouTube frequently enough has seen the message and knows it well. A message saying a video has been taken down due to copyright complaints. A very large majority of the time, it is a credible video creator who has infringed upon no copyrights or intellectual property. People use these copyright complaints as a way to shut up videos and video makers when they don't like the content. Sometimes it's used as a threat against a video maker. Other times, and quite often as well, is a company calling for censorship or complete erasure of content that may negatively affect them, their public standing, or their revenue. Many companies try to stop people from seeing even clips of media the companies have created so that it is impossible for others to view the media without paying money.
The bottom line is that copyright complaints are used unrightfully astronomically more often than are used for proper and valid reasons.
Change these laws and restrictions to protect content from being unrightfully blocked, and erect punishments for those who use DMCAs without proper cause. Update these laws to fit the Internet of today, and fix the problem that continues to run rampant in our World Wide Web!
I have seen too many "3rd Party" claimants make falsified claims and get no punishment. Along with the fact the appeal process doesn't seem to help those who are getting claims against them.
The current abuse of the copyright system in place is a monstrosity that ruins creativity and freedom of speech. Large companies and small alike are able to silence people who use material under fair use laws that cast a negative light on said subject matter. Channels on Youtube like Channel Awesome and any that show Nintendo game footage are harassed daily, with takedown notices just because they use their "property," despite everything being within legal grounds of use. I'm speaking up because I want better content that informs me as well as enlightens me to new ideas, for better or worse.
Companies are also using shell companies to send mass amounts of content takedown notices, taking away income from channel owners on Youtube and restricting them immensely.
It's unbelievable that even when someone wants to share their love of something made by a great company, that same company ends up silencing that love and attention.
Bring Back Fair Use
I don't create content on YouTube; I just watch it. Some of my favorite creators to watch make analysis or review videos, and I love them. They have taught me a lot about art and entertainment, and, as someone who wants to one day do that for a living, they are important for my education. The creators that I watch do nothing wrong, heck, most of the time they do nothing to even indicate that they have broken the law. Creators like Nostalgia Critic, Todd in the Shadows, and The Mysterious Mr. Enter do work that should be protected, but is not.
It's sad to see people who have a passion for what they do be abused like this, especially when their incomes depend upon it. It's amazing that, in an age when we cite free speech so often, that a large part of our daily lives-the internet-is ignored in all protective legislation. Please update the laws, enforce the rules, and make it possible for people to work without fear of harassment.
Due to recent, continued and proven abuse of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) it is clear that the System has failed and needs to be fixed.
Corporations and Individuals knowingly and intentionally continue to file wrong claims to increase their profits or censor free speech. This has to be stopped.
The most harm is done to content creators providing review and critique and even original content. DMCA is used to remove bad reviews, negative critique and sometimes and ever increasingly claim that completely original content belongs to someone else.
With DMCA as weapon they essentially step on the food and livelihood of content creators with the dirty boot of fake justice and essentially crush their dreams and aspirations.
All in all fuck fair use bullshit YouTube you fucked your system up so bad please fix it like fucking now you scummy shits
I am a student of the Art Institute of California, San Francisco. I am currently studying film. It has come to my attention that companies have either been abusing the DMCA to the point where fair use is ignored. Through this abuse, anyone can claim videos, music, etc and take the money from the add revenue or use it to remove it. Despite the fact that either nothing they own is in the video or the content is under fair use, there is no punishment for false claims or ways to prove that your content is original or under fair use.
This is why I am currently scared of using the internet to share any videos I make or plan on making. We need a stronger way to prove that we own the content we make and a stronger way to prove and punish a false claim. If cases like this were brought to court, this would be illegal.
The recent years I've seen our promise to protect the right to free speech be broken and ignored on sites like youtube, many people who are just expressing their opinions are shot down by our own people, or are being taken down by the companies that say they own the content even though it should of been protected under fair use laws.
One example I can think of the outrageous things happening on youtube is with the channel Lost_Pause, true he makes mature content, but he does censor things that need to be censored, he even took out some scenes that was too much. Yet he still got taken down one time, but that's not the problem, the problem is that when that happens some other channel which has much more questionable content doesn't get taken down. So to recap, Lost_Pause, who censors and removes content too mature gets taken down, and some other person gets off scotfree with worse content
And it's just not him, othere channels like TeamFourStar, Channel Awsome, I Hate Everything, etc. How can we say that we uphold the freedom of free speach, if things like this happen on the web. It's time for a change in the DMCA and how it works, for if we don't, then I can't say we're the nation of the free.
Please fix this issue because this is heading to a terrible ending!
The content on YouTube, not only helps to advertise the products (such as games, drinks, etc.), if the product is bad, the creator of the product need to understand they must do something in order to stay in the business. Unfortunately, they are taking our content as illegal and they are either taking our money we dedicated our time into it to help the company, and/or taking the content completely down, might include our channel as well.
I made a 12 minute fan video compilation of clips from the TV show Northern Exposure. Over 40,000 comments, with critical claim for my original edit of 12 minutes taken from over one hundred 45 minute episodes. Many people reminded of the great show, purchasing the DVD's. I see no way my fan edit could diminish a single sale of the TV show yet NBC Universal take it down, without specific reason, without comment, without offering me any opportunity to make it right. This is not what copyright was made for, copyright law was made to encourage new creative culture. DMCA is damaging more than it is creating.
This stuff needs to stop, my favorite videos are being taken down for no reason and those people who create definitely don't need people stealing from them.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on creativity on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While related to YouTube, videos are taken down MULTIPLE times even after they fought (and won) to get their videos back up. Companies are abe to take down a video obviously covered under fair use without any negative reprocousions for it. It is sad to see robots and companies herass innocent people while hidding behind the misuse of DMCA.
People who I am a fan of have been losing videos for no reason; this is not okay. I want them to be able to make the videos that they wish to make. These DMCA laws are harming good people. While those who do blatantly steal others content need to be punished, it is not fair to see innocent people be harmed by this backwards law. It is not fair to them at all, and those who are making these false claims, and/or abusing the copyright systems need to be dealt their dire straits. Us individuals on the Internet want an Internet that allows free expression and not having to be scared of their content being taken away by a person who knows that this can be easily abused.
Personally, I've had 2 videos that have received copyright notices, since they used images from films. However, I used those images to supplement my movie review videos, so it falls under the commentary/criticism of the Fair Use law.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw
This reviewer does a fine job of reviewing animated series, and this single episode has given him so much trouble that it showed to me the problem with the current regulations. Copyright is important, but neither side should be able to abuse it like this.
My favourite Youtubers are being harassed.
Fake companies are claiming videos to steal revenue.
Negative reviews of movies/games get taken down by the creators of those movies.
Parody makers get their videos taken down.
Videos that do not even contain ANY videos from someone else's content get taken down by greedy companies.
If you have a channel that produces criticism, fans of other channels that don't agree with you will submit false claims on your videos to take down your channel.
Random videos get taken down for NO REASON.
The DMCA is an outdated crap law that stops people who just want to produce fun content, it however doesn't actually protect against real content thieves. It's statutes put in place force digital distribution sites and Video Streaming sites to take unfair and unreasonable (and in most cases illegal) actions to protect copyright holders. Fair and reasonable copyright allows people like me who'd like to get into video reviews of Video Games however many-a-controversy has stifled my creativity and interest in writing, producing and editing ~30 minute videos involving heavy reliance on copyrighted material.
Even as a Canadian DMCA laws still affect me, and I hope they're revised in a fair and reasonable way, to prevent DMCA takedowns on videos that clearly are defined as "Fair Use" DMCA takedowns should only ever affect those whom has legitimately STOLEN CONTENT. Sites like YouTube should require PROOF OF OWNERSHIP OR MANAGEMENT OF SAID COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL prior to just openly accepting a 'copyright negotiation' where the parties involved negotiate how the content will be either: edited (to remove said copyrighted material), removed, or a simple agreement; removing the weight of some schmuck to take your hard worked potential and actual income.
When fuckheads come along and say "This trend is popular let's find the first 10 videos involving this trend and take their money!" and get no repercussions not even a slap on the wrist. Letting these bastards ram you up the ass because an outdated set of rules weren't specific enough and were never re-written because "They just worked". Let's take away the tools that they have to force us into deep anal with a real live horse that will shred your insides until you bleed out.
Please do something
-Myles
I think its completely unfair that people can put so much time and effort into their cideos and have some random companies come take their time and hard work they put into their video just because of something they said or showed for split seconds. The companies doing this are doing it way more to make some easy money off people working hard and companies are doing this more and more for terrible reasons i think this really needs to stop and that the people making the videos should have the freedom to make the videos they want without having someone take their money and have their time and hardwork wasted
I don't want to get unfair copyright strikes on my videos that fall under fair use so let's end this abuse for I won't stand for it any longer.
Though I have not personally been affected by takedowns or claims, I would like to offer my thoughts. DMCA was a good idea at the time, but without updating it for today's Internet, it has become a tool of censorship. For copyright holders who are overprotective or simply dislike something, Fair Use means nothing to them, and will continue to mean nothing until the law has been changed to prevent unlawful takedowns of content.
Automated take downs are a flawed system, and far too many people suffer from the abuse that this system has created. Content creators far and wide have tried to make a living on their creativity but every day it gets harder and harder for those creators to make a name for themselves. To make it worse, bigger companies make money off of these smaller creators, which just makes it harder for them to even get by. Something needs to be done. We need a change.
I lost many videos snice my youtube account went active in 2006. Please undue them as they didn't violate any copyright law but were meant for fun and highlighting the content, not hurting it.
In short words, the system is extremely flawed and heavily works against Internet content creators as more and more companies keep abusing the system to silence whoever they want or blatantly stealing revenue from the creators. As an aspiring content creator for internet, I really believe that Fair Use laws should be respected and not abused by blatant lies.
We can't just pay a big lawyer to defend us on cases like in the Lenz v. Universal case. We can't sue back when stuff like this happens. Yet creators keep being pestered and even harassed INTERNATIONALLY!
Please help fix this archaic law, it should be bring to our age.
I hate seeing the content by the creators I love being abused and taken down. Half the time reviewers praise a game or film their video gets removed and their money is taken just because they showed scenes from it. It isn't right!
This current DMCA process is being extremely abused against fair criticism, promoting unprofessionalism, and encouraging scam artists as anyone can easily take down online content without legal proof of ownership resulting in illegal financial gain. The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright
holders and too commonly used to censor content that is
protected under fair use. This
system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
MAKE YOUTUBE GREAT AGAIN!
Fair use, and it's allotted protections are one of the backbones of modern spreading of knowledge. It's how we, as inteligent creatures can take apart a subject of interest and not only examine it, but use it as example to support what we learn. Without it, we as a populace are bound to one source on such things. But more unnerving is this. If people are allowed to abuse the law by browbeating honest people into retracting their content, or views simply because they utilized copywriter material..then where does that lead us? Will the day come that similar, more wide arching laws would allow groups to control such things as our right to freedom of religion, because one faith offends another? Or perhaps it would lead to all media ceasing to be created, in fear of the DCMA hammer crashing down upon even the slightest whiff of derivitive work? I implore you. Freedom of speech, freedom of creativity, and freedom to utilize fair use policies are the backbone of a culture like ours. We are the grandest nation because of our freedoms. Don't spite them for the sake of hollywood's pockets.
The DMCA is a decent idea, but is very outdated and used to harass and destroy content somebody may not like, regardless of whether or not it is fair use. a good example is when Derek Savage made false copyright strikes against negative reviews of his movie and harassed a youtuber privately until the strikes expired on their own. This needs to be changed and the best option is introducing some sort of penalty for issuing false DMCA takedowns, as it is an illegal practice, for example a fine.
To add to this truth, I can give several examples of the DMCA being abused.
Jim Stirling (This issue is STILL going on):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0W...
TeamFourStar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J03pUizE
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkc...
Chibi Reviews:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nU...
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWys...
So tell me again, where's the fair use? The DMCA needs to be rewritten with today's modern internet in mind. It's out of date and only has corporate companies in mind, as well as anyone who wants to abuse an outdated system to silence others.
If it's an example of personal experience you want, I have many. I've had copyright strikes claimed on over a dozen of my videos, and they were claimed by people who don't own the rights to the material I used. If you can look me in the eye and tell me it's fair for me to show a picture of Sonic the Hedgehog for the sake of a joke, and let Warner Bros take everything I earn when they don't own Sonic, then I'd like a decently sized bag of whatever drugs you're smoking.
False DMCA makes me scared to even move into the industry
The DMCA is weighted too heavily in the favor of large content publishers and bad actors. It's been shown over and over again that the DMCA has been stifling the industry's growth. Small and individual content creators cannot protect the content they create from fallacious DMCA claims, as the burden of proving fair use regularly falls upon these small creators. These small and individual content creators often do not have the resources to defend against a claim. Then, if these creators are somehow able to defend against a false DMCA claim, the benefits of successfully defending the claim are outweighed by the negatives;
Lenz v. Universal Music's ruling limited damage rewards. This has allowed large publishers and producers to continue and send out false claims based off of algorithms or otherwise without any sort of repercussions.
I have read and agree with the following:
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice-and-takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
FIX IT.
The world is changing. I am a content creator. The television and radio industries are dying, and content creation through sites such as YouTube and Twitch is becoming larger, in terms of viewers, than television.
Getting the DMCA right is so essential, and will help shape what the next 5-10 years will look like in the world of entertainment. It is clear that at this time, it is not perfect. I am confident that with this feedback, you (we) can get it right.
Look up "copywrite" or "fair use" on Youtube. You'll see millions, literally millions, of hits. Many of those will be stories of people who have been hurt by the system, either by lost ad revenue, lost time having to deal with the system, or simply by watching their work vanish. Something needs to change.
Okay the following (besides this first bit) is unchanged because it's basically exactly how I feel about this for the most part. My own individual experience: on YouTube I don't feel safe putting out my own videos, and i don't feel motivated to make music videos when I know that there's a large chance that all that work will be for nothing because of an unfair claim. Ironically it was when I managed to directly contact a company that had put a strike that the problem was resolved. When I tried to use Youtube's format, it didn't even let me complain and said I was in someway at fault, then listed all the possible reasons. It's blatantly obvious the system is flawed because it's all automated.both corporations using programs to automatically scan for content even if it's in insignificant amounts, or YouTube using a fully automated system that doesn't have any human engagement whatsoever unless the channel complaining is incredibly popular and has immense support behind it. So all the starting out channels like mine have no chance whatsoever in these situations. The rest is unchanged from what was originally here...
Let's fix youtube BOYS!
It is not fair that YouTube channels are being taken down from companies.Their videos are under fair use and it is a shame for hard work going to waste.
All I ask is for a fair chance. As a content creator on Youtube and someone who wishes to be an entertainer, It scares me to know how easily someone can come and steal what I make without question. I already have had a unknown company take claim on video I made and make money off them without permission. Sad to say it will only get worse from here.
There is not one thing I or anybody else can do to stop this, but you! We can't fight the system alone and we need t fix what is so badly broken. Please save our future. Please give me a reason to keep trying.
Please help
In light of recent cases of abuses of the DMCA (Youtube, Vimeo, Streamable, etc.), I am in full favor of a complete review and reform of the existing legislation.
I had created a little video where I commentated over a video game that I played and uploaded it to YouTube, where me and my cousin watch each other's videos of this sort. I get NO money on each video, and if I even did enable monetization I wouldn't get much seeing as how each video rarely ever breaks 10 views. The second I uploaded one of these videos I got an automated copyright strike, it hadn't even been set to public yet. I went through and reedited it a bit and shook off the claim, but the point is, is that companies can put a copyright strike on anything if they want to. And the scary thing is, is that there are lots of people making a living creating content on the Internet, and their entire well-being can be destroyed if a company dosen't like how one guy didn't like their movie, or if they want their new trailer to be the top search result, they can have takedown notices hit every other video on the subject.
Please, if anybody actually goes through and reads this, realize that the flaws in this law ruins the thing that makes the Internet turn so beautiful; the fact that anybody can create content, and have a valid opinion, and be a part of a community. That anybody can do nearly anything. I urge you from the bottom of my heart to change this law.
Despite living in a country that isn't the United States of America, the DMCA still affects users worldwide, as many websites are based in the US.
As a content creator, the current abuse of the DMCA is scary as it could affect me at any time with an invalid takedown.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
For all the content creators on the internet who genuinely try to follow these laws, myself included, please consider revising the DMCA laws in effect.
This law is being abused in so many ways that I could literally write about ten pages on the criminal suppression of free speech for profit alone. Fair Use, Open Access, the Good Samaritan Law and Public Domain Rights are all being disregarded as nonexistent. DMCA needs to be corrected and updated to prevent even further abuse. This update needs to provide prove that expression of thought is still a valid form of truthful communication for the people. That the laws made by the elected governing body are supported by the governed to protect the individual's rights and not those of marketing offices of corporations; after all this is a country that protects and defends the rights of freedom.
YouTube was once a place where people could upload and share content with people freely and not have to worry about accidentally recording a coke bottle without paying royalties (This is just an example of what things have happened). Content creators shouldn't have to worry about losing their channel, which for some is their full time job, due to a troll or corporate company calling a copyright claim on something that abides under the FAIR USE law. I understand that uninformed people may be making claims believing they are totally in their rights to make such a claim, but the content on which the claim was made shouldn't be punished because of the false claim.
To whom it may concern: The current mechanisms of intellectual copyright law and fair use on the internet are wildly broken. With people able to use automated tools to search for specific sounds and images and file take-down claims, it is often only a case of fair use being stifled rather than legitimate copyright claims being enforced.
There are no mechanisms to discourage against false claims, which means that people can maliciously make repeat reports endlessly. Original content creators, the lifeblood of the internet, can be locked out of receiving their fair monetization for their content due to extremely long windows on turn-around for claim processing and no restitution for the processing period.
It is vitally important that our lawmakers understand that American jobs are being put at risk by a poorly implemented copyright system. This is all digital content, and no one should have to wait weeks to learn whether or not they're going to be paid for their work.
BEFORE YOU READ ON: I am a person who uploads Youtube videos casually on a small channel. Sometimes I put in my favorite Nintendo music in the background, and then I get a salvo of copyright strikes. This limitation of my freedom is ridiculous--in fact, it is promoting Nintendo's music if anything. Not to say that their company is not doing great things, it's just that this bit of greed to make copyright strikes and ad revenue off of these things is unacceptable in my opinion.
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I and my brother are new to creating content on YouTube, and we haven't even uploaded our first video. We want to do comedic movie reviews, and that all hinges on Fair Use. Fair Use is being abused on this website to a scary extent. I am all for content creators protecting their original content from beige stolen, but these companies that are filing false DMCA takedowns are killing the industry that my brother and I want to break into. YouTube is a great platform for independent content creators to make a living, but it will die if we don't act now. Our right to free speech is being taken from us, and we won't stand for it anymore
In addition to all of this, this outdated and unregarded system has affected so many people on a personal level to the point where we question whether or not the "protection" this law supposedly ensures is really present at all. Content creating is indeed a very particular line of questionable copying, but it should not be regarded as outright stealing. The changes in this law can not only fix the atrocities done to creators, but can also change entertainment forever.
Not only that, but many people across YouTube have been subject to threats by other users who file false DMCA claims in order to adversely affect that person's bottom line.
The DMCA law is horribly outdated. It allows anyone, at all, to send a takedown notice for content they don't own, repeatedly, to harm people providing the content. Because of the way the law is written it is almost impossible to fight a takedown on our own and completely impossible to receive damages from false takedowns. If you want to see where the frustration is coming from just do a search online for someone who sued and won a case against takedown abuse. Hint, you won't find one. Only ways to file takedowns quicker and easier.
This is not a few takedowns either. According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review. Companies like Google receive hundreds of takedowns at once. What is worse is that companies like HBO will send so many un-vetted takedowns that they will include links to their own site to be removed. This happened in 2013.
People are known to send takedown requests to monetized YouTube videos, turn on revenue sharing, without the creators knowing, and make money in the first crucial 48 hours from being uploaded. Free money for abusing a system. The content creator files an uncontested counterclaim and by the time it is over, they have lost thousands of dollars. In some cases, this is their livelihood. Many YouTube content creators wonder if they will just wake up one day to a removed account and out of a job just because someone felt malicious. This happens, a lot.
DMCA takedown is more harmful than it is protecting protecting. It needs to be updated.
I'm just starting out as a movie critic on Youtube, so I'm not currently monetizing any of my videos. That being said, I've been hoping my channel will eventually take off and I will be able to monetize my content. That is exactly why I think changes need to be made to Youtube's copyright system.
Youtube has evolved into an amazing place where people can share their ideas and thoughts on anything to anyone. Sometimes to convey this information on something, they'll use footage and music from that property. As long as that said footage and music isn't played in it's full length and is used to convey parody, criticism, or some other message, it qualifies as Fair Use. Unfortunately, the DMCA gives major corporations the right to abuse this system.
This law allows companies to claim and take monetization of any video they deem a violation of Fair Use. This system has easily been abused, with many companies setting automatic systems to detect copyrighted content and automatically claim it without context.
I've personally received two claims on my Youtube account. The first one was on my review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_EzTJFHtBo
The claim was over music I used in the video that was a part of the Star Wars franchise. This claim was completely valid and just. As I mentioned before, I'm not currently looking to make money on Youtube, so I used the music in it's full length.
The second claim was from a video I did on the Top 5 Movies of 2015:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98tHCNvhZfU
This claim didn't make much sense to me. It was made by MGM studios and was over the film, Creed. The reason for the monetization was simply "visual content". What's even more confusing is that the footage I used was from the trailer for the film, so I wasn't taking anything from the film itself. I also made a separate review for Creed and didn't receive any monetization at all, and I used the exact same footage in that as well. The footage used was the definition of Fair Use, yet it was monetized anyway simply for a couple seconds of footage.
Some claims are made by scam companies. One such company claimed to own the rights of the video, "Damn Daniel", and they claimed every video that featured it. They also did this without the knowledge or permission from the original creator of the video.
In some rare cases, this system is used to censor criticism on a subject. Some examples include one that happened a couple years ago with a game critic named Total Biscuit. He was given permission to promote a game called Day One: Gary's Incident early and he gave an honest, but negative, review of it. His video was shortly taken down despite having personal permission from the creators of the game.
In another case, a channel called I Hate Everything received multiple strikes from Derek Savage, the creator of a film called Cool Cat Saves the Kids. He did this because IHE made a harsh and negative review of his film. He even went as far as to threaten him and impersonate a law firm through e-mails. What makes the situation ironic is that the film gained popularity through a review from a channel called Your Movie Sucks, who gave an equally negative review but wasn't attacked due to it making the movie popular.
It's clear to see this copyright system is outdated and broken. People now have the tools to turn Youtube into a stable career, and the attempts made by these companies to monetize and censor them is ruining their careers. I humbly hope things will change, as I hope to be among those who make content similar to mine.
Provided comment is listed below:
I'm just really tired of hearing from my favorite YouTubers and content creators about having issues over unfair copyright strikes with no penalties to the corporations who sent out those strikes. What makes it even worse is how much unnecessary time and effort it takes to get those claims and strikes resolved, and for some content creators it never even gets resolved. It's simply not right and needs to stop.
Ps: WTFU
We have to find a way to put a limit or regulation to copyright claim on the Internet....
Critics are constantly shoot down by pure bias and producers who just dont like their opinions and use the copyright claim as a weapon!
In other words, the system is being abused as it is now and needs to be rewritten to better protect content creators, critics and alternative news outlets.
My name is Jake Parker Andrajack. I am an autistic content creater on youtube Ive been harrassed, by people, who go under the last name of Linhart. Charles Linhart to be exact also Ian Scott. this family has flagged my youtube channel (velma30) for no reason of a parents use of not understanding my right of freedom of speech. my channel is flagged, and I cant upload content. this is reely bad for anyone who would abuse a system of the like that, just because they dont understand why I make videos. to have people understand the life of an autistic. ye this chucky, (going by jack helliquinn on youtube) uses his material to say " self harm is okay and im here to listen cus i do it to so subscribe to my channel you sexy women " with morbid graphics. this is not right. I cant even gain funds for my videos for this because of my partnershp due to youtubes coywright system. please do somthing about him.
DMCA is outdated. It only defends those in higher positions and destroys those who attempt to create original content and works that should be protected under Fair Use, such as review and parody.
In current times, in ever-changing times, Internet is a medium that has developed and continues to develop beyond originally envisioned, and updates on laws must be made. These kind of acts not only affect American citizens, but worldwide content creators and audience, and they must be adjusted accordingly.
It' s not fair
we have to be copyrighted for our own Material We created I'm not going to stand back and watch what I created be taken down by the greedy Corporate People !
This is very unfair and it needs to be replaced.
The DMCA is being used to create a trust or monopoly of sorts by media companies. The internet is still evolving how people consume and enjoy media. There are multitudes of Youtubers and other content creators who need fair use in order to operate. Some of it is used for education. Sometimes it's exposing media bias or lies in a story. Some times it's critiquing a piece of media like film. Others, it's just satire and ridicule. All of these fall under fair use and all of these have been attacked ruthlessly by media companies in zealous fervor to protect their own interests rather than the public at large. Companies have done this because they don't like the review they got, being satirized or just because they want to control how their product is seen. All of these fly in the face of our ideals of free speech. I don't think there are any content creators who haven't had to labor against rules set in place due to the DMCA. Having to cut up clips of a video into 20 second intervals or not even displaying the content that is being critiqued are common practices. However, even not showing material hasn't guaranteed protection from DMCA claims as there is just no downside to throwing one out. This has lead to rampant abuse. Some content creators have had their earnings from advertising stolen by false claims from DMCA trolls. The system is so weak it allows anyone to launch a claim and claim ad revenue without any sort of validation. This particularly lecherous practice has happened to several musicians on Youtube creating their own original music. While this is primarily an issue with the way Youtube handles claims, it has been forced to do so by these companies who threaten massive lawsuits to "protect" their IP. All of these aspects have created a system where the copyright holders with massive pockets have all the power and no consequences for using the power. They are strangling a fledgling market to keep their own pockets lined and the government is helping them. This is an affront to freedom of speech and free market values. I beg you to reconsider this law and thank you for your time.
From the bottom of my heart as an American and a user of the internet.
Please, look through all these messages, even if they have the same bodies as my message here. This is a serious matter, and should be handled seriously.
Loads of youtubers are being falsely getting copyright strikes had its hurting youtube and the copyright holders are getting no punishment for there illegal crimes.Its sad to see whats youtube as gotten too so that is why it need to be fix,Bring the free speech back into the internet
DMCA is also being used as a bludgeon to quiet critics of bad movies, and to rob and extort, please correct this.
It's just so jacked.
If you listen to nothing else at least hear this; DMCA take downs are just the start to a slippery slope that could lead to nearly total censorship of the internet, from what you can post on twitter to what you can watch on youtube. Such antiquated laws do nothing but harm content creators and lazily shield large corporate entities that already have the tools to combat fair use issues but have leaned upon this law because it is simply easier. Internet users have helped take down such massive steps backwards such as SOPA and with your help they can do it again, so for the love of all that is holy and streamed please, I implore you... Take a step in the right direction. Re-examine DMCA take downs and help keep the internet a progressive medium that can be used to express free ideas, speech and infinite possibilities for countless generations into the future.
Right now the Digital Millennium Copyright Act completely fails to protect the rights, IP, and revenue of content creators that are not part of or are a corporation. The consequence of having the Fair Use Clause being a situation to be determined in Court instead of a clearly defined shield that protects from injunctions and claims is that the system is rife with the abuse and outright extortion of content creators and copyright holders not under a corporate umbrella by conmen and the corporations themselves.
The current incarnation of Fair Use and the lack of responsibility to for the claimant to prove that Fair Use does not apply before making a claim of copyright infringement, that Fair Use does not prevent claims of copyright infringement from being used to attack content creators has created a digital environment where the content creator has no defense or ability to protect their content and revenue while there is zero consequence for using false copyright infringement claims to takedown content, damage the revenue that content generates or outright take the revenue from that content.
The example that stands is the Content ID, Copyright Claim, and Copyright Strike system used by Youtube. This system provides no ability for the content creator to fight or dispute any claim of infringement before action is taken against their content, provides 30 days for the claimant to take action after a dispute is started while maintaining the punitive action against the content during the time of dispute, and if the claimant chooses the ad revenue from that content will be given to the claimant instead of the content creator even if the claim is in dispute.
This is compounded by the fact that Youtube does not require the claimant to prove they own copyright they claim is being infringed upon or that there is copyright infringement that wouldn't be clearly defined as Fair Use in court. This system is possible because the DMCA provides action for claiming copyright infringement and legal precedent has been set in cases for automated searching of potentially infringing content while the DMCA has provided no requirements or protections to the content creators and copyright holders for the ability to be able to dispute or fight the claimed infringement before punitive action is taken against the claimed content and to prevent the damage to the revenue and livelihood of said content creators encase said claims of copyright infringement be false.
Due to design of the current system it is being abused. Content Creators that are creating their own content, creating transformative works, or are creating content clearly under the clause of Fair Use such as review, critique, and academic content are having copyright infringement claims pressed against their content and their revenue from said content stolen or damaged by corporations, shell companies claiming on the behalf of copyright holders, and people or entities that hold no copyrights over the claimed content.
Examples of this abuse exist all over Youtube and happen as an everyday occurrence. The most serious example of abuse of this system due to the lack of preventive protections provided to content creators in the DMCA is Shining Force Scandal, in which the corporation SEGA issued Copyright Strikes through Youtube's personal system to force the removal of any video that had search ranking in the phrase "Shining Force" through the use of the title of the video or the tags applied to the video, issuing claims of copyright infringement against countless videos that did not have any visual or audio from the Copyrights in question- videos that had zero copyrighted content in them as they exclusively involved the recording of a person talking. This violation of the rights of the creators of their own copyright was done for the purpose of ensuring that SEGA's new Shining Force trailer would have the highest search ranking on Youtube, ensuring it would appear on the top of the list when searched for.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Companies and trolls have gone overboard flagging videos that have nothing wrong with them. It needs to stop.
I have lost money from all my videos and it has pissed me off.
Overall, I've only ever suffered from this. I love watching videos that review other people's content in fair use, and they're constantly taken down by people abusing DMCA. Not to mention, their creators (who are often smart, funny people) suffer unfair consequences as a result.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
i want to be able to watch fun and entertaining video's from (this is an example): Nostalgia Critic .
He doesn't want to show full movie's but entertain us and even you!
I hope you look/watch his video's because he is very funny but still critisising nhe even found a little bit of an solution he did a 'musical'review so plz give him a chance and every person on/in youtube that does this for a living help them and with that a little bit of the world.
LETS WORK TOGETHER TO FIX THIS
Its crazy seeing all of our favorites go down and their channels get shut down because of the unprotected silly thing we YouTubes have their own rights
DMCA takedowns are outdated and harmful in today's incredibly fast paced and complex networks. Smaller content creators are growing and larger media producers are no longer the most important voice on the internet. Many companies and corporations are using DMCA for fraudulent, negligent, and harassing purposes in complete contrast to the letter and spirit of the law. Unless penalties are put in place the system will continue to be abused stealing time, money, and a large amount of effort from those who are creating the next generation of media.
Until such time as it can be re-written and fixed it needs to be suspended.
Dear U.S. Copyright office
The copyright and fair use system is broken and mistreated by many second and third party members from both large and small companies. Instead of copying and pasting the assignment below, I wish to write a full statement making valid points and examples to a flawed and wrongfully treated system.
One of the main issues (mainly with Youtube) is off party members claiming copyright over video clips, pictures, and materials used in videos. Many of these individuals/companies are abusing the copyright system by claiming material that they do not own and is in full legal right by the public domain guidelines or the first amendment laws by congress. This attacks many individuals both locally and internationally, and I wish to display them below.
A small issue in comparison to the rest of the flawed copyright system is one that affects us globally with different regions and countries holding different laws. How is it fair for a country like the Ukraine to have specific words and content illegal to be viewed in their country, (perhaps censored by a larger third party) is strange compared to our american freedom of speech views. We may not agree with the same viewpoints as other countries do with copyright and censorship laws, but we at least uphold the truce that one country has the right to govern their own area the way that they see fit. The problem I want to confront is international companies from other countries are stepping over the American border and forcing their laws on american citizens, censoring, flagging, and surprisingly not rare, officially taking down blogspots and channels when they don’t agree with something.
A big player on this field is Japan. Having different standpoints on fair use and freedom of speech laws, Japan has copyright claimed many materials that show product placements, short clips, and reviews of work that come from their country. A strong assault has lashed out at the Anime community specifically. Many channels on youtube have not been flagged, but taken down, and without any warning, or leeway. ‘Anime America’ is one of many channels that have been threatened to be shut down by multiple unlawful flaggings by showing short clips for visual aids in their reviews. They are still alive, but many channels that had done reviews for educational purposes like ‘CyanidesBlizzard” and ‘TheTopTenBracket’ have vanished without a trace, and there is no way to retrieve them.
Videos that are meant for educational purposes follow the fair use right when critics show clips and pictures to visualise the statements in their reviews. Other forms of videos that do this are parodies, abridges, top ten lists, even Vines which has gained a rise in popularity for it easy accessibility to record a seven second clip. These are videos that change the sound, chop the clip to show segments, and change the overall original versions of a video to add more to the video or change the original content into something new. ‘Team Four Star’ an abridge channel creates a series of redubbed shows to create parodies by chopping the footage and replacing all the sound and dialogue with their own to make it unique. They have repeatedly fought unlawful flags and copyright claims for many years, even with their channel being nonprofit. Thats right, the channel does not make any money from its abridged videos and the proof is easily accessible when you click to see if there is an ad before or during the video, however their channel was taken down due to (mysterious reasons) from Youtube, most likely based on copyright infringement of its content. After a single day of its take down, an uproar from the community helped battle the supposedly automatic robots copyright claim to bring back the channel and restore its former glory, but to this day it is a hassle to keep the channel alive.
Many channels fight off copyright claims and false fair use guidelines when they themselves feel that they are in the right. Reviewers show clips of a show that lasts fifteen seconds or less before jumping to another clip, all while conversing over the video while either lowering the sound, or deleting it all together. A movie reviewer, ‘Your Movie Sucks’ makes fair use content for his reviews, and is the best representation of the struggles through this new age. It is questionable whether the DMCA rules are flawed or outdated, but it is a certain that these guidelines are abused and ignored when anyone can flag, claim, or delete a person's blog/channel without any repercussions. A video that was published two years prior can be claimed at any time and reap the benefits of the content that they themself did not create.
‘Angry Joe’ a well known gamer and reviewer has struggled a lot when fighting off copyright claims. Some due to the games themselves. Many individuals like him have signed contracts and followed strict company guidelines to show and review claimed materials, however third party members who also have ownership, or access to the copyright content have gone around both parties and claimed the videos as their own,stating the actors they hired, or the songs they put in the videos/games are of their property so they can collect the benefits from it. It is a battle for everyone when there are no clear guidelines consisting to what is fair use, and no consequences when either a Youtuber or a large company unlawfully claims content to reap the benefits. It needs to be fixed. It needs to be voiced, and it needs to be managed.
Many channels on Youtube alone have been abused by the copyright system. A normal person on the computer can easily use the Youtube automatic system to easily delete a person's channel with a press of a button, and they don't even have to watch the video to do it. Reviewers from ‘League of Super Critics’ had their content claimed with the title “Midnight screenings, The Avengers of Ultron.” Now in this day and age, many might assume that this video is a screening of the movie showing at least some clips and not thinking that it may be a review. However, most were shocked to find out that this video contained no video clips, no pictures, and no audible layering from the background or pasted in the video whatsoever. It was simply a video of four people in a car, talking about a movie that they had watched, and a large company without looking at the content decided to flag and copyright the video to steal the channels funds and pour it into their own pockets based solely on the title of the video alone.
Another example is the ‘Anime man’ who wore a Mario hat during one of his rants about life. You can guess what happens next, weeks later the video was claimed by Nintendo, insisting that they now owned the video because a youtuber wore one of their commercial products in the video. Both of these examples are an illegal act, claiming copyright of someone else's material and stealing the funds away from them without the fear of any repercussions, an act that the company themselves were voicing that their copyright material had been stolen for commercial gain (Ironic? Some can't laugh about it anymore.)
I hope this message reaches out to someone from the DMCA office. Many times our voices are ignored or quickly silenced when we try to fight unjustified claims. It becomes an exhausted battle, but it does not make us stop. I, being an american citizen and small youtuber, and small business owner, would like to see the world grow with freedom and creativity. To freely express myself and converse with others is but one of my goals. It is a large and harsh world out there where many individuals struggle to voice their concerns for net neutrality, for freedom of speech, especially when many of us have been hammered to abide by many of the old laws and ways of life, both which can be strictly governed and abused. I hope this helps and I do wish for a change for the best, and hope tomorrow I can post a video of one of my books that I have written without someone flagging it down because I used a picture of a cat that was not mine. If Stephen Colbert can show pictures and review movies that he himself does not own on public television, then why can't? Why can’t my friends? Why can’t you?
References:
These are but a handful of Youtubers who have struggle with claims and Fair Use rules.
Anime America: (Anime reviews and top ten lists)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bojYmiIxKgM
CyanidesBlizzard (Anime reviewer/ DELETED)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxN8H5dYDGo
League of super critic: (Movie Reviews and playwrights)
https://www.youtube.com/user/LeagueOfSuperCritics
YourMovieSucksDoTorg: (Reviewer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ZmVheuxpo
Team Fourstar: (Abridgers, Gamers, and parody makers)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ9U8YLY
Angry Joe: (Reviewer Gamer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQfHdasuWtI
Something Witty Entertainment: (Abridge series)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE_hjYd8HzRTVVXEr7jjHng
Joey: (Gamer, Anime Reviewer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbOGOvoXVyY
If absolutely nothing else is done, then content platforms such as Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, etc. should not be held liable under the DMCA for considering Fair Use and other such considerations in good faith before deciding to remove potentially infringing content.
I'm fed up with companies like Viacom and Hasbro filing false copyright claims when the content clearly falls under fair use and not being punished for it. Youtube doesn't even make sure content's within fair use anymore. This is wrong. This is a clear defilement of the "Fair Use" law implemented to protect creators and reviewers. This injustice needs to stop before it gets worse, and it's not fair to the users who use Youtube and other social media.
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There are false accuzations to my favorite youtubers by big companies that make false accuzations to them. The internet is a wonderful thing but if it's ran by big corporations then people who go to the internet to have fun and look for intertainment then how the hell are we suppose to do that when it's ran by big companies that are taking all the content down and making my favorite youtubers get false copyright claims that sometimes the companies don't even own that oringinal sorce material. When they do own some of the sorce material it's under the 1973 copyright act which states that people are good to use that person's sorce material as long as they ask permission and get the authors concents to use that material. The person may also use a snipet of the oringinal sorce material and they can use it through sound and clips. So please update the fairuse law because if you don't, the internet as a whole will be a place of buisness and minipulation and not what it is now. if you guys do fix it, we could have alot more shit that connects us more and we can help more people in alot more places then ever before but we can;t do that if you can't fix that problem. so please as a whole of a communtity where we are connected more than ever, please fix it or the internet will be dead.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected by fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I do agree that online piracy is an issue, but when the copyright issue involves users of the Fair Use doctrine, this is the last straw, and we as content creators or viewers will not stand for the system running rampant with false claims or strikes. I, Joshua Tellez, as a viewer of many critics on YouTube, would like to join the cause to remove the issue with false infringement and bring justice to famous studios across the globe.
I agree, for the most part, with all the statements being made by the YouTubers fighting to fix this problem.
I am a writer and do believe in copyright laws. I also believe in justice and oversight. This law does not appear to take oversight into account.
Thank you for your consideration and willingness to re-examine our laws for fairness and relevancy.
I am personally a victim of this abuse. Universal Music Group has place a false claim on a YouTube video of mine. 28 seconds of a song within commentated gameplay was used. This is unquestionably fair use. Furthermore, they have not only claimed that 28 seconds, but an additional minute of content following the end of the music which features only myself delivering my final review of the game. I disputed the claim through YouTube, and the dispute was denied and the claim was upheld. Obviously someone read my dispute, which clearly explained both reasons why the claim is invalid, and upheld it regardless of fair use and the DMCA, not to mention they are claiming my own material. I have sent multiple emails, one almost every day sense the claim was first received, all with no reply.
Many content creators are having personal works stolen and taken down by false copy right claims. Some of them work full time on Youtube with it being there only flow of income and when the money made from videos is being stolen, They start struggling bringing content to the viewers. The copyright laws are flawed and let anyone take advantage of them.
There should be strict penalties for false claims, it's not fair to screw over talented people.
DMCA was instated in 1998, but being widely dated is the least of it's problems. YouTube has the biggest problem with this, while it's owner's and rights holders are protected by it, it's users are being censored and abused. Over (absolutely no less) people use YouTube as a income and living, quitting many different jobs to make videos on there. While these people should be protected by fair use when using copyrighted material, their content is taken down for exactly that and even when they use nothing of the sort such as recording themselves just talking, those videos are removed though
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Here is my experience. I am studying media and communications at college. For a project last year, I was required to create and post a video to youtube (on a politically sensitive topic). I paid three artists for rights to use their original audio in the video. When I posted it on youtube, I was informed that I would not be allowed to make it pubic without ads, because 2 companies using youtube's system claimed that they owned the audio I had used and wanted ad revenue from it. I did not want ads on it, because that feels gross on a sensitive topic. I was upset that I had credited and paid for the rights. What was most upsetting was that the audio being claimed was being claimed by people who were not the creators or owners, just greedy people claiming they were in youtube's system to make a quick profit of other's work.
This system isn't fair. It is hurting the internet and hurting legitimate creators.
There should not be a space for this kind of thing. Of course, actual copyright infringement should not be permitted, but the current system is so easily used in an abusive way that it has become a system of abuse.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I have seen many creators of content who only use copyrighted material in fair use suffer under the current system. People who create reviews, parodys, and discussions around movies, video games and tv have their livelihoods attacked without any clear legal reason.
A lot of youtubers and other things have been taken down for no reason that's bull crap change it we need to or else a lot of people will be pissed plz
Content creators that I regularly watch for reviews as well as those who create parodies under fair use do not create solely for revenue, but as a form art and expression and to have their efforts not only scrutinized and denied, but taken down several times after being proved that it is under fair-use is disheartening, discouraging and can only speak volumes of what kind of future will take place if this abuse continues to exist.
There must be a change; not only for myself and the current generation of creators online, but for future generations so that art and the freedom of expression can flourish.
I sign this to prevent Mr. Enter and Dr Wolf from being taken down by any heavily abusive corporation for a second time. TeamFourStar also experienced this, but with the immediate help of the YouTube community, after all the channels that were brought back from this abyss in copyright, I hope we ensure no channel will be lost to copyright takedown.
And my own take to this matter is that I have seen many youtubers to suffer from these DMCA takedowns. For example I follow youtuber named Jim Sterling, whose game related videos have been taken down just because the game’s developer didn’t like what Sterling had to say about the game. And thus they manage to deny potential revenue from that video just because they didn’t like the criticism.
There are also hundreds and even thousands of content creators at YouTube who cannot fight against this kind of abuse where companies and people who can seize the video for no good reason under the fair use.
Now is Your chance to update this law and make it reasonable for all who wish to entertain or inform people via internet in the 21st century.
Sincerely,
Jussi Väinölä
The DMCA as it currently exists allows companies to use complaints in a punitive manner to strike out at content creators who post opinions that they don't agree with. There is NO ALLOWANCE FOR FAIR USE since a majority of videos are removed with no human review. It is simply unfair. Existing laws are not prepared to deal with the internet as it is today. These corporations are free to remove content and damage the livelihoods of content creators because of provisions allowing computer programs to flag content. Although these companies have tons of money, I hope you are willing to do the right thing to the majority of the people.
People like Alex from I Hate Everything are getting harrassed and it needs to stop.
Youtube channels like Channel Awesome, Jim Sterling, I Hate Everything, Markiplier, Anime America, and Team Four Star have had some of their videos, and in TFS's case their entire channel taken down due to these false claims and automated takedowns. In Anime America's case one of the videos was claimed and in the tame stamped the claimed half of the footage that they claimed was not even theirs and was made by Anime Americas' Robyn who drew the cartoon herself.
Video game channels have had to deal with this to and some where from independent developers who did not like what was said about their game and tried to take the video down and in one particular case where the developer behind Day One Gary's Incident took down John "TotalBiscuit" Bain's video on it even tho he gave him permission to use to footage in the game and make a video on it, if that does not scream abuse of the DMCA takedown process then i don't know what does but that is not all.
Because it even got to the point where Youtubers have to turn off the music in the game in order to avoid copyright issues which is insane because the music is part of the game and while yes if the whole track is put up in a way similar to how an entire movie can appear on Youtube to be watched for free can be looked at as pirating the music in some cases but when the Youtuber is playing the game and the music on in the background the music becomes part of the art f video games at that point and is part of the experience and even the game it self to where removing it just to avoid copyright issues takes away part of the experiance which has the potential to hurt the game more than help it because people want to hear it for themselves and use it to help judge whether they would buy it or not.
And much to the popular belief channels like Chirs Stuckman and Jeremy Jahns have dealt with copyright issues and Chirs Stuckman is still dealing with copyright issues even tho they only use images during their reviews.
These are just a few of the many examples that are out there as to why the DMCA needs to be updated and why i will gladly stand by the Youtubers that i watch on a regular basis to fight for fair use, protect free speech, and to protect content creators on sites like Youtube.
Sincerly,
Sean Ryan
I shouldn't be a victim. The law is incredibly out of date and the regulation of the accusers is a joke.
I find beauty in music videos that require the use of headphones, where the music is played through both ears, one singer singing the english lyrics in the left ear, and another singer singing the japanese lyrics in the right ear. One is able to direct their focus to a single ear, to hear the song in its original language, or if they understand both languages, to actually hear and understand whole sentences two words at a time. The lyrics appear on-screen as an even number of rows of text, where each word in one line is synchronized to the translated word in the other line.
I feel this type of content should exist.
However, it is not something an original content creator would record. An idol releases a pop song in their native language. There are covers, and fandubs of songs, to put the whole thing in spanish. If the idol is bilingual, they can release an official english song, and an official spanish song, with the same meaning and melody.
Many things can be officially released in multiple language versions, which is more than enough to bring in a wider audience - those who speak one of the languages the song is in - but because there are many more two-language combinations of however many the work is in, it doesn't make sense to have n+((n!)/(2!(n-2)!)) different versions of a song.
I could mix two covers of a song to create a so-called 'split headset' video. To do so would mean I'd have to depend on my sources being protected under fair use, regardless of my relation with those who did the covers.
One youtuber I watch, TheAnimeMan, has a video entitled, "YouTube is a scary place".
I'm not willing to risk my access to youtube in order to simply sync two songs.
I support the weakening of DMCA takedowns.
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Me (Personally) is not a Youtuber, but the idea that any company or troll on the internet can just take videos down that alot of youtubers put time on is just complete bull. So I say end DMCA, people are losing alot of money because of this stupid law, and if your not going to remove it, then atleast update, bye and thank you.
Honestly, there are lots of sites with Fair Use and the DMCA system being abused. Getting to the point where if someone says something mildly bad about a piece of media without using images or clips, it's still taken down and given a copyright claim, while containing no such infringement. It has also gotten to the point that on YouTube people are taking down videos without even having any of the content be theirs whatsoever, just because they feel like it. And the worst part is, nobody is taking this to court. The United States government has done no part to fix the issue at all and I find it surprising, seeing that people are now abandoning TV and Cable and are now flooding to the internet to get their entertainment. They want to hear these people's opinions but can't because some easily offended prick took it down. It's against the first amendment (Being Freedom of Speech) and is unfair to the people.
I'm just a commoner from Finland but US laws have an effect on my internet experience. Please fix the DMCA to account for people who are making content under Fair Use. Not only YouTube is affected by the old laws but a lot of other websites too.
Now, hashtags and the automated message written by people who hopefully know more than I do.
#WTFU #MakeYouTubeGradeAgain #ProtectYouTubers
While the opinion of someone who lives outside the US may be considered insignificant, I personally believe that the DMCA is being abused by large corporate copyright holders and this is stifling any kind of freedom on the internet and as many widely use internet services are based in the US (e.g. YouTube, Google, Facebook), this is an issue that affects me greatly.
Yes, this is a very upsetting thing to watch happen to many beloved web entertainers.
PLEASE REVISE THIS LAW! IT HAS BEEN MANIPULATED TO WORK AGAINST THOSE WITHOUT RESOURCES. PEOPLE ACTING WITHIN THE LAW HAVE NO WAY OF PROTECTING THEMSELVES AGAINST FALSE, UNFAIR, AND CLEARLY WRONG TAKEDOWN NOTICES, AND LARGE COMPANIES ARE ABLE TO ABUSE THE CURRENT POLICIES!
The DMCA in it's current form is heavily used in the bulling and harasment of content creators on the internet. Fair use is being ignorned in consideration and it is being used against critics and reviewers heavily, preventing open discussions.
To whom it may concern,
As an internet-based content creator, I am one of a growing number of self-employed entrepreneurs who earn our living by producing audiovisual media such as videos, images, podcasts, blogs and published literature for our various online audiences. In this capacity I handle a wide variety of source material including both original and preexisting content; consequently, I rely heavily upon the protection of the Fair Use laws to ensure the security of my livelihood and deter malicious attempts by others to infringe thereupon. The most common method of such infringement - by an enormous margin - is fraudulent claims of copyright violation made under the egregiously outdated Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which has become an increasingly serious problem in recent years due to the DMCA's failure to keep pace with the rapidly-evolving internet and advancements in modern technology.
In the context of today's internet, the DMCA - particularly Section 512 - effectively grants anyone claiming to be a copyright holder the ability to issue legally binding takedown orders on practically any online content without providing evidence of the alleged crime or obtaining legal warrant for its prosecution; in most cases this can be accomplished merely by filling in a single-page claim form with falsified information and clicking a "Submit" button. Due to the ease with which this process can be abused and the present lack of any meaningful consequences or accountability for perpetrators, fraudulent DMCA claims are submitted against content creators and even end-users on an alarmingly frequent basis - not only with the goal of falsely monetizing others' content but also of stifling critics and activists, silencing journalists and reviewers who express sentiments unfavorable to copyright holders, and otherwise undermining victims' First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and press. In the past year alone I have been targeted by numerous third parties attempting to falsely claim ownership of videos which I myself had produced in strict and explicit accordance with the Fair Use laws, as well as several first parties that legitimately owned copyrights on material I had utilized under Fair Use protection but which refused to acknowledge the precedence of this legislation in my use of their content. In both situations it has been extremely difficult to fend off these ultimately illegal attacks because neither Fair Use nor the DMCA mandate any clear responsibility or transparency on the part of copyright holders (or third parties claiming to act on the behalf of copyright holders) when making these claims. Under existing legislation, any entity wishing to file a false DMCA claim against my lawful use of copyrighted content is free to do so with almost total impunity - even if that entity does not actually hold the associated copyrights - because the burden lies entirely upon me to prove my innocence rather than upon the claimant to prove my guilt, a direct contradiction of the United States Constitution's Fifth Amendment. Moreover, no direct, immediate legal consequences exist to disincentivize these entities from circumventing and subverting the protections ostensibly afforded me by Fair Use in order to press their claims. I have no recourse other than to submit an appeal through YouTube's fully-automated system which - owing directly to the DMCA's provisions, Section 512 in particular - assumes that I am guilty until proven innocent and places me completely at the mercy of the potentially fraudulent claimant, who can unilaterally choose to either reject my appeal outright or simply ignore it and force me to wait up to 60 days for the claim to default (during which time my channel is subject to arbitrary - and severe - punitive restrictions on the amount of content I can upload, which in turn renders me unable to earn vital income)... all with no involvement whatsoever by YouTube staff, legal arbitrators or any party other than the claimant itself. At no point in this process is the claimant required to provide proof of ownership for any claimed material or to demonstrate that my use of such material violates an existing copyright. Claimants can manually reject appeals with what amounts to total autonomy from YouTube or any presiding legal authority, with three consecutive rejections leading to a "copyright strike" against my account and three simultaneous copyright strikes resulting in the immediate and irreversible deletion of my YouTube channel and all content hosted there - in other words, an unjust and unwarranted destruction of my livelihood. I live under the constant and very real threat that anyone who so desires can impose crippling sanctions upon me at their sole discretion with no consequences, no legal supervision or any other form of oversight, and no intervention or arbitration of any kind by YouTube. Attempting to dispute more than two such claims at a time places my entire enterprise at risk, whereas claimants may submit an unlimited number of claims simultaneously without restriction; in this way, the automated appeals process - my sole defense against the fraudulent claims I receive - not only fails to serve its intended purpose, but actually places me in a position of even greater vulnerability.
In order to remain effective and just in the long term, any laws intended to govern or regulate the internet must evolve at a pace consistent with that of the internet itself, and new legislation must be drafted (or at the very least, existing legislation amended and updated) to account for the ever-changing nature of the Web. As part of this process, additional protections must be implemented to safeguard law-abiding consumers and content creators from the rampant epidemic of copyright fraud perpetuated by the DMCA - an obsolete law unchanged since the era of dialup modems despite the immeasurable progress of technology and internet culture since its ratification. The DMCA of 1998 was never intended to administer the vastly different digital rights management practices of 2016, nor was it capable of predicting the ways in which we now interact and share data online, yet - to the detriment of anyone exercising First or Fifth Amendment rights on the internet - it still represents a decisive legal force in a world with which it has become largely incompatible and by which it has been hopelessly outgrown.
It is my sincerest hope that the Copyright Office will afford this crucial issue due consideration and act expediently to rectify it. Copyright holders issuing DMCA claims, as well as third-party proxies issuing such claims on the behalf of copyright holders, must bear a legal burden of proof at least equal to that borne by their claims' recipients. Consideration of Fair Use by copyright holders and their proxies must be mandatory in DMCA claims cases - no exceptions. Copyright holders and their proxies must be subject to clear, strict and immediate consequences for filing fraudulent DMCA claims. I cannot overemphasize that the matter at hand is one of tremendous global importance - it affects the populations of all developed nations socially as well as economically, and a major overhaul of the previous generation's aging copyright laws is absolutely necessary in order to ensure the internet's present and future security and stability.
Thank you for your consideration.
The DMCA take-down process is a sick joke that threatens fair use in the most garbage way.
I consume creative content daily. A decent amount of the content I watch features reviews, reaction videos, and let's plays. Absolutely none of that content falls under traditional media. I don't buy newspapers unless paper mâché is going to happen, I cut cable years ago to make room for streaming, physical magazines are a waste of paper, and I'm all about Pandora and Spotify. Times are changing and crappy, outdated laws need to be fixed by people who understand that the internet isn't just a series of tubes.
Allowing shell companies to claim fair use videos as their own and pocket monetized views without checking to see if they even have a legal right to do so is despicable. Giving spiteful, petty people the power to harass and threaten content creators by filing false claims against the owners of a video is twisted and wrong. The worst part is that there is NO way for many creators to protect themselves from people who find joy in stifling the fair use content of others and there is NO punishment for doing so.
Why is it okay for large companies and bitter individuals to have this much power over people who put a lot of work into producing LEGAL content? Some of the movie reviewers I watch have stopped including even the smallest amount of video clips in their reviews (which fell under fair use to begin with) to avoid having their videos pulled. It's STILL happening to them. Movie critics have started using actors and props to parody the movies they're talking about. Even then, their pure 100% creative content is taken down and that money pocketed by someone else who has no right to steal it. It's frustrating. Making videos on YouTube is more than just a hobby for many people, it's a full-time job and monetized views are crucial.
To ignore the direction technology and media consumption is heading is ignorant. Nothing good can come from stifling creativity and I'm not looking forward to seeing what'll happen in the future when nothing is done about the DMCA. Laws are supposed to work for us, not against us. And of course by us, I mean millions of actual living, breathing human beings. Not soulless corporations offended that a copyrighted song is playing on a radio in the background while a baby dances.
Fix it, please.
The internet should not be a place Where a corporation can tell me what i can and can't do. It needs to be free if it's going to remain useful. And we all need it to be that way.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to IMPOSE STATUTORY DAMAGES for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be stopped as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I have been looking into a new movement online called, "Where's the Fair Use?" I have discovered throughout the months that many claims are being made on the website Youtube.com towards content that is not prohibiting the fair use laws. This includes, but is not limited to, content that has critiques of films or television shows. Critiques that often use clips from the source, with no audio actually from it, and instead has the critic overlaying their opinions of the material over some film clips. Content is also being taken down that does not have any audio or clips from another source, and instead only has people talking about films/shows. I have discovered that people are getting false claims from people who do not even own the material they are claiming to own, but the content is still begin taken down, and it then takes days to get put back up. It has also been stated that even when these creators get their content back online they are often under a probationary term even if the claim was false.
This all would not even be that terribly bad, but there are some serious consequences when certain claims are made. If someone is making a specific type of claim against the content, the revenue that the content gets from then on, until the argument is settled, goes to the claimant; EVEN if the claimant made a FALSE claim. The content creators are losing their revenue, and it often does not occur only once per video. The way the system is being used on this particular website, makes it so that a video can be claimed on multiple occasions, and they often are. This leads to revenue continually being taken away, or the content is completely deleted off the website, and making no revenue for either party.
Under the Fair Use laws critics are allowed to use some things from the original source in their critiques. For example, a critic can quote a book in order to bring about a point in their opinion about said book. There is also the transformative part of the Fair Use laws. Did the video bring anything new to the material, or could one simply watch the video and have no need for the original work? Does the work effect the original's value? One could argue that any bad critique of something could effect the original source's marketing of a product, but criticism is still protected under the Fair Use laws.
Also I would like to point out in the case of Lenz v. Universal Music Corp. it was stated, "...a copyright holder must consider the existence of fair use before sending a takedown notification…"
Perhaps the copyright holders think that their claims are valid, and in which case they are not breaking any laws. However, if a video is already proven to be under the Fair Use protection, then it seems odd that the videos can continue to be falsely claimed by other companies. This system is being abused. Companies are taking these small entrepreneurs' revenue, and are receiving no penalties for continually making false claims. In fact they receive more awards, and the ones who win against the wrongly made claims are getting punished by being put on probationary periods.
I understand that the law cannot control how a website handles its specific rules, but the law can bring about changes such as; revenue cannot be taken away from the owner until proven that it not protected under Fair Use. The viewers on this website have no idea if their participation is helping that content creator's funds, or a falsely made claimant who is abusing the system. Therefore after a few days a claimant can gain almost all the potential funds off a video if they make the claim at just the right time, and that is where this system is at right now.
Below is a pre-worded message brought by those who want to take down this abuse. It states similar things that I have already spoken about, and more.
Please read and consider what these people are trying to tell you.
Thank you.
Improve the regulation to implement procedures for legal consequences pertaining to false claims and increase leniency on companies driven by crowdsourced content so that shady content creators or others can't easily take down legitimate content, conditions that seem necessary for a more free-oriented flow of criticism, education, etc.
There are time when videos of mine are taken down or notices are sent to me when I am clearly not violating any laws on youtube. Videos have been taken down or couldn't be monetized because of people mentioned in the video, a subject of the video, or a clip was used. Even simple reaction videos have been taken down, or funds have been taken and given to others as a result of the video and the content that is put up. There are many that are suffering from this, and no one is breaking any laws of fair use. The internet is a place where anyone can express and share their creations and feelings. No one should be censored, especially by a program.
There are many that have been sent notices automatically, but not by people. There are programs that monitors websites like youtube, not actual people. When there is a dispute, it takes a long time to get a response. During that dispute, revenue is lost and is never recovered even after the dispute is resolved. Some people make a living making videos for the public and their creativity is being compromised. All we ask is that the law of fair use is not abused by those that are doing the accusing.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. Some even went as far as taking down whole channels because they didn't like the opinion expressed in one segment of the video. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is legal and protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review.
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I personally have not yet been affected by DMCA, however I have seen many fellow content creators be affected by the unfairness of this system, particularly on YouTube.
So many are being abused by this system as well as the original creators. They're being bullied/harassed by creators, have their channels taken down or their monetisation taken from them, despite them fully complying to the Fair Use law.
What's worse is that when they try to counter-claim the actions taken against them, they are either silenced even more, or outright ignored by the creators or the platform they are posting their content on.
This is crippling to so many, particularly smaller creators who are simply trying to make a living doing what they love or to entertain people.
A Youtuber I watch got a video copyrighted/taken down and it was literally just of him showing off snow in the front yard of his house. Enough said.
The DMCA system has been an archaic system that brings down content makers on the internet with its crumbling architecture. If the support braces of the internet can not be relied on, then the entirety of content can not be protected from abuse and malicious actions from companies and individuals who would the DMCA to silence criticism.
Various YouTube users from a variety of content types have been targeted with DMCA to censor their opinions and in mislead grabs for the revenue of such content. YouTuber users such as John Bain "Total Biscuit" and "Jim Sterling" have been subjected to game developers attempting to use the DMCA to take down content that held a negative opinions on the developer's video games, something that essentially amounts to a breaking of freedom of press. Also, users such as Doug Walker ("Nostalgia Critic") have also been censured for movie reviews that used clips from movies in order to create a new piece of original work that is a criticism of various films.
There are various examples of abuses with the DMCA that are easily found throughout the internet and on YouTube videos, more than I could ever list in full detail. The voices of content creators must be heard in order to not only ensure that the original work of these people are protected, not just large companies looking for profit and attempting to censure voices that go against them, but updating and changing the DMCA in order to protect consumers as well.
The current laws within the DMCA is heavily dated, being written during a time where our society was not as ingrained within the Internet. As such, it no longer helps protect people over the internet but hinders them.
The DMCA now leaves loopholes that allow companies to abuse the law to censor others or control other peoples property. The DMCA puts to much liability onto companies that carry such content (e.g. YouTube), which forces these companies to work heavily into the favour of the accuser, instead of creating a fair environment for both the accuser and the accused to make a plea.
Because of this, we now see companies manipulate this fact for use of censorship and for monetary gain. A company can simply accused a person of copyright infringement, regardless or whether their content violates copyright, it is in fair use, or even if their is not copyrights being abused. The content is simply taken down or given monetary control to the accuser without question: the exact opposite to making an appeal. The process for an appeal is so arduous that for many, it is not even worth creating. Therefore, voices are silenced unfairly.
The DMCA needs to be revised for our digital age, so that it can protect all content creators over the Internet, whether they are industries or simple people creating content. The DMCA needs to remove all liability from content carriers and instead set legal standard and processes to insure that a claim can be made and appealed fairly and that neither side may suffer unneeded detrimental effects from it.
The copyright and patent system was originally intended to protect AND promote creativity and innovation, by providing creators with a LIMITED time during which their creation is protected. After which, the intent was to move creations into public domain so that all could benefit. Because creativity does not exist in a bubble. It is built on the work of those that came before. However, since corporations bought out the government, these systems have become little more than government protected monopolies. A sledgehammer with which corporations can crush competition and innovation, protecting their own status quo, and preventing growth.
Even when such laws do attempt to protect creativity as well as creations, such as fair use doctrine, the implementation of it is woefully lacking and tends to err on the side of the creators (or the corporations that control the patents and copyrights).
Lexi: Hello there, my name is Lexi, I have been a VERY HUGE FAN of YouTube ever since my cousins first introduced me & my brother to the site when we were little & it was 1 of the very first websites that I've ever come to know and love since my family first got access to the Internet. Nowadays, i go on there everyday to see something old or new. When i was little, my dad used to tell me sometimes "Lex, c'mon, get off-a there, you don't have to watch that right now do you, c'mon, you can watch it again tomorrow" & if I remembered to i will, but now, I'm not sure if I will even be able to do that anymore! And it's all thanks to this stupid DMCA law that you guys made!! Because thanks to this, not only are people's videos getting striked or taken down for no reason, but their ENTIRE CHANNELS are as well. AND I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!!! There are people out there who are following the rules and doing what they love at the same time but somehow getting strikes for it, & there are people who are breaking them & their just fine, & it's like "WHAT?! How are those people 'ok' & the good ones not? What!?". Oh! And guess what, you can find porn on YouTube. Yes, that's right, you heard me. You can find PORN on YouTube!!!!!!!!! I've never even searched the thing, but apparently it's there, mostly in the form of pranks, though. And none of these stuff are age-restricted either. So yeah, for some reason when something is censored it's age-restricted but a video shows some "stuff" it's not? WTF? No more like WTFU?
As a small Youtube channel content creator it's really hard for me to fight back against false copyright claims. In the past few week, I've been scared to post anything thinking I might lose my channel at any time. This cost me some subscribers and of course a lot of wasted time and content. It's time to step in and act for every content creator on the Internet. It's time to claim our right of free speech. #WTFU
Lemee just tell it to you guys straight. DMCA is the equivalent of Joseph Stalin's control over media. Individuals on YouTube and other user content sites are small business owners who sell entertainment. Big businesses don't like competition because they are anti-consumer to the goddamn core.
So people who rely on sites like YouTube make videos and have had their videos taken down ALL THE FUCKING TIME. People who literally do NOT HAVE TO PROVE THEY OWN ANY CONTENT USED IN A VIDEO are 100% capable of taking down videos that literally have no copyrighted music or clips without so much as a goddamn phone call. This automated system kills revenues for people who actually do work for a living.
So in addition to big businesses, angry hormonal feminists and their neckbearded virgin white-knights mass-report videos that disagree with their fascist opinions and show things like Black Lives Matter protesters trashing cities "for equality". These kinds of things get taken down because the system is the *opposite* of a competent system. You are guilty until proven innocent, which was just a great system IN THE FUCKING DARK AGES.
Let me put that into perspective for you: some no-name nobody who disagrees with someone on the internet can literally *lie* about being a big corporation and YouTube automatically assumes they're telling the *truth*, and gives these useless fuckers the ability to quite literally *steal* income from people who are actually useful to society.
Axe this law, the people who signed it into place had no understanding of the internet. Kill this law because it has turned the internet into a goddamn fascist regime that rewards attacking people instead of preventing it. This law is cancer and only serves to reward the useless, the talentless, the greedy, the lazy, and the moronic.
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I, as a content creator feel threatened by the ability that my content can be taken down illegitimately. Another person, one who has neither the authority nor the copyright holding nor the right to claim my content as piracy or similar misconduct, has the fully power to do so and with no repercussion. My creations, my own content and non-profit promotion of others content can be "attacked" by others fully and freely. I do not feel safe to post, host, or share any of my ideas without first feeling the need to sever any and all ownership of the concepts because they can be stolen through DMCA takedowns and pose ME as fraud. This needs to be reworked.
Imagine your favorite movie was labeled fraudulent even if they had the legal documentation to claim it; banned, removed, recalled, all because someone else either didn't like it and filed a complaint or another company didn't want it's competition... This does not happen outside the internet, not to the easily accessible state that a young child could easily report falsely, why must the internet suffer such an absurd fate?
This means to seemingly protect content and their creators is a weapon, it is a licence capable of hurting others and consequently even a kid can utilize it; like a power tool or firearm that his parents never locked away. It is dangerous. It is very, very dangerous and it's not being looked after with the care it needs.
I wish to be validated. I wish to create and share with others without being liable to be targeted on the degree that this "protection" has left me vulnerable. I wish that my content, my creations, my fair and I do mean "fair use" as I would wish anyone to mine would use, is safe.
My time is as important as anyone else's. Too much has been lost already, how much more of our life is expendable in vein due to this policies frail foresight?
The insane amount of abuse over the subject is getting completely out of hand. People claiming left and right that fair use doesn't account for what it was created to account for. Reviews and opinions are being removed for negatively talking about a product, having a short clip from a show/movie or even mentioning anything about the subject at hand.
It's hurting the online community as a whole and the rules that the DMCA state were created during the early stages of the internet, before everyone had the ability to review, share and enjoy. There are 100's, no, 1000's of people making money on the for the content they create who are being demolished by the claims of the DMCA. People living off of what they are doing and creating. That isn't right. Not for the world of today. These people should not be punished for companies and corporations abusing the rules of the DMCA. This threatens everyone on the internet and it needs to stop.
Random anonymous companies being able to strike videos on youtube at random to profit off of their views isn't right (Which has happened before to users Ihateeverything and yourmoviesucks)
It's doing more harm than good at this point, it's pretty obvious.
Please, stop the nonsense happening to REAL content creators on
the internet, instead of bolstering the channels that never needed
any help in the first place.
We must prevent this from happening.
It's broken. The system is beyond broken. Parties can claim copyright on properties they don't even OWN. Not only does that mean we don't get to watch our favourite YouTubers, but that means they lose money. You don't seem to get it yet, but THIS IS THEIR JOB. I'm looking to get into making YouTube content and frankly I'm scared that my content, my videos that I spend dozens of hours on can disappear in the blink of an eye, and this is something that happens on a daily basis.
This is just part of a more generalized scheme by corporations to erode the public domain and keep works unavailable from the public. Most works are not profitable and are not kept in publication by their owners, leaving them inaccessible to most people. The problem of Orphan Works has also not been satisfactorily addressed. The Sony Bono Copyright Term Extension Act was an unfair piece of legislation and should be repealed, but barring that, the terms for works originally published in 1923 is coming up in three years, and the copyright term should most definitely NOT be extended greater than than the 95 years first put into place under the Bono Act!
Enough is enough! The system is already rack up with exploits all just for the sake of easy money. We let scoundrels big and small given the pink slips, and creators who clearly didn't do wrong get their content flagged down, or worse, their entire channel. Is is time to change... Let us not make the scoundrel bully the people any longer. #WTFU
This needs to change!
Stop the trolling.
Fair use is a mess, I'm talking on the behalf of IHE(I hate everything) as two of his videos were taken down for the wrong reason. First, his 'cool cat' video by Derek Savage just for saying that it was a bad movie and was bullied by him. Then was his 'little panda fighter' because some troll thought it would be funny to take down his video for 'domestic abuse' or something like that. Please, save fair use, for everyone's sake.
As someone who relies on ad revenue from Youtube and other content related sites, these DMCA abuses hinder my ability to feed my family. Small businesses and sole proprietors in the content creation sector cannot survive when large outlets attempt to copyright words like "react" which is a type of content that has recently come under attack.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
As part of the YouTube community, and interested in potentially developing an educational YouTube Channel, reliance on the proper enforcement of fair use is paramount to my survival as a content creator.
It's fucking bullshit
As a writer on reviews I sign this
Companies are made of people who call themselves adults, however they're acting like spoilt children who don't want their toys taken away from them, this entire thing is childish and needs an intervention.
Greetings,
Thank you for your time. Take care.
In short, the DMCA really, really doesn't work.
Balance is *desperately* needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
And, in all seroiusness - just don't use so outdated way of thinking.
giant corporation are always bullying people for "breaching fair use" in order to gain unfair advantage and literally hijacking other people's work in order to gain profit for their own
this has to stop!!!
=========================================================
DMCA video claims are being used frequently by people who have no connection to any of the content used in the flagged videos, hurting content creators and giving financial gain to those who are abusing the system. Furthermore I fully agree with the following statement:
Personal comment: Let's make this system presume "innocent until proven guilty" instead of the current opposite standard in place now. Thank you.
It should be obvious that there is something wrong with YouTube's copyright system when there are movie reviewers that are given copyright strikes even when they feature absolutely no footage from the movie they are reviewing. For example, A movie reviewer by the name of Brad Jones had a copyright strike on one of his videos in a series titled: "Midnight Screenings" in which he simply reviews a movie after seeing it at a movie theater. His videos take place inside of his car, in a parking lot, with no copyrighted footage being shown. Yet, he received a copyright strike anyway. Clearly, the system must be re-evaluated.
in short summary: the system is flawed, it is time to fix it for the better, not for beneficial gain or any other bogus reasons, FOR THE BETTER OF EVERYONE, fair use is fair use and everyone deserves a FAIR say, even if you disagree with them.
vily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use
All of the below, AND... it's ruining youtube. Everyone's going to leave youtube.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and
too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
DMCA is broken, we need an organization who can regulate this constantly, there's no chance for an individual to fight versus big corporations, we need to express ourselves, we need fair use, our voice shall be not silence, please, fix this.
The notice-and-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
I find how the DMCA is performing is absolutely atrocious. I believe the biggest flaw in this system isn't a lack of updating the system, though that would at least be a step up from the current state, but rather, a lack of humans at the wheel of all this is the biggest problem we are facing. Besides, many people are in need of jobs anyhow, so it would be like killing two birds with one stone. More people make a living, and well, with more people, (responsible people,) searching through all this, people will...make a living! Instead of having bogus accusations of copyright infringement take all of THEIR profits and never get compensated despite being proven innocent of any rule breaking. And whether or not the victims are losing profits or not, they are all getting abused by this outdated system. We could all use some peace of mind. This foolishness needs to stop and it needs to stop NOW. Please fix this issue. Seriously, JUST GET PEOPLE FOR THIS. Computers are just machines! Humans are people. Only people can truly fix all of these errors.
#WTFU
As a YouTube content creator, I've seen my share of takedowns (At first I know I was in the wrong, but I'm learning ever more what is acceptable). and I am fully behind this movement due to the fact that My newer content may be subjected to unfair claims and/or takedowns. I've seen so much happen with the change happening around the old DMCA model that I too am in belief that the DMCA should change with the internet and it's content
When referring to YouTube content creators, there should be a Grace period before a strike is applied to a content creators content and there also needs to be a way to block a claimants attempts at future strikes towards content creators if they have accumulated several losses to counter notifications submitted by the content creators on YouTube.
I live in Sweden and the Copyright war is getting out of hand. I seen thing on youtube taken down falsely. The DMCA is in desperate need of an update to today world. Sorry if my English was bad. Have a good day
Sincerely Jesper Vernersson.
The internet is an amazing place, full of creativity and originalty. A place like this needs it's own specific, relevant laws - not a dated law passed in 1998! Right now, the law gives incredible amount of power to the big companies, and enables them to act however they want, attacking videos without and consideration for the fair use. Those who take advantage of the DMCA and use it falsly don't have any penaltys for this behavior. In fact, falsely striking videos is so easy that some companies do it without having anything to do with the original content (example - I HATE EVERYTHING's video was taken down for music it didn't feature just so that the company could take the video's ad revenue.
Change the law. It is unfair and irelevent.
This law is being abused as is!!!!!!!!
If it isn't fixed, people's LIVELIHOODS are at risk!!!!!!!
PLEASE heed our pleas and CHANGE THIS LAW.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, reviews, commentary and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Furthermore, the systems that have been put into place to allow YouTube to adhere to these laws have opened the way for heavy, unlawful abuse of said systems. For example, shell companies that don't own the copyright to a reviewed work are able to claim copyright on a fair use protected piece of content, that they do not own, monetize the content and then let said claim go past it's review stage without any action. They can do this over and over again, without consequence and without having to return the money they recieved during the time the false claim was in effect. In short, being a false copyright claiment on YouTube has become an actual, lucrative business.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
It is absolutely ridiculous how content creators on any site are being silence and censors thanks to the rules being abused by companies everyday. Preventing others from creating, reviewing, educating, or even just discussing various forms of content. the system is flawed and change needs to happen so that all of can continue to be within our rights of fair use.
please start using the DMCA more responsibility, too many people are unjustifiable attacked for things that are NOT outside the "fair use" policy
The DMCA takedown process allows for frequent abuse and harassment of content creators by big media companies without consequence.
I have seen a lot of Amazing YouTube channels take heavy fire for bogus copyright claims, be it someone saying they are using music that isn't there or say that some is "stealing" a song from a artist they "represent" when the song they claimed that was "stolen" was really written by the YouTuber and the "representatives" get to make the money off of the YouTubers song. images that "needed" to be taken down even though they were being used fairly like for a parody or review (and sed parody and review channels make it quite clear that that is what they're doing is a review or a parody by the disclaimer that most of the channels I watch open with) and sometimes people see sed parody or review and disagree with what they thought so they make a copyright claim cause they don't like other person's opinions and some people do the same thing that I mentioned with music but of reviews and parodies saying they are stealing from them when they are not and when they took down the video and YouTuber email the copyright claimer and the claimer responded with harassments and threats and many other things like that. All of this has been documented by several YouTubers (one of the more popular ones it the Channel Awesomes where's the fair use video on YouTube please watch it) and a lot of there blood sweat and tears went into their videos (and a couple of them eggshell walk through the false claims and still end up in a big mess like there channels being shut down) and to a lot of them their YouTube channels are their livelihoods something they built from the ground up please don't let that be in vain- Johny
The effects of the DMCA are absolutely ridiculous and cannot be allowed to stand. Almost every single content producer I've encountered, whether they use fair use parody, talk about material, or even have literally nothing to do with copyrighted material at all, countless people I directly know have been had to fight constantly just to keep making the content they love and I've seen countless more had their online careers completely ended because of utterly false copyright claims under the DMCA. It's far too easy to make false claims, and the damage they can cause proportionate to the effort put into them and the evidence behind them is something I cannot abide and must be stopped.
Note, the comment below is a formal statement that I agree with but rather than edit it in a formal manner to personalize it I wrote a comment below it to voice any additional and potentially conflicting vews I have (like the solution I feel like would work may overlap so it should override it.)
My comment:
I feel like a good solution is to make it so if someone is suspected of copyright they can choose to 1. Have there legal/illegal (depending on if it's a review or a exact replica for example) stuff taken down immediately until it's resolved or 2. Have the option to "protect your use" where if a trustworthy human being (like a judge) states its fair use than the company will be responsible otherwise the accused person Will have peniltys.
Also you must be provided a way in any system to do the second opinion (at the cost of linking your activity to something like a birth certificate) and until a certain amount of time passes you are without penalty (at the risk of something like jail time or being sued if it's illegal and severe enough to justify it) and the companys also have to verify its not a person posing as the company. This system may allow abuse but the penalty could outweigh the benefits enough to deter any abuse of the system while any gains will be placed in a bank account and given to the person who should earn it. (who would sacrifice 2000000 dollars and jail time to post a 1000000 dollar clip on YouTube?) And unfounded copyright will cause the responsible individual to have the penalty instead. The old system can remain for legal grey areas when people believe it's fair use but would rather be unable to do something then claim fair use (a reaction/review with clips/part of a video playing onscreen may be considered illegal if someone isn't good enough at providing enough content to be considered fair use)
As for international law, the product could be limited to the places where it's legaly protected(hypothetically a movie from France could have a review from America that is legal in America but illegal in France. A complaint is submitted and it makes it unavailable it France but available in America.)
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Fair use been dumbed up. People are abusing fair use laws and innocent people are getting struck down because they had an opinion. Fix this stuff.
I agree with the below, which puts words in my mouth for what is politically constructive. But you good people need to know what is going on. Some of the bigger problems I've noticed is on websites like youtube, which has an extensive content id system in order to deal with copyright claims. It's necessary for youtube to use the system they do in order to protect their domain from lawsuits. People are having content removed over material that often falls under fair use, such as clips from a movie or song for the purpose of educated discussion and review. Some of the people who are experiencing this happen to their content, do this as their livelihood, and do not have the option to just move on. The most extreme cases I have seen, are instances in which video game "let's players" (video game reviewers who play a game for entertainment purposes) have had their videos taken down because of copyrighted background music on in-game radios modded (player-created content for video games) that one could barely hear. That particular occurrence is what happened to Gopher of the youtube channel GopherVids. ChannelAwesome, iHateEverything, Sargon of Akkad, LittleKuriboh, TeamFourStar, and the League of Super Critics are examples of channels who had to deal with similar issues. Smaller channels than youtube are usually not able to deal with these kinds of copyright claims, let alone have the resources to create their own content id system, and can face their website being shut down due to copyright strikes.
Thank you for taking the time to review our concerns.
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I personally would like to add that United States based sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter need to abide by US Laws, and that also needs to be made clear in their terms and services. Companies from overseas are misinterpreting the rules and think that their local law applies to websites that are based on US soil, which is not, nor should it be, the case.
I thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you take these comments into consideration.
I will give you A LOT OF DETAIL on the current web video ecosystem:
With the DMCA being in favour of corporate copyright holders I've noticed an onslaught of NEW tech companies spawn on the web in the last few years to take advantage of this favouritism. I've noticed this mainly since starting my YouTube channel and Facebook page in 2014 (Ozzy Man Reviews).
The companies I'm talking about are predominantly "Multi-Video Networks" (Jukin Media, ViralHog, Break, Storyful, Rumble, Viral Video UK, Super Viral.TV, Culture Machine, Rightster, Newsflare... Should I go on?). They buy a copyright from the Average Joe who has shot a video on their phone and proceed to use this copyright to its most restrictive measures by policing and monetising not just duplicate uploads of a video, but transformative remixed and mashed up uploads (this occurs mainly on YouTube but with 860,000 fans on Facebook I'm sure companies will look to leech money from my remixed works on there too once FB roll out monetisation capabilities).
In fact, viral video licensing companies have become worse than Big Media. I have no hassle from HBO with over 40 Game of Thrones reviews on my channel, I use their visual content for review, I replace audio with my writing and voice. But I have A LOT of hassle if I wish to parody, satirise, commentate, review "viral" videos.
Despite losing in court to Ray William Johnson/Equals Three last year Jukin Media has made no attempts to whitelist similar Fair Use channels. They have kept me on hold for a year with 11 copyright claims in place and roughly $2,000 dollars taken from my channel. In some of the claimed videos I've used 9 seconds of a Jukin owned clip on a 2 minute 22 second mashup/compilation video. They will continue to behave like this until law changes.
They profit from my free labour, using legit platforms (YouTube and soon Facebook) to syphon money via bad faith claims and lack of internal Fair Use assessment, in this regard they flirt with racketeering in my mind. Global money skimming, which is justified for non-transformative re-uploads, but not from remixed, mashed-up, critical and satirical new media. They buy licenses from the Average Joe for his cat videos in perpetuity. Anyone care for Donaldson v Becket a couple of hundred years ago? Anyone at all?
With 100 years of screen content and musical content created now and millions of hours of screen content uploaded daily to social networks the DMCA needs to recognise mashing up and remixing as a legitimate NEW art form being done via the technologies of the day.
I'm 30 years old. I'm punching my way through this, but it saddens me to hear younger people around 15 years old ask "is it even worth it to start a YouTube channel?" Especially if they want to remix, satirise and voice over content. We are not allowing a technology (the web, editing software) and form of expression (remixing, mashing up) to be legitimised and for young people to make a buck on.
Companies like Jukin will say "power to the creator", but the irony is that they're literally crippling actual creators and creativity. It's great someone can film a nice video of their dog doing a trick and make some coin, but to transform it takes ACTUAL WORK. Jukin have a loophole to get a piece of the cake from popular YouTuber channels who should be able to make a living from their work, but instead give up. I stopped a series on viral videos for a while as Jukin claimed all 6 of my episodes. I am also used as a source to find videos now. They go get a license for something I've used that was unlicensed. And then make retroactive claims. A YouTube colleague (TwinkieMan) received 6 retroactive claims from Jukin on his channel the other day, they watched what he used and went to get a license. They now get revenue from many of his videos. He wants to give up.
People want to transform other peoples lo-fi videos, we want to mash things up, and it is good for the world, bloody hell, that's the whole end theme of the Lego Movie. Rip something down, build it in a various, different way. That theme is preached to kids, yet it's not a reality at all. Young people stress about being called names: infringer, pirate, thief.
Honestly, this is all just a way for businesses to home on to brands to make more money. Normal lowly people aren't going to make anything from its use.. So what's the point?
-Also, seriously? How has this not been changed in the past 18 years?-
Fix this abuse, like people who file falsely or just out of spit should be punished and creators should be protected
(Yeah what that said.)
I've seen far too many youtubers and Twitter personality's fall to this DMCA stuff
Enough is enough
The notice-and-takedown process which is under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has been heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content which is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Thank you.
The DMCA laws in this day and age are being abused by too many people, to control content created by individuals and bully people into submission. Both companies and individuals can claim strikes against sites and content producers to have them removed with nothing to support it. People can post claims against content that has material that falls under fair use or in many cases content that has zero copyrighted material at all. In cases where large companies or corporations file these complaints there is almost nothing anyone can do about it.
The internet in this day and age is far bigger than it used to be and many people make their lively hood on the internet, making a living and earning their money by creating content on the internet. These outdated rules are hurting peoples lives as the source of their income can be taken down for no good reason. While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The system needs to change as the internet has, we need more human control in these situations and more ways for content creators to fight back, or even punishment for companies that falsely flag content protected by fair use. If nothing changes all the freedom from the internet will eventually be taken away and it will change from a major source of news and entertainment into a desolate wasteland.
The Computer cannot tell the difference between plagiarism or citation in this day and age, and therefore MUST be supervised by a Human. Companies using these algorithms MUST be required to have a human review any questionable content.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be eliminated as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works. There must certainly be consequences for copyright violation, but there must also be serious consequences for false claims used to harass and suppress.
I'm not going to pretend I know all the ins and outs of the DMCA and cite court cases and all, but I can speak from my personal observations how the DMCA is being abused by companies of all kinds to attempt to take down original content made by creative people, just because they used their show or game. Most of the time it is done to silence negative criticism, which is obviously not the point. The creators should have the fair use to use footage and other material for their content, ESPECIALLY if it's a critique or commentary! Needless to say, something has to change. Please stop this abuse from continuing.
As a citizen, I am compelled to do my part to voice dissatisfaction with
the current state of the DMCA. I in particular came to know about it because I watch various review channels on YouTube, and so many creators have been unfairly targeted and trolled by numerous entities for violations when in reality, the reviewers were engaged in fair use of copy written content. It's already very difficult for small producers and creators to break into the business, and the big companies have an incredibly unfair advantage when it comes to power and influence. They have been using it of late to abuse, intentionally or not, people engaged in legal activity. Please help the little guy get break and protect we the majority of people from oversized corporate interests that are increasingly concerned more with control and quashing competition than creativity and innovation.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Also you This %$#^*! has taken down some of the greatest Reviewers/Reactors of our time. If not fixed will most likely ruin the freedom of the internet. This bad boy is worst then Sopa.
Free speech is a right that everyone should have regardless of belief, orientations, race, and status.
When one posts original content on things that they believe in, they have a right to be the one to decide on whether keep it on there or not.
Copying things that do not rightfully belong to you is not a good thing, no, but taking down supposedly copyrighted content when it truly belongs to the person who posted it is wrong. Taking down content simply because one does not like it is wrong because that is restricting the freedom of speech and it is stopping people from having their voices heard when they want - or even possibly need - it to be heard.
The DMCA system is flawed and attacking fair use is NOT a good thing to do, especially considering the times that we are in today, what with the type of people who are inheriting the earth.
The DMCA system needs to be stopped.
I've seen some crap in my life, but this is the crappiest. Some of my favorite Youtubers (and me) get striked for dumbass reasons. Even on one of my beginning vlogs with no music or media got striked by some weird company. Please protect the fair use...it's my only request.
I like many who understand this issue have seen what big film and entertainment conglomerates. The thought that you watch a video and it's taken down. Hours of hard work wasted and ruined in a matter of seconds. It isn't just unfair it is intolerable. The internet is the future for streaming content be canned of Hollywood studios trying to control, exert, and slow a evolution that is only being more futile. The idea that fairuse is ignored and treated as not the biggest thing is a big deal. We need content like this reviewrrs, parody. Not only do these people risk making a living for the enjoyment of others they are the commentators that we as a media consuming public need to reflect and change a industry that likes cutting corners and repeating the same old thing. These reviewers, comedians and parodymakers should be able to put videos up and if monetization is being used have a fraction go to a studio for the use of a clip of a song or video based on length. Companies that steal full monetization from videos hurts these people's livlyhoods, and it is downright illegal. 393rd party comapanies that put claims up and then went till you refute only to put it back up is antagonostic, and malicious. People that put upclaims because they didn't like your opinion is uncontitutional probably. The fact that youtube copywrighr system is automated has made it even more seceptable. We need human beingson the other end working tirelessly like lawyers for these cases against these claims. I can only come from the perspective as a long-time viewer but I empathise and reach out to those affected by unlawful and unwarranted copywrighr claims. Down with the DMCA it needs to be revised. Thanks for your time looking over this.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protec abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
DMCA is horribly outdated. It is constantly abused on sties like Youtube where creators of content have their works unfairly censored. Creators loose out on money due to false claims, have to fight through legal hurdles, and spend so much time NOT working on creating new content.
Nothing is done to those that falsely lag these videos. They get to keep whatever revenue they have stolen from a honest creator. They have no punishment against them. Companies even can use it just to censor those that speak ill of their product or hold an opinion they disagree with. All of these exploits need to be done away with, and the law needs to be updated to protect creators, not just corporations.
You will have seen the following form letter plenty of times by now, but just keep in mind that this law was written for an internet nearly 20 years younger than it is now (ex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1UY7eDRXrs). It's archaic at this point, and is now used to harass and extort content creators who, under fair use law, are doing nothing wrong, but this law is so black and white that it can be used against those it's intended to protect.
The following are a few links to videos content creators have made regarding this issue, and its ramifications...particularly with respect to youtube.com:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ9U8YLY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw
These people and many, many others make a living entertaining the world through online media, but because of the starkness of this senile law their livelihoods can be threatened, and extorted at any moment by anyone with the will to push a button on the internet. Then, without due process, one of their income streams is halted, and it's up to the creator to prove innocence as opposed to the accuser proving guilt.
Now that's just storming crazy, and ya'll know it. Now fix it.
And without further ado:
Takedownabuse.org has covered all the major issues in this form, but I will add to this my own personal concerns. I am an independent artist and writer who mainly enjoys posting derivative works (aka fanworks) because I keep my original art and writing offline, sharing it only with friends. Without fair use, the continued abuse of fanartists and writers will harm not only the fans but the success of original copywritten material. Today's internet and fanworks drive the entertaiment industry. Fans being able to share and create together and explore new and fun ideas brings more people to seek out the original source content. If I draw a comic about an idea I had involving Thor and Deadpool, and post it on a blog to share, I'm not making money off it. It's a tribute and contribution, a work by a fan. Someone might see it and like it and think "who are these guys". Marvel gets a new fan, another consumer, out of me. But say some annoyed fan who doesn't like how I drew Thor decides to complain that it was 'theft'. Unfortunately in the current system, the web host will remove my comic that I worked hard on, and others enjoyed, and Marvel benefited from. Were this presented in a court, it would be an open and shut case in my favor for fair use, but it wouldn't get that far. New ideas, and a fresh understanding of today's internet-driven world are required to Save Fair Use and continue growing media in positive ways.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) affects Internet users all over the world. It is stifling the continued development of the Internet as medium for exchange of content. It is being used by malicious shell companies to redirect revenue from genuine small content creators to themselves. The small content creators have no way of fighting the many bogus claims for takedowns they receive. The law needs to be amended to include heavy penalties for abuse of the notice-and-takedown system.
I want my parodies and reviews. I want people to be able to have conversations about media with proper examples and not have to constantly watchdog their accounts just to keep their videos alive.
My favorite youtube personalities (who make a living off of how many views/ subscribers they get) have been robbed, ignored and blatantly harassed by production companies without any support from the youtube company, in fact youtube has pretty much encouraged it.
I have fully read and understand these statements, the issues at hand and the current rulings. Please side with Fight for the Future and for a free and open internet for the benefit of all generations.
Way too many of my favorite YouTube personalities, including-but-not-limited-too Doug Walker, YMS and I Hate Everything, have been caught by terribly incorrect copyright claims. They are all protected under fair use, because they are CRITICS, WHO ARE REVIEWING FILMS. There is so many actual pirated films on YouTube that is going unnoticed because these copyright claimers care more about having a positive image than properly using the DMCA. Another show, Midnight Screenings, doesn't even use any footage, but it still gets copyright claims. A while back, improv team Game Grumps got a strike because they sang actual songs out of pure habit, for humorous purposes. If that isn't completely ridiculous, I don't know what is.
This is an old and out-dated system that dampens free speech and hurts and discourages content-creators on the internet from creating original content. With the lack of repercussions for those who would make false accusations, it encourages delinquents online to abuse this system and harass content-creators, going so far as to destroy their work. Whether they're anonymous individuals or larger companies, these rogues are allowed to bully content-creators into silence for their own selfish ends, even if it means destroying the livelihood of said creators. In some cases, this abuse even involves theft of profits, as some would claim another's content and hard work as their own. Please put an end to this broken system.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright o and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
As a future creator, mexican and american, I would like to feel safe when creating new stuff for people to enjoy, knowing that i´m under the roules of a fair goverment.
Also I think they should do this because if we are using their content then we are actually promoting their company and channel etc. Thank you and please help us.
The DMCA system is highly weighted towards the copyright holders, and is stifling free speech on the internet. People who make reviews of content have been constantly battling with the creators of the media, because they don't want their content criticized. This phenomenon has been primarily occurring on YouTube, where reviewers such as the Nostalgia Critic, I Hate Everything, Your Movie Sucks, MysteriousMrEnter, and many more have been forced to fight against companies who censor opposing opinions of their work, despite it being fair use, people who do not own the content, and simply file false DMCAs to temporarily gain profits off of popular videos with little to no repercussions, and even people losing their primary source of income due to their accounts being removed. This needs to stop, because the income and freedom of expression of people is being halted. This problem has gotten to the point where videos in which no clips are shown of the original content are being taken down because they are talking about the content in a negative light. Please consider my opinion, as well as the opinion of the many other people who agree with me. #WTFU, or where's the fair use, has been blowing up, because everyone is tired of this injustice continuing to happen. Thank you for reading this, and I hope this can help make a change.
I personally have been affected by this issue as I got a Six Month Copyright Strike on my and my friend's Whole Channel for using this video, which is 18 Seconds and made by someone we know : https://streamable.com/2lmz. We don't make any money off the channel, but the strike did cause us lots of problems, as a lot of videos we post are longer than 15 minutes. Also there is plenty of people who use the song in this way and don't get it taken down, was used as part of a video over 30 minutes long, and was not the main focus of the video.
Also this better not be an April Fools joke or there be will hell to pay.
I'm not asking for the law on this subject to be completely eliminated. I'm asking for it to stop being abused. The people (or, more often, companies, or even more often, shell companies) filing these claims do so for ridiculous reasons on content that constitutes fair use and receive no punishment for false claims. Punish the guilty, not those who do their best to follow the copyright laws to a T and are still victimized for it.
I am one of millions that watch content created for and uploaded to internet sites like YouTube. And nearly every day I see talented people that make some of the most entertaining and insightful content and commentary struggle because of copyright law and the DMCA.
In the case of YouTube, their policies currently enable and often encourage people to make false copyright claims against videos. These false claims can reduce and more often remove the advertising revenue, taking that money from the creator. These loopholes were created due to backlash from YouTube trying to deal with the DMCA and how overbearing it can be. And now it's to the point that talented content creators are quitting because they can't make money doing a job they're passionate about. But even worse than that, this system allows people to silence critics, allowing anyone to create a false claim and have a video taken down under false pretense with no repercussions.
Outside of YouTube, creators of fan works cannot even retain their own work. Large companies are able to remove anything they don't like with impunity, and will suffer no kind of legal backlash because there is no legal grounds for it.
The DMCA, while created with good intentions, has ultimately allowed powerful media companies to become bullies and tyrants. This law has given companies with greater wealth all the power in every legal case and does nothing to restrict claims made on bad faith and has given no protections to those that have become the victims.
The DMCA was not made with today's rapidly changing internet in mind. The law is too broad to adequately moderate the modern world. Please consider amending this law to help protect up and coming media critics and those that have found new ways to entertain. Please consider making the DMCA a BETTER law.
I'm subscribed to hundreds of channels, and even though that's a big number, the times I've seen a video about a takedown is appalling. I've personally never had a takedown since I don't have any videos, but I've witnessed it many times. The system called YouTube is frequently abused. Many companies create fake shell companies to file many strikes on a single video that would win a case of fair use in an actual court of law. Companies are stealing innocent people's ad revenue and can prolong it for up to a month. Those people don't ever get that money back. All the power is put into the clueless people who can claim any video they want. Please stop this, and make a difference.
The internet that the DMCA was made to watch over no longer exists. In this new day and age the internet is an exponentially vaster and more essential part of life. YouTube is a means of employment for thousands of content creators, and they are under attack by individuals and businesses that seek to misuse the DMCA for their own benefit. Automated takedowns are a means to prevent hard working individuals from receiving their deserved revenue and silence free speech when it goes against someone under the authority to declare a violation of the DMCA, even in cases where it may just be two people sitting and talking to eachother, no clip footage, no music. Yet they still get attacked by the DMCA.
One of the most notable discrepancies in these automated DMCA takedowns is the fact that fair use is utterly ignored. A simple search of Where's The Fair Use? will give light to hundreds of cases of content creators being attacked despite that they are in completely legal right to upload and maintain their videos according to fair use. And even if the content creator defends their content and gets the DMCA takedown cleared, nothing prevents that same company from then reinstating their claim.
As an avid user of the website YouTube, I ask that these issues be seriously considered. The medium I love is being attacked by companies and individuals who simply dislike the content displayed. The people who are affected by this are widespread, and only continuing to grow. Please. Help us.
Our UK-based Charity collects Public Domain films from around the world and shows them on YouTube. On a daily basis, we receive DMCA complaints against our usage of Public Domain film which results in my channel being penalised, blocked and taken down on two occasions. If use of Public Domain material is threatened, fair use has no chance.
I would also like to add, that it's quite unfair for even fake companies to claim they are representing companies to fight against individuals or businesses who are in question of such copyright infringement. Consequences should indeed be in place for that. A lot of those companies are already aware of those users using their media and are fine with it, as long as its under fair use law. When they put in a claim, as in example in youtube, they have the power to take their revenue. They should not have the power to take their income, when they have no proof or if the media is in process of review of copyright infringement. I would like to add again, of people being punish when they are not even using copyright material in their media. People's comments and videos about them just talking about a movie, song, etc.; are getting punish by companies for absolutely no reason. This is just not right. With all this, what is point if you can't express yourself of what you see or do.
The DMCA is horribly outdated in today's society and internet. The fact that so many false claims are rampant and get through and keep content, whose lifetime might only be for a month or two if it is of a hot topic. On sites such as Youtube and to some extent Vimeo and Dailymotion false DMCA forms are filled out by people and companies to shut down fair use criticism and parody as a sort of Orwellian censorship of speech to the point where only one viewpoint exists. People on youtube lose thousands of potential views and those that are partnered and their livelihood as entertainers/critics depend upon a good standing and the video to remain up, and if the video is falsely claimed all money earned via ad revenue on that video is either forfeit or in the case of a monetization claim given to the claimant and not returned if found to be false. Some form of rectification of the law is in order after seeing what all has been happening of late.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Hello Washington,
I have something to say. As a child, I do not know much about law but I do know one thing: What's happening on the Internet right now is wrong. My favourite content creators like I Hate Everything and Doug Walker are being bullied and punished for something they didn't do. The people claiming copyright are clueless when it comes to fair use and they have the platform (YouTube) to be able to take down videos, get the profit gained from that video, and so on. So I have to ask the question: Where's the Fair Use?
I hope you take this into account and try to solve this growing issue.
Yours Sincerely,
Tobin Middleton
Dmca is nearly twenty years old and doesn not take into consideration what the Internet has evolved into. Videos that have no copy righted matterial or music is being shut down for mearly reviewing a movie. Videos are being taken down because the opinions are not positive and studios and film makers are not happy with the negative press. Revenue is being taken away from content creators who make a living off of sites like you tube even when they are in fair use boundaries. And while all this is happening the studios are not being punished for false claims. They are often using third party sites and automated checkers to look for copy righted material. You tubers are punished even if the video falls under fair use and appealed. They will often lose the video but also and monetary gains they got from the video or even the whole Channel itself losing months or even years of hard work because of one bad copy right claim. While I agree studios should be protected from whole movies or tv shows going on line for free it's time to stop sending take downs to every person who uses small clips in reviews or news reports. The Internet has changed and it is far time for outdated laws to change with it.
I am not American but the U.S. legislative process sometimes impacts a globally shared internet. Copyright is important, maybe it needs some revision, but important nonetheless. The DMCA as it is currently enforced has allowed for rampant abuse of the system.
Please consider revising the law.
Basically: Revise them. They don't fit in with today's world. Please.
I have had personal dealings as a YouTube Creator dealing with false and unjust Copyright claims. This has affected not only my income but my fair use as well. Millions of others have dealt with this same issue and this needs to be stopped.
The above is the information that comes with all of these. I left it there because honestly, when it comes to the legalities of all this, I figured it's best to leave it to the professionals. But here is where I must interject as a non-professional looking to put his own words in.
The current system is busted. No matter where you look or where you go it's busted SOMEHOW. If you go to Youtube companies can basically steal money with no consequences on their part, and it doesn't even need to be them it just has to be a company that may or may not even work for them. On top of that people who are using fake accounts can pretend to be companies to false flag information AND THEN POCKET THE MONEY STILL. This is WRONG. Very, very wrong!
"Ok, but it's not like that all over the place, right?" Hahahahahahahaha yes yes it is. Well, in some ways it is. On Tumblr, there is a new rule that you can report someone for having a differing opinion than you. That is a blatant smack in the face to the first amendment. That's not free speech that's free from being able to use speech! This whole system is a mess, and all the DMCA does currently is make it worse.
The system needs a reboot, much like a computer might need after a long time without it's scheduled updates. If the DMCA has any desire to actually protect the people it says it protects, then something must be done and now.
Also if this will make Doug Walker rethink the choice of clipless reviews, I'M IN
SERIOUSLY. STOP THE INJUSTICE.
This system is flawed and outdated, do the right thing by content creators and people everywhere and update this system.
Thank you.
My Primary use for entertainment is through online media such as youtube. However many of the people who I support by watching their content have been harassed because of a supposed copyright infringment. At the same time these people will upload the banned content from youtube onto their website and I can assure that most, if not all, the content has been under fair use. The system needs to change as this not only affects my life, but more so of those who create the content I use for entertainment. These false infringments need to stop. I dont know how it should be stopped, but I know when a system is broken and needs to be patched.
The current DMCA policies are draconian, outdated. The Internet has evolved beyond what the laws encompassed, yet the law has remained stagnant.
Now content creators are being hit with copyright claims if they merely mention the copyrighted material. It's like a bad joke.
SAVE THE FAIR USE
I'm a small time YouTuber, hoping to one day be known. In lieu of recent events, it has made me fearful to upload further videos. My content is supposedly protected my fair use laws, but as of late it has become blatantly obvious that this is a false notion. Videos are being taken down left and right because big companies and fake copyright trolls alike don't like the content of the video. Creativity is being stifled and creators are losing their livelihood. YouTube has become a minefield of hate and distrust, whereas it was once a marvelous place of entertainment and education alike, but now any creator that isn't protected by YouTube itself is at risk of just vanishing. I plead to you to make these fears a thing of the past. I don't make money on YouTube and maybe never will, but the piece of mind that a video I make will still be up a week, a day, or even an hour after its uploaded is priceless.
- Brantley Nelson aka General Zilla
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use very faulty computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does NOT allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and "copyright trolls" who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
While action is not expected to be immediate, let alone guaranteed, the opportunity to submit feedback regarding the exploitable functionality of the copyright system is still greatly appreciated.
I have seen copyright abuse and I dont want it anymore
Laws should exist to protect the individual, not massive business entities. The way they've abused the power they have literally bought is disgusting. DMCA needs reworked, badly, to stop them from overzealously protecting their copyrights to the point where they'll demand something that even just sounds similar to something they own be taken down. Which IS a thing that happens, don't let them lie through their teeth and claim otherwise.
People went to jail or even gave their life for free speech. It's a basic right that nobody should even be able to touch. And free speech means that sometimes you won't agree with what people are saying, but different opinions are needed to keep discussions alive, dissent fuel them. And imagine if everybody agreed on everything, that would be dull.
I love cinema, I love games, I love music, and I want to be able to hear other people's opinions when I'm interested in something. I want to learn things too, and blocking them is an obstacle, preventing me from doing things I love.
Fair use is not dangerous, it's necessary, on a
BRING BACK FAIR USE MY BOYS
Make a big fine for false claimants, and fix your shitty system
Pro tip: don't be cunts about this.
In short it's mainly used to harass other users and you can easily take down other's stuff for no reason with it while they're in the laws. It just plain sucks and the DMCA law is outdated.
Also a point of note, I'm Canadian and I, and other non-american people in the world, are also affected with this, you guys don't rule the world, aren't you? Are we in the United States of Earth? Hope not. So just fix your dumb laws so YouTube and the like can fix their dumb takedown system everyone hates and isn't protecting anyone anymore except maybe those big corporations with a lot of money. The average content creator is too poor to deal with this. Thanks.
Some of my favorite content creators are too scared to put anything out there because it will just be taken down or maybe even their channels. It is utterly ridiculous that in America people are pulling themselves up by the bootstraps and still getting stepped upon.
Oh Yeah and also ban Bots/Automated Services from Servicing DMCA "Justice" since they take it down on a whim (due to lacking the ability to reason) when a certain amount of reports are filed against a user (which can be used to target a person for no reason necessary other than for abuse or because they were "offended" for absolute garbage reasons etc)
My personal edit: Not only do I fully agree with the above statement but the government itself made of people for the people, by the people should be for it as well. By constantly attacking the individual and exclude the corporation, you limit the creativity and innovation of the people of the USA. A country founded on using new spin on previous ideas, and constantly grew to new heights and influence from the innovations of the people.
The laws are constantly being abused by businesses who are flat out stealing for years which while bad, doesn't even compare to the fact that it pushes people who are trying to move up in the world into the shredder of the corporations. I want to believe in this country again but the constant lack of protection of its living, breathing citizens is scary and disheartening.
I am Nathan Kelly and I want innovation and creativity to overwhelm the people of the United States of America again. The business who constantly complain about the pennies they loose is only loud because the have the money for the megaphone. The current laws need torn down completely and overhauled not only for todays internet, but be able to adapt to the ever changing flow of the internet through a case by case basis, and for time itself. People can't even recognize the internet from its 1998 pictures, do you really think they'll recognize its today pics, 20 years from today? The answer is no, just no.
SAVE OUR INTERNET, OUR INNOVATION, OUR HOPE.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME,
NATHAN KELLY
AUSTINTOWN, OH
Too many content creators as of late have been subjected to unfair and often rampant copyright claims from third parties as a result of a number of factors, ranging from being unable to accept criticism or to stifle commentary on what is being reviewed or parodied. The DMCA law is being taken advantage of and instead of serving its intended purpose is being used as a tool to instill fear, which as a result has made people wary of uploading content despite being in their rights to do so.
Videos by content creators on Youtube and similar portals have been taken down in spite of their videos being in covered by fair use law, sometimes even in spite of their videos not containing any footage or music that is not theirs. The DMCA takedown has cost them time and money, even those whose primary income is through creating content on Youtube, harming them economically. DMCAs have been used as methods of threatening, bullying and harrassment. Even after a video has been cleared, they can still get hit multpile times by DMCAs. As a result, they stifle free speech. Companies claim they create the rules and laws about what constitues fair use themselbes. People file claims on content on content they don't own, and as long as Youtube has not settled that dispute, they get the money for that content. Bigger companies hire shield companies just to file DMCAs for them. Youtube reacts incredibly slowly and with hardly any personnel to these claims.
Fair use is not being allowed properly. Copyright holders file false claims that take down valid fair use because they know how hard it is to fight and win a fair use case. This is a huge problem and violates fair use laws. Please place the burden of proof upon the copyright holder and discourage false claims.
It appales me to know that passionate people who are hit by unjustified claims recieve nothing for their work, while the company, that has issued the takedown keeps the revenue.
It is bizarre, since that concept itself violates the DMCA. Someone makes a profit from a "product" that isn't theirs.
In many cases, the videos taken down are not even containing footage, music, sound, or any other form of copyrighted content, but of people talking to a camera.
I'm not citizen of US, but your decision will affect the hole world, so its important to me as well. Please be on peoples side for this one!
Currently, there are many instances where alleged copyright holders make false DCMA claims hoping that creators will not have the resources or the will to fight these false claims. Many times they are done by people or organizations who do not even hold the copyright in the first place. There should be a stiff penalty for the copyright holders when they have multiple instances where they ignore fair use laws and use the DMCA as a way to stifle the free speech of the creators.
I've seen so many content creators hit on videos that are clearly fair use, sometimes on videos that use all original content, but are hit with a strike for merely talking about and criticizing someone else work in a way that they don't like.
This harms, the content creators, and it harms the viewers as well as it makes it difficult for creators to take risks in what they produce when anyone can put a strike on them, stifling their creativity if they don't like it.
Companies either are too stubborn to expect that the internet is the way of the future or want to cut people down for fair criticism.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone and even hurts people and there passion for creating content for the world wide web.
The system is broke and needs to be fixed, plain and simple!
This has gone on for too long...
As a reviewer and commentator on youtube, I have always abided by fair use. Youtube is consistently allowing studios to flag fair use content without actual true review of videos. Automated systems and the ability to flag videos with intent to censor opinions is a violation that goes against fair use that is being grossly violated on youtube. It would be nice to see the DMCA updated to protect content creators in the future from these abuses.
Please stop taking down Doug Walker's (aka the Nostalgia Critic) reviews.
In addition to the prepared statement below between the dotted lines (which I agree with in the fullest), I just thought I'd add my own personal experience with the content ID system on YouTube, as a small time YouTuber.
Uploading a video typically follows the same routine:
Step 1: Spend 4 to 10 hours making a video only 2 to 20 minutes long. Pour as much effort and creativity into it as I can with what minimal tools at have at my disposal. Avoid using copyrighted material as much as possible, with the possible exception of the occasional perfect musical number used under fair use.
Step 2: Upload it.
Step 3: ATTEMPT to publish it. If a SINGLE SONG SEGMENT just so happens to match a copyrighted song, no matter how short, YouTube AUTOMATICALLY hits the video with a copyright claim, upon the behalf of whatever corporate entity owns the rights to the song. This monetizes the entire video in their name. I get nothing as a result, despite almost all of the work in the video being of my own original creation. This violates my creative commons copyright. Also, because the content ID system automatically punishes content creators regardless of whether or not they are innocent, I would argue this system is a violation of "Innocent until proven guilty", a concept at the very core of this nation's operation. You could argue that it doesn't violate this because this punishment isn't the result of a court case... But should this decision really be made outside of a court room to begin with?
I've gotten claims on 3 out of my last 4 videos I've uploaded. Thus far, I've won 2 of the disputes, and am still fighting the third.
Step 4: Dispute the claim. During a dispute, the claimant has a full MONTH of time to either release the video, let the dispute time out (at which point it is released automatically), or to reject the dispute. 9 times out of 10, either they reject the dispute, or wait the full month for it to time out automatically. If they let the dispute time out, it utterly destroys the video's value. Either you can leave the video as public during that time, and receive ZERO ad revenue during the video's first month (the time when it gets the majority of its total views in its entire lifetime), OR, you can list it as private, and watch it slowly become irrelevant as the days pass by. For example, if you're making a video that reviews, say, a recent video game update (as I did recently), the video can lose all its first uploaded value. A month down the road, nobody will care about the review because by then, the update becomes old and out of date news. This system wrecks time sensitive videos, and makes them irrelevant. As such, the current content ID system can be abused by people to make the criticisms from their critics out of date and irrelevant as well. It can be used as a weapon.
Step 5: list video as "private", because I'll be damned if I give a bean counter a single cent of ad revenue from MY video. And it would be a single cent as well. Yes, companies are giving me fraudulent copyright claims because they want the literally ONE CENT of ad revenue I'd earn from it.
Step 6: Wait till the 11th hour of the end of that month long waiting period, and half the time, watch the same company reject my dispute... Which starts the whole process all over again. Once the dispute is rejected, the video is monetized in the name of the claimant again, and now I have to appeal said dispute... Once again, the claimant has ANOTHER full month to reject the appeal, release the video, or let the appeal time out. Once the claimant actually makes a dispute rejection on a video that is protected under fair use, that makes them guilty of perjury, due to the use of a fraudulent copyright claim. Furthermore, in an attempt to fleece content creators, a lot of companies either use their own BOTS to automatically reject appeals, or simply hire out other companies whose only job is to reject appeals.
Step 7: Watch the appeal time out as ANOTHER month (bringing the total up to 2 months of waiting) goes by. By now my video is utterly useless, and will bring in zero views and ad revenue, due to irrelevance. Every company I have ever been disputed by, and has carried the claim this far, has let the appeal time out. This is because it's the farthest they can legally go to dick with someone's videos (and potentially earn ad revenue from) without incurring ANY court costs or potential lawsuits. Every single time a company has taken it this far, they've stopped right here because they know they are violating fair use, and abusing copyright law.
BTW, a video can have multiple claims. So imagine repeating this process 3 times over for the exact same video, as I once had to do.
Step 8: However, it potentially doesn't end there. If a company isn't just trying to fleece your video, and actually wants it taken down, perhaps to squash criticisms, they can then reject the appeal. At which point, your video is given a copyright STRIKE, and probably a take down notice with it. You can appeal a strike... But once again, the claimant has ANOTHER full month to make a decision. And unlike the dispute and appeal, you can only appeal 2 strikes at a time to be safe. You see, if you have a bunch of strikes all at the same time (which happens pretty often if you're a movie reviewer), and you try to appeal more than 3 strikes at the same time, you risk having one of those appeals coming back as rejected... If a strike appeal comes back as rejected while you have 3 or more strike appeals on your channel, then your channel will become AUTOMATICALLY BANNED. Thus, you can only make 2 strike appeals at a time. This means that if you have, let's say, 14 strikes on your channel, all at the same time, you could be stuck arguing all of them for as much as 7 months, all while not making a single cent of ad revenues off your videos.
Step 9: Nope, still not the end for some YouTubers. Several YouTubers have reported having videos they've already WON claims on, be claimed AGAIN at a later date, sometimes by the exact same company for the exact same reason. This means some YouTubers have to repeat the entire process all over again. There is potentially no end to the number of fraudulent copyright claims a company can file against a video. In my opinion, this constitutes double jeopardy. Yes, since it's not handled in courts, you could argue that it DOESN'T constitutes double jeopardy... But should really any of these decisions be made outside of a court room?
Step 10: All these previous steps only apply to content ID matches, and the companies who take advantage of them. NONE of this stops pure trolls. Several YouTubers have lately reported getting copyright claims by totally RANDOM people on videos as completely original as Vlogs that contain ZERO footage or audio from any other source on the internet. That isn't fair use, that's LITERALLY ownership of the content itself... But YouTubers have to select from a short list of defenses in the appeals system... There is NO option in the appeals system that allows YouTubers to point out when the claimant is outright LYING about their claim. Thus YouTubers are forced to defend even their OWN ORIGINAL CONTENT under fair use, against such trolls, even though they rightfully own said content.
Step 11: You could always try to find a HUMAN at YouTube to help you expedite this whole mess... But trying to do that is like pulling teeth. Even direct emails to the relevant departments of YouTube only result in automated or copy/pasted messages in return telling you to handle it through the automated appeals system. Not even multi-million subscriber YouTubers, the relatively famous ones like PewDiePie, can get through to an actual person in such situations. This presents the image that YouTube itself, is run by nothing more than a robot. As if there is nobody at the wheel. How can so much of this be allowed with not even a single human for oversight?
Step 12: YouTubers have also recently reported the content ID system apparenlty going haywire, and deleting random videos entirely circumventing the dispute system. One of the more common defenses of this action is that "It's YouTube's website, they can do whatever they want with it". I disagree with this. YouTube owns the facilitation of content presentation, it DOESN'T own the content itself. That is owned by the users, the content creators. Therefore, YouTube has no right to delete content willy nilly. Not that there shouldn't be some form of moderation, but random deletions is unacceptable, and so is this straw-man argument in support of that action.
So... That's the usual YouTube copyright claims process. It's gotten bad enough, that YouTubers (myself included) are getting fraudulent copyright claims on nearly EVERY SINGLE VIDEO we upload.
Now I'll go into WHY YouTube has done all of this. Put simply, YouTube wants to avoid lawsuits from major companies. But the way they've gone about avoiding lawsuits could not have been more fumbled.
Firstly, YouTube introduced an incredibly zealous and incredibly STUPID content ID system. This system does nothing more than match content, and automatically claim content on the behalf of companies and studios. The problem with it is that it is entirely ineffective at stopping the problem it was designed to fight. People rip music, movies, and TV shows ALL THE TIME on YouTube, DESPITE the content ID system. This is because there are a large number of editorial tricks can be done to avoid it. If a ripper wants to upload a copyrighted work without the content ID system spotting it, they can do things like speed up or slow down the video, add water colors, change the aspect ratio, adding a boarder, or adding water colors. As a result, there are entire seasons of TV shows currently on YouTube right now, ALL of which have slipped past the content ID system. To make matters worse, companies and YouTube rely so heavily on the automated content ID system (rather than humans) that they no longer bother searching YouTube for legitimate rips of their content. As such, the rips that make it past the content ID system also rarely get found manually by the copyright owners.
Thus, the content ID system has utterly failed in its original job, and in some ways actually CONTRIBUTES TO the problem. This means that the ONLY content the content ID system can successfully match is, for the most part, just content used under fair use in videos that are majority original content. The content ID system's only job seems to be to victimize innocent content creators.
Secondly, the WAY the content ID system handles matches is WAY biased favor of the claimant. This is because claimants are usually multi million dollar corporations, unlike small fry YouTubers. YouTube is at greater risk of lawsuit from these claimants than from their own content creators, as a result. However, it is SO in favor of claimants, that YouTube has actually made fraudulent copyright claims PROFITABLE by giving claimants the ad revenues of YouTuber's videos. As such, this incentives fraud, and invites abuse. Put simply, companies make claims REGARDLESS of whether or not the videos they claim use content under fair use. My most recent video had its copyright claim dispute rejected even though I know for a fact that the company making the claim NEVER EVEN VIEWED THE VIDEO (view counter).
Thirdly, in my opinion, the current copyright system in YouTube is essentially ILLEGAL in several regards:
1.) Punishing a content creator when assuming their guilt (rather than requiring the claimant to PROVE their guilt) essentially violates the principle of "innocent until proven guilty"
2.) Taking away their ad revenue, and even awarding it to the claimant, violates the content creator's creative commons copyright.
3.) Knowingly fraudulently claiming a video as copyright infringement constitutes perjury.
4.) Repeatedly claiming the same video for the same reasons constitutes double jeopardy.
Fourthly, by so heavily weighing in favor of corporations, YouTube is now risking a lawsuit from the OTHER end of the spectrum. So many YouTubers have lost out on money and rights for their own content that YouTube is now risking a potential class action lawsuit from major YouTubers. This kind of defeats the whole point in YouTube avoiding lawsuits.
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Ok, so now that I have explained IN DETAIL why the YouTube copyright system is broken and detrimental, I figured I'd explain my own reasoning on how to fix it through the use of law. These social media companies NEED enforced regulations in this area. Otherwise, the abuse will continue.
Firstly, fair use NEEDS to be written into law, rather than continue being just a precedent. With the current law, I could quite literally copyright an entire WORD, and then charge royalties every-time someone tries to use it in conversation. For example, Fine Bros recently tried to copyright the word "React", and then started hitting YouTube videos with the word "React" in the title with copyright claims. The current copyright system can be abused to the point where no human in this country could even carry on a normal conversation, especially anywhere in media.
Secondly, I think YouTube, and other social media sites, should be protected BY LAW from copyrights claims lawsuits.
The reason for this is that YouTube SHOULDN'T have any rights, or responsibilities for what is on their site. One of the most common defenses for such extreme moderation on YouTube is that "It's there site, they can do what they want with it". But as I explained earlier, YouTube is merely the medium through which people present their OWN content. YouTube doesn't actually own ANY of the content that is posted on its website. Saying that it does is like Sony deleting channels is Ok because it's "their TVs". This is unnacceptable because its TVs are the medium through which we watch TV shows, it doesn't mean that company can do whatever it wants with the content going through it.
Although writing this specific idea into law SOUNDS LIKE it would be bad for YouTube, it really isn't. It should make them immune to lawsuits based on what their content creators THEMSELVES upload to YouTube. Companies really should be taking up copyright claims with the content creators, not YouTube itself.
If YouTube and other social media sites were given immunity to such lawsuits, then they'd be more encouraged and willing to make a fair and balanced moderating system, rather than one that's so heavily in favor of the companies.
I do think that, as a balance, this immunity should only be given on a case by case basis, specifically to social media sites. For example, Pirate Bay, or streaming sites, shouldn't be given this immunity as their explicit purpose is TO facilitate total copyright infringement.
Thirdly, I think major copyright claims should be handled in courts. If a company is unwilling to risk court costs on a video copyright claim, then that video isn't damaging enough to the company's potential market to merit it being labeled as "copyright infringement". There NEEDS to be a cost in a company making such a claim, otherwise nothing would deter them from making frivolous and fraudulent copyright claims. It would focus their attention on ONLY fighting REAL copyright infringement cases. If nothing else, any potential PROFITS of a fraudulent copyright claim should be made illegal, such as YouTube monetizing videos in claimant's names before the appeals process has even started.
Fourthly, if a company is to be allowed an internal moderation system, it NEEDS to be regulated in a way that is fair and balanced to all parties involved.
For example, a content creator NEEDS to be innocent until proven guilty. There is no questioning that, if someone makes an allegation, the burden of proof should be on them.
But to keep those guilty of copyright infringement from running off with a few months of ad revenue, the ad revenues on a claimed video should be placed into a separate account, and only awarded to the party that wins the claim, after all is said and done. That way, both the claimant, and the disputer, can monetize the video, and receive the ad revenue, depending on who is in the right. If the claimant wins the claim, they should be awarded the stored up ad revenue. If the creator successfully disputes the claim, they should be awarded the ad revenues. With the current system, a claimant can receive several months worth of ad revenue on a video, and run off with it even if the claim was proven to be fraudulent.
Additionally, studios, companies, or even other users, should suffer their own consequences for filing fraudulent copyright claims, and for ignoring fair use. I think companies that ignore fair use should suffer fines, and users that make fraudulent claims should be banned.
Finally, this system NEEDS human oversight. Content ID could still be used as a tool to find copyright infringement, but it should be only that; A TOOL. When it comes to actually deciding if a video constitutes copyright infringement, such decisions NEED to be decided on a case by case basis BY HUMANS. Here's what I suggest:
1.) Content ID PLUS manual searches used to track down potential copyright infringement.
2.) Matches are reviewed by a YouTube employee trained to spot the difference between fair use and copyright infringement.
3.) If video is found to be under fair use, no action is taken, and it gets marked internally as "OK", so future employees ignore it.
4.) If employee suspects video of infringement, a 2/3 vote must be made with 2 other employees to inform the studio or company of the infringement, at which point the company can then take their own legal action.
Humans NEED to be a part of this process. Not only are they capable of discerning between fair use and infringement, they can also spot the LEGITIMATE copyright infringement that sneaks past the content ID system. THOSE videos ought to be take down, yet never do because no humans are a part of this system.
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Those are all my thoughts on this subject. I hope the Copyright Office wakes up, and realizes that, as a part of this democratic country, it serves the majority of the people of the United States, and not the minority of the companies that lobby said government. I am sick to the teeth of being fleeced dry by a robot taking advantage of another robot, because companies apparently can't hire human beings anymore.
Copyright strikes and claims are being used as threats and being issued for no reason other than to punish the content creator for giving an unfavorable opinion, even when the claim wouldn't hold an ounce of water in court.
This garbage needs to stop and stop now.
I have seen many different YouTube channels get taken down or get strikes for bad climes. anime America, Silverquill and even Dr wolf have had some sort of copyright (for anime America it has been going on for years and is still going today).
In addition to the form letter below, which is extremely well assembled in argument for what all is wrong with the DMCA system, i'd just like to add that many of my favorite content creators on youtube are reviewers/critics of other media and need to be able to use samples of those media to provide evidence for their criticisms. This is what takes the content from being baseless to being a real tangible discussion; when evidence is included. And this practice is extremely and evidently different from people who try to upload an entire movie in a bunch of pieces so others can watch it for free. People can tell the difference and so can computer algorithms - the system in place on youtube (and potentially other sites) has gotten completely out of hand with how easy it is to just file false claims and not take into consideration the aspect of fair use. This is most commonly done for 2 reasons as I see it: by companies trying to silence negative reviews of their products, or by a new breed of "legal trolls" (google "patent troll" if you don't know the concept) in order to grab some quick, effortless cash off of the work of others (since there exists an option to simply take all money earned by ad revenue until the DMCA is repealed).
THIS IS A BIG ISSUE affecting a young and GROWING INDUSTRY. People are making their livings off of this all over the world, and we need to stand as the example of how this can be done right. Do not let the corporations lobby themselves into a position where they can bully content creators out of their earnings and rights to fair use. Please. Thank you for your time.
Balance is crucial and corporate abuse is an issue
As is, I have seen people abuse the DMCA to the point that it is coming off as harassment. I have seen people putting public domain songs, giving them a different title, and using them to file false copyright claims against other people using said songs, despite the fact that the songs are public domain, and thus the people have every right to use them. I have even seen a person get claimed for copyright despite the video he uploaded not having any copyrighted material, whether it be images, music, or even simply talking about said material. All the video showed was his face and his front yard, and all he was talking about was the snow on his front yard. And yet someone still found a way to use the DMCA against him. The DMCA is important, but in its current state, it is being used to hurt people. It needs to be revised.
Innocent people and content under fair use has been taken down for no logical reason what so ever, and it's making places like YouTube less for the people and more for the corporations. I have seen videos taken down, brought back up, taken down again, brought back up again, and taken down for a third time, and it's really starting to take a toll on content creators. Please, if this get's to Washington, re-write the system for today's standards, not for 1998 standards. We can make YouTube great again, for the people, and by the people.
Free Use is important, as it allows people to engage in open discussion of events, shows, novels, and etc. that they might not be talking about otherwise. To allow the DMCA to continue as-is goes against that. Please change the DMCA.
The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition by taking down their videos on questionable grounds and threatening the victims with legal action.
The DMCA is being abused by other companies or people who don't even have the right for the content they claim, while others that post movies, series and other totally copyrihted content on display get out free, a lot of contents creators are doing their best to not infringe these laws, but greeady people or third parties take adventage, there is more than 1 video on YouTube adressing #WTFU, the injustice they get, strikes and what they have to do to avoid them, The Internet has never been safe, but with this what you will cause it's that it will become a sea of theft and harasment to the content creators that most of the time are not giving products a bad name, instead they give products the spot liht without charging you for sponsorship.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The DMCA has been continually abused in the last few years to take down content without that content actually violating the DMCA because the content was covered under fair use within the DMCA itself.
There needs to be a system that keeps people in check so they don't abuse the ability to take down someone else's content (even if only temporarily) and the DMCA isn't currently covering that.
This could actually be remedied with a simple amendment to it that requires all take-down claims to be filed, checked, and then acted upon instead of it going in the reverse order as it currently does.
I'm aware that it's hard to get a room full of people to agree on something they don't understand, but you have to trust the people you represent to educate themselves and tell you what kind of decision they want.
The fact that the system can be abused by anyone, is a worrying thought especially in the case of content creators of YouTube; even if it just the point of content strikes being used as a treat or a means to take down a channel, that someone has taken a disliking to. The Copyright laws are meant to protect everyone not just a select few, and defiantly not affect the select few.
If this system is to stay in place then actions must be taken against those that blatantly do not follow fair use and abuse others content for their own gain; and ability to protect channels that stay within fair use; even if it is simply a sort of repercussion for calming a content strike against someone falsely.
As stated previously Copyright needs to protect and affect everyone, not just a few but including those that follow fair use properly.
While I personally feel like protecting copyright is very important for content creators, large or small, the current copyright DMCA system is outdated, broken, inefficient and abused. Copyright Laws need to be updated to protect ALL content creators and to avoid being abused to stifle free speech and competition in the creative market. Copyright Laws need to be updated to reflect how technology, society and how media is viewed in this day and age. It is broken and outdated the way it is now. As someone who views content from so many great and creative people and as someone who plans on creating in the future, the very threat of DMCA abuse frightens me, stifles my creative freedoms and my freedom of speech and I believe that is NOT the spirit of original intention of copyright protection.
I have seen some astounding abuse of Fair use by large companies. Taking down small youtube channels without even reviewing their content. Even if it gives the copyright holders full credit! This needs to be stopped!
Since this now affects people's lively hood I think this should definitely be looked into and revised.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I'm also a victim of this'll problem, my video " Fallout 4 automation glitch " was taken down due to a video network saying it was theirs. I want this to be changed, it breaks my heart if you upload a video about Video games you can get it taken down.
(It's not fair that a content creator can spend 90+ hours making a 20-40 min video and just because 5 seconds of that video contained some liscenced property, all the money goes to that company and not the content creator. This is a flawed system!)
In the early days of the Internet the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was established in order to prevent copyright infringement from occurring.
However, with the evolution of technology the cracks of the DMCA start to show.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. However, no punishment seems to occur for those who make claims themselves. This leads to many people being exploited by trolls. Also, the major corporations that tend to make theses claims often tend to use their power and influence to allow Google to control whether the content being used if fair.
The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
In addition, the people who check the content for fair use should be from a third party as to allow an unbiased opinion on the content.
I am adding my comments to make changes to protect fair use on the Internet. I too have been hit with false copyright claims on YouTube, including claims from third-party companies and "piracy teams" of companies who gave me media with full permission to use, claims on videos of fair use with direct review and commentary of said media, and in one case, getting claimed on a less than one minute parody/mention of a song without actual direct performance or use of original works of that song. In these and many other cases on YouTube, revenue from claimed content is not held and then returned if the claim is proven false, but instead given directly to the claimant until proven false or 30 days without a response. This means that companies making false claims can earn money off of a creator, not be punished for doing so, and never have to return that money to the creator. This is clearly an outdated and abusive use of tactics that the DMCA needs to be updated to resolve in order to protect creators, fair use and free speech. The following is standard text provided by this petition:
Dear Copyright Nazis, go fuck yourselves!
Everyone in California should organize a massive protest outside Youtube's headquarters & the CEO's mansion until this shit changes.
ITS TRASH. STOP THEM FROM DESTROYING SMALL BUSINESS.
Many Youtube contributors have had their videos taken down wrongfully, others having the "three strikes" policy used to take down their channels completely, either through "trolls" that think they can make a quick buck off their monetization, or companies that do not like the material because it's critiquing their works. Below is a list of *some* of the youtube contributors that have been affected by these false claims:
Jim Sterling, Themysteriousmrenter, Channel Awesome, Anime America, Lost Pause, The Anime Man, Your Movie Sucks, I Hate Everything, Drwolf, Joshscorcher, TeamFourStar, CinemaSnob, Potatobombkyle, Lego Productions, CinemaSins, AlternateHistoryHub, Jontron, BadComedian, Sargon of Akkad, Chris Stuckman, Bobsheaux, Sheeleシェーレ, BrainScratch Commentaries, NFKRZ, Pyrocynical, The Gaming Czar, Games Repainted, AdoseofBuckley, Totalbiscuit, Matthias, ToddintheShadows, Angry Joe, ElectricDragon505, CentralDerp, Krimson Rogue, EyeOfSOl, Dragon Mage, CreepyMcPasta.
And there are many, many more.
These content creators have no way to fight these claims, except with what's provided by Youtube, which is all automated and doesn't protect them from the DMCA abuse. While they all agree that there needs to be protection against those that would commit wilful acts against copyright, they also believe that their own rights regarding copy right, which is often monetized and is a form of income for them and so their ability to provide for themselves, partners or their children in some cases is severely affected.
Provided below is a video that outlines some of the problems that the DMCA posses for content creators and some changes that can go a long way in protecting the creators that are being affected:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
Where's The Fair Use? - Nostalgia Critic
Copyright Office,
As much as I understand the original intent behind the DMCA and do agree with the rights of copyright holders to protect their content from disingenuous use, I firmly believe, as a regular consumer of Fair Use content, that the law has become outdated at best, full of dangerous loopholes that actively counteract its intended purpose at worst.
One of my favorite YouTube channels is Todd in the Shadows, a music critic/comedian. He is absolutely hilarious, very insightful, and plays his shows very straight: the show is him talking over the song, and the songs that he plays come in short little clips, as do the videos, cut again and again to demonstrate what he's talking about and only for that purpose--no copyright infringement intended or achieved. Yet he has had video after video pulled down within hours for supposed DMCA violations with increasing regularity, even though his format has not changed since he started his show years ago. The Nostalgia Critic, another critic/comedian I thoroughly enjoy, has had videos pulled for alleged DMCA violations, even though he too only employs short excerpts to emphasize points he makes in his dialogue.
These people are not very rich, nor are they powerful. They're average people who have taken up entertainment as their professions, by poking fun at silly things that we enjoy. But unfortunately, those with power and money constantly try to silence people who criticize their work--even if they ultimately promote it, they cannot take any criticism of their work. So the rich take advantage of their vast resources and the loopholes in the DMCA to silence anyone who tries to talk about their work. They don't have to ultimately win; they just have to suppress their critics long enough to hurt them. One company even claimed the monetization from a Nostalgia Critic review of their movie, and when he successfully challenged their claim, they walked away with all of the money they made from that FALSE claim, money that rightfully belonged to Doug Walker, aka The Nostalgia Critic. In the rest of the world, this is called fraud. Or theft.
Doug Walker said recently that he has never felt safe in all of his years posting these movie reviews. The threat of take-down, of demonetization, of having his channel banned from YouTube, has always haunted YouTubers. The popular ones (such as Channel Awesome, Your Movie Sucks, Eli the Computer Guy, etc.) are able to make enough commotion to challenge unfair take-downs. But the small content creators, who may not be able to afford lawyers, or do not understand the complexities of the laws, have no such defense. They can be trod on by any company, without reprisal.
And that is where, in my honest opinion, the law is weakest: there is no consequence for attempting to exploit or defraud another content creator. Why can companies claim monetization, be proven that their claim is completely false, but still walk away with the content creator's money? Why can the powerful take down a thousand videos that are rightfully protected by Fair Use, but not face any penalty for willfully ruining another person's livelihood while hiding behind the law's skirt? If content creators' accounts can be banned, if their money can be taken away, then I believe that the same kind of consequences should be applicable to those who make false copyright claims. Force those who would abuse the system to carefully consider the worth of their actions: "If I don't win this, my company will be fined a considerable amount. This seems to be Fair Use. Is it worth the price of potentially failing to have this removed?"
I have seen numerous websites and content creators that have violated copyright, in some way or another attempting to alter content in an attempt to escape the DMCA watchdogs. These people have violated the spirit AND the letter of the law--they are what the DMCA was intended to deal with, and what it should be aimed at. But the DMCA is outdated and full of loopholes, and as a result it is punishing the very people it was meant to protect. It needs to be updated, rewritten, replaced. It needs to change, or else it will have failed to do what it was intended to: to protect those who create their own original content, and ensure that they can gain what they have rightfully earned through their own hard work.
The DMCA needs some form of revision or replacement. Though it is helping in some form to shut down pirated content and genuine copyright infringement, it is also unfortunately used against those who are within the law via fair use thanks to copyright sharks and disgruntled copyright holders. The DMCA is woefully outdated, being enacted before the rise of Web 2.0, Smartphones and social networking, as such there clearly needs to be be laws passed that factors in this ever changing internet into protecting content creators
Also I love my content creators and I'd hate to see them fade away.
I'm not a person who knows a lot about legislature, I do know what's right, and what's messed up. And what's messed up is people abusing a DMCA system in order to steal revenue from content creators, shut down people who disapprove of their message (breaking your free speech rule), shut down channels.... and all without fear of any bad thing happening to them for false claims in many situations. So many, I count even count it. But if you want to start, just type in false DMCA claim on youtube, or #wtfu of twitter.
This whole situation has changed because the internet has evolved, but not many laws surrounding it has. That's natural, that's progression. But the laws now need to keep up, or else they will halt progression, and stifle things horribly. It's time for a revision of the law, and moving it to keep updated with todays standards.
The DMCA law, I feel, needs to change in three main ways:
1. Require the response time to be shorter. Instead of a 30 day response period; require companies or claimants to respond within a 48 or 72 hour period. The quicker response times would allow content creators who legitimately hold the copyright to the content they created to get back to normal instead of waiting for a month or even two months just to know why their content was flagged. And then takes even longer to just get their content unflagged.
2. Require companies or claimants who are filing a copy right claim to have to submit either documentation or proof that they are: a. a real person or company and b. they are the legitimate copyright holders. More transparency is needed to stop false individuals or companies from simply filing a false copy right claim and taking the rightful owners ad revenue during this 60 day response time. This would prevent filers who are angry with reviewers, people trying to make a fast buck or nation states from limiting free speech. This would also allow those who do have legitimate copyright claims to easily take down content because they will be known to hold the copyright to specific content.
3. Copyright holders that file false copyright claims need to be held responsible. Whether this be through a hand written apology to those they abuse with false claims, financial penalties, or even being suspended from filing copyright claims for a 90 day period or after having to sit down with copyright attorneys to review their responsibilities as copyright holders.
I want to be a content creator online, but as long as the DMCA is not changed and companies are allowed to continue to abuse the system without any real repercussions, I am going to continue watching and not creating because as DMCA stands right now, it's more trouble than what it is worth to be a content creator.
To See How Pervasive the Copyright Abuse Has Become; Please View the Attached Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ez9wlDIb3Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYL_eLZLfw8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScJk9bagNXE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjXNvLDkDTA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9mTOq6mP2I
P.S. - I'm sorry for any cursing in these videos.
I have witnessed Doug Walker's, a.k.a Nostalgia Critic's, YouTube channels get their videos taken down by DMCA's without factoring in fair use.
If taken to court, Doug Walker's posted videos would be deemed fair use because: According to Stanford University Libraries, "In its most general sense, a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner. In other words, fair use is a defense against a claim of copyright infringement. If your use qualifies as a fair use, then it would not be considered an illegal infringement." (http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/#sthash.6rcTS1Jo.dpuf)
Doug comments, criticizes, and parodies popular movies that are nostalgic to people in the 35-25 age range, and therefore his use on YouTube is fair use.
Doug Walker's art has affected my life in a phenomenally positive way and made me a better person and I HATE to see his, and the other people who work for Channel Awsome and The League of Super Critics, free speech rights violated
They should not be taking down youtube Channels just for the simplest things like for example: Treyarch, treyarch makes millions of dollars ALMOST everyone knows them and but items from them every day but for a simple video or song that's just ridiculous and that's why they should not TAKE DOWN ANYMORE CHANNELS PERIOD!
#WTFU
I see how the DMCA is hurting not just creators of content on the internet, but the entirety of users. As of now every single person can harass creators without any consequence by claiming copyright. In my left mouse button i have the power to take dawn any which creator on youtube. I can take down creators with 10.000.000. subscribers, people that make their daily bread off of the internet by creating content for everyone. Surely that´s not the purpose of the DMCA.
I am however not an expert. I have not felt the DMCA on my person. I´ll leave you with a link for someone, a creator on youtube, that is the voice of MANY. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfgoDDh4kE0
I'm sick of BOTS taking down videos protected by the CONSTITUTION. I'm sick of THIRD PARTIES making a profit off of DESTROYING LIVES. There have been HUNDREDS of false take downs. This is NONSENSE.
There too many big corporations and companies taking advantage over laws passed almost 20 years ago, laws in which are outdated for how the internet is being used in today times.
DMCA is being abused over and over again. And there is content creators who works are being taken down and income are being taken by by big corporations that nobody can really stand up to. That's why we need to fix the DMCA and restore it to its glory!
Many people get take down notices and copyright strikes, multiple times, on the same video. Such as TheMysteriousMrEnter or Nostalgia Critic, who are simply critics and only use small clips of the content they review. Mr. Enter has even been threatened by a company over a negative review, sent e-mails to bully him into taking down his video.
Not only that, but many people will send in fake claims to steal money from the content creators, or take away their monetization entirely. The power is all in the hands of the accuser, and it becomes very discouraging for both the current content creators and anyone who wants to become one to post new videos for fear of being targeted and taken down.
This can't go on. With so many people turning to YouTube and the internet in general for entertainment, the way the system is set up now is too easy to abuse. Change needs to happen, and soon.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
What companies are doing to content creators is horrible. It is making it near impossible for them to make a living dispute them not breaking any laws. They are well in the realm of fair use. The laws concerning this issue need to be brought into and updated for the 21st century.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily baised in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I've seen nothing but copyright laws being abused by copyright holders and even non copyright holders to hurt some of my favorite youtubers for months now and all they'd do is claim a video and when the 30 day mark deadline comes all they do is just hit "no" and the youtuber would have to send the appeal all over again, wait again, all while having no revenue while all of it going to the copyright holder even if they're not the copyright holder or if it was fair use. More recently I've seen Protomario state that he has had one of his PRIVATE videos striken by copyright, a PRIVATE video that was earning him no money or anything, a private video. Even more recently someone threatened another to strike someone else's video with a claim even though they didn't own it unless they paid them 1000 dollars, the person who actually owns the copyrighted material in question has tried to stop this but to [as far as I know] no avail, Copyright and fair use laws are supposed to keep us safe, not put us in a system where we can be easily striken unfairly or even blackmail
The current implementation makes it way too easy for foreign entities to spam takedown requests for videos and other content using things under valid fair use. This is specifically an issue with Japanese corporations, due to Japan's fair use laws being much more restrictive than ours, leading to tons of American videos being taken down and hurting the income of content creators.
As a digital artist, I get commissioned to draw what a customer wants. With this current system, I can be flagged with a DMCA for simply using a symbol or reference to a copyrighted, trademarked, or reserved company, program, and most intellectual property despite that I was paid for a service to a customer's personal tastes. They would not have bought the rights to whatever it was that would be deemed infringement of (c), (TM), and (R) items. I would not have made money from the specific use of these items, but instead I would have made money on my ability draw. I couldn't even make a parody for free without the concern of being slapped with a DMCA. This needs to change. People should be held accountable for false claims, to protect content creators, be they Hollywood, YouTube users, or everyday, run-of-the-mill internet goers with a passion to supply people with entertainment.
We need to review this now. This rule effects many like me, and I'm just lucky none of my work hasn't fallen victim to this. There are people who rely on fair use to entertain, heck, some rely on it to have a meal on their plate! Please take a look at this, so we can report them for once.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has been a broken system for a long time. Extreme overuse and misuse of it has stifled multiple places of freedom of speech on the internet. Some of the most extreme examples include people videotaping themselves sitting in a car and discussing a movie they just saw and essentially reviewing it. Those videos, if negative toward those films, get a copyright strike by the holders, even though nothing in the videos break any sort of copyright. Not unless copyright is literally meant to also control what kind of speech people are allowed to make.
The DMCA laws need to be reformed and need to have been reformed decades ago. Please, while control over one's copyright is important, it is being abused by the copyright holders to also control what is said and done with any related content no matter how much it falls under Fair Use. This needs to be stopped.
The Youtube copyright claim system is so easily and frequently abused, that lesser known Youtubers who pour their heart and soul into video projects, are not only being taken advantage of, but having their hard earned revenue stolen.
Reviews and Parodies all fall under Fair Use, yet reviewers left and right are being taken off of youtube, yet Youtube doesn't do a thing to stop it.
Simply put, the System is so flawed it's ridiculous, it is in need of desperate repair.
The government exists for the sake of the people. While copyrights are a good thing, DCMA will inevitably encroach upon legitimate work. A more precise system must be used instead to avoid collateral damage and misuse.
Im from Mexico.and I have a youtube channel...but is very hard in the last days why the Copyright jump in my videos
In my videos i talk about the dubbing art, and its inevitable no using audio clips of series, movies or anime...its very important for me...the people were listen the audio.from the dubbing material, why? Well...by the people learning about the dubbing art, obviously and...one and another and another time the videos have suprimited for the companies...and...its not just...
Youtube is undoubtedly the BIGGEST video sharing format there is, and people are suffering for their work every single day. The amount of videos people upload are restricted because every video they post gets reported for a violation and they can only fight 3 at a time. It doesn't matter if the report is completely wrong, it doesn't matter if 4 people are just sitting in a car talking about a movie with no music, footage or anything besides knowledge of the film and the video will still be taken down unfairly and they have to go through the same process as someone who copy and pastes movies straight to youtube. This needs to stop.
Why give big companies more power than they already have. This will only bring misinformation as all criticism are cuts out. It is unfair and unjust.
Right now, copyright holders, corporations, and third party companies are abusing or blatantly ignoring copyright law by removing content from, suing, or withholding and permanently taking funds from content creators creating perfectly legal and often times unrelated content, most notably on the popular video-sharing website YouTube.
A corporation, copyright holder, or unrelated company cannot file copyright strikes or lawsuits, nor claim funds from, any content considered legal and non-infringing in any way. False claims, suits, and illegally acquired funds must be met with legal and/or monetary repercussions AT LEAST matching losses from said false claims, suits, or illegally acquired funds.
In addition, third parties, with exception to legal departments, may not file suits, claims, or withhold/take funds generated from legal and non-infringing content in the name of or impersonating copyright holders, and must be met with similar legal action, as well as investigations on said copyright holders being performed.
Overall, corporations, copyright holders, and companies making fraudulent claims must be held responsible for illegal actions, and content creators must be protected and reimbursed accordingly and fairly.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
While personally I disagree with the entire idea of copyright, I recognize it's validity and usefulness. This rampant abuse is going against the ideas and values the laws are supposed to represent however. It's allowing companies to not only abuse legitimate copyrights when fair use is obvious, but it's allowing thieves to steal revenue, credit, and the right of free speech away from people who in no way violated any copyright.
This is not protecting intellectual property; it's allowing legal theft of intellectual materials.
The law simply needs to be revisited and modified for the internet and economy of today, and not 15 years ago.
It's obvious there are flaws in the current fair use outlines. YouTube and Facebook usurped AOL. Google isn't just that strangely named webcrawler. We're nearly two decades into the existence of the DMCA, and that sounds like a very short time. But is it?
Outlined above are examples of huge changes in how we use the Internet today. Previously, content was created by companies and dedicated individuals. Now? Vine and Instagram allow us to express ourselves in ways we never dreamt of. The terms to allow DMCA claims are too loose, and the automation of this process has only show more weaknesses.
Content Creators are at the mercy of individuals, here out referred as trolls, who report content as violating fair use. Content is locked, stops revenue for the creator, and then they are forced to go through the process of proving it a false flag. The creator gains no restitution, and the troll carries on to continue his trolling.
We need new guidelines, updated to tell us what is and isn't okay. No gray area.
The internet is a big and still youthful place. And it's true, many of the automatic takedowns help stop those breaking the law. However, it's also punishing those who don't. People now have jobs reliant on these services and they need the security of their products and finances when working on the side of the law. If I wanted to, I can claim someone's legal content without any proof and take that video down, or even worse, take all the money that person has earned for a month without /any/ penalization, something needs to be done.
Make a money pool to have on hold until the claim is figured out by people, have a punishment for the guilty party. Do something that will prevent illegal false allegations from stealing peoples' work is the prime goal. It is not the easy route for sites such as Youtube, but such a thing needs to be mandated at least to the point of the criminals not flourishing.
I don't expect that there is enough manpower to stop the accessibility of illegal activity. So many videos, so many cases do dispute it rattles my brain just to think about how many workers that may take. The solution is gray, but our ambitions are clear and just. It's our duty to make the internet a place where content creators working completely under the law will not be punished and where those who violate the law get out with no penalties.
I've seen the system abused more and more as of late with content creators on Youtube being falsely striked on videos which clearly fall under fair use but had been flagged for the purpose of censoring the video or some other petty reason by the holder. Additionally I've seen the same happen from 'companies' that claim to work on behalf of the holder but in reality have no connection with them and are actually just doing it to profit off the stolen add revenue on the video.
I would also encourage you to require on-line companies to protect the small businesses that operate under their umbrella (namely YouTube or Vine). I would suggest imposing penalties there as well if streamlining processes aren't put in place and systems aren't re-evaluated.
And quite frankly I've had enough with the constant abuse.
#SaveFairUse
Thew DMCA system is completely unsuited for today's Internet. It's being abused in every possible way to restrict and silence free speech. A YouTuber by the name of MrEnter had the same video review that fell perfectly under fair use get taken down three times by the same company under different names. They even sent a private email to him in an attempt to intimidate and silence him. This system is sit
People are getting future views stolen (meaning the money that goes to the creator of the video do not get to them) and that money never gets refunded.
It is unfair to take down videos that are under fair use. It is also not right to take down videos that are just the public having their say. This taking down and owning of the videos USED to be a problem for videos online that just showed footage from film productions, etc. but now businesses and so-called "Companies" that are seemingly non-existent are claiming ownership of videos merely for the title that matches a movie's for example. People are now getting their reviews taken down just for merely talking about certain films. It doesn't matter whether the editorial is positive or negative concerning the subject is getting taken down for just mentioning the said subject.
Now the notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
I would like to make my own comment that you very much. 1998 was a long time ago. Heck I was born in 1997 and the fact I'm about to graduate high school is mind boggling. So the fact the internet is still using this old of a program to "Protect" copyright is ridiculous. The DMCA as it is now is not HELPING, it's HINDERING!
I create reviews online, I'm very new at it. In fact I've only started since January. As you can guess I'm not very big. In any other business I wouldn't really have to worry. Sure I'm small but if people could just see what I do then I can get my name out there. But EVERY time I upload a new episode to YouTube, I have the fear it will be taken down. In fact MY FIRST EPISODE CANNOT BE AIRED ON YOUTUBE!! What kind of environment allows this kind of policy?!
Just because the internet is new, doesn't mean you can just ignore it. That's my two sense on the situation, I hope you people in Washington D.C. realize how important all of this really is. The first amendment isn't just a class wall decoration you know.
No-one feels safe about talking about movies or music without either getting unfair claims or claims that are abusing the system
The dmca is now being used far more to allow companies to take things down from the internet that are criticisms or that they simply do not like than it is used to protect their intellectual property. It badly needs to be reformed or eliminated.
Dear US government, i agree that copyright violation and online piracy are bad, but i have seen sevral cases in wich videos where taken down because of false copyright claims. For example, the nostalgia critc revieuw of planet of the apes. It was taken down because it contained footage from planet of the apes that is owned by fox, but since it was a revieuw, nostalgia Critic has the right to use the footage from that movie. This i just one of many examples of unfair use of the anti copyright law. Someone should prevent this from happening.
If you read this, i agree completley with the pretiped comment.
We need laws that protect people who critiscis things, people that just do what their normaly alowed to.
Companys think they can bend the rules, shut down everybody that criticses them, and this needs to be stopped.The current situation is pure madness.
Lets get up and protect freeadom!
As a person who likes to watch Youtube, I have seen a fair amount of these takedown notices. I understand that companies need to be able to protect their property, but when a critic that gives a bad review, or a gamer just wants to play a game and says its bad. There is no reason that companies should be able to take down the videos with no reason behind it and get away with it. There should be something that punishes companies that misuse the DMCA to get rid of a review that doesn't go with their views. When a company does this and also starts taking money away from another persons' work, that is even worse. it is bad that the law hasn't been updated at all. When the internet evolves, so should the law. Back when it was made, the internet was not a big thing. Now it is everywhere, so yes there should be something to protect the company, but there should be something to protect the videos that are put up on Youtube or anywhere else.
The importance of such an act is crucial since simple content creators have no other defense against larger companies, who in an attempt to squeeze every conceivable drop of money out of a product are willing to attack and harass every day people with almost complete impunity, without realizing that it is those very people who provide exposure to their product which can easily lead to more attention. In essence this treatent is not only unfair, it is harmful to every one and most of all meaningless.
I myself have suffered from these takedowns. I've had to remove, re-edit and dispute several parodic videos on my YouTube channel BenToThePowerOfGeek that received copyright claims - one of them with content that wasn't even in the video! I'm afraid to put these sorts of videos up now in case I get a strike because some snot-nosed executive thought they could bend the law to work for them. What they're doing is illegal, needs to be punished and needs to be stopped.
After both watching YouTube channels that have had there videos taken down like TheMysteriousMrEnter and Stoned Gremlin Productions. also a friend of mine had this videos taken down even after changing them 3 times but still was taken down for a clip of a show that was onscreen for 15 seconds.
All creativity and solid arguments that was once flowing on the internet would die out fast if fair-use was stripped away. Even if everybody told you whats wrong with it,would you still be willing to stop this? All we ask is that you let it be democratically decided and stick by it or else whats the point of a democracy if everyone's opinions gets tossed aside?
There are many people who wish to create content by using parts of existing works to create something that is, in its own way, unique.
And while I do see the importance of defending peoples original works, the current systems do not uphold the innocent until proven guilty that should be standard in legal cases.
What use is freedom of speech if we're to afraid to speak.
Ну это же и вправду нечестно.
It can also bring the suicide rates even higher then before as it can bring disrespect to people who has disabilities.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I may not be that knowledgeable about copyright law, but what I DO know is, if someone on YouTube is forced to take down their videos or face serious consequences for posting a silly video that uses heavily edited, chopped-up footage from preexisting sources that is barely representative of the original source material, something needs to be changed. This has happened so many times to one user named Jitterydragon that he closed his channel, and now many of his comedic works are lost. I do not want to see this happen again.
Very talented, creative and hardworking people and entities have had their progress and income stifled because of false claims, many of which are made by companies that don't even legally own any content included in the product that is being claimed. This is an issue that affects many jobs and futures of many people all across the world. People need to not be afraid to let their voices, opinions, creations, and ideas be heard on the internet. As a creator on YouTube myself, I understand the damage that these companies have done to people, and it has to stop.
#wtfu
DMCA is outdated and abused without regard for people who try to make a living off of
And yes, I agree with this statement above^^^
If the Government is serious about looking into the DMCA then I urge whome ever might read this, please go on to YouTube. Type in "Where is the Fair Use" or WTFU as it has often been shortened out to. Thre are videos all over YouTube that can explain far better than I ever could just how broken this system is
I have made reviews and videos like my review of Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip, which I never put any copyrighted material in it and I STILL get claimed! I had no footage of film or anything else, just me and my friends walking, talking and getting in a car talking about the movie. That's it. And now because of the strike claim I got, I am now in bad standing, which has caused many setbacks in my youtube career where I cant get money I worked hard for and cant make longer videos or livestreams. This whole situation is unfair, especially since I've been following the Fair Use rules since I STARTED my YouTube career.
What's wrong with the DMCA? Just about everything, It's outdated and clearly wasn't made for modern day internet. Company's infringe on my fair use rights and can get way with it!
I watch content on YouTube on a regular basis, as does my mother, who is in her late fifties. I think it is extremely unfair as well as ridiculous that creators of content not only on YouTube, but other sites as well, are getting claimed for completely irrelevant things. For example, If a creator uses 1 second of copyrighted audio in a video, it's almost certain that the video will be claimed by someone, regardless of whether or not the content falls under fair use (which most of the time it does). While this system was created to help protect copyright holders, it is now a way for shell companies and other sources, to steal the hard earned money of content creators. I know of several channels that have claims that they are currently fighting (claims that are complete nonsense), and I know of at least 1 creator that had his channel removed for ridiculous reasons. Another way that this system is ruining creators is that even if absolutely no copyrighted content is show in a video a company can still claim it, FOR NO REASON. This MUST STOP NOW. This system is outdated, it was made for the internet of 1998, not 2016. This system should protect not only copyright holders, but also content creators as well. BRING BACK FAIR USE.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
This system is also vunerable to outside forces and indepent 3rd. party including but not limited to foriegn government administration. For the use of censorship and profit.
Keep things fair and free when talking of fair use for people who give content to us and make entirtainment to us
Pls
PLEASE STOP COMPANIES FROM TAKING DOWN VIDEOS THAT ARE A 100% UNDER FAIR USE.
The internet is meant to be free. We can't let DMCA abuse to destroy our freedom of creating media content that will shape the culture of America, and possibly the world forever and for ages to come.
I have seen many of my favourite content creators get hurt unfairly by the current copyright laws. Many are critics doing reviews of films or games that have been hit with DMCAs in order to stifle bad reviews. I feel the DMCA process is fundamentally flawed and easily exploited at the expense of smaller content creators.
This IS a problem. Please fix this.
And besides the Internet is OURS,,, not some corporate swines' property, F**K the DCMA and F**K the US
Although I may not be a US citizen, I have watched many YouTube videos on YouTube and I have enjoyed many contents that have kept me entertained for awhile now. Since then I had many of my favorite channels being taken down from YouTube because of copyright claims when actually it's under fair use and people are exploiting the copyright system for their own gains and that to me and everyone else on the internet is unacceptable and this has to stop immediately, there are people who make a living on the internet by creating content and we have companies that use the copyright to take some of that money away from the creators and it's putting people out of the internet business. So may I ask you, not as a US citizen but more of a concerned person. Where is the fair use?
To some degree, it also prevents new and upcoming channels from joining in on sites like YouTube, where if the individual has a few seconds of copy written work, then they would have to risk getting their video taken down, or even losing the possibility of monetizing their video in which they may have worked for countless hours to try to perfect it.
DMCA takedowns have been used to abuse content creators by people that should have no legitimate claim to the material they're demanding be taken down.
While the US system is better than the EU one, which offers next to nothing in terms of defandant protection, the US notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is still heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system is having dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet.
The DMCA needs rubust and actionable safeguards to protect against abuse and entities that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. In reality few recepients of takedown notices have the audacity and perseverance to contest these claims and go through the lenghty legal process, for lack of real incentives to do so (damages for unfounded requests for example would be an incentive).
Please this needs to happen, Fair use is truly at stake and all creators need this in order to be safe over their right to fair use.
Even though I'm not from the USA this issue is close to my heart as many of the content creators I enjoy watching is being held back, on the verge of quiting. Therefore I am adding my voice in hope that change can be come to help them.
Signed Daniel Derek James Ward
As a content creator I constantly live in fear of someone making a false DMCA claim against my channel effectively taking my revenue, or even shutting down my channel. Many of my fellow creators live in the same fear, and as a result of the DMCA YouTube now has a broken content ID system. This content ID system is something we all fight with daily and frankly we're fed up with it. I urge you as a content creator to revamp this system so that content creators no longer have to fear false DMCA's .
While the DMCA laws were originally created to protect content creators, they have now become a weapon unlawfully wielded by disingenuous companies to further their own means, whether it be arbitrarily removing videos including their digital content for satirical purposes, or worse, removing reviews and critic videos to silence criticism. For example - almost every large Youtube channel I know has had videos removed illegitimately using Youtube's DMCA takedown system. In a notable incident, Jim Sterling, a video game reviewer, posted a video critical of a game, only to have it quickly removed from Youtube by the game's developer with a DMCA takedown notice. Despite having full permission from the developer to review their game, Jim Sterling was left with no legal recourse, and suffered financial losses as ad revenue from the video stopped.
In addition, the issue of bogus DMCA takedowns becomes more severe, when accounting for the fact that on Youtube, DMCA takedowns can result in penalties including the entire removal of a channel or the restrictions of ad revenue. Recently, the Youtube review channel ChannelAwesome had their monetizing privileges unilaterally revoked, essentially cutting off his income. ChannelAwesome was operating within Fair Use laws; however, because of the "guilty until proven innocent" structure of Youtube's DMCA takedown system has gravely hampered free speech and creativity of the very content creators that it was meant to protect. Youtubers have been running scared and have been forced to restrict their own content in fear of receiving bogus DMCA takedown notices.
Companies are not always malicious in their DMCA takedown notices, but they are often careless. Even I, a youtuber that only gets at best, 50 views per video, had my video taken down for merely having the name "Danger Zone" as the Kenny Loggins's song as a result of automatic systems employed by companies to efficiently weed out internet piracy. Another of my videos was taken down by a random Hispanic news channel despite having no relation to any content that was not my original work. This careless application of DMCA takedown ultimately hurts more content creators than it protects.
The DMCA law needs to be revised. Too often its abused or used carelessly at the expense of the very content creators it should be protecting. Revisions are needed to update its language for our modern internet, and to ensure that it is only used in lawful situations in which content was actually stolen. I couldn't say my neighbor's red lawnmower looks an awfully lot like my red lawnmower, I shouldn't be able to have him arrested for theft. He's innocent until proven guilty, and so should content creators.
Thank you for understanding.
As a creator that is new in the industry, I have to be scared of nearly everything that I use in my videos; no matter if it's music, a character or a review.
I dont want to be scared anymore.
I want to see my favorite youtube accounts continue to make entertaining content withouthaving to worry about being shut down or have videos removed or shortened.
Hi. I studied music production and music business at the Academy of Contemporary music. During my studies, I researched copyright law as it pertains to, not just music, but other forms of art and expression. One of the main points I studied was how laws change due to development of technology.
The DMCA was created because we realized that copyright laws made in the early 20th century just didn't make sense because technology had grown so much and the introduction of the internet brought new meaning to "distribution of works."
In the last 20 years, the power of the internet has grown exponentially and so has technology in general. The way the internet is used has changed vastly as well. These days, everyone is a content creator and fair use is practiced more frequently than ever. It's now very easy for copyright holders to claim copyright infringement and have content taken down even when it counts as fair use, or even parody. Automated systems are taking down musicians original work from their very own official channels on Youtube and Soundcloud. Content creators are being stripped of their freedom to create and distribute and left in the dark when they ask why.
It is time to put some thought into adapting the DMCA to the new internet.
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I do not believe that allegations should allow for pre-emptive take down. The evidence must be presented by the party making the complain, otherwise it is blind censorship which allows for easy abuse by any party.
This law undermines content creators who fall with in fair use laws and creates a benefit for people who may or may not have interest in the contested content. This results in penalizing content which is protected by the constitution and therefore is unconstitutional, please have an understanding of the laws and practices and use existing legal statutes to uphold the constitution. Thank you.
I'm sick of people's work being claimed by scumbags and then make money off of it. It's time to stop
As a Canadian, I find it amazingly irksome that an original video work by a favourite British science communicator can be (and has been) taken down by virtually anyone via DMCA request with absolutely no consequences when it's been determined (much later) to have been completely misused.
As a Content Creator that uploads to YouTube, this is very important. I'm obviously not the main target, but I can say from experience that action needs to be taken for Fair Use. I've had multiple videos receive copyright strikes only because some greedy company wants to monetize my videos, regardless if they have anything to do with what is in said video. This prevents me from reaching a different audience, since YouTube is such a widely used website. It also prevents myself and people like me from sharing content we've created with the community, one of the soul reasons YouTube is so large and used today.
Personal response scroll all the way down
Personal response
On youtube false copyright claims are being flagged through a broken system that is automated and is abused daily. Many content creators are being attacked for these false claims. These claims have no punishment for flagging falsely on the content creators. Who follow the guide lines of copyright but are still being abused because other individuals/ companies. Even though they do go through the legal system youtube system. Their response is lacking and mistreating the content users who create revenue for them. The automated system only replies with a generic response and nothing is done about until the content creators go for other means. Such as twitter or facebook to hear them cry out. But unfortunately for smaller content creators they don't have the luxury of having a large fan base or the network to back them up. Even the bigger name content users are having difficulties of getting contact with youtube employees. Even if they do get a response from them their reply was to only dispute your claim under 250 words or less to prove the false copy right claim. Which tells the content creators that they have very little to say in the matter. As for the system itself, you can test it yourself on youtube that it is very easy to abuse someone's content and say it is your own. The system automatically assumes that the person or company that claims the content as their very own and isn't reviewed. The system is always against the content creators and doesn't make a fair judgment and assumes that the person who claims the video or content is their's. Those who do abuse that system are stealing the content creators revenue because they claimed it as their own and can flag another video while the original content creator is still waiting for a generic response of a machine. Then they have to wait even longer for the content to be disputed. What I am suggesting for new copy right law is to have a fine to those who report false claims because they are stealing revenue from the content creators and penalty on the company who monitors it which is youtube's responsibility to take care of the content creators while gaining money from it. This would be fraud for the person who is trying to to claim it as their own. For example if my social security number was stolen and used my number to do monstrous acts, lets say buying 30,000 worth of stuff and I wasn't aware of this individual who tried to impersonate me isn't that fraud. My point in that example is that the individuals or companies that claim the content as their own ( like my social security number) as their own and steal money from them even though they were in fair use. The other solution for them is to actually get rid of the automated system and use real people. Just like a court jury, are you willing to dispute a court case with an automated system? of course not, because each case is different and so are the claims of the content which need actual people instead of an automated machine that has no grey area. Which today's standard of copy right has a huge grey area of what is fair use or not.
Furthermore, I would like to point out that as an individual I have read through the pre-written text in this comment and it represents my stance with 100% accuracy. I don't feel the need to say the same thing in my own words because everything that needs to be said has already been said. I sincerely hope that changes will be made for the better.
-Oliver Mäki, Finland
you dont control the internet you dont control my life
go fuck yourself !
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium C
opyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The copyright system is a failed system and needs to be reworked so people with "power" can't exploit the system.
A lot of my favorite you tubers and other site people are being blocked when 5 seconds of a video for someone else is so long to 30 is to short or even saying Simone's name it's bad and it's getting scatter everyday.
I have friends of mine who's channels were taken down for no reason and all they did was make flog videos and they were getting copyright strakes like crazy you guys really need to sort this stuff out one of the channels that I know of that was taken down for no reason was Chibi Reviews his channel received multiple strikes for a vlog video that he made on his front porch with no music he was just talking to his camera and walking around his front yard that's it the name of the video was Chibi in the snow you guys really need to change this long because there are too many companies out there that are abusing their power and they are putting out falls copyright claims when they don't even on the content that they are claiming that they own it's just completely ridiculous I have seen way too many YouTube channels get taken down because of this stuff it really needs to get fixed right now.
The world is a different placenow
As well as the above, the DMCA needs to be updated, needs to be catered just that little bit more to content creators that reformat work, add to it and improve it whether it is by a review, a "play through", a cover of a song or even just a comment with no use of the source material. We the people need the protection, what is happening right now is livelihoods being demolished with no thought or repercussion for those doing the damage, I urge you to update and fix this.
These problems aren't just a "maybe" or "what-if." There are increasing problems involving takedowns in the name of copyright from those who have no more rights to the content than those they are claiming copyright from in broader and broader terms, or sometimes no terms at all. As is, the current system doesn't just allow for blatant DMCA abuse without consequence, it encourages it.
I just got started a month ago and my Cartoon Review Show has been hit by no less than 5 copyright claims, most of them, if not all of them being invalid and lacking any human interaction.
I was falsely DMCA'd.
I have many friends that were falsely DMCA'd, many, many times.
We are abused on a weekly basis.
Can you explain why so many of us need to be abused so much?
YouTube has been an enormous part of my life, taking up almost a decade. It's my source of entertainment, a place where I have found friendship and inspiration, and have even deleted into creating my own content. But, I have seen many channels that vary in all subscriber counts and size be affected by these copyright claims and takedowns of these videos. I highlight YouTube because there, invalid takedowns of footage have immense consequences towards the person or people who create content regularly. I have seen years of work each channel has put in disappear in the blink of an eye during late 2015 and into 2016. People do profit from these channels, whether it's some extra money or enough revenue to cover bills. The livelihoods of many beloved content creators I enjoy watching is being threatened. And the rights of us as individuals must be protected on the Internet, as well as our creative works. Do not let the DMCA be violated any longer. Update this law to account for the Internet of the 21st century and all who wish to express themselves on the Internet.
The DMCA is no longer an effective way to protect intellectual property on the Internet. Since the DMCA was written in 1998, content creation on the Internet has changed dramatically. In 1998, most website hosts were also the creators of their own content, whereas today, most content is created by huge quantities of people who submit content to a select few major websites (e.g. Youtube, facebook, reddit, tumblr).
Most of these major websites receive huge quantities of content, and simply can't screen their videos for fair use. Instead, if they receive a DMCA takedown request, they simply assume the request is legitimate and promptly take down the content in question. A prime example of this content policy gone wrong is a cinema critic called Nostalgia Critic. Nostalgia critic makes reviews of of mostly older movies. In his reviews, he tends to use a lot of clips from the movies in question to point out what exactly he's reviewing. The reviews are lots of fun, and clearly transformative, so they should fall under fair use. Regardless, Nostalgia Critic is frequently hit by DMCA requests. Some speculate that movie companies do this intentionally to silence bad reviews, though the clips included in the reviews are certainly a factor.
Of course, the problem with DMCA isn't confined to just one internet movie critic. If you just do even the most cursory digging, you'll find countless examples of channels on Youtube being deleted by blatant overreaches of the DMCA. Ultimately, the DMCA has become more damaging than helpful, and opens huge outlets for abuse by large companies. Please consider updating this outdated law. Thank you. While you're at it, check out what takedownabuse.org had to say about the issue below.
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Yes, the DMCA is a broken and outdated system that is being exploited by the people who have no right to do so. Videos, sites, and even comments are being attacked for no reason other than to push around people who are doing no harm and breaking no laws. Its ridiculous that it has come to this in the first place, but hopefully with it something positive will be done about it. I love what these people do and I watch them all the time. They are doing what they love and should not be punished for that. I would love nothing more than to make videos of things I love, and even better making a decent living out of it. But I'm worried that if I devoted my time, money, and energy into it, one of my dreams would be crushed before it even took off. And for what? Because some douchebag thinks it's illegal for me to do so when it's not? No, that's not how things should work. These people deserve to not be bullied when they've done nothing wrong. Please fix this broken system and let innocent people keep doing what they love.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allocreativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on w for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Copyright was created to incentivize creative works. Unchecked abuse of the DMCA does nothing but hinder creativity.
It's not just interference with free speech. In many cases it's anti-competitive intentional interference with prospective economic advantage.
While the misuse of the DMCA and false claims have never hurt any creation of my own, many entertainment channels I watch from youtube have struggled with copyright even when they have fallen under fair use, it wastes time and stresses people out with no punishment to the instagater of these false claims
With the DMCA it has been an awful experience using the Internet. Please change. #whereisthefairuse
Stop bogus DMCA takedowns and protect free speech!
youtube is being hit extremely hard. videos from people i love are being taken down even under fair use. many videos created by reviewers, mainly of music and movies, are being taken down simply because they show or explain concepts and scenes from said thing, all under fair use. the worse part about this is even if the channel fights and wins the company can issue the strike and take down again using another name or a third party company that conducts leech like practices like false take downs as a full time job. each hit against a user or even a large channel takes away months of time as fighting the strike against them is all the work where as the accuser has to do very little and even if they lose their complaint can reissue it with no penitently almost immediately. please i ask you if people are innocent until proven guilty in judicial courts across america why are content creators not. and most importantly shouldn't those who abuse this system and try to hurt people and companys, who are well within fair use, be punished for lying and committing what is essentially slander or fraud.
The fact that we let a computer choose in our own place to takedown an artwork, a video, a comment, a photo, show that humanity is out of its own control of life. It is not only a fight to defend creativity, it is a fight to defend what is imagination. It is a fight to defend what we call Life. No one should abuse of Life. Our whole society was created by the imagination an unique work of millions of people. It is not right that other people has the right to delete or appropriate the works that people dedicated their whole soul into doing it. Everything without any exception is unique in this world, in this Time. We are unique. And our laws don't allow being unique. This is the most stupid dilemma humanity has faced. We are closing ourselves into laws which don't allow us to be unique, but that can't work, because we are born unique. It's the same thing with Artworks, video, comments, photos, they are unique work made by unique people. It is not right that someone else than its true creator can take it down or use it to gain some sort of money from it.
Personally, I uploaded a video to youtube in which me and a friend talked over video fragments of Dragon Ball Z. That video was striked, but we where commenting on it the whole running time, so it falls under the United States law of Fair Use.
It is time to update this statute.
https://youtu.be/NoIL5qUI1p8
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright abusers who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Perhaps, the most insulting part of DCMA takedowns, is that people are treated as guilty until proven innocent. This goes directly against our nation's values.
The copyright system it's on fair and does not let people in fair use up of the content of The people that watch the content it has gotten out of hand and now channels that are getting away with it should not be getting away with it and channels that are not getting away with it being abuse by the system thank you for listening
The notice-and-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Save the internet, save freedom.
Joe
The problem with the DMCA takedowns is that it's based off an very old conventional/traditional set of rules based off the greatest generation's values/ethics. We live in such a different age that using almost ALL of the fair use and copyrighted work is almost a natural given thanks to the readily availability of the internet. Although this may seem like an obvious attack on the rightful owners, many of these claims have been substantially abusive to those who clearly meet the requirements under judicial law to use copyrighted works (for use of commentary, parody, instructional and etc.) There lies the problem.
We need legislation to rework the copyrighted laws, and make it work better for this modern era. Not only for YouTube or any other video hosting sites for original creative content, but for the Art outside of the internet.
The DMCA is an outdated law for today's modern world. With the proliferation of the internet and technology, digital media content is consumed and created at an astounding rate. These days anyone can shoot or download a video, slap a song in the background, splice in some movie footage, and end up with a unique piece of content, artwork, or commentary. It is unreasonable to expect individuals to properly license or obtain clearance for every bit of copyrighted material that they consume, share, modify, or comment on through commonplace internet use, and in most instances it is not possible to do so.
Copyrighted content has become an integral part of our shared culture and a frequent tool for self-expression. Creative works no longer effectively fall into the public domain (at least not within any reasonable standard of time), and it is becoming harder to avoid even unintentionally infringing upon some piece of content, simply because it exists and is disseminated in the digital realm. 50 years ago if you made a scrapbook collage out of magazine clippings, no one would consider that infringement unless perhaps you intended to sell the finished work. In order to re-purpose or distribute more technologically advanced material such as music or film, you needed money, equipment, labor, and an entire industry to operate in. Today that is no longer the case. Instead of magazine photos people can combine video clips or soundbites, and the ability (and incentive!) to do so is readily available at everyone's fingertips. The barrier of entry to create multimedia content has been lowered and therefore the demarcation of infringement should adjust accordingly.
I work in the television industry creating advertisements for a major cable network. All of our content must be carefully cleared and licensed. If we use copyrighted music or footage, we must go through the proper legal procedures to make air. This makes sense, because our content is created for commercial purposes and widespread consumption, and features copyrighted material from multiple collaborating entities.
An average internet user, however, has no commercial goal or interest, and a relatively minimal audience. It's one thing to blatantly post a copyrighted work in its entirety; this is rightfully considered infringement and should be subject to takedowns. But the vast majority of user generated content falls into the category of fair use, where users' primary purpose is to comment on material, or modify and combine it to form new creative works. It seems ridiculous to force the removal of a thoughtful 7-minute film critique simply because it contains a few short scenes from the movie, or an artistic and lovingly handcrafted animation simply because it features a seconds-long segment of a popular song.
Perhaps the worst part about the DMCA is that it heavily favors, and in fact practically defaults to always favor, the copyright holder over the content creator. This allows big corporations and companies who base their business around owning copyrighted material to essentially censor and remove content with impunity and without risk. A video that actually infringes on a copyright and a video that falls under fair use are seen as equal in the eyes of the (often automated) takedown procedures. The onus is always on the content creator to prove they are misusing the material, and the copyright holder can often ignore or reject these appeals anyway.
I myself have come across one of the dreaded "copyright trolls" on YouTube. Having purchased and licensed the use of royalty-free stock music from a source that sells such music for use in creative content, I was surprised to see copyright claims on a few of my videos. Apparently a third-party company used Content ID to recognize the stock music tracks and flag them. Now, of course if I had stolen or misused the music they would have been in the right. But I had legally purchased and licensed the tracks and had every right to use them. There was no system in place to prevent such a false claim. The company, which quite possibly didn't even own the copyright of the music in question and was simply trolling for commonly used materials in order collect on the automatic ad-revenue, was not required to confirm that any infringement on my part was actually taking place. They could shoot first and ask questions later, so to speak. Fortunately in my case this company accepted my YouTube appeals and dismissed their claims, but that was entirely their prerogative. They could have just as easily rejected my response, and I would have gotten a strike against my account and had very limited recourse for further action. Ultimately it was their word against mine, no questions asked. This is not a fair and effective way of enforcing copyrighted material, and allows for rampant abuse.
Bottom line, by denying the use of digital copyrighted material in user created content that rely on the principles of fair use, we stifle the innovation, creativity, and exchange of ideas that define us as cultured, social beings. We also fosters a closed-off, litigious environment where the moneyed interests of huge, profit-minded organizations outweigh the interests and voices of the common people and, therefore, the interests of cultural progress, communication, and the arts in general.
This system is being abused unfairly by large companies or even people who can fake being large companies to take down and or claim objects such as videos on sites such as YouTube.
Content creators are being forced to take action and often need the support of their fans so sites like YouTube can notice. If they are smaller channels that are under the radar, they will likely not be able to re-claim their content and so lose ad-revenue, and a video they may have taken considerate amounts of time to produce.
To the people I helped vote in to office:
My name is Robert Brandon Bagby. I am a veteran of our armed services and now a youtube content creator. I urge you to please change this law. I do understand that laws need to be in place to protect civil liberties such as copyright, however my right to Fair Use, (such as making educational and critic biased videos for the edification of a future generation) is under constant attack due to this current law. This needs to be changed. Currently people can make claims on copyrights that they do not own or have the permission to own. This has cost me time, money, and enjoyment of my life due to malicious and non punishable abuses to this law. The DMCA is a complete joke when using it against today's internet. If I wanted to say, make a video over the progress of video games and how it has impacted the United States culturally, I will worry every day for the eventuality that all the hard work and research that I put in to make original content will not actually help to support me or my family due to the fact that anyone can issue a content ID Claim or Strike. It does not matter if they own the content or not, it does not matter if I am in the right on my short film being fair use. I will be hit with with claim after claim, and strike after strike. I recently was content ID matched for a song in the background of the video game by a German company. The song that was "matched" and the actual song where two completely different songs. It was not the focus of the video itself, the focus of the video was a video game, and my interaction with the video game and the fans at the same time. This video was for a charity. However the charity saw no money from the video because, I could not monetize it and thus could not find out how much money to give the charity from the video. The charity by the way was to help soldiers who were deployed by sending them things that was actually entertaining as to raise their morale and increase their proficiency in the hell hole known as a war zone.
The current DMCA law in place has effected many YouTubers and the ones who do YouTube as a full time job especially. Big companies take advantage of the current DMCA in place to silence and steal from YouTubers,
As someone who frequently watches creative YouTubers from around the world, I have seen so many videos about the situation revolving around false claims and how the system involved with these claims is dated and unaware of what's really going on. And what they say is true. With a world that fully revolves around the internet nowadays it's about time we updated the system in order to catch out on fake companies that abuse the fair use system for their own pleasure. What these trolls do make me and other regular YouTube viewers sick to my stomach. I thought my favourite youtuber was gone because one day YouTube took down his channel and everything he worked hard for! He did get it back but YouTube didn't even apologise for the misunderstanding. I was also trying to start making YouTube videos myself at one point and before I could get anywhere I got numerous false claims and videos taken down because of stealing audio, even when it didn't have any audio in it! This system that once protected us is now stopping us, new and old creators trying to earn a living. And it doesn't make things better when prank and reaction videos break all of the YouTube community guidlines and they get no punishment whatsoever.
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The DMCA is an outdated law that needs to be either updated or replaced to better reflect the current state of the Internet.
I personally may not be a content creator, but I do enjoy the results that the many personalities that exist on YouTube et. al. It hurts me to know that their rightfully-earned income is being threatened by supposed copyright violations.
As Doug Walker of Channel Awesome stated in his #WTFU (Where's the Fair Use) video, companies are falsely filing against content that is 100% within Fair Use with no repercussions. Some examples include younger children dancing to a song playing on a radio or stereo and getting taken down. A system needs to be in place to prevent them from continuing this unfair practice.
A huge example of this practice is Martin Bellany (LittleKuriboh), who created Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged (a series that parodies the anime Yu-Gi-Oh!). He has had his YouTube channel taken down and restored many times because of false copyright claims, which, as a parody, is protected by Fair Use laws even though it uses copyrighted footage from the anime.
The Internet has exploded in creative content the past decade with the advent of YouTube and other sites. I and many others do not want to see the cavalcade of creativity silenced.
One idea to help fix the problem is to allow infinite responses for creators to challenge their claim/strike, and to have them speak with a person over the phone to voice their concerns.
This is just a few of my words. Hope I can always come to the Internet to enjoy my favorite content from my favorite creators.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from legal users.
#wtfu
Where the fair use. There are tons of videos on it. Here a playlist. Please. Businesses have been harrassing youtube creators and its got to stop. It's not right or fair.
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN0F7LMzwuHHQyZ10I8-eDYdZNrnolSnF
This is just three people I watch and I am sure there are hundreds more. Please hear our voices.
Where's the Fair Use? Seriously, this needs major updating. Like, really badly. We need our free speech! It's a basic human right! We need to be able be safe from those who abuse a broken system! Please, help us! #WTFU
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
In order words, big companies are doing a smear campaign against free speech along with far-left feminists who want to control what we see and what we play using things that don't add up. They have corrupted the United States government because they wanted to get disability rights off the agenda alongside fair use. I believe in truth, justice, freedom and hope. I know that Superman and Goku doesn't exist in this world, you want to know why? They are ideals. However, the childhood obesity crisis in the UK was a result of a show that is on too long and corrupting young children to eat unhealthy food, be rude and bully. Also, this is also a smear campaign against autistic people. What I am saying is create fines for the companies who abuse it. All fines will go to the space program of every government on the earth.
Please, defend our right to free speech.
Let the artists on Youtube, or any other place on the internet, express themselves.
while I did not write what is below the line I've drawn, I do agree with all of it and want it to be included in this comment. I've watched some of my favorite reviewers get wiped out from malicious intent and even content creators who showed no copy right material, that is, producing a video that had no copyrighted works other than their own personal selves on camera, get stricken and taken down, which is absurd.
Besides being abusive and demoralizing, it's also quite illegal. A new set of laws should be put in to punish those who abuse these laws, in the same way that false reports to police can result in a fine or worse.
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I will leave what has been left here, but I would like to voice my opinion. I find it absolutely wrong and unfair that so many reviewers (whether they make a living or career reviewing various forms of media or are just simply an average person wanting to speak about something they love, like, or hate) are being put though constant harassment from various studios & corporations because of said reviewer's own personal thoughts and feelings on a specific series, film, or franchise.
As a frequent viewer of YouTube, I had always been curious as to why certain videos had been taken down, but I never realized that there was more to it. And finding out that this has been going on for so long leaves me feeling angry and disgusted by how far and how low some people, studios, & corporations are willing to go just because someone voices an opinion that just don't like. With that said, I'm glad to be a part of this cause and though it may be one small step, it's a small step in the right direction towards a better future for both YouTube and the Internet in general.
I strongly believe that the DMCA needs to be removed or rewritten. It's currently being used by anyone who wants to hurt another person in terms of their youtube standing as well as cutting off revenue for certain videos. DMCA Takedowns are being used as threats to essentially blackmail people into doing stuff they shouldn't have to do, because there is currently no downside to abusing the system.
Someone had claimed a video of mine for music I never even used and I had no way to dispute it.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
I am a creator. A small creator, and even I have been burned by the system that Youtube, and other companies use to steal revenue and claim my videos as Not fair use.
As a more personal note, I frequently watch youtube videos criticizing or satirizing movies and music. I have seen several taken down, despite being well within fair use. I just want smaller content creators to have protections, as the larger ones clearly do. Please add some kind of punishment for abuse of the takedown system.
-Greg
The following affects even us people outside of USA.
While it mostly effects the U.S. it effects the world.
I'm a youtuber. I am literally a slave to larger companies that have pull with developers to get permissions to use any type of game content. Without this partnership (me giving them money for their connections) I can't post without fear of DMCA hits. Despite content being news/parody related and well within confines of the law. Please please please fix this.
For too long, the DMCA has been abused by corporate copyright holders in order to silence and shut down creative and political free speech on the internet.
Please, listen to the voices of content creators; they have been ignored for far too long, especially in cases of this kind.
I like many others think the system needs to be remade for the modern internet and bring back the fair use.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
If anyone actually reads this I'd like to let them know something. I plan on becoming a content creator on YouTube in the future, but I don't want to have to constantly wonder whether or not my videos will be taken down due to a broken system that is abused daily. People who have a YouTube channel as their source of income, can have their money taken away because some butthole claimed wrongful copyright infringement. There's more to this situation but I'm just paraphrasing, and I'm sure that if you are reading these comments that you'll hopefully be getting the whole picture. So please, copyright laws must be updated in order to create true fairness.
The DMCA is being used by bullies to remove fair use and criticism through automated systems and is being used as retaliation for bad reviews of products. It has utterly failed to protect copyright holders, especially those without the money for large legal fees and has become a tool of large corporations and small minded individuals to silence others.
All the while it has been ineffective at preventing real pirating and real copyright theft.
DMCA is broken and needs to be fixed or removed.
-Eric Litton
The DMCA is heavily abused, it does not help creators, it only serves to harm them.
It was designed in 1998 to deal with a 1998 internet, and is in dire need of updating. The current system is so open to abuse it is laughable.
First of all i hope you are not joking about this because all of the 1st april stuff going on, i care about my rights on the internet, i need weird companies claiming videos that have content that even dont belong to them, and let me make a review about some movie or series using songs or clips from such.
I myself have been subject to several content claims from holders who do not own the claimed content, and was given free reign to monetize my videos without penalty.
DMCA is a very outdated process and has not been updated for decades. It is abused by many companies an individuals who do not own the content, or who use it on content under fair use to censor bad reviews or content they do not agree on.
Bruh you guys need to do something. If i post my own god damn name on twitter, or make a short 2 second video saying my own name out loud, it can be taken down due to false copyright claims. If someone doesn't like you on youtube, they can ruin your hard work. Implement a rule system that makes sense, so that this never can happen again. -Reoa (AKA Pussy Destroyer)
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted work. Please help make the Internet great. All for fair use
This comment may appear to be a copy but I read and agree with the entire statement and it's arguments, so you can take it as my personal statement
#WTFU
One example of the kind of abuse enabled by the current system include the I Hate Everything case, in which independent film director Derek Savage was able to put a copyright claim on IHE's video criticising his film despite the video being categorized under fair use laws. Savage was also able to claim ad revenue from the video while it was still up due to YouTube's flawed system.
PS.False claims should include punishment
I encourage you to watch these videos on the problem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH-8PqS84qA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjXNvLDkDTA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
Just type in the word "copyright" in the YouTube search bar, and you will find tons of videos about how these YouTubers are being abused by the Copyright and Fair Use System. It needs Updateing.
Content creators who are merely upset that their work is gaining negative or ironic scrutiny are using this broken system to copyright slam other content creators whose actions completely and utterly fall under fair use. The system is so unbelievably biased towards those who make the claim and not the defendant it's almost humorous.
This "guilty until proven innocent" mentality is something that needs to be dealt with as soon as possible. It's disgusting that in an egotistical or jealous rage, anyone can get a video belonging to anyone else removed for a phoney reason.
It doesn't even have to be a creator - if someone simply doesn't LIKE a video, perhaps because it offends them, they can submit a false claim and get the video taken down temporarily, forcing the content creator to go through a nightmarish process in order to restore their video. Then, after all that, the claimant - who is in both the moral and legal wrong - suffers no negative repercussions for their actions. This needs to stop now.
This is really unfair. We have the rights to talk about everything. It's called the freedom of speech. We need to critic product to help people to make choices. If us don't like it, we don't want to buy it. Stop making Bad Product if you don't want people making a bad review of your product. We really don't want to waste money to buy something bad. that's why we watched review. If it's good, we will totally buy it.
My name is Steven. I am the co host of an amateur youtube show called Freak Occurrence. Myself and my co host create videos for our show twice a week using video game media. Our material gets flagged for "copyright infringement" so many times because of the in-game music, which has been put in there by the creators, that we are forced to mute the music in the options menu in order to not have it flagged for "copyright infringement."
This is a blatant abuse of an old and outdated system. We have no control over what music is put into these video games, nor are we adding in copyrighted music simply because we are bored. This music is in it already. We have even had one video have three copyright infringement flags because of one video containing, again, the in game music media that is already in the media.
What is even more ridiculous is that this is an automated system.
Yes, that's right. This is an automated system.
There are no humans in this entire process. What is the point then? There is none. Whatever the point of this automated system is, it isn't for the user's benefit, and it isn't to protect the actual content creators.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech must be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair-use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate speech and creative expression on the internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30% of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe-harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use must be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or neglect to adhere to any fair-use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Fair use of materials has existed well before the internet became widespread, and while protecting intellectual property is an important factor, limiting the freedom of creators in the interest of saving a bit of time is unfair to everyone involved. It stifles creativity and creates an environment of hostility.
as an upcoming youtuber and a member of the community i'm devastated that all these companies are attempting to destroy youtubers
Too many times I have personally witnessed online reviewers and comedians have their reviews, parody and news discussion videos forcibly altered or completely removed by someone claiming copyright. In some cases the entire channel has been unavailable, forcing content creators (some of who rely on these videos as a sole source of income) to jump through hoops and force their way through red tape in order to retrieve their livelihood.
The part that really stands out in these situations, in my opinion, is that in a regular situation outside the internet, the burden of proof would be on the side of the company to prove copyright infringement before these kinds of actions take place. However, under the current legislation, no such proof is required before enstating a takedown "notice". Did you notice the quotation marks? That's because these notices don't function as notices at all, rather as strikes against a content creator altering their creation, forcing them to takedown the video, and if they're lucky, alter it and re-upload it. Sometimes re-uploading is a not an option. This flies in the face of the very idea of 'innocent until proven guilty'.
While I disagree with pirates who will download free videos off of the web to store locally, under the current DMCA guidelines, I have to emphasize with them. We've created a culture where when a reviewer is posting a review, there is always an unspoken caveat that demands we either check it out straight away, or risk losing it forever. This is because the Internet has evolved and outgrown the outdated DMCA. I'm sure it was 'radical' and 'tubular' at the time people, but during its inception, sites like YouTube and Vimeo were but pipe dreams in the minds of young college students.
DMCA puts fair use and open critiquing of media at risk without doing any damage to real illegal networks which have long since been hardened against any enforceable law such that no amount of stricter laws will actually change anything.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of works.
FUCK DMCA NIGGA
The notice-and-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Revenue is being taken by system, (not a person or a company that's seeing a piece of content taken.) One side wields far too much power and their are no downsides to trying to file for DMCA, this means that because the law for the internet is so loose with its protection of original and trans-formative ideas are being taken down and the money that is made from the original works are being used as a quick grab for money because of this lack.
Assholes
I am concerned that the DMCA in its current form is being used by copyright holders to censor negative opinions about brands or products. It has also become very clear that many copyright holders are requesting take-downs for content that is fair use. More needs to be done to defend the rights of individuals, and not just corporations.
Thank you for your consideration.
The notice/takedown process under DMCA is weighted heavily in favor of corporate copyright holders, which admittedly, is how it was originally intended. But we live in an era where corporations are not the only players in the game. Commentary, educational principles, fair use, all of these are legal and allowable, yet the process of filing a DMCA notice is far too easy for corporations (or even private individuals) to file, with no fear of self-incrimination, whereas their victims are left revealing sensitive information with little recourse, if they want to challenge the notice received.
Where YouTube is concerned, especially, ANYONE can file a takedown notice, whether they have any connection to actual copyright holders at all, and while the actual creators of content can challenge, the provisions of DMCA determine that the burden of proof is on them, not the original filers, nor even the original copyright holders.
This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. And provision needs to be made in the law to require for private businesses or individuals, because not everyone who gets a takedown notice HAS a business office. Many operate out of their homes.
I can, right now, completely legally, copyright claim a video on youtube and receive all monetization until the dispute goes through. I would receive money for someone else's work for absolutely no reason, and I can do it to whomever and whenever I want.
This is absolutely ridiculous.
Fix this before it obliterates youtube.
Not get copy writed for playing music in the back of our videos, and more money on youtube!!!
Let people use shit
The free speech of many is being censored and deleted by corporations and trolls. There needs to be something done about this. The bill of rights is not in existence for nothing.
Here's what is already written and provided for in this regard (and quite true):
Now here is what I would like to add personally:
I'm a nobody. I have around 307,000 subscribers who all hold their breath every time I get suspended or in some cases even terminated on YouTube. And this is over the simplest, pettiest, most biased accusations I have ever had to deal with. I'm a critic and as such I speak my mind, but rarely do I ever say anything that defames or harms a retailer's/producer's/studio's reputation. 99% of the time these people are taking advantage of YouTube's incredibly biased "company before the individual" course of action and killing channels dead on the spot. I was lucky enough to avoid this with the help of fans, public outcry, and fighting to get my channel and my completely legal videos back with around 275,000 subscribers at the time. I can only hope and pray for the channels smaller than me that don't have this kind of support and can only hope that YouTube does something to protect them.
After all, this is the "YOU"Tube, isn't it? The internet soapbox? Not the "THEM"Tube. Quite frankly the current policies instated are absolutely unacceptable. I understand that that lawsuits are scary. But sitting there and doing nothing to help the individuals who have helped to grow YouTube into the powerhouse it is today is even scarier. Do the right thing and stick up for the little guy, even if the little guy isn't a spooky conglomerate creeping down your neck.
Fix this
The process has also been used by trolls to siphon away advertising and other revenue from the legitimate creators of the content, from either a completely spurious claim (none of their content was used at all) or a misappropriate one (claiming all of the revenue due to use of a 2-second audio clip in a half-hour video that is otherwise original content). The systems are also abused simply by the claimant refusing to acknowlege fair use repeatedly until the number of allowed appeals is exhausted and the (non infringing or fair use) content is permanently removed -- sometimes by a completely automated system and never reviewed by a human third party.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable and penalized for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Ok, this is a huge issue. While my personal channel has not been affected, how long till it does? It's no longer a question of if but rather when. People are able to falsely copyright claim videos, with no penalty for committing a literal crime, which damage the content creators. It has affected huge channels Such as "I Hate Everything" (https://www.youtube.com/user/IHEOfficial)
Who had his whole channel removed off of the site, and has also gone through turmoil with Derek Savage who falsely used the broken system held in place to bully I Hate Everything. Other big channels have been effected too, Channel Awsome have had to battle false copyright claims daily for no reason. They use movie clips in their videos but they use them in fair use, they add to the content and criticize or praise it. We as a community need to fix this. the points i've given here are only a small amount. Please for the sake of the internet. This needs to be fixed
I've known too many creative artists get their content removed despite it falling under fair use, even occasionally after its received permission to post. They deserve the right to express themselves. The copyright law is outdated and needs to be revised for the modern internet age.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are (able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e
. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
MY OPINION: I know I'm not an american to get these kinds of problems, but I wanna help other content creators.
I get that the DMCA was created for anti-pirating purposes, but people have been exploiting ways to get profit from content creators.
YouTube or not.
So I'll stand for Internet Freedom
I'll stand for No Censorship
Why? Because the internet is different than 1998.
THE AUTOMATED COMMENT:
The DMCA is almost as old as I am, and that's actually really impressive. Sure eighteen years isn't that impressive as a number. But in internet standards, the DMCA is like that racist great-grandpa you have to tolerate at the dinner table every Thanksgiving, and it's amazing to see how it got to be that old in the first place.
You can deal with nasty relatives who come once a year. You can't deal with obsolete legislature, and you definitely can't deal with a potential lawsuit. The DMCA's system of guilty proven innocent has created an environment on YouTube that has unfairly attacked content users. And people petty enough to use the DMCA to negatively affect a critic's livelihood aren't legally obligated to deal with the consequences of their actions. I think copyright is necessary, but I think it's time to look at it with a modern perspective. Give it a nice coat of paint or something.
#WTFU or where's the fair use was started by YouTube content creators getting their video(s) taken down despite being well in the fair use law, This happened due to YouTube's automated DMCA claim and the lack of monitoring using their DMCA take-down. it has no consequences when someone like a game developer uses it to censor a critic. Among such creators are Channel Awesome, I Hate Everything, Jim Sterling, all creators on YouTube that have had revenue taken from them and even had their channel taken down by wrongful claims well the other party (the game developer, movie studio, etc etc.) have had little to no reason to stop. they can make a claim and leave it having the video taken down, even having it take up to if not longer then 15 days for the content creators counter claim to go through. in a DMCA take-down the creators get a strike which limits their channel. After 3 strikes it closes their channel. this with little or no quality control on the claims makes a scary situation for content creators. with the DMCA claim you can do the counter notification, but the claimant holds the revenue for as long as the claims up. Even if its a false claim. this needs to be fixed.
- Richard
A system that allows for this type of behavior to thrive is a catastrophically broken system.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. Individuals can have their artistic property stripped from them, effectively removing their unique voice for the conversation, for often petty and unfair reasons. This kind of damage can not be undone.
Our freedom of speech is under attack and our rights to fair use is being taken from us. No one is trying to steal or plagiarize anything which is what copyright laws SHOULD be focused on. Instead if a person is using clips from a movie for critical or satire use, which IS in their rights under the fair use act, the movie creator just gets pissed that they said something bad about the movie and files a complaint. That's unfair, stifling freedom of speech, an amendment and civil right we as Americans have! Please help protect content creators/ They follow the law so why are they being punished simply for speaking out?
Hollywood was founded by those who wanted to escape creative restrictions and copyright was created for hardworking content makers so they could protect their work. It's about time it started living up to that.
Your American companies have caused 6 of my channels to be taken down due to false fair use actions...DESPITE ME TAKING ALL MUSIC OFF and having only my own face in the corner of the videos.
I am a content creator myself so I am very much in favor of copyrights and intellectual property being protected. But the current system is broken, it allows abuse without consequences and victims of this abuse usually have very little or no recourse.
The current DMCA takedown system gets abused over and over and over again. And not in insignificant numbers either, a LOT of content creators have had false takedown requests lodged against their work.
And there are absolutely zero consequences for people who abuse the DMCA takedown process in this way.
There are provisions that require people to declare under penalty of perjury that this is a legitimate takedown request, but this has, in practice, never been enforced.
Due to this, copyright holders step all over other people's rights. They do not consider or even care about Fair Use, they send automated takedown requests that impacts content creators’ work and livelihood without even doing a cursory check to see if their IP rights are actually being violated.
The DMCA takedown process also gets abused to take down content that people disagree with. This impacts our free speech rights. Even not being a US citizen I do have free speech rights as per my country’s constitution.
As stated, I am not a US citizen myself but most internet services that hosts content like mine are subject to US laws and restrictions.
Thank you.
The DMCA, meant to safeguard content creators and create a better platform for the sharing of content and information fairly, has now been made into the single greatest weapon against this ideal. Corporations and even average people are using the DMCA process to stifle creativity and the voices of those they do not like without any consideration for actual fair use. The DMCA has become a threat, and not exclusively from content creators or holders attempting to silence criticism. Any random troll on the internet can make a claim that they own content (even content that is original to the person being filed against) and have a channel shut down with virtually no way for the defendant to defend themselves. Furthermore, if the content creator makes an honest living by these means, any money they lose while a video is contested remains in the hands of the filer (EVEN IF THE FILER HAS NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER TO THE CONTENT).
CHANGE NEEDS TO HAPPEN AND NOW. GOAL #1: Accountability for the people filing claims. If someone falsely files a claim, they do not deserve to keep any ill gotten funds, and furthermore, deserve to be prosectuted.
I'm Joakim and I support the above message. Having said that, I'd like to point to the specific instance that makes me sign this message.
One year ago a video game journalist posted a video outlining what inside sources at a developer were saying regarding that company's future and with this as a starting point he did journalistic work to investigate whether this was a probable rumour. It was real journalism, and the public is more knowledgeable about the situation at that company because he made that video. The video is basically the video form of an article based on a whistle blower's account.
It was however blocked. Because the journalist used footage from the developer's games, the developer could, in accordance with the DMCA, claim copyright and therefore stopping people from viewing this video article. The footage in question was partly used as a source of the video's claims and partly used to remind the viewer of what games the company had made. This is akin to a journalistic video about the Lehmann Brothers' possible forthcoming bankruptcy being blocked by Lehmann because it contained footage from their offices or their logotype. And this is a power that goes beyond the reaches of what I consider reasonable, more importantly it defeats the purposes of fair use.
The video in question was "Kojima vs. Konami: An Investigation".
Corporations are abusing the system as an excuse to silence critics who criticize their work reasonably. They are already violating the 2nd Amendment Rights of the People for free speech. If you allow this to continue it basically destroys creativity and it shows that money is all you need to ignore the constitution.
The time to change is now.
People have every right to post/create non-profit/fair use content out of any product they desire. Creators taking down said content are only enforcing people to do something that they want them to do, from something that they either can't consider to be fair/have fair rights to do so.
I like it. It works fine.
also this should been a crime to steal videos and such
Although I don't upload videos under copyright control, I usually watch a lot of YouTube users who constantly lose their videos because of this unfair copyright law. Even my closest friend has to upload videos to different websites in order to avoid his videos to be deleted. So I don't like this situation... #WTFU
The notice-and-takedown process under the DMCA is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
People file claims on content they don't even own and can get away with stealing money from creators this way. DMCA is being used to stifle free speech and inflict harm on creators livelihoods. Videos of people just talking on camera with no copyrighted footage, sound, or any kind of content whatsoever, are being taken down due to these spurious claims. DMCAs have been abused through shell companies shielding companies sending the takedowns from liability or consequences. Companies use them purely to threaten people they dislike. Videos get hit numerous times even after they're cleared.
Copyright law needs to be fixed to protect the future of free speech.
TL;DR: People are abusing the system to take down content that they don't actually own and steal the revenue from someone else's hard work, when that work should legally be protected. WHY IS THIS ALLOWED? WHY ARE THERE NO REPERCUSSIONS FOR DOING SUCH A THING?
Escepcially on youtube where in many documented cases these companies hire shell companies to send illegitimate claimes to steal revenue from the content creator. This abuse hurts everyone, especially content creators who are forbidden to make revenue if a company decides they dont like that person. Not to mention outright threats via email twitter and youtube from these shell companies that have no right to the content they are filing false claims to
DMCA is very outdated and frequently abused. Copyright in the US is horribly broken and increasingly twisted far beyond the original intent, to the point it's now a tool for hiding speech someone or some corporation dislikes or is afraid of.
Takedowns and threats are a business model, even a profit center. The DMCA has been perverted and is not fulfilling its purpose.
I've been a witness to a good number of the injustices thrust upon internet content creators for a number of years now by the DMCA take down system. It is a broken outdated concept and it needs to be reworked or outright thrown out. Please don't allow this system to continue to threaten freedom of expression. There has to be a better way.
The copyright system on Youtube should never have existed in the state that it currently is.
Say someone would put a copyright claim on the new Superman movie. A single person in his bedroom just saying he owns it. During the time that the studio would have taken down his ridiculous claim, all revenue the movie made would belong to this faceless person.
After that this person would do this again to another movie, stealing huge amounts of income without any consequence.
There are more reasons and flaws in the system to mention. But simply typing in #Where'sTheFairUse in on Youtube will give you all info you need.
A government with to many restrictive laws will never be able generate enough jobs to support it's self.
The economy can't support enough jobs for American citizens, and you cutting of somethingthat could work a buffer keeping the US foment going into another depression. Your house of cards will fall if you keep this up. We will survive the collapse of your kingdom. Can you say the same. Because if 2011 was any indication. You most well trained peons will be the first to go. And then you will follow. Reserves can only last so long, and there's no were to run to. World economy saw to that. Trapped in a corner and chopping at your legs. You will kill yourself by the end of this.
The world won't end with a bag, but a wimpering cry for help before the end.
I have a friend who was making great videos and people were enjoying them he used non copy right music and shown nothing that could have been copy righted he got heaps of threats that if he didn't all his videos they would make sure his Chanel would be taken down. he did take out all his videos and when he posted a vlog video to tell his views what happened he got a strike.he refuses to make videos now until this whole copyright infringement thing is over just so he does int have to start his Chanel from scratch and if this is int dealt with quickly he will have to because pep ole will stop checking his Chanel for new videos. so tell me is that fair use.
If said things above are taken for granted, you might as well take down the whole internet because Internet Platform like YouTube gave me a new perspective on other people's thoughts and opinions. If companies still continue to claim for the intent of silencing us even though it follows the Fair Use Policy then abusive companies should be sued for this kind of fallacies they're doing.
Give us back the free internet, which is so big part of our lives. There are lots of youtubers who give us so much by just being there and uploading videos daily. Don't take it away from us, or from them. Some of them do this as their job. Let them do it. And this is not just about youtube, some of us create other content, create art, or just post tweets. Let us be free.
I don't like the fact that big corporations or big channels or companies are able to take down our content we have worked hard on or take down channels over dumb things you must fix this or it will ruin youtube
Personally, I have been hit with DMCA through music that is NOT AT ALL in my video, and in fact, claimed on music that I had personally created for my own projects.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
The simple matter is that non-corporate entities tend to get run over by strikes and DMCA notices that never go anywhere. The huge cost of potential litigation means that even if a DMCA notice is invalid or erroneous in some fashion it ends up on the content creator to prove Fair Use or that they are the actual rights holder. The punishment for an malicious use of DMCA? Pretty much nothing (at least in practical terms) at the moment.
There needs to be a better set of checks and balances used and more leeway given to potential copyright issues. The sheer amount of transformative work and copyright trolls on the internet is huge in this day and age and only going to grow. Copyright holders need more than just their word to prove that the work belongs to them and any sort of actual damages done.
The DMCA is an old law for a different time, it needs to be updated.
Over the last several years, it has become apparent that the DMCA has done more harm than good. The widespread takedowns are biased to favour larger cooperate figures rather than the smaller, self-established content creators that dominate social media and video sharing sites such as youtube. The act does little to protect content creators and at most times harm them, and many of the copyright strikes were fraudulent with the intent to delete, or to profit from other user's creations. The copyright system on the internet needs to be polished, not only to protect the favours of the cooperation, but for everyone, and we believe that this is possible.
There are literally companies that make money just by abusing the DMCA takedown function of popular Youtube videos to steal their revenue.
Strike me down and I will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
Although in all seriousness on this April Fool's day no less. Copyright holders have long since abused this broken system, using the most shady of means to control media outside of their jurisdiction. This is a rigged system that desperately needs changing, and these archaic rules have no place being here without substantial revisions.
False flags for copyright where the claim is not own by them. Content match were none of copyright material is used. Music that used in the copyright work is flagged by the holder even though it should be there. When even showing an single frame of the material will get you an strike. This is the problem I hope you listen and act.
I am a British content Creator, and I am no longer amenable to living under an American Law. I would see the end of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, at the very least in its current form.
The issues stated below have affected me in the past and are ACTUALLY a serious problem! This NEEDS to be taken serious. Currently, companies can lie about filing takedown "in good faith" in an automated process with what appears to be no punishment whatsoever; the whole idea of the DMCA takedowns has been abused and exploited for years, and changes need to be made to adopt for this new(-ish) situation that the DMCA wasn't designed for, and that the DMCA cannot handle.
STOP IT NOW
Please update & change this dated process.
So again please, update & change this dated process.
I hate to see the people that follow Fair Use Policy and yet still receive punishments for breaking it.
The text that I'm replacing here is no doubt already plastered over this campaign, and I'm certain it will have been read countless times. Rather than add to it or reiterate the facts that are already laid out (as I feel that I could do this little justice) I think I would like to point my efforts towards false claims and unsubstantiated claims.
Why isn't there any recompense for false claims? I feel this whole situation could be resolved by cracking down on the people issuing dmca notices forcing them to vet their own notices with sincere scrutiny before just white-washing everyone with the same notice.
This law may have been a good idea at the time, but technology has moved and in its current state it is no longer fit for purpose.
I agree with this because if this is not dealt with there is no point with analysts and reviewers on YT to do what they do and love so #WTFU
The DMCA was a good idea, but unfortunately the implementation of its enforcement mechanisms is unworkable given the way the internet works today. There are a few examples - I am a musician, and my work is copyrighted, and sold online through retail outlets like Amazon and iTunes. I also ran a YouTube channel.
In my music channel, I have posted my own music to YouTube - only to have my own music flagged and blocked. When I attempted to appeal, the appeal was denied, citing that I had insufficient proof that I was the copyright holder. I had to appeal again (which carries a penalty with YouTube - they penalize you if you file too many appeals that get denied - as they always arbitrarily are), digging up my BMI information and providing tremendous amounts of private personal information to some nameless faceless organization to prove that I was in fact the copyright holder. The process was beyond ridiculous.
Furthermore, the DMCA has heavily affected my own submissions of non-profit and non-monetized videos that I've posted to the internet on sites such as YouTube for my non-music related projects. I run a channel that shows incidents on the road from dashboard cameras inside cars - and very often, if the radio in the car is on in the recording, the content is flagged as an infringement of copyright.
30 seconds of a song playing on a car radio in the background clearly falls within the realm of Fair Use, however there is no way to appeal these determinations - the content gets blocked, and while I can claim it is 'fair use', and have attempted to do so, the copyright holders routinely deny the appeal, even though the subject matter in question can't possibly affect their revenues in any way, shape, or form - it's background noise, immaterial to the actual events being depicted within the video. Unfortunately the supposedly "infringing" material cannot be removed as other sounds such as conversation, engine noise, horns honking, etc - are all very relevant to the video - one simply can't just mute the sound.
The process is an ugly mess and needs to stop. Please fix this!
In the age of Youtube, it is ridiculous that anyone can file a DMCA claim without penalties for false claims. I have seen too many internet reviewers getting their videos removed for using show and movie footage in ways compliant with fair use. Many "Abridged" style parodies, which change the dialogue of shows and edit their episodes down to 10 minutes, have had to host their videos on independent sites or even stop production because of the DMCA abuse rampant on youtube. Penalties for false claims need to impact the claimants as much as they have been impacting the victims of the false claims.
I would just leave it at that, but the helpful form here explains the problems much better than I ever could, so I'll finish with their words.
Ironically, FAIR use is UNFAIR so please let this be heard...
I believe that large companies and corporations are taking advantage of social media and are hurting bloggers, vloggers, and small businesses with false claims of DMCA.
;__;
My youtube channel is tiny... A speck of sand on the beach known as Youtube and I upload gaming videos. On multiple videos I have been hit with 3rd party claims from companies like SME (sony) and even though the content CLEARLY falls under fair use and I fight the claim, then within a week SME files a DMCA. If you leave the 3rd party claim on your content giving SME all your earnings for that video then you are fine. But make the mistake of standing up for your self and your rights and Sony slaps you with a DMCA. 1 DMCA strike on your youtube channel removes the ability to make any money, for any content either already uploaded or to be uploaded, for 6 months. All because a company wants to either flex their muscles or plain cut off criticism. Nintendo is known for doing this.
"Did you use Nintendo's name in your video where you said good things about our game? Good! Have this 3rd party claim that gives all your money to us :)."
"Did you use Nintendo's name in your video where you said bad things about our game? Good! Have this DMCA take down and a 6 month strike :)."
NOTE: the above example is not a joke... though it may seem funny. If you wish to see examples then simply either google or youtube "nintendo vs youtubers" and you will find people that were hit with DMCA and 3rd party claims just by simply mentioning their excitement for upcoming Nintendo games. Can you imagine making an hour long video talking about your life, your car, your family, then simply mentioning "Oh yeah! The new Smash Brothers game is coming out next month... I'm so excited!" Only to have that entire video claimed by Nintendo not because you showed video of their game, not because you played audio of their game, but simply by mentioning it's name for 20 seconds out of an hour long video.
And then the simple ones that are unavoidable. Imaging you are taking video of your babies first steps, to put it up on youtube for your family and whoever else wishes to see the glorious moment. Wake up one day to an email saying "your video has been removed because of a DMCA claim by XXXXX company for the song XXXXXXX." When you recall your next door neighbour was playing this song on their radio while you were recording your babies 1st steps... And the mic slightly picks up like 10 seconds of it slightly in the background. And POOF... Video of babies first steps gone because companies abuse the DMCA laws.
They need to change and adapt to the times.
Your system is abusive, unjust, and makes me ashamed to admit I'm American on the Internet. Practice what you preach, fellas. It's not rocket science.
Where's the fair use???
I have lost my creation channel on YouTube with no notice due to this. The channel is still up with all MY content on it. Where is that in any way fair? I had to create a whole new one and try to get my business back up and running. It is not going well.
If for nothing else I think this can be a good opportunity for the American Government to get some respect back from the people. These corporations are making a record amount of money and are not in danger of losing that swimming pool of cash because a couple of critics did not like whatever their selling. If they don't like the bad press then try to make the next project good. Don't let people's rights get trampled because of some rich guy ego was slightly bruised. This step towards justice can not help this problem but also bring a spark of love to your Government that it can later kindle with further steps.
It isn't fair that company's that don't deserve the money from these videos,etc. to get payed because of the smallest things. YouTube has a 30sec. Period that you could use these things in you videos. So when some people have less like 5 sec. And they are getting bullied from these company's and robbed of there earnings is crazy.
Personally I have seen many videos on youtube where the content was clearly within fair use and it was still taken down. Sometimes there weren't any clips or material from the affected source, just someone talking about it, but it did not matter.
Some companies make claims/strikes on materials they don't own, and sometimes they make claims/strikes on material which had been previously cleared.
In some cases it was clear that the claim/strike was placed to punish a negative review. This leads to a very dangerous path in which people won't be able to express themselves freely due fear of their videos and/or revenue being taken down.
This is having serious consequences already for many creators. I am not saying no law should govern content and copyright, but a balance has to be reached. The current system leaves some creators completely vulnerable.
Specifically posting this for youtube.
Companies shouldn't be allowed to take down YouTube videos, it should be judged by YouTube staff, and then re-watched by the staff, instead of the video just being taken down without it being a 'fair game'.
The notice-and-takedon process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
There have been many instances of copyright holders using DMCA takedown notices in order to silence criticism (and sometimes even praise) of their product via reviews that fall under fair use or derivative work.
There are even instances of companies or individuals filing false copyright claims on Youtube, the result being that they take the revenue generated from the video for up to and including a month. Once the counter-claim is not disputed, there are no negative repercussions for filing the false claim. In essence this is a form of theft - stealing the revenue from a content creator and not having to return it to the rightful owner.
Anyone can see that this situation is preposterous, and should not be so easily enabled.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be he responsible.
The DMCA is not an effective tool for effective guarding and management of copyright. It is a dated law that has no place in the modern age of information and fair use.
The power that the DMCA gives to copyright holders has been consistently abused in the modern setting, where copyright holders simply censor unwanted opinions and valid criticism or stiffle fair use.
But what I think is even worse than everything mentioned before is the simple fact that the current system is being abused. Video footage with no copyrighted music or images has been taken down. Critical examinations of copyrighted works (which falls under Fair Use) have been removed purely because the original creators wanted to stifle critics.
This system is broken. I say it's time to either fix it or toss the entire thing in the trash. Both would be preferable to the current situation.
The DMCA is a relic of an internet that does no exist in the form it used to be when this law was made anymore. It was created with another reality in mind and sites like twitter and YouTube and many more were mere fiction back then. The DMCS fails to account for those websites and the way people use the internet today. The DMCA fails to account for your reality.
Companies abuse the DMCA to claim ownership for content online (such as YouTube videos) and successfully steal ad-revenue of content creators and therefore destroying the basis for those creators to live! There are no penalties for false DMCA-takedowns, which happen more than real ones.
Right no the DMCA is used to shut down unwanted content, that has nothing to do with copyright. It's used to silence and harass content creators. The law as it is now allows for companies to take down YouTube Videos with no copyright footage at all!
Some companies out there even believe that they are rightfully creating their own "laws" based on the DMCA.
DMCA-takedowns also don't count in Fair Use, which is the vast majority of videos on YouTube taken down by false DMCA claims.
Companies use "shell companies" as rights-holders to shield themselves from possible harm because of false and illegitimate copyright claims.
Content can be taken down multiple times, even after said content has been cleared of a DMCA takedown.
Just look up "Where is the fair use" on YouTube and Google to see how horrible the current situation is.
This is the first chance since the 1950's to make a change for good. To make a step in the right direction. Please don't mess this up. The future of content creators and the way the internet get's used for the next decades is upon you.
Don't mess this up. Although... It can hardly get any worse, than the current situation, especially on YouTube, is.
I'm signing because I think the DMCA needs serious revisions to protect both copyright holders and those who make a living from transformative works that fall under 'fair use'. People have a right to free speech, and sometimes that speech cannot be made without direct reference to the source material. Handling of these issues has been abysmal thus far.
Under a court sanction (Lenz z. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I'm not asking to put entire movies on YouTube. But I've had YouTube channels taken down because someone disagreed with what I said. A published report is not copyrighted material. A photograph is not a reason to shut down my speech. The DMCA was not designed to allow people who disagree with someone's opinion to stifle that speech. It's not hate speech, it's not inciting anyone to violence; thousands of people can agree with the opinion but one person can get mad and file false DMCAs against it and it's automatically taken down with no reason given.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The takedowns in question unfairly target small market creators and artists who have legally done NOTHING WRONG according to this law. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. There are other problems that arise with this when you consider that no actual human being is handling the supposed infringement in question. There is a LOT of room for error when using such a system and very little way for individuals to fight back against it when they are being wrongfully targeted by these programs. Yet, this almost never happens. Large money making creators like The Gabby Show and The Fine Bros are further perpetuating this problem by targeting individuals who make statements against them, that they disagree with, or that use their content for things as simple (and legal) as reviews. When you consider that some of these takedowns completely shut down youtube channels (and other social media platforms that are sources of income for small businesses or web-based workers) AND start funneling those channels' revenues during the time of the shut downs, this problem becomes much more than an issue of corporate ego but also one of THEFT from creators.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. This is something that has been seen with countless Bernie Sanders support videos and speeches during this current campaign season. It was also done in regards to Arizona voter suppression. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This costs not only the business, but their followers and communities, a great deal of harm. This kind of damage can not be undone. These reports should NOT be taken lightly and handled by computer algorithms alone. Especially not when it involves serious types of content or content that generates a sole source of income for an individual.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. For example, The Gabby Show (as a corporate creator) should be punished for her continued abuse of the takedown process against channel and show reviewers who dislike her content or say disparaging things about her, despite their proper and fully legal use of her content per the fair use act. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works and there should be categories designating which types of reports are viewed by automated sources and which are reviewed by actual people. Such actions would prevent further abuse of the system, improve accuracy, and benefit all online social media businesses and their communities as a whole.
I do not earn any money by making videos. One of them, a recording of a classical music concert, was faced with a threat of taking down for using music by Brahms and Mendelssohn, which is totally copyright free material. Other music I use is always not used in its entirety, and I always make sure to mention whose music I am using.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Where's the fair use ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
As a Victim of the so-called Digital Millennium Copyright Act or as I call it the I'll sue you law. I have had videos removed from my youtube channel of Video game playtime JUST because the game i was playing used copyright music. Is this my fault for posting copyright works? No it is someone showing off and promoting a Game that I find fun. I have had almost all my content removed by trolls, and these robo copyright hound bots that i have STOPPED all youtube posting, as with posted via facebook and other like sites. Thanks to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act they can get pulled down just from someone clicking a link or a button.
Land of a free? HA, more like land of the copyright holders and Big Corporations.
Youtube, Twitter and the rest had unlawful copyright systems. Someone can file a copyright claim and the video goes down. The judgement is next to impossible to fight and always favours bug buissness. Protect creaters and tear down the brocken system
Right now, it's very easy for someone to take advantage of the DMCA to take down videos they don't like. And they way it's done, it also costs those content creators revenue and even risk of losing their channel, which could be their livelihood. And there are no repercussions for those who try to take down said videos falsely. This needs to change.
It is being used wrong and is a bee wrong system needs to be stopped and taken down for good
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
In short the old system is shit and needs to be fixed.
There is not much to add to the pre-written comment, but I might add the cases of several Youtubers I follow, their content gets taken down even if they're actually protected by Fair-Use, there needs to be a way to protect content creators against false Claims.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech and defrauding the victims of income.
Many Youtubers I know have gotten unfair copyright strikes even for their own animated content by random trolls. They can not defend themselfs and are found guilty untill proven wrong. And even if as youtube channel you try defend yourself, if its not good enough you'll only be in more trouble.
1. Companies who "takedown" a private users video should not receive monetary benefits because of it.
2. It is in the fair rights for an individual to review and offer up their opinion in the interest of education and information. (otherwise you might as well fine everyone who ever talked to their friend, family member or acquaintance who came out from a movie and described it to them.)
3. Seriously... We live in a democracy and a changing world. Update our laws already to accommodate the current world.
Look guys, fair use is how stuff gets done. It's how people are able to shed light on issues through parody and satire. It's how people are able to pick up on problems. It's how we're able to create. Lets not get rid of these things, yeah?
This system may have worked before but is now obsolete. It's something that affects the freedom of speech and content creations so please, its time to change this .
You've read that text below a few times already, haven't you?
This is because it's important!
For the sake of free speech, creativity, invention and progress, consider this.
Hello. As a consumer of content on youtube, mostly reviews and critics. I feel there is a huge problem with DMCA and how it affects the content creators I'm watching.
It seems clear DMCA is being abused by both big and smaller corporations to muzzle down the freedom of speech of such content creators when they are in their right to show footage under fair use law.
I hope a better system for monitoring reel infrigment will be put in place instead of this outdated one that hurts both content creators and their viewers. Please consider.
Here are links of such content creators describing their experience with fraudulent DMCA claims.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ZmVheuxpo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH-8PqS84qA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXY6_x50xCA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
and there's a lot more so please consider the problem in stake
Whilst I largely agree with the following, I would like to add that the actions taken by the USCO in relation to this matter have far reaching consequences. They will likely be looked to as a precedent by other authorities and aside from that will obviously have an effect on all creators and consumers using platforms developed by companies based in the United States. Fair use protections are fundamental to broader free speech and necesarry for both editorial and expositional commentary. It is my understanding that many of the current processes in use as a result of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act heavily favour entities that are able to make use of broad scale automated reporting mechanisms and the threat of legal action. It is a broad net approach that can have serious and lasting consequences for content creators wrongly identified by these mechanisms, especially those who are unable to bring to bear the considerable resources required to defend themselves in such cases.
I feel a more balanced approach is desperately needed, and believe that strengthening protections for fair use and imposing a strong dissincentive to abuse of the current systems is a vital part of finding that balance. It is my hope that the USCO and the relevant stakeholders will be able to make improvements that meaningfully protect content creators and owners so that legitimate use is both available and protected.
#savefairuse
Stop fucking this shit up.
Besides the fact nobody really knows what it is, the DMCA has created an inquisition on the Internet that threatens legitimate works. These copyright witch hunts are killing the Internet.
cool?
The fair use system on the internet must be sorted out, people's content and hard work is being taken down because greedy compares just want easy money. Peoples channels that they have worked years for are being taken down from a video 2 years old or a copyright strike that doesn't make sense or is very silly and not needed to happen. Youtu era take it to court and loose the court case and the companies are getting rich. Over the YouTube system shouldn't have copyrights unless somebody uploads somebody's whole video and takes claim for it, YouTube should be a place where you can upload without haveing to worrie about getting a copyright strike and to have freedom of speech!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
This abuse towards the DMCA literally affects, EVERYONE on YouTube, harshly to the ones that do YouTube for a living, even if you don't make videos on YouTube, this could affect your favorite content creators (They could DELETE your entire YouTube channel for NO REASON) tomorrow, its going to happen eventually, so:
If you make videos on YouTube, this affects you
If you don't make videos on YouTube, this could affect your favorite Creators, and indirectly affects you
PLEASE SAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH
This form of government is meant to protect all of it's citizens, not just those that pay the best. Cheating a system is not fair for those that play the system fairly. False copyright strikes are more than an annoyance. They harm the digital economy by STEALING revenue from creators. Fair use needs to be strengthened and rules of law governing them need to be as well.
And now I would like to add my own personal thoughts at the end of this email. I admit I am more of an consumer then a creator, but I fully intend to support a creators right to make videos in any way possible. The abuse of the DMCA and Fairuse I've seen has been insane, to the point where simply humming a familuar tune can lead to a channel being taken down. There is clearly something wrong and something needs to be done.
Yeah!
Thanks!
You got to fix this, this is not under control
Companies should only use automated search for copyrighted material to find potential infringements but not to file automated claims. Filing a copyright claim to the site in question should legally bind the company to the claim. If a company fails to uphold the claim in court or retracts the claim, it should be considered copyright fraud and should be handled accordingly.
The changes I propose are as follows:
A company is legally bound to a claim. Automated claims bind a company just as well as manually filed ones and there is no legal difference between them.
A copyright claim is considered fraud when the claimant cannot uphold the claim in court or retracts the claim.
The claimant has to pay a fine for a wrong claim to the site in question for the additional effort of handling the case and has to pay the expenses caused by said claim to the owner of the medium and/or the site (e.g. ad revenue).
A site is not allowed to redirect money gained through a medium to the claimant, unless the claim is valid. The money will be frozen for the time being.
A claim is valid if the owner of the medium does not file a dispute in 20 business days and/or if the claimant has successfully upheld the right in court.
A claimant has to issue legal action to uphold the claim in court in 20 business days after the claim has been disputed, or else the claim is considered a fraud.
If a claimant has not successfully upheld the claim in court or has retracted the claim, the claimant or a group/company/person on behalf of the claimant may not file another claim on the same medium again, even if the claimed content changes.
Protected material, be it through copyright, trademark, or other means, may be used non-commercially and commercially in media that fall under the fair use regulation. Filing a claim on a video that falls under fair use cannot be uphold in court and is a fraud.
A site may not restrict a person's right for using the site in any way due to one or multiple claims. Any restrictions of usage must be equal for all public users, while only employees may have additional rights. If a claim was upheld in court, the site is allowed to restrict access to some or all features due to this reason for the respective user. A site may also not restrict access due to race, religion, opinion, political orientation, sexual orientation, [...].
A medium may not be removed due to the race, religion, opinion, political orientation, sexual orientation, [...] of the owner or the displayed race, religion, opinion, political orientation, sexual orientation, [...] in the medium. Any kind of repressive content towards a person or a group and/or explicit sexual content is reason enough to remove the medium. Hosting repressive content and/or explicit sexual content always legally binds the owner of the site, if the content has been marked as such (flagging).
Falsely flagging content for being repressive and/or explicitly sexual results in a fine to be paid to the site and the flagger has to cover the expenses caused, just like a wrong copyright claim.
Content that the site does not want to be held responsible for must be marked as such, mentioning the owner (or the respective account), and the uploader of the medium must be notified of this beforehand in order for the site to be protected by the DMCA for this medium.
A site must provide a publicly available flagging feauture to be protected by the DMCA. This feature should not block the content directly, but rather notify the group/company/person specified in the flag about the copyrighted material. A group/company/person has to register their identity on the site, including an adress of sorts (mail, postal, etc.) so the owner of the site has the neccessary information to redirect the flag to the group/company/person. If a group/company/person has not registered on the site, the flagging feauture will be unavailable for their protected material.
If a medium is blocked locally due to local laws (e.g. other countries) the site may not hide the existance of the medium or hide any affiliated commentary for the visitors from the given area. The medium itself stays unaccessible for said visitors.
These changes are just an outline to provide a general direction of the necessary changes. I am absolutely fine with changes to make them more airtight or to cover aspects I haven't thought about. I am not fine with the current state of the DMCA and I wish for changes in the direction mentioned above. I am not from the USA, but due to globalization and the general idea of the internet this effects other countries as well. I am sure you want to leave a good impression.
Best regards,
Roth
Stop the DMCA takedown abuse! It is severely damaging to a wide range of professions.
Companies are taking down content that isn't there's! Musicians are taking down videos because they use there music even though the YouTuber has every right to do so! Eg. Has a licence.
FOR FUCKS SAKE. A channel by the name of video game longplays Has A SHITLOAD OF STRIKED. Are you kidding me right now? Stop this shit
... and its just plain douchey !
Hello , my name is Samantha however I also go by the name Panda Chani on youtube I'm a very small youtuber with a little over 200 subscribers and I feel like the DMCA is being abused . The copyright holders are literally doing any means of taking down videos that are under fair use even to the point when a person talks bad about them as well too . Even if your reviewing something or stating your opinion and we have free speech here and content creators just get attacked by copyright holders and trolls online every single day . Please put some line of severe punishment for abusing such power to the point that we can't even touch these copyright holders . I only had been attacked by a copyright holder . I do gameplay videos and I state my opinions while playing and they took my whole Playlist down of guilty gear I have tried everything to get these strikes off and nothing was done and I even emailed them and they won't respond . Please your my only hope of making youtube fair again and as humans we speak out and thank you for listening to Me.
Strict or unclear fair use laws make regular people afraid to create things that they have every right to make. People grow up believing that bigger companies and products are untouchable, when they should feel empowered to contribute to a creative conversation (and, by effect, our creative culture.) through means such as parody and review.
For the past few years i have witnessed a trend of false copyright claims on YouTube. Companies and everyday people use DMCA to censor, silence, and punish people who criticize their work when it clearly falls under fair use. I have witnessed the content created by people get progressively worse and can't make actual points with clips from the original work. The worst part is their is no finical repercussions for the companies who willingly file false DMCA claims, And the innocent party is always punished financially and risk their channels being deleted. Just because it is called fair use does not mean that it is what the company thinks is fair to them. They use sock accounts to file the claims so they cannot be held responsible, And use DMCA to threaten people into willingly removing the video under threat of being sued to scare and bully people who may not understand Fair Use. The sad part is it works and when they do file a claim or use a algorithm to find videos and pay the company who "Owns" the copyrighted material and get financial gain off of the other persons hard work. Then they have to dispute it and it can take weeks to get the ad-revenue on the video back to the channel owner, But that's not it the company gets to keep all the ad-revenue after all the main views have came in then the person who owns the channel gets exploited by this horrible system we have in place. Companies should be held accountable for their actions they should have to prove they own the content and it does not fall under fair use. We shouldn't even have to talk about this it is sad this is even an issue. I hope this law is rewritten to protect the people who fall under fair use and punish companies that exploit people because they don't like the review they got on their product.
Fair use is in need YouTubers Careers And so many other sites are all in a terrible state because of people/companies who are claiming/flaging videos, they are making the money! Fix now or I'm not getting anywhere in life
please. thank you.
It isn't fair for people to be taken down for this.
Abuse that internet creator's suffer under the false copyright claims is disgusting. Not only these claims take away the freedom of speech but also hurt their livelihood. Many people has found careers on internet creating content for us the fans and it's amazing. These claims usually done by studios, some third-party or just a one random person who hates his/hers content and reason is something like you had 15 seconds of music or 15 minutes movie clips on a review which by to way is still under fair use. If you upload whole song or movie on YouTube little or no chances then I would agree that claim would be justified but 15 minutes or more on review or satire then it would be a false claim. This abuse has to stop. I don't wanna see a day when freedom of criticism is taken away from us, freedom to speak out. freedom to think and share our thoughts. Take these thing's away and we are going towards scary world, world which I don't wanna be part of.
Hello!
Under the current DMCA, there are no penalties for issuing false takedown notices. As a result, the DMCA is being rampantly abused by large corporations or companies (some of which don't even own the content) in order to steal revenue of content creators or censor critics.
Free speech implications aside, the fact that there is no defined penalty for issuing false takedown notices or any checks and balance to the system means that there are automated scripts and programs out there that falsely send out takedown notices en masse, none of which is reviewed by an actual human or lawyer to verify the validity of the claim. While there are no legal repercussions for issuing a false claim, anyone affected by the takedown notice runs the risk of losing their livelihood and has no means to challenge the takedown notice.
I ask that you please update this law to reflect today's internet, as well as prevent the law from being abused.
Although not a content creator myself, I have seen a lot of my favourite Youtubers and bloggers attacked and damaged by this unfair system. People abuse these DMCA regulations to get content removed for petty reasons, rather than substantiated claims. Some seem to do it just to garner attention to themselves and it's not helping the system.
At present there is no sanction given to false claimants and this balance needs to be rectified soon, as this would lead to actual, relevant claims being noticed, whilst those wanting to cause an issue are discouraged. If evidence can be presented and substantiated, then this should have more impact than just saying something is copyrighted and not backing it up, just to get content and royalties removed for a period if time.
I understand the need for the law, but it needs balancing to not only protect the content creators but also punish those who falsely claim.
The whole youtube copyright system has been thrown off for a long time and we are feeling up with it
The first youtube channel to get popular for the situation was IHE a reviewer like my other youtubers
He did a review on a very bad movie called Cool Cat Saves the Kids and geuss what he said it sucks the creator of this movie Derek Savage said his video was stealing and got a copyright strike on it for the wrong reason violating Fair Use
IHE has the whole experience on his youtube channel if you want to see the lows Mr. Savage was willing to go to get his youtube channel shit down for talking bad about a movie which is Fair Use
I personally don't want youtube to change but improve and fixing the things other youtubers like YourMovieSucks Channel Awesome and many others have been talking about there abusive copyright encounters
It's even gone as far to where people have had monetization stolen which means they can't make money for there work that.
In case they don't know that illegal
And I'm even at a point where I'm to scares to make my own content on YouTube for fear of haveing my channel taken down because of someone who didn't like what I said
Help youtube please so other content creators can continue to create entertainment for viewer's and so I can trust youtube again and start making my own content.
My videogame channel too have a lot of ContentID false made by copyright trolls or who ignore faire use.
The paragraph below this one is what is considered a copypasta, I agree with what's written. But I also want to note that the copyright office and those managing it are clearly being influenced by political graft. Whosoever reads this, I want them to know that it is just as important to implement oversight within your own offices as it is to try and oversee your field of regulation.
It basically allows anyone crooked enough to abuse this system and benefit from the censorship of others and gives power to corporations to silence and / or control small-time content creators. We have something rare and remarkable with the internet and it would be a disaster if it were controlled and censored to the point that it just becomes a television (A technology that is slowly but surely becoming obsolete).
Since DMCA was signed to law (1998) it was created to protect copyright holders right and websites who host content. If a website get a DMCA takedown, they must takedown the content related to the DMCA. The problem is that is hasn't been updated to account for today's internet. Back then, the internet was far different as it is today.
We used to store data in flop disks and today we have the clouds, and we are reaching to a point where a huge number of people is transitioning to internet entertainment.
The DMCA was written for the 1998's internet, in which sites like YouTube were just literally fantasies. Today, an average person an break the News even before the News itself can.
The internet has changed so much since that one of the most to the point that one of the major laws has become a fossil. The DMCA fails to account for the internet of today.
In the case of YouTube, instead of it being used to protect content creators, the law is now being used to attack and/or even destroy the content creators. Examples of this are:
-Trying to censor people on social media such as twitter/Facebook.
-People is false claiming content that they do not own at all.
-It is being used to inflict harm in individual creators.
- It is being used to stifle free speech.
-People just talking on camera with no copyright footage nor music whatsoever are being taken down.
-Some companies believe they create the law.
-Companies are taking down content without factoring in fair use.
-DMCA are being send by shell companies to shield the companies sending the takedown.
-People use it as a threat.
-Videos are being hit multiple times even after they are cleared.
-It is being used to false claim videos, causing loss of revenue for the creator. The money ends up on the false claimers' hands and they do not face any type of punishment for these actions.
These are just some of the ways DMCA is actually being abused because it is to suited to fit today's internet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tljJhLB5k4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-O7WANBW_Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8Bvjz8OktA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I55seO4d1Kw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfgoDDh4kE0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ExS1-pPZvM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GoQM_Z-CUc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ9U8YLY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W-360iRCz4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ZmVheuxpo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9mTOq6mP2I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYL_eLZLfw8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-KHqmhWmpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7-TJ2utqE0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ez9wlDIb3Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQfHdasuWtI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkFEDQaVxrE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjvoJe4_v9k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjXNvLDkDTA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1Dh1uyLfn0
https://youtu.be/l1Dh1uyLfn0?t=4m30s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LngM35WUvgw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDhcrnmFXjs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXf14eX_9Fg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nULnD9OQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBxSdej8cXk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTgT7lLPzWA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHt8nIPEOmg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WittWGWbEWo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BolQffGymk
It also damages justice system in general, with its operation on "Guilty until proven innocent" basis. This makes it nearly impossible to counter false DMCA claims, since you are already "guilty", and trying to prove innocence requires fighting against constantly shifting goalposts.
I personally have not been a victim of DMCA abuse and do not create content that is uploaded to the internet.
However, I have seen how it has been used to stifle opinion and content creation delivered by many of those I enjoy watching on sites such as YouTube.
I think the DMCA Law is in serious need of an update to compensate for how the internet has evolved and how content is created on it compared to when the Law was passed in 1998.
That said, I can't really put into words an eloquent way of describing how unfair the current law is so I've included the text that was in the Comment Box on this form for context.
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You allow companys to step on the little guy if they dont like your IP, Thats abuse of power last time i checked.
I have seen the abuse of this law nearly break a friend of mine.
A video, not even two minutes long, with only talking and laughing, no music in the background that the human ear can hear, got taken down by a fake copyright strike! Quickly more strikes followed on random videos and his channel was deleted.
Upon starting a new channel, his first 3 videos got strikes as soon as they came out.
This made us think that there was a real person, a bully, behind these claims. And after several days, a boy from his school confessed to making part of the false claims and contacting the gamedevelopers (the studio behind Neverwinter) about a suposed breach of their EULA.
Nothing was done by anyone to investigate the claims, the only person that got punished was the content creator, and he did nothing wrong!
Please, get this ancient law updated, it's killing our internet and our incomes!
You need to fix the Copyright system. YouTubers' livelihood are being threatened with companies claiming videos with false accusations and stealing their income off of them. Not to mention the strikes are getting out of hand with YouTube channels getting deleted out of nowhere, without any warning or giving a reason putting a lot of people to stress, anger, or panic. The Copyright system is broken and people are taking advantage of this situation. Content creators can no longer feel safe because of this, this needs to be fixed!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs a page one rewrite to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The DMCA has been abused countless times over the years, allowing companies to have a bigger say than smaller content creators. Meanwhile, the illegal sharing of content continues, on sites as popular as YouTube and SoundCloud. Any attempt to block the content simply results in another user reuploading it. The DMCA needs to be fixed to empower websites to block illegal filesharing without allowing larger organizations to bully the "little guys".
And my personal edit. This law is fucking broken. FIX YOUR SHIT!
As someone who looks to the internet for most of my entertainment this recent trend of DMCA abuse against many of the individuals who create the content i love has been greatly concerning. Most of whom have had to deal with said abuse on a scarily frequent basis from many different sources that may wish to stifle criticism and/or negative publicity of their work by filing false DMCA take downs on videos that they have no right to, as the criticism fits well within fair use law. And despite said claims having no ground to stand on, and the eventual failure of the claimants to bring the case of alleged copyright infringement to a court of law, they face no penalty for their false claim wasting the time and effort of the up loader and are free to simply pull the stunt again on the same video under a different name.
Some abusers of the DMCA are so cynical as to falsely claim monetization rights to a new video so as to effectively steal the revenue that the video would ordinarily generate for the up loader during the most important part of the videos life cycle: when it is first uploaded and generating the most amount of views. Such claims are invariably fought to retrieve these rights for the up loader, but by that time the majority of the revenue that the video would be capable of producing has been forwarded directly to the false claimant. Who often does not even own any of the copyrighted material in question and is simply a petty thief who has been given the tools to steal revenue from content creators like this regularly, and with no repercussions on their part or compensation on the part of the up loader.
I hope that my signature will help to raise awareness of the regrettably poor state of fair use and the stifling of free speech that the current DMCA system allows on the internet. It is important that ideas and criticism can be posted freely on the web without fear of harassment by censoring and thieving hacks like this.
i'm just gonna say something uhhh bees
I'm emailing as someone, who's a frequent YouTube viewer, cares about the Fair Use policies regarding DMCA. This concerns and upsets me particularly as I'm a big Nostalgia Critic fan, and he's specially suffering from this.
It hurts me to think that he and many others like him are being unfairly flagged, or have had false strikes upon their freedom of speech. Their monetisation and revenue is sometimes taken away, or even having their YouTube channels deleted.
I think of the effort that YouTube contributors put into their work, and how it's so often done for the people they love and want to entertain. I feel my enjoyment of things online is being affected. Some of it I rely upon to help me get through life.
I personally may not be a content creator, but I enjoy seeing what people can do. Some of these works have touched me in a personal way and have helped me through hard times, and I know I'm not the only one. Creating art and exercising ones free speech, can and has brought people together.
I hope my signature helps to end this idiotic DMCA.
We should all have fair use to all content.
Some videos are taken down for know reason.
That what happened to team four star and that was bots think what hired suits would do.
We (both the citizens, the government) seriously need to figure out a way to stop false DMCA claims and takedowns. While there are legit takedowns and such, so many of them aren't legit and many, such as in the case of YouTube, can ruin the life of a content creator.
While this hasn't directly affected me, I have seen, and heard the stories from the people it has affected. DMCA NEEDS TO CHANGE!
Ok, so recently (excuse my language) copyright strikes on YouTube and social media have gone to shit. People are creating videos, yes maybe using music but under complete fair use. Seen as they are using the music or anything else under fair use, the company's have no right to strike/take down the persons video. These strikes are happening for NO REASON, and as you should know are devastating to the person or channel that receives them. Many channels focus on livestreaming, one strike can end that. Channels can be taken down after three completely FAKE strikes. This is horrible for the community. Hundreds of thousands if not millions of content creators and viewers would like this matter fixed!
In other words please fix the system so it would not be easily abused by companies and people that are money grubbing, not being able to take criticism and mistaken on the definition of fair use.
Please fix this.
While it is important that original content is protected, the current system does it the wrong way. Currently anyone can claim the take down of Internet material without any proof that it actually violates his rights and it is up to the uploader to prove that his content is legal. That is as if I could just accuse anyone of a crime and he will get jailed until he proves his innocence. There is not even any kind of punishment for falsely claiming copyright and a takedown on material you do not own. While the content can often be restored after being taken down, the damage has been down. Videos generate most of their views in the first few days after they were uploaded, especially if they refer to any current event.
While uploading content you do not own and can not use by fair use or similar rights should stay illegal, falsely claiming copyright should be, too. That way both major and minor creators of any content will be protected.
The illegitimate copyright claims against Youtube creators that are using fair use and giving their opinion on whatever media it is. We can't allow them to get taken off the internet just because the original creator of the media's feelings get hurt.
The notice-and-takedown system is broken and outdated, affecting numerous big content creators on YouTube and threatening their jobs. Copyright holders are able to abuse this process to take down (or steal all revenue from) videos simply because they disagree with statements made in them, sometimes even if the video does not include any material from the product in question. This must stop.
Companies and people are claiming strikes against content that doesn't rightfully belong to them. Even after a video is declared to not have infringed a copyright law, it can be claimed again, over and over. This really hurts content creators be able to express themselves because of how content that is purely their own can be claimed. Any revenue that someone rightfully earns can be outright stolen by these malicious people. I understand that fair use is used to bypass copyright laws when people transform, resize, or warp audio for movies, television shows, and other works; however, that does not excuse how little there is for people who rightfully own their content through intended fair use to protect themselves from something that a federal law should already do for everyone. That is one of the purposes of the government right? To protect the people that it serves? We don't deserve to be threatened with copyright claims by "proxy" companies protecting the actual companies.
I personally have several friends who's own personal works of art have been removed by randomized either malicious or automated DMCA take downs and has cost them not only time but money, and lots of it. People I know have been hurt by abuse of this system and there need to be some way to stop this shit because it has been used and abused by corporate giants to stifle smaller competition as well and by ne'er-do-wells to actively harm the internet community as a whole.
The DMCA act is not fit for the modern internet. The web is so very different now than it was when the DMCA was conceived. The act is being abused to silence critics. People are even making false claims to shut down videos they do not like. Fair use is being largely ignored by sites such as YouTube, I suspect because it is just easier for them in the long run to just take anything down. This further encourages rampant abuses of the DMCA act by activist groups or corporations that do not want to face legitimate criticism.
In short, the DMCA should be a tool to protect people's livelihood but instead it has become a weapon to silence critics.
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Been personally affected by this on my own YouTube channel numerous times, with random claimants filing DCMA takedowns or claiming my content for their own. The process is currently guilty before proven innocent and needs to be fixed.
Cheers.
The DMCA is far out of date. It most definitely needs an update. Like every addendum or addition to the Bill of Rights, every so often, it will need an update to make sure it is applicable to the times that it is in use.
The corporations rarely ever get ANY penalty for falsely claiming or taking down content created by people who are just trying to inform the public or do their job. But the content creators suffer the loss of of views and are often penalized in some way for the false claims corporations are allowed to make.
The DMCA takedowns have been as of late these past five years at least, have been heavily abused, some companies go as far as using it as harassment, causing lost revenue with bogus takedowns, there have been uses to take down videos that didn't even have content a company has claim to. It's heavily out-dated and fair use is a great and important system to keep. I wish I were better with words, but I am sick of seeing bad companies abusing this system to hurt content creators online, mostly through Youtube, and it's something that sorely needs to stop and be fixed. I hope this is taken seriously.
Since many others have likely already provided more concise points than I could regarding the specific topic of the functionality of the DMCA, I'll forgo adding to the list of reasons why this system is obsolete, and instead expand into the more general issue at hand, which is the functionality of the internet itself. This issue with the DMCA is only one example, it won't just conveniently end here. I'm 26 years old now, and have watched the internet grow from it's youth at the same rate that I have, and now that I've matured into a young adult, well.. so has "it".
I think the internet is an incredible tool, a true milestone in human technological development, it marked the beginning of our entire world being unified with the rapid sharing of information, in a way that was never possible before, but of course, like any tool, it is ripe for misappropriation. It's growing and evolving so quickly that even people like me who grew up with it can't keep up with it's rate of development, and realistically, few people truly want to.
I admit that I know very little about the inner workings of politics or legal policies, but I can imagine that the legal systems of many countries around the world are struggling to keep up with the internet, and with all due respect, I feel that many people who are in charge of making these changes are simply too unfamiliar with this particular subject. It might seem like a smaller problem than it is from their perspective, simply because it only spawned so recently and is still only a percentage of the market for trade and information, but.. that percentage is nearing total, very quickly. Basically everything is done online now, and so every legal policy designed to protect consumers of goods and services, or information or entertainment, must now be updated to account for the fact that the majority of traffic in these areas in now digital.
Problems are easy to see, solutions are more difficult. I admit that I don't have one either, but I think I can at least help steer some people in the right direction, based on my own experiences in using this same technology to my advantage in the past, where I'm sure many people who will read this never had the opportunity to during their own youth. I don't want to create contempt between this generation gap of "old" and "new", because bridging that gap is a key part of any potential solution.
And so, I propose that since the internet is obviously too unique of a machine to be effectively monitored by the specific legal systems that our nations use (or, more accurately, the speed at which laws can legally/constitutionally be adjusted at any given time, which to account for the internet would be constantly (many times per second)), I suggest that whatever branch of government is responsible for the creation and enforcement of law, create an independent sub-branch of digital law enforcement, dedicated specifically to this. They'd still be part of the same system, just a branch that specializes in digital traffic of whatever kind, hiring people who are familiar with that type of thing, otherwise they'll always be 10 steps behind, on a good day. These IT people shouldn't be "specialists", they should be the front line defense against illegal use of the internet, such as abusing existing copyright laws, which I believe was the result of the DMCA's policy, and of course still is.
If such a proposed specialized digital law enforcement system were in place, things like the DMCA would have been updated/removed years ago, and the standing system would be as constitutional as any other legal doctrine.
- Alias Joseph Hajek
There is a wealth of culture and stories out here.
Please help them have a space.
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Copyright takedowns are the cancer of youtube.
I have a friend who often relies heavily on YouTube art projects to pay the bills. Her last five projects were censored because of this act. I want to support her and others affected.
Many Videos are being taken down for no reason even if there are not videos in the videos.
People are using DMCA to intimidate users into taking down critical content and this is frankly immoral and illegal. Youtube is no longer "just some internet site;" now it's become the most used video and entertainment website in the world, and should be taken seriously, with serious laws in place to protect it.
I am not a content creator myself but there have been many strange things happening over the past couple of months or so on YouTube. Many channels are getting age restricted, unfair copyright strikes, losing monetization or getting there channel removed for no good reason. People like GradeAUnderA, I Hate Everything, YourMovieSucks and one of the most recent cases, to one of the Internet's biggest internet personalities mind you, Nostalgia Critic (Or Channel Awesome)
It is incredibly unfair to them as they are doing nothing wrong and following the fair use copyright laws. Like some gamers who get review copies from game companies to then be removed by THE SAME GAME COMPANIES! And when it come to negative reviews, like the recent "Cool Cat" incident, many people use the copyright system as an "I don't like this" button.
Even if the content creators get there channels back, it is an emotionless, non apologetic response stating they have there channel back. Most content creators use YouTube as there living and just want to speak to a real human
I never wanted to get involved but I want to stand up for the YouTubers who have been treated badly. Meanwhile as Prankers who scare people to death with BOMB SCARING AND MURDER PRANKS and reactors who reupload other peoples content, which the original people slaved over for weeks or months, barely changing a thing and cough or chuckle occasionally, unlike Chadtronic who actually adds something to videos in a comedic and cinematic way.
I just want everything to be fixed, sincerely,
A supporter of these content creators.
word.
[Worst case scenario is that you all know this but you don't mind selling out.]
Hi, I'm just a young YouTube watcher and I don't create any content but recently I've been seeing a major problem with channels that I watch and it needs to stop. People are using copyright strikes and the DMCA to take down content creators videos and in some cases even steal their revenue! In most cases the creator didn't infringe on copyright and are being taken down for no reason whatsoever. The DMCA is completely dated and is now being used as a weapon against content creators who, up until now, haven't been able to take a stand. So please, change the DMCA.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The entire purpose of copyright law is to encourage the creation of artistic content by allowing creators to profit from their work. However, laws like the DMCA do exactly the opposite, discouraging creative endeavours and instead allowing corporations to profit off of other people's work, stifle criticism, threaten individuals into compliance, and create a monopoly on all popular culture. The DMCA takes away the most important principle of the justice system: the right to be assumed innocent until proven guilty.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA is an outdated law that was designed for an internet that was unrecognizable compared to the one we have today.
Most people today get their news and education from the internet. In this day and age the internet, more than any other medium, needs to be given the same freedoms of speech that were given to print media for centuries. Censoring millions on the internet to protect the profits of a handful of corporate copyright holders is not just inconvenient, it is inherently dangerous.
As of now, there is no legal consequence for corporate copyright holders making a false claim. As such, entire shell companies have been set up that simply blanket the internet with copyright claims and make money off of the fact that it's impossible for innocent individuals to refuse to many claims because the DMCA system is so broken. Companies have been making claims to content they have no ownership of. Companies have been claiming videos of people simply talking about a piece of copyrighted content. The law would never stand for a film studio suing a print newspaper for posting a movie review, yet that very thing is happening every day because of the DMCA.
People are still people when they are on the internet, the same rights still apply and we need to update the law to protect those rights, not strip away the rights to fit an outdated law.
The DMCA system is broken and being abused. We have videos with no actual content but speech being taken down and deleted because Companies disagree with our own personal comments, and thats just against everything we started this country for. Please fix this! I'm only eight years old and in second grade and I can tell this is wrong.
I believe that the laws that the fat cats hide behind for pathetic reasons are out dated and wrong. Yes i can understand that they can't allow people to post films or series on youtube and other but taking down videos where the film is being critiqued by 2 guys sat in a car after they've been to the cinema? how is that breaking copyright laws?
I want YouTube to be great again.
I worked hard editing my videos for hours and put the right muisc in doesn't matter if they are 10 seconds long or doing a review of a TVs show if I'm using the clips of that show even if I am not using those clothes I don't want those people and clam for the video or clam the money for themselves that I worked hard to get and These people need to get a backlash for falsely claimed
We need to fight back
think about what some companies are doing where they make false copyright just to turn a profit
One pillar of democracy is based on the seperation of powers. The control exercised between these powers over each other is key to stop abuse of the system.
What has this concept to do with the DMCA and copyright?
Currently the Internet is in a situation in which this control of power is non-existent. Copyright owners can arbitrarily flag content as a copyright violation without any instance checking if this claim is valid! This would be, as if a judge invents a new law to sentence a innocent person without anyone there to prevent it.
This leads to abuse and eventually to actual censorship. Holders can censor content that critices their product and only allow favourable content. This is not fair, nor is this the intention the DMCA was made for.
Please acknowledge and consider the complaints you are receiving.
Thank you very much
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We're not longer coming into an age where technology is spreading knowledge and entertainment in mass quantities through the internet and social media: we already are in the thick of it. We have creators whose entire occupations require the use of these materials in order to stay relevant, to enrich their content, a whole host of reasons. They contribute as much as television or cinema, and are far more available to the public consciousness. By denigrating the system by which they make their living and get their material, we are dooming a flourishing new culture by condemning it's most important figures, the people who reinnovate and reinvigorate the content, crafting something new and enjoyable for all: the creators themselves. Where's the fair use?
Videos where taken down by news channels claiming the rights about a video which another artist did.
Right now, the DMCA process is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and is being used as a means to censor free speech protected under fair use. Things like criticism and parody.
Some of these claims and takedowns are handled by computer algorithms that cannot truly identify what is or is not a case of fair use. Still worse, however, are the blatant removals initiated manually by human hands with absolutely no plausible justification. Such people are not receiving any kind of punishment for this. In some cases, they even go so far as to subcontract other companies to issue the claims.
Copyright holders, or even just regular people with malicious intent ("trolls"), can stifle creativity and innovation by shutting down legitimate competitors, or by abusing the process to censor people they don't like. Many of these businesses or content creators are left without an avenue to defend themselves.
As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, these corporations and trolls need to be held accountable for filing false DMCA takedowns, and it needs to carry a real penalty.
In summary, the world has changed a lot since the DMCA was signed into law. It needs an update. One step that could help is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedowns or fail to adhere to any fair use review. Further, automated algorithms should only flag something for review, not immediately issue a claim.
Please do the right thing for free speech, and for small businesses.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
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Fuck this System! Lets have free speech. I get silenced to much already. I don't need it to happen in the god damn future...
It's important for laws to protect those who cannot otherwise protect themselves against large groups, not only those large groups.
It's really disgusting that the will of the copyright holder is greater in content distributors like youtube eyes than the Consumer Inquiries (which themselves may be a non-negligible source of advertising, especially as this censorship as indirect effect but indelible harm the image of the work concerned as well as of all those involved in the design of the actual work).
(Original untranslated message :
C'est réellement dégueulasse que la volonté des ayant-droit est plus importante au yeux de diffuseurs de contenu comme youtube que celle des consomateurs (qui eux peuvent être une source non négligable de publicité, d'autant plus que cette censure a comme effet indirect mais indélébile de nuire à l'image de l'oeuvre concerné ainsi que celles des de tout les personnes concernées par la conception de la dite oeuvre).
)
This is important.
Personal comment:
I know so many content creators, who are no longer how they used to be, just because of the fear that their years of hard work will be completely destroyed by somebody abusing one of the endless, outdated loopholes in DMCA and Youtube policies. Even after they do go an extra mile, just to ensure that they are using content fairly, and are giving the proper credit to those who deserve it.
This capitalistic bullying by 3rd party companies, just for the sake of stealing video monetization has to stop, because even the content that is actually promoting and praising the original creators is getting taken down, even if the original creators have actually given a personal consent to use their content.
The current situation is like accusing somebody of rape. Even though the issue could be resolved in minutes, by a short investigation of the situation and both parties, the accused person still has to suffer through weeks of automatized punishment/confinement and shame for what they did not even do, and the accusing person has completely no repercussions to face, even after being proven to be in the wrong, and can just keep accusing everyone around for their own benefit, just because there's no existing punishment for their actions.
(Message from a concerned and sad content creator with 500 000+ backers, explaining the situation properly in 9 minutes, from their point of view www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8Bvjz8OktA )
Even this inquiry from the Copyright Office was being effectively held down from being known, and the word has started to properly spread only very very recently. If you wish to have the full picture of how big the issue is, and a tremendous amount of people are actually concerned about it, I'd highly suggest giving us a few extra weeks until the investigation, so the actual amount of concerns can really pile up properly.
If somebody has actually read this - thank you for your time. We hope you will take our concerns into consideration, to make the internet a better place, with the proper right of free speech, like it should be.
Sincerely,
David Asher
Daveasher2417@gmail.com
Template comment:
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. It is also used as threats and even by the people who don't own any of the contet in a video. People can file a copyright claim on a video of two people sitting in a car talking. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
My main experience with bogus DMCA takedowns is on Youtube. Many Youtube creators such as Jim Sterling and Totalbiscuit get their critical gaming content taken down by game developers, even though they undoubtedly fall under fair use.
Bigger companies like Nintendo Japan have sometimes gone as far as taking down every single video they could find concerning a certain game, just to boost search ranking for an upcoming sequel. This has, in some cases, lead to creators effectively losing their job as a Youtube creator, as 3 strikes means Youtube takes down your channel.
The DMCA is being abused on Youtube, this needs to be changed if we want free speech and critical content to continue its existence on Youtube.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Shit's broken. Fix it.
#WTFU
Please take this to heart, many of my friends who create and produce amazing videography and artistic content on youtube and the internet as a whole have been wildly affected by this policy, many having their videos taken down without even using copyrighted material in the first place. I myself had hoped to break in as an independent content creator, but this severely affects me even with me using my own camera and zero copyrighted material myself, and have had to put my artistic dream on hold. Hopefully you will see that this policy needs to be immediately taken away and/or updated to fit the internet of the modern era from it's roots in the early days of the internet as a whole. Thank you for listening to all of these messages that have been sent your way, if you do read them, and i hope things can change for the better not just for the money!
DMCA's are being used as threats and are being issued on videos online even after they have been cleared, they are being abused massively and no one is being held accountable. This is not right.
Why is it when we live in a country that favors free speech and expression, the very thing it flies in the air proudly, people and companies can hoard and claim individual ideas and even Words. Singe words can be claimed as an individual's why? Why is it that simple music that's "free to use" is immediately abused? Why is America and through services that operate out of America one of the most stifled countries in the developed world? This DMCA policy, the policies that are trying to be passed to continue to stifle, the Copyrights of single words or vague thoughts, are not what hold back America, but holds back the progress of the world. Ideas, thoughts, and Single words that can negatively impact the world should be shared not covered. Real thought and process should go into what is protected and what is public domain. Videos, Music, Software, Art... All of these things deserve credit, but not at the expense of hurting everyone. Consider carefully what we do and how we move forward and do it.
It's putting a stop for things millions of people love.
Basically, this system is out of date and many are abusing its flaws. Rights to fair use must be restored to many people and this is the first and hopefully the only step needed to protect media.
As someone who enjoys much content on YouTube and similar related sites, I have seen victim upon victim of the awful DMCA. Get rid
I have had videos, removed online after DMCA takedown requests, purely because a automatic system couldn't tell the difference between a cover version of a song, and the original recording. They had no right at all to force the removal of the content, but there was no path for recourse in the matter, due to the woefully outdated DMCA.
YouTube was founded under the idea that anyone can create entertainment regardless of where they lived, who they were outside of YouTube or what they did for a living. It sounded like a great system.
However in the last few years, companies have began sending copyright claims to Youtube channels in the masses. If these were warranted or reasonable claims, it would be understandable. However, channels such as I Hate Everything, the Nostalgia Critic (his Youtube channel Channel Awesome) and many others have had copyright claims given to their videos, despite the fair use law act of 1998 suggesting that reviewing content allows footage from films to be used without permission.
Now, although I haven't made any YouTube videos, of my own, I do intend to in the near future. However with the unclear and easily abused copyright claim system now, it's a threat to not only the content creators I admire and watch regularly, but to me as an aspiring creator aswell.
So please help creators who make videos on YouTube (either as a career or just for fun) by updating the fair use system to accomodate the changes made in the past ten years of the internet. Make a universal fair use law that will be precise in exactly what use of copyrighted content, such as video footage for a review, is acceptable and what copyright content is unacceptable. Thank you for your time.
As a creator of non-commercial audio transformative works, I have personally witnessed the DMCA takedown process used to stifle innovation and creativity time and time again. Fair use is a backbone of the transformative works community. The creation of non-commercial transformative works celebrates and arguable even adds value to the works which it sources, by increasing viewership and purchase of many forms of media. Previous DMCA exemptions have recognized this fact, such as those announced by the copyright office in the 2010 Statement of the Librarian of Congress Relating to Section 1201 Rulemaking.
However, in recent years, automated DMCA takedowns have targeted transformative works in particular, making it impossible to even find hosting for these works in the first place. Mediafire and other commercial hosting sites are particularly noted for refusing hosting to works which contain any segment of copyrighted audio at all, no matter whether the use of that segment falls within fair use. When an automated system does not even allow for a work to be hosted in the first place, and the appeals process ranges from cumbersome to non-existent, it becomes impossible for small-time and non-commercial creators to function. This is counter to purpose of copyright laws, which is to encourage innovation by ensuring that creators have the ability to benefit from their work.
Creators of non-commercial transformative works depend on a robust and productive body of original content creators, and as such, we favor appropriate and effective copyright laws that incentivize the continued existence of such a body. But the DMCA in it's current form is not a tool for encouraging for accomplishing this. Instead, its outdated policies have become a barrier to innovation, one which must be revised in a manner cognizant of how content creation and distribution actually works in the digital age.
Im a frequent youtube watcher and I see so many people using copyright claims to stifle their critics. There seem to be no legal way of punishment for people using copyrightlaws to remove any form of criticism.
(all above is the pre-made thing)
All in all- it's broken. It's anti free speech, it's anti creator: it's stupid.
This is exactly what the internet is useful for: sharing voices, freedom of speech, every individual getting a voice- and it's being blocked by false takedowns.
As a law student i understand the reasoning for a strict copyright law, but the current one is being abused and is harming content creators, who has legally not done anything wrong. People are using this law to restrict Free speech, and bully other. There needs to be a law, and the current one is'nt doing it.
The DMCA is too often abused by large corporations in order to have complete control over nearly any content or media they desire. Their attempts to take down content automatically has simply lead to many false take down notices which affects people unrelated to infringing content who often do not have the means or financial support to contest the claims.
There need to be serious ramifications for false takedown attempts just as there are ramifications for people who illegally copy content.
-Companies/entities who strike the content on certain channels need to be, in the event of a false strike, penalized for a false strike on content abiding fair use system.
- The monetizing system needs to change by the revenue gained from the content should not instantaneously go to the content striker but in stead go to a ''limbo' account and once the issue has been dealt with do to the correct party who won the case. This way false claims don't yield profit for the false claimant.
-The word and term transformative needs to be updated and broadened in-terms of what it covers. Most people consider reviews and reactions (reactions that include a fair deal of commentary from the reactors side and the reactor had to purchase the content being reviews or reacted to.
Because there is no repercussions for sending DMCA takedown notices, companies and individuals will use these takedown notices to maliciously attack content creators by sending notices for content that they *knowingly* do not have any claim to, for the purposes of silencing opinions, eliminating competing content from the market, or harassing the content creators to create personal and financial damages. When this harassment and attacks against content creators and their business are perpetrated, there is absolutely zero repercussions, regardless of how obvious the abuse is.
The DMCA is a garbage law that was crafted and pitched by lobbyists and lawyers with the MPAA and RIAA, and these individuals had absolutely no regard for the damage it would do when they created the law, and the lawmakers that passed it didn't understand what they were doing.
This law is an egregious failure in the legislative creation process, and it needs to be destroyed.
For so many years i saw people abusing the dmca system. Hard working youtubers get stripped off their money bullied by companys who just don't like their content without an efficient way to fight back. And even if they do and win they still loose. I saw people taking down a 30 minute video because there was a 15 second music clip in the video. I saw people using the dmca system to bully people just because they speak out their opinion. I saw people using the system to effectively steal the add revenue even if they are not related to the video at all. To sum it up the dmca system is broken companys can do whatever they want with no consequences what so ever. The fair use law is non existent in this system.
The Fair Use Act allows for copyright material to be used so long as it is for educational uses, public or political commentary, or parody; all of which contribute to a better informed populous. Written media has no issue nor has had any issue publishing copyright material not owned by the authors if it is used in congruence with the FAIR USE act.
However, it seems that the issue is when parody or commentary is used in digital media which can be easily controlled. I agree with the following statements and believe that more stringent consequences should be placed on individuals or corporations who file "Take-Downs" on questionable grounds, especially if it affects the monetization of the individual who has posted the digital media. This type of behavior is predatory, overly aggressive, and abhorrent (not to mention potentially illegal) and does nothing to advance the knowledge of the consumer.
The internet and subsequent digital medias are designed to serve the many and not simply the desires of corporate giants. Let us win one! So, without further adieu:
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose COMPENSATORY/PUNITIVE damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review (as we can assume that most of these takedowns are done so NEGLIGENTLY and possibly even MALICIOUSLY). In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I've had my own story of my videos claimed or taken down unfairly on YouTube. My most recent taken down video got back up after a counter-notification I've sent. I hope this system will not be abused anymore in the future, because it's really unfair to content creators such as myself and a lot of other people. My successful attempts over getting my video back is just one victory, I hope the whole system will be changed and YouTube will finally learn Fair Use.
https://youtu.be/NoIL5qUI1p8?t=50s
I'm a small youtuber, very small. I only average 5 views per video put I spent up to 10 hours on some of my best videos and I enjoy doing so. I sometimes take very small cuts of music which are with in fair use guidelines, but that doesn't seem to matter. Larger content creators have been had a video copy right claimed with an even smaller clip or sound and its insane. They have contacts and money to help them, and I don't... Sometimes I fear that even though I'm in fair use. I can be taken down by somebody that isn't even affiliated with the creator of a music or video clip I'm using...
""
There are people who don't own the on the internet that will file false DMCAs and have no legal repercussions, they will essentially steal money out the pockets of content creators and get away with it. There are also fake companies who claim to be representing someone they don't represent and DMCA content to steal revenue from the content creator, people actually make a living of of theft and the government does't bat an eye. There are even people who will use the DMCA to threaten people they don't like and bulling them out of there first amendment right to free speech. So yes, the DMCA is very harmful to the internet content creators, the internet has change dramatically since 1998 and it is time for, at the very least, an update to the DMCA law so that content creators can create content and freedom of speech can be practiced on the internet.
Many youtubers, whom I've been watching has either had some of their videos taken down, for little to no use of content. Accidental use, I might add.
The hosts of one of the channels on youtube, which I follow, GameGrumps, are often hit by fear of being taken down, just from humming a tune, or using a picture for a reference.
Another channel, of which I follow, TeamFourStar, makes an abridged series, based on Dragonball Z. Many of their videos was taken down earlier this year, and even though the problem was fixed, it still bothers me, that content can be removed so easily.
The notice-under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Basically, right now, unless you have a lot of money, or want a lot of money, yer all fucked.
You can't believe how afraid people are of the DMCA. Many people are only or mainly gaining money from Youtube and are terrified all the time, because their channels could be unreasonably taken down any second. It is horrible to see how the law of free speech and fair use is IGNORED and nobody can do anything against it. I really hope that this will be fixed, because this is literally a crime and affects millions of people, not only the creators, but also the viewers, who are sad and/or angry with every take down. So PLEASE do something against the DMCA.
It is thievery, fraud, and nothing short of criminal for the power to claim almost anything and claim revenue. Wonderful creators have their work threatened by criminals who are entirely unpunished for reasons that could be anything from YouTube not caring or a failure to update the law to today's internet - it is relevant; the point is that this cannot be allowed and must be acknowledged.
also more donuts
I believe this to be in itself outdated and unlawful.
I have received 2 bs copy right strikes from Activision for no reasons
Though I'm from Germany, and you are in no way bound to listen to my way of thinking, I hope you will listen anyways.
America and it's Lawmaking is influential throughout the World, the EU or the European lands itself, look at what you decide and take it into consideration, so what you ecide now can have huge influence on how we move into the Future.
Will we have the ability to say what we want? Will there be a free medium to make our voices heard? Or will our Videos be banned because we disliked a company's products and tryed to warn others to be wary of them?
Please, stop process of internet destruction. Internet is one of the things that hold world togheter, it important for iternational coopiration and frendship.
I love movies and at a young age I love sharing my passion for them. But when someone shows a 10 second clip of the film or trailer big corporations take down channels who use a clip of music, movies etc.
Its wrong come on government take these corporations *cough*youtube *cough*.its wrong and ruining peoples carer. Help. People who fall under the fair use law a lot of the time get screwed over by big corporations Small channels who have very little subs or people with a very little fanbase getting picked on by big corporations. Its wrong and Fucked up. Tell them to get there shit together. Its sickening. Help the critics. Its ruining youtube and over sites. I love playing music and giving my thoughts on it by I'm scared to now because most likely get fucked over by youtube and not get help because i have only got 10 subscribers and like playing drums, bass, ranting and movies. So help people like channel awesome nostalgia critic. Done. Singed Monster drummer.
This needs to be fixed, it's gone way to far.
The above is the official reason that many fully agree is the factual issue with the current state of fair use, but does not adequately describe how current laws hurt content creators. Many may not fully understand that the content many Youtubers, independent journalist, and many other types of content on the internet become what those creators use to make their income. These illegally punish those who fairly use copyrighted content where others may never be touched by it at all. This doesn't just hurt large channels either, in fact they have the best support with a large fan base behind them to spread the word when they have been mistreated. Its the small channels, the other creators with dreams of making sites like Youtube their job. These laws make creating content that would in all cases be completely legal by fair use laws impossible with the current state of the DMCA. The internet make lines that were once black and white merge to an unknown grey. Whatever happens may not be perfect, but its essential that the DMCA be updated to match the current state of the world. Its not only fair but important to hold the integrity of what the DMCA was made to do. To protect, educate, and entertain without fear of legal aggression.
This is also becoming a big pile of bullshit. How are people supposed to make reviews and stuff if unfair takedowns are being placed. This is screwing over honest reviewers and creators because some putz can takedown creations even if the person is following the rules or actually gets permission from the actual creator. As in getting permission from the actual person with the rights to it.
much of the channels o youtube have been taken dow due to false claims, sometimes by claiming things like song that didnt even appear in the vieo, to laiming in fair use clips of videos or any type of multmendia aviable.
people now a days are abusing the power they dont have making people believ that they can make their own rules on the internet, while they can't
I have noticed that a lot of Youtubers, especially content creators are getting their videos taken down for absolute ridiculous reasons. Some of which are taking advantage of the currently broken DMCA law.
For example, there is no penalty against false claim. No punishment for those who abuse the system. No penalty for studios who tried to silence the content creators. No refund or paying back the loss for the creators who got their videos taken down by false claim.
This system is really horrendous and i wished that the Government can take a look at it and try to improve the DMCA law. SOPA cannot improve it because it takes away the freedom of internet users. I personally suggest you should enforce a new type of law in order to aid the outdated DMCA law.
We, the internet users, are hoping that you can make a change.
#WTFU
To sum it all up:
• It is incredibly easy to issue a copyright claim, but it is quite hard to prove your innocence.
• There are no penalties for false copyright claims, making viable an option to overwhelm creators of content with such claims, effectively shutting them down.
• The revenue loss of the content creator is never compensated, should the claim on their content be withdrawn.
• People must understand, that the majority of content that is supposed to be protected by fair use is NOT theft, and is beneficial to the source material in most cases.
These systems are outdated and need to be looked at to protect modern online entertainment.
It needs to be updated to today standards and not 1998's standards. Too many channels are becoming victims of this even if they're in the right. Something must be done to help these people and to make it great not only for them, but even for the people who enjoy they content.
Change is necessary and the time for change is now.
For Mr. Enter, Doug Walker & the rest of Channel Awesome, IHE, and countless more YouTube content creators who've been given the shaft time and time again. For now, let's be the change they need.
Many people online are being hit with unfair copyright claims and even threatened with them. A lot of the time people aren't violating the laws at all, but people like to take advantage of it and spread lies and rumors to get things taken down.
The DMCA has been abused on websites like Youtube. Many Youtubers I watch have been struck with false claims. And of course they couldn't do much to get rid of the claim. And many companies don't even take a look for fair use in reviews. And claim people are breaking fair use when they don't even play clips for copyrighted material and are just talking about it on film. I think the DMCA is dated for a internet that no one ever knew the internet would become, but now with what the internet is we NEED to change how the DMCA is ran. Update their work to fit what we on the internet need now, better help for Youtubers that are hit with false claims by big companies. #WTFU
DMCA takedown notices are one of a small handful of US policies that has done significant harm by disincentivizing users from participating in content production. This is an unintended consequence of the policy, as the purpose of DMCA takedown notices is to protect existing intellectual property right holders from falling asset values as a result of theft via unauthorized distribution.
This sort of protection is admirable and necessary, to protect legitimate creators and distributors from the risk of going uncompensated for their efforts, which would in turn deter individuals and organizations from participating in content creation for profit.
The crux of the deficiency within the policy is the zero-cost, zero-consequences model for the takedown notice filer, and the onus it puts on the target of the DMCA takedown notice.
It's understandable that without any cost or restrictions on filing DMCA takedown notices, that organizations in possession of large quantities of IP content rights would invest in systems and processes that efficiently file takedown notices to protect its own assets. These systems will over-time become more automated and efficient as business processes tend to evolve. Without any penalty for inappropriate filings, the submitting entity will continue to expand the criteria it uses to identify a worthy target for filing a takedown notice, as there's no harm to their own profits for inappropriate filings and with broader targeting criteria, will in theory prevent more of its own content from neighboring available via unauthorized distribution channels.
Simple game theory dictates that DMCA takedown notices will continue to proliferate, serving as an unintended barrier to new content creators who face the risk of arbitrary de-listing if content or loss of revenues as a result of the growing number of inappropriate, unwarranted DMCA takedown notices.
The very people this policy was trying to protect have become victims of the ecosystem the policy has created. DMCA takedown notices must either have a cost associated with filings (to fund arbitration resources and a governing entity), or there must be a penalty associated with false/inaccurate/unwarranted filings. Currently there is no body that could review all the inbound filings or even begin to scratch the surface of arbitrating appeals, but there must be a penalty for falsely claiming infringement of content rights.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on
users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The DMCA needs a serious rework. It is important for content creators to have control of their intellectual property, but the current law allows for anyone to make DMCA takedown claims on almost any content without any penalty and without any need to prove legitimacy. It has become cumbersome and almost impossible to properly enforce. The current rules favor large entities which have resources, regardless of whether they have a proper claim or not. New rules need to be drafted which protect copyrights, but also protect the rights of the everyman and his right to fair use. Rules should be set up so that "the little guy" can't be cowed into submission by people with large bankrolls and lawyers regardless of the legality of their position. I think an important step in that direction is that if a copyright claim is judged to be made in bad faith, fines should be levied, in order to dissuade that sort of behavior.
I think it's important also to understand that technology, and its ability to share information, is undergoing rapid change. Rules made 20 years ago don't make as much sense today. Rules made even 10 years ago may not make sense. I think it would be worthwhile for any new set of rules regarding copyright, and other rights management, to receive some form of mandatory review every 10-15 years, as a way to keep pace with technology.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takes a heavily biased outlook on content creators who use fair use. This makes it incredibly easy for ANYONE to abuse this system. Yet nothing is being done about it because people don't seem to think that it's important enough. They don't realize that people's livelihood's are a stake.
Content creators that review films, games and TV shows that show this content are getting copyright - striked, even though their content is clearly within fair use law. The people who took down the video will often use "bully tactics" to stop the content creator from speaking out. Possibly sending them threatening emails or blackmailing them. This would never happen if it wasn't so easy to just take down content.
In the most extreme cases, the people who takedown content don't even own it in the first place. Companies will take down videos with no content owned by them and steal the ad revenue. This needs to stop. Everyone has the right to free speech.
The internet is now incredibly influential. For some people, it's their only source of entertainment. No one has the right to take that away from them. The internet of 1998 (when this law was passed) is incredibly different to what it is now. This needs to stop. These people are breaking the law, yet it is the victims of copyright fraud that are being punished.
It's time to bring back fair use to the internet. These issues need to be fixed. The penalties must be served to those who abuse copyright law. Not for those who abide it.
Only then can we make the internet a better place.
Fair use laws are there to protect any individual who creates content on the Internet. DMCAs attack people who have done nothing wrong and therefore they might lose income. Please update copyright laws and save fair use for everyone on the Internet.
Im sick of the youtube unfair strikes!!!!!!
The abuse of the DMCA is abhorrent and should not be allowed to continue. The protections offered no longer protect the intended parties. And the jurisprudence of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act shows that in the current legal environment only those without access to a large army of litigators become victims.
Many is the tale of unlawful dmca strikes. A practice that prevents many of today's artists from expressing themselves. Either by preventing their content from being shared, or by simply disheartening them from making content in the first place.
YouTube creators such as 'Jim Sterling' and 'Totalbiscuit', big names in the fields of journalism and E-sports respectively, have reported unlawful dmca takedowns from companies claiming to own videos that are little more than the artist's face and voice.
While at the same time creators like 'Brad Jones', who do nothing other than sit in a car and record themselves talking about a movie they just saw, get handed legal copyright strikes for no conceivable reason.
Admittedly there are people who will stream entire movies on Twitch, there are people who will upload an entire album to YouTube and those people SHOULD be prosecuted.
But prosecuting those who abide by the 'Freedom and Innovation Revitalising U.S. Entrepreneurship Act of 2007' (FAIR USE Act), or the U.K.'s own Copyright laws (copyright law fact sheet P-90), should never occur.
Fair use is a system set in place by the U.S.A. and the U.K. that allows for copyrighted material to be used in the realms of news reporting, criticism, teaching and research.
And yet abuse of this system has been a problem, not just for those who create content, but for those who use said content for entertainment.
Go to any social media site and type in "#WTFU" (where's the fair use) and you'll find thousands of people, all with their own stories, fighting for the fair use of the Internet.
Wether you use the Internet for entertainment or not, the fact that The U.S. and the U.K. are ripe with people abusing copyright laws for their own profit is simply abhorrent.
If this petition can help, I'm in!
I earnestly implore you will seriously consider this. Many content providers have bore the brunt of false copyright claims, resulting in video takedowns, lost monetization, and even channel termination. They live with the daily uncertainty that their livelihood may be taken away at a moment's notice, with little recourse on their own end. Not only that, but it's had the added effect of dissuading up-and-coming content creators from pursuing possible careers in the field. Frankly, this is an injustice that needs to stop. The internet is one of humanity's greatest achievements with nearly limitless potential; don't squander it.
Copyright holders greed needs to be held accountable and punished.
On Youtube, Content Creators such as I Hate Everything and Channel Awesome have been attacked by false copyright claims. These Creators have done nothing, and their video falls under fair use, while people like Jinx and other reaction channels violate fair use multiple times, daily, and get no repercussions whatsoever. This needs to stop.
DMCA was originally a good idea, it no longer does its job properly due to how outdated it is. In the core of it, DMCA fails to account for the internet of today. Instead of it being used to serve its desired purpose, it is used to abuse and take-down media that would be deemed fair use. DMCA is used now to harass content creators instead of protecting them.
An example of this is a YouTube review: "Thoughts on Bad Lieutenants"
This was a critique style video, reviewing the original content and adding the creators opinion to the mix. Sometimes companies even go as far as to try to monetize the video for themselves- even when it does not involve any of their content. Current DMCA simply does not do its job well as big companies do not get any penalties for false DMCA and the overall mentality of the process is based on 'Guilty until proven innocent' concept which in the basis- simply doesn't work.
I'm from Canada, although I'm not from the US, I consume and contribute to the US economic through the use of products that are tied to the US.
Specifically, media like youtube. I was under the impression that the US of A values free speech (and the past few years, I'm seeing it more and more like communist China). Which is saddening to see, I'm taking this chance to join the different voices in hope of reversing the trends.
I understand the need of IP holder to protect their commercial interests, but how does parody and satire infringe upon their market? How can IP holders target people who review their products? I'm not talking about unethical critics that just criticize to increase their traffic, I'm talking about legitimate enthusiasts that know their way around their field of expertise. Why can they be harassed financially just because they make factual statements (and demonstrations) of the products?
It's anti-consumer, it's intellectually stifling and it's harming small business owners who produce these videos. The way the process work now, just the mere "claim" of representing IP holders can get rid of anything they don't like. This is on top of a growing industry of IP trolls. Clarification, streamlining of the process and reasonable countermeasures are necessary to battle the DMCA abuse that are already common place.
Thank you for reading.
Thank you for the work that you do and i hope you consider my wishes.
I feel that the DMCA needs to be improved on, so that Fair Use can be properly used by content creators on YouTube, and having it so that they don't have to worry about being copyrighted struck every time they upload a new video, and potentially losing ad revenue from said videos. I would like to see improvements made to the DMCA to get rid of these worries and issues, and to have a better system where Fair Use is not abused to cheat and steal off of content creators, especially to those where it's their job to create content now for sites like YouTube.
To often is the notice-and-takedown process under the DMCA being used falsely or incorrectly. This can happen due to the lack of understanding of how Fair Use works or simply to silence negative criticism.
Unfortunately YouTube appears to have been affected a lot by this problem with channels being restricted or even taken down despite no laws being broken. Creators have had their right to make money off of their content taken away even though Fair Use states that they should be protected. For those who create online content for a living this can be devastating. Even videos that contain no copyrighted material can be affected simply for talking about a film, song, game, or book.
The DMCA needs to be revised to fit the way online media works to day. This new version needs to make it harder for content to be deleted and criticism silenced. Please make it so that honest content creators can't have their hard work and their living taken away at nothing more than the press of a button.
Stop bogus DMCA takedowns and protect free speech!
Hello there,
The way that the Internet continues we have seriously seen severe cutbacks to our civil liberties because of the way copyright holders feel they can ignore fair use laws. Something needs to be to done to give creators, artists and purveyors of Internet content a voice to use copyrighted material. This already exists but somehow things like YouTube and Facebook are violating this law and others please take a minute to review what myself and others who use the Internet daily want which is what the constitution protects our civil liberties and free expression.
Thanks
This is so stupid because everyday I see people get there videos taken down, their own footage just footage of their own face taken down, how does that even work? How can someone take the right over my face and strike down my videos where I have my face? And this is not just it why are videos of just pure gameplay of video games and youtubers just talking over the games being taken down not by the video game creators but by some other 3rd party company that has no involvment with the game at question? how does that even work.
It heavily favors big corporate interests. It allows them to abuse it with automated take down requests which can take days or weeks to contest, and when you contest them, they can just deny your request and pretty much have little recourse. It allows them to be very heavy handed about not allowing for any legitimate fair use, and in some cases can cause the actual rights holder to have to spend inordinate amounts of time on their claim. For example, NASA had video taken down by DMCA because a youtube news video used their free to use footage in their news article and their bot detected a match in NASA's video and issued an automated DMCA takedown on it. Its so easy to abuse like this and contesting a takedown is orders of magnitude harder and more expensive than the takedown itself. And guess who has a bigger legal department.
Hello, I understand you will likely find my comment meaningless given that I'm from a different country, but I still wish to do so.
I just wish to urge you to consider that any decision you make would have great ramifications on a globalised internet. For good or ill, a lot of the laws governed in America have huge effects on the rest of the world, especially given some of the most major websites being based in the US.
I believe that although Copyright holders should indeed have a recourse available to them to protect flagrant abuse, any system which governs copyright must have greater flexibility, fairness and transparency.
Like the rest of civilised society, guilt should not be presumed, and I believe moving to a notice-notice system as opposed to a notice-takedown which you currently have will greatly benefit all.
Please, carefully consider everyone before making a decision, because everyone is going to be affected by it.
Kind Regards
Fair Use is the thing that binds the internet together. Because of it, people can get recognition for everything they do. You cannot take that away.
I find that the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is too heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use!! This is unfair for independent artists who rely on social media to promote their work. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. This will then lead to just about anything being taken down unfairly.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from INNOCENT victims.
NOT TO MENTION the notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone and will most certainly lead the world into a regressive state!
Copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. Sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
This hurts everyone. Information wants to be shared, it seeks to be seen by all. DMCA's are been used by people to censor free speech. They have become a terrible Idea. People who file false DMCA's have no repercussions for their actions. Yet content creators suffer all the time when a false DMCA is levelled. There are entire organisations build up around exploiting this broken law. They intentionally ruin lives and burgeoning careers for their own gain.
Please bring this law into the 21st century and make it just and fair for all.
I don't actually think its fair that people who make decent, unharmful content should have their content taken down, without warning, for absolutely no legitimate reason. Whereas these silly, stupid prank channels like Sam Pepper and SoFloAntonio still have their videos on the internet, where they blatently sexually harass people on the street. Some of them are years younger than them. They're touching them in inappropriate place all for the sake of doing a "prank" or in other terms now, a "social experiment". Make this stop. Please. I speak for millions of people who all have my back here. I am literally begging for you to stop taking down the harmless content, and start taking down the content that is actually harmful. Please.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I have personally been hurt by DMCA laws on youtube. My videos have been ruined by the auto copy right system on youtube. I've lost potential money and was discouraged from making future projects because of this system.
I am just going to repeat one more time what everybody else has said about the matter so far, as it covers the issue rather well.
Imagine watching some TV and all of a sudden it just stop playing because it has content that is copyrighted, it is ridiculous. We urge you so that the lively hood of content creators and those of us that enjoy there content are no abused by the DMCA acts on numerous websites and change them for the better
While yes the content deserves to be protected, The abuse of people to reveiw or even talk about the content is absolutly unexceptable. We content consumers cannot stand the injustices that big companies have made and people who are even promoting the product are being targeted. This, no matter how you strech it is abuse and it needs to stop.
please fixed the internet and bring copyright to 21st century for the future.
I feel like Youtuber should have the Freedom. Corporation are taking that away from us. Any YouTuber with as little as 10 subscribers to 1 million subscribers should be able to make a video without being flagged for Copyright abuse. Unfortunately we can't as a result copyright holders abusing the law. Youtube gives the opportunity for anyone to become something big and to have fun but companies are taking that away from us.
With the onus of takedowns on the defense and none on the filer, the system actively discourages people from producing content and can even directly financially impact them as well. (See Lenz Vs. Universal Music.) This effectively turns the takedown system into a tool that can be used to censor and moderate what should be an open forum. A current example can be seen in several youtube channels, such as Jim Sterling, Totalbiscuit, and many others.
Any claims such as this in normal day-to-day life would be given due process, as would all actions of this nature. Yet in the case of the internet, where a growing number of people make their living, why is due process ignored? For convenience?
Any more would be rambling on my part, but in conclusion; Any digital system that can result in financial or legal harm should be considered to have the same legal responsibilities as any real-world system. If it cannot feasibly achieve this, it should not be used.
Thank you for your consideration.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Laws concerning the internet are ridiculously outdated and allow large corporations to take advantage of small (and sometimes pretty large) content creators. There needs to be repercussions for false DMCA claims as corporations are currently acting as the judge jury and executioner. As the government it is your job to create a competitive and fair environment for all citizens as well as preventing powerful interests from stifling free speech and attempting monopolise the market place.
Personal Note: I'm person who is interested in the entertainment industry and watch many videos of different people to see what make or breaks into full fledged entertainment. But due to the fact that copyright law is being ignored completely. I have seen so many people get skrikes or lose their account completely for no reason or for bullying tactics. It make me
Ever since I've been using Youtube, I've never gone to section of other users stealing other people's content and using them as their own. The companes such as "Soflo", has many different examples of doing said action. They would include their own intro but edit in another creator's content to its complete duration then claim that video for their business to grow. In other cases, they would issue out a notice to block another creator's content that's just a discussion regarding the wrong doings without no video reference.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and government bodies and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies and government bodies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
People are using this to make threats
People are stealing people's money
Where is the fair use
People have jobs on YouTube and put effort in
The DMCA is outdated
People can't join YouTube cause of this
People are leaving YouTube
Big companies are looking for a way to silence your opinion
Some of the claims are not from the copyright holders
Freedom of Speech
More Creativity
Don't let YouTube Die
This is serious
PLEASE DO SOMETHING BEFORE ITS TOO LATE
Being able to legally backup your media is threatened by The DMCA. Under strict interpretation legally transferring a song from a purchased CD to a cell phone is considered copyright infringement.
As it stands, the DMCA lends itself to abuse: although I haven't been personally affected by it, I have witnessed several cases where corporations have used it to silence criticism from smaller entities that do not have the resources to fight against larger companies, even when the content in question should've been protected under fair use, or is in fact not at all related to the content it was supposedly infringing.
The worst part is, even if the content gets proven to not violate the DMCA, the companies that make false DMCA claims do not get penalized for them in any way, so there's no incentive for the companies to avoid making false claims when it might be beneficial to them in some way. In most cases, the content creators that get targeted by false DMCA claims also do not get any kind of compensation for the lost revenue caused by the false claims. This is especially troublesome when the content get falsely claimed when it's still new. Because of the nature of the current online environment, new content gets the most traffic in its infancy, so false DMCA claims can severely stunt the revenue legitimate content creators should be making.
The Internet has changed how media is reviewed and viewed.
It boggles the mind that the law supposed to protect content creators on both sides soon has its 20th anniversary without a mayor overhaul.
Even though the internet from back then and the current one are as similiar as a bicycle and a sports car.
Original content needs to be protected, but that protection needs to be both ways. Currently one side is equipped with hammers they may wield without consequenses.
If a false claim is made and recognized as such the one issuing the complaint faces no penalty. Quite the opposite. They often may keep the revenue they have unfairly claimed without compensating the injured party.
As such pretending to have been stolen from gives companies the ability to in turn unjustly take money for something they didn't create.
Again, without repercussions.
Something I personally noticed was that often reviewers were targeted, sometimes without them using anything from said movie/song etc.
Reviewers however have become an integral part of media consumption. I can only speak for myself, but I am sure many others too wait for a review of the movie/game etc. before spending money on it.
Of course, if the reviews are negative that might stop people from buying the product. Consequently having a method to silence those voices comes in handy.
I do not wish to blindly accuse companies of anything I do not have proof of. However, many of the internet chanels I watch on a regular basis have reportet a massive increase of unfair strikes and takedowns.
These people, who work hard on their content, have to basicaly sit on hot coals, hoping they do not get taken down, even though they are in the right.
Much of that is down to the automated systems in place to search for violations of copyright.
I am well aware that there is too much content already on the internet and added to by the minute to keep up with simply using manpower. But I find it more than feasible for a company that has algorythms looking for stolen content to employ people, who take a look at what the system found to see if its truly a violation of copyright, or if it falls under fair use, which the Ninth Circuit has ruled must be considert before issuing a takedown. A programm cannot do that.
So why does a German care for U.S law?
Generally I don't. But these people who face difficulty because of a broken system have touched my life by making me laugh when I needed it, by telling me about something that I wouldn't have paid attention to without them and just generally opening a window to things in the world I would have never learned about.
And these people deserve support and the protection of their right to free speach and fair use.
I could be angry at someone for making a YouTube video about my content and easily, without fail, take it all down. YouTube doesn't care! Notably I Hate Everything, Doug Walker of Channel Awesome, The Drunken Peasants Podcast on many occasions and much more.
Really, the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The way that DMCA take down claims currently work doesn't adequately protect new content creators, or content creators who create derivative works of off already existing works that should be protected under the rights of fair use. While it does serve to help protect ip holders from actual content theft, it is too handily used as a tool to remove criticism or competition that may threaten their ip's profitability.
Though I have never had trouble with DMCA, mainly due to being apart of a small channel, it sickens me to see what some people have gone through due to loopholes and out-dated rules. It makes the thought of posting to Youtube an almost frightening idea. This was supposed to be a place for creativity and fun. Now many people have to literally fight for their lively-hood in order to do just that. It needs to stop before the damage done by greedy, unfair corporations is irreversible.
ayy lmao
The DMCA is an absolute joke! As a content creator I want there to be safeguards in place so that I can be sure that my work won't be taken down, or profited off of by other parties. The DMCA is failing us and it's time to update it to bring it in line with 2016, and the current state of the global internet infrastructure.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
The guidelines for the DMCA needs to change, or at the very least be updated. It is constantly being abused by criminals, especially on YouTube, to gain money off of other people's hard work, to stifle free speech, to try and steal credit, and money, from a person's video, and many other actions, such as other companies hiring groups to send strikes to videos to get the money the content creator could have gained from it.
I have seen so many examples of the system being totally abused that I cannot remember them all, but I will try and recount the worst of them, to hopefully show how broken the system is.
Under fair use, a person can critique and review a movie, game, or anything else without fear of a copyright strike. This is done to show the people how a game, movie, or anything else of that nature the truth, if it is good, bad, or anywhere in between. A person on YouTube with the username 'I Hate Everything', reviewed a movie called "Cool Cat Saves the Kids". It is a bad movie, and he, simply, said it as so.
However, it's producer, Derek Savage, didn't agree with the review. So in response, he flagged the video, making where all of the advertisements on it would go to him instead of the person who made the review. This alone is illegal, but it does not end there. Savage then went on to harass the creator of review, through making videos in response of the review, emailing him with THREATS, and refusing to stop when he was asked, peacefully and with respect, to stop. He refused, and kept on with his actions, until the flag he made on the video expired (to be clear, if the up-loader of a video makes a counter claim whenever something like this happens, the person who made the first claim has to respond within 30 days, or else the claim is removed). However, during that time, the person who made the movie lost 30 full days of potential financial gain.
The next example is of a vlog (which is basically just a person with a smart phone recording him or herself talking and uploading it onto the Internet) of a man who simply stood on his front porch, talking about the snow in his front yard. His video was claimed as copyright infringement, even though the video only had his face, his voice, and his front yard in it, and is only one minute and 17 seconds long.
Another, bigger, example is with a YouTube channel called 'Charisma on Command', where his video recieved a takedown noticed (which deleted the video altogether) by a company called 'mmaheat'. Charisma emailed them, letting them know of the issue, and informing them that his video was a review, protected under Fair Use. He got an email back, with it saying, word for word, 'Our policy: if it didn't come from your own camera or from a cameraman you hired, it's illegal.'.
This is only one example of how bold companies are getting with claiming videos, either by removing them if they don't like them, or literally stealing money away from the content creators.
Here is another example.
A content creator called "AMysteriousMrEnter" made a review (I hope you are starting to see a pattern here, although the issues aren't just limited to reviews) of a show made on Australia, the name of the show being 'Pixel Pinkie'. He had a claim filed on the video, with it being taken down, by "Blue Rocket". MrEnter filed a counterclaim, which had to response to, which gave him his video back. A few months later, he had another claim filed on the exact same video by a different company, one who was HIRED BY Blue Rocket, called 'Valley Arm', who are hired to remove illegal postings of their content. Which would normally be fine.
With the second claim came with it an email, after MrEnter uploaded a video about how bad the people abusing the copyright system is and how companies can legally steal a content creator's ad revenue (which is, for many of them, their only source of income for money. Their lives can be completely ruined by false claims), saying that the US's copyright laws DOES NOT APPLY to them since their company is in Australia, which is false, since YouTube is a company in the US and is hosted in that country, which binds them to the US's laws, and no other country's, with the uploader being a US citizen as well. The email then advised MrEnter to retract his counter claim on his video, which would make him unable to file a counter claim on that video ever again and to lose all ad revenue rights to that video, even though he is within Fair Use.
After the second claim expired, like the first, literally 30 minutes later, it was struck by another claim by Valley Arm! This means that MrEnter lost THREE ENTIRE MONTHS of ad revenue on the video, and is getting close to seeming like the company bullying him.
There are many, MANY more examples of why the DMCA needs to change, with it creating so many threats to literally everyone. A person who video tapped her toddler daughter had his video claimed, only because that company's branded product was in it! Another was another vlog of three people in a car, talking about a movie they just watched in a movie theater. It was claimed as well!
The Internet will be, and already is, the next big thing for jobs, money, products, basically everything, yet so many people are too afraid to create anything because of the abuse on the DMCA system. It HAS to change, it MUST change, to protect everyone, not just companies, who literally have all the power right now, but the common person.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING DUMMY, YOU CAN'T TAKE MY ROBLOX VIDEOS, OR MY FRIENDS SFM'S. I WILL ROUNDHOUSE KICK EARTH INTO THE SUN IF YOU DON'T SAVE FAIR USE. OH AND BRING BACK TIX ON ROBLOX!
Please change how the copyright law is affecting YouTube and other wonderful sites that we the people find unjust. Since we live in the United States of America our first amendment is Freedom of Speach. With this outdated copyright law it has made it impossible to let our voices be heard about our opinions through content. Please update the law so that way people's lives won't be at stake for losing their jobs and careers over the years the built on the Internet. Thank you.
Comment:
I am not a content creator myself, but many of the people i watch on youtube are having a hard time fighting off companies that are using unfair means to block and steal money from these content creators honest work. I don't live in America but this is effecting us all and our voices needs to be heard. People that create content on youtube make their living on this site and they do so because this is what they love doing. They make their living of of youtube and do so legally. But companies like Hollywood and others are harassing and stealing from honest content creators while at the same time removing their honest work from the site it was posted on. And the creators can't even do much to stop it, because the free use system on youtube gives the companies that issues the claim full power. Witch means that if an unfair claim from a company is issued on a video the content creator is blocked from doing anything about the situation because the free use system restricts his or her channel! And even if the content creators try to contact youtube to fix the problem it does not even go through any human hands at youtube, its all automated to a point that gives companies free reign to harass and steal the honest living of those content creators. This is wrong and must be dealt with! The DMCA law was created in 1998 and has not been updated since to compensate for how much the internet has changed over the years. Make a change to protect free speech and fair use for everyone one on youtube. Where is the free use?
Nikolas from norway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjXNvLDkDTA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF2tCY281Rk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) has been used time and time again by people with no rightful claim to the video, even when the video footage doesn't have any copyrighted content or the content is under fair use !
What is even more astonishing is that videos cleared a first time can go through the same process again : as most views for a video come in the first days after its submission, people living from the monetization of their videos are constantly threatened by this eventuality.
Even worse, the videos can even be taken down without giving any valid evidence for several days.
There are even examples of censorship, when a company effectively tries to silence someone as happened with Konami here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nwPPYkd8gs
If you still want to uphold free speech, creativity and fair use, please seriously consider this issue.
I would also add that there have been many times where the automated takedowns have been abused by people who hold no copyright over the content at all, even when that content uses zero copyright material. Some examples would be Youtube videos of people simply talking in front of a plain background and containing no images or music have been taken down by abusers of the DMCA takedown system, or of companies using shell companies to repeatedly targeting videos for takedown claims in order to hide the source of the claims. Even if the content creator wins a disputed DMCA claim against their content, there is nothing that requires the issuer of the claim to return the revenue generated by the disputed content that was taken from the content creator, nor is there any apparent punishment for false claims.
Here is a list of Youtube channels that have been effected by the abuse of this system:
Jim Sterling
Themysteriousmrenter
Channel Awesome
Anime America
Lost Pause
The Anime Man
Your Movie Sucks
I Hate Everything
Drwolf
Joshscorcher
TeamFourStar
CinemaSnob
Potatobombkyle Lego Productions
CinemaSins
AlternateHistoryHub
Jontron
BadComedian
Sargon of Akkad
Chris Stuckman
Bobsheaux
Sheeleシェーレ
BrainScratch Commentaries
NFKRZ
Pyrocynical
The Gaming Czar
Games Repainted
AdoseofBuckley
Totalbiscuit
Matthias
ToddintheShadows
Angry Joe
ElectricDragon505
CentralDerp
Krimson Rogue
EyeOfSOl
Dragon Mage
CreepyMcPasta
Pokemon Reorchestrated, run by Braxton Burkes, was a channel and content creator of particular note regarding DMCA abuse, because it was a channel that held an official license from Nintendo to use Nintendo's music to create remixes, until the entire channel was terminated as a result of DMCA takedown claims for said music.
I support all of the content creators that have been unfairly treated with this.
For fucks sake guys, this kind if take down feels like jailing someone for speaking against the president, but charging him with something like "your protest sign is 0.00002 cm too big for the regulation"
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I am not a content creator, but I have always supported and enjoyed the content of others on YouTube and various other websites. I love these creators, as well as the content that they put out. Imagine my dismay then, when I see that some of my favorite content creators are hit with copyright strikes, and are put into hot water because of these old and shoddy laws.
YouTubers like The Mysterious Mister Enter, I Hate Everything, Team Four Star, Jim Sterling, the Nostalgia Critic, Krimson Rouge, and various others NEED to have fair use protected, so that they will be able to make their living, and continue to entertain the people who have been longtime fans and supporters of their work, and the fact that this happens is just incredibly silly to me. For instance, the Mysterious Mister Enter has been hassled by a animation company based in Australia over a poorly made cartoon, having been given a copyright strike over three times for ONE video, ALL of whom from the same source, just under a different name. I Hate Everything was striked by a spiteful and angry man, and was subsequently subjected to an attempted extortion from said man. It's sad, it's pathetic, and it needs to stop, right here, right now.
So, I must ask you, US Copyright Office... Where's the fair use?
#WTFU
I believe the DMCA has limited free speech on the Internet and has made many content creators scared to criticize certain works and materials.
The DMCA needs to be change for today's modern Internet and YouTube or rather Google who own YouTube has be unfair disrespectful and damaging to its content creators like thing need to change for example I uploaded a Mario kart8 video up to YouTube 2-minutes after it was uploaded it got 4-content ID claims by Nintendo yes they had a sorta right to claim my video as I was playing there video game but as a YouTube/lets player I should of had not problem with uploading the video plus I've played other Nintendo games LPs to uploaded to YouTube made money off them with out any problems before but Nintendo is a bit odd about some stuff plus it doesn't help that the current DMCA is to old for to days internet and damages us yotubers and I disputed the 4-claims that Nintendo put on my video and went to YouTube help page to see what happens next and all theses things iam about to say applys to all youtubers and content creators ok the 3-out comes that could happen after the 30-day waiting period are 1.the company uplifteds the claim.
2.the company upholds the claim and the most damaging one to all youtubers is 3.the company takes the video down and your channel gets a auto copyright strike and the channel is put in bad standing. And losses lots of the things we need like being able to monitizes are videos to make money which is important as make YouTube videos is lots of people's jobs also we loss a lot of other stuff we need access to but after 3-copyright strikes your channel gets taken down and gone forever that has happened to lots of youtubers because of fake/false claims by YouTube or other company's also fake company's plus this fair uses copyright DMCA so company's have claimed they made this law and DMCA are be used without factoring fair uses also the DMCA are be used as threats and to stop free speech and being sent out by shell company's to to shield the company's that send take downs noticeses plus videos are hit multiple times after they been cleared also results in loss of revenue and harassment also people just uploading videos to YouTube with no copyright footage,music or images have had there videos taken down its time to stop this madness
Youtube channels are being taken down and videos I watch, due to abuse of DMCA takedowns, negative video game reviews are removed because the developer did not like it, rather than on infringement grounds, and it forces individuals to fight to get their content back- or more likely unable to defend themselves and sustain themselves in the event of a drawn out trial when reliant on the very income that is removed when the DMCA is enacted.
As a computer scientist, and more importantly a programmer, it means a great deal to me with the exemptions granted in 2010, and further last year. However, I believe that the law can be written to allow these and similar legitimate purposes from being blanketed in the first place. Some do not affect me due to UK law restricting the legitimacy of some software contracts but it would be folly to suggest US law does not affect all software developers.
Most importantly, as related to YouTube, the law governing OSPs has a very unconstitutional effect. To protect itself, it is required to remove any content that is claimed to be copyrighted by a third party. The main issue with this is that YouTube is publication, the author(s) have copyright protection over their video, thus they have immediate evidence of copyright holding. Certainly people may copy such things and republish in breach of copyright, but these laws certainly do not protect any individuals. Just as many US news channels happily post full published works (in their entirety) from YouTube under the name of free speech and for independent businesses, who protects them from a film studio or developer, or phone manufacturer, you name it, when they give a negative review? what stops them from censoring OSPs? Certainly not DMCA.
Forcing OSPs to punish individuals with no hope of representation is disgraceful, and a result of making OSPs liable for any content obtained from their service. Why not make it illegal for telecommunications to allow calls to continue when some copyrighted music is in the background? Certainly the same standards apply at the very least. Copyright law exists to protect individual creative entities, and yet their is no protection for this on the internet. Certainly a requirement of complete dissemination of a copyright holder on an item, informing the creator of their infringements directly would grant the creator a method to defend themselves, but the reliance on automated systems to create these claims makes this impossible. Any company that is using a program to generate takedowns that can POSSIBLY file an incorrect claim is unlawful, and should be explicitly so. And when these claims are not upheld in court, not only should the OSP be covered of its charges, the true copyright holder should be reparated.
It is clear that the result of the bill is a denial of due process, there is no provision for the holder of the copyright (until proven otherwise by the claimant they have full ownership of published material in question)
I beseech you, is it just that content creators must defend themselves week after week, strike after strike, for some every day, for time and time again it to be proven to be false or within fair use. At the very least allow identified individuals who could be tried without anonymity to be immune from automatic takedowns requiring companies to have the strength of their convictions where anonymity is not there to protect those who breach copyright. Please give some protection to independent internet publications.
Warren Matlak
Im sure there will be countless messages about what's wrong with DMCA and the current copyright laws and what consequences the unrestricted power these laws give to people that aim to use them improperly.
I just want to add my vote and mention that the US copyright laws greatly effect the rest of the world as well.
As a Swedish citizen I am daily affected by these outdated laws and I see my own government having to take these laws into consideration when making decisions on the matter of copyright law.
Remember that you do not only make laws for the United States, but these American laws have an impact on the whole world.
DMCA takedowns, and suffocation destroy hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of valid and lawful jobs, careers, and livelihoods world wide.
The DMCA fails to account for the evolutionary nature of the Internet and is abused by companies and individuals who refuse to be held to account for their business or personal ethics.
For example, Totalbiscuit, a YouTuber who produced a video critical of the video game Day One Garry's Incident, suffered a copyright strike to his channel due to the developer of said game filing a DMCA. The process to eliminate the strike was obtuse and unnecessary.
Please see these videos for more information:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfgoDDh4kE0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8&ab_channel=ChannelAwesome
Currently DMCA claims are being simply abused being used not as a means of allowing people to protect their copyrights but as a means of stifling criticism and honest opinions, they're being used to as a way to deliberately harass legitimate content covered under fair use.
The heavy use of automated systems used on YouTube has lead to numerous hilarious situations where official youtube channels line Ubisoft and Miracle of sound has had their own original content flagged and removed.
For a specific view of how Youtube system is currently abused I have this video to share
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8&feature=youtu.be
in it the creator explains how he has had a review video taken down by the same company multiple times just under different names, the rights owners also have been sending the creator numerous emails in which they showed a mis-understanding of American law considering they're trying to use Australian law as a way of attack.
The rules of todays internet are flat out broken and blurred into an recognizable grey area, it doesn't matter if the work is used under fair use or clearly are trans formative pieces if the rights holder thinks they can gain control of it they can because even if the video is down for a short while they can still leach off of the ad revenue that video has accrued for that duration.
Oh yeah, and many popular content creators who I watch are being punished unfairly by others, and some YouTubers are straight up BREAKING the law with some of their videos.
When anyone can claim copyright infringement on you, they will. And with almost no way to stop it, it hurts some people's source of income.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I have seen so many people and creators saying that one of their favorite videos was taken down for no reason. Please save the internets freedom. This is something that MUST happen. So please, make it happen.
Ever since Viacom sued Youtube in 2007 (http://mashable.com/2007/03/13/viacom-youtube/#y2WbRJi8iuqw), DMCA takedowns have become an increasing problem for video makers and entertainers not just in America, but across the globe. Recently, many internet entertainers are beginning to grow tired of DMCA abuse, leading to the hashtag #WTFU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI)
As it stands very few people understand how fair use works and even more people are willing to abuse DMCA laws to make quick and easy money off of video creators who don’t want to handle a lawsuit. In some cases false DMCA takedowns have also been used to silence negative views on indie movies and games, just to satisfy someone’s ego.
Now that companies are being set up to issue takedowns, and the law is being abused by just about anybody aware that they can abuse it. DMCA needs to be changed for the modern evolved internet so that the common woman does not have to fear a takedown notice every time she uploads a video of her kids. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenz_v._Universal_Music_Corp.)
The reason I believe that the dmca should be repealed is because it was made for an era when the internet was still in its infancy and should hold no bounds in this modern era of global knowledge there are bound to be a few similarities between items which should make this document from the 1990's null and void
so flow
I do not live in the US, however this affects us all. Do the right thing, help stop entities from abusing unlawful power, and attacking content creators.
This is only harming those driving the engine of modern entertainment. Help better this situation, not complicate it or corrupt the campaign.
Filing false copyright claims will be punishable under U.S Law.
That simple.
This will force adoption by other nations within a short time.
Oh yeah, here is the spiel they gave me.
Let's update the law for the world we now live in.
Somebody literally got their channel taken down with no warning for no reason.
People are getting copyrighted for STANDING STILL, TALKING TO A CAMERA WITH NO MUSIC.
This is seriously fucked up, and the government has been NO HELP at ALL, its just gross.
We have had a glimpse of equality many times but if we can't be free to entertain the way we want then what is the use of entertainment at all
To what is already prewritten here (I kept it because every word is true) I would also like to add that directors and CEOs of film companies have been taking down fan reviews or parodies of their films, not long after publishing their own video and mocking the youtuber that made said video. They took down said video because they felt like it, and did it to spite the creator just because they are a fan of their work. M. Night Shamalon himself, a director, took down several videos of a channel called ChannelAwesome that contained a multitude reviews of his work in which none of them were certainly rated four stars. This is an immature act, and also extremely unfair.
To add on, there are people reporting others who havent even created said content, but claim it as their own, and get away with it.
As a creator ready to publish an animated webseries that took years to build; that frightens me. I may only be 17 but this is something I am willing to fight for in the end.
So with that, I am asking you, the oh-so-fair and just American Government what so many of us have been asking for the longest time...
Where's the fair use in THAT?
I see this bill being abused mostly on Youtube, so
DMCA's are destroying YouTube content creators. The takedowns completely disregard the Fair Use Policy. Content creators are being punished for including five seconds of audio in a video, a video which is often promoting a game, a film or a song. Please stop the rampant DMCA takedowns that are ruining the freedom of creators.
most youtuber's I watch that review movies that are on dvd get taken down or have less or no money for the video
I do not take credit for writing the preceding statements, as they were pre-written in the comment section of takedownabuse.org. However, I can claim that, having read the aforementioned statements, that I find myself agreeing with the message. The DMCA was created back in 1998, and the Internet as a whole has changed significantly since then, with many advancements in technology such as smartphones and social media altering our lives in ways that could never have been predicted when the law was created.
Back then, the internet was still a burgeoning curiosity to many people and yet now for those same people it is an integral part of daily life, whether for personal or business use. Creating your own website seemed a strange, nebulous idea back then, now content creation on has absolutely exploded.
The law must protect the rights of content creators to the same degree that it protects copyright holders. It does not in its current state and so change is necessary.
Let's make it till we break it
As a content creator and producer for various people i would like to comment on the DMCA safe harbour provisions. I believe the following:
That the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The copyright claimant system on YouTube can also prevent content creators even mentioning the contentby name. Without any use of copyright material that the DMCA safe harbour claimant system can be used to take this down when nothing infringing on their copyright is infringing on there copyright. This is preventing reviews, criticism and any negative reaction.
More than once I have seen a video taken down on youtube for unreal reasons under the use of a DMCA takedown, as a viewer this does not affect me as much as it affects the content creator, who's views, content and/or hardwork have been lost to a malicious act exploiting an out of date system, which for some is a loss of income, and can deeply affect someones life, to me, a youtuber is an entertainer, I watch more on youtube than I do on TV, and as time goes on more will turn to the internet for entertainment, and as such, important issues will follow, while the out of date system is in effect, it leaves not only the current generations vulnerable to malicious intent, but future generations, as an example, a young individual who has worked hard on a short 20 minute long self made movie, with his/her own original plot, could put their work on youtube to show the world what they can do, under the current system someone can just take that and with no proof mark it as copyright, this for a young person would be deeply upsetting and unfair, even though it is completely avoidable, with an up to date system to ensure fairness.
Nothing to say really...
The DMCA was well-intentioned, but its malusage has gotten completely out of hand.
People file claims on content they do not own. DMCAs are used to inflict harm on invidual creators and to stifle free speech. People just talking on camera, with no copyright footage or music, are being taken down. Some companies claim that content falling under fair use is illegal and threaten with legal actions if you file a counter claim. DMCAs are used without factoring in fair use. DMCAs are sent by shell companies to shield the companies sending the takedowns. People use DMCAs themselves as threats. Videos are hit multiple times, even after they have been cleared. Many people have lost a huge part of their income for the duration of these claims, and will never get the money back from the ones making the false claims. Some people have used samples of classical music in their tracks, and can thus make claims on videos that use the original classic.
The DMCA is an artifact of the past that has outstayed its welcome. It's been used to silence critics without real consequences, and is abused as power over creators. Malicious or bad faith use of the law needs to have enforced consequences, and fair use needs a stronger definition.
Instead of protecting those who create, the DMCA are used to harass and take down the creation of artists. Fair use should protect those who make critics, parodies and teach art using small fractions of protected content to emphasize they arguments.
We should fix copyright law. It's 2016 now, we love the artists and we show our love and support by making fair-use videos
I post hand- drawn photos of video game characters on my instagram to make people happy. I am not earning any money from this. I do not claim any rights to the characters I draw. I just do this because I enjoy it. Technology is imperfect. It can- despite what some people believe- make mistakes. Other people who do what I do or something similar to it are also at risk, even though their work has no financial benefit and they don't claim copyright. The use of technology to do something that a living being could do a thousand times better is inexcusable laziness!
Over the past months I've seen several Creators who are protected under fair use and even those who used bought licensed products (Music in particular) been attacked under the use of the DMCA.
The claims even go so far as to claiming content by creating new content on a far later date.
The Notice-and-Takedown process is so harmfull, that it even influences other countries. This is an inacceptable state under which the internet is currently governed.
I'm doing this one myself, because it's that important to the future of the internet, Youtube, Vimeo and whatever online service you care to name. DMCA is a broken, obsolete system that is being abuse on a daily basis, so much so that getting a DMCA claim made against your channel is expected. It’s actually worrying because of the damage it could cause to the future of entertainment.
The DMCA system is so easily abused that it’s actually a wonder that it’s taken this long to get any attention. With the current system, claimants have no repercussions if they make a false claim, meaning that if a company wants to take a stab at some poor creator, with the hope of gaining its hard earned revenue, in the cheapest way possible, they can get away with it entirely. That’s nothing short of fraud.
Another massive issue is the way DMCA claims are put into action before any effort is made to validate the legitimacy of the claim, which could, (and has), deprive a creator of the majority of their revenue, and could limit a channels ability to post videos.
Of course, the big problem with the current system of DMCA is that it gives the ability for companies to censor legitimate criticism, and attack the critics themselves, even if the videos fall under the Fair Use policy. Censorship on this scale could endanger the entertainment industry as a whole, and because there are no repercussions to befall those whole lie to protect their rubbish films or games, there is no deterrent for this kind of behavior.
Let us not forget that this was a system put in place to protect the internet of the late 90’s, which in internet years, is like if we still enforced witch burning laws. This system just isn’t relevant to the internet of today.
Obviously, some form DMCA us necessary, pirates and digital thieves are a problem, but when the system in place is being used to attack critics who abide by fair use, then there are some changes that need to be made.
DMCA and copyright is the most unenforced/misenforced law I've ever seen. People losing money and videos and even their entire channel at the worst of times. Terrible and dishonest behaviour being rewarded. There is no justice with the current copyright law.
When a publisher of a videogame purchases the copyrights of a videogame IP off the original creator, then can just sit on it forever like the case of Metal arms glitch in the system were the original creator who still cared about his creation wanted to make more of his game but the bastards to took it off him not only didn't want to do more with it, but didn't even want to sell it back to him. which would have been bad but at least he'd have been able to make more of HIS games. Copyright law is so fucked and favors large companies and ratty little bastards who either steal from the original maker by claiming something that ain't there's is there's such as reaction channels and Merlin CDLTD or you've got people like prank videos and that CoolCat jerk using DMCA to censor people. All of these are fake DMCAs and what happened to them? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, no fine, no jail, no punishment of any kind.
Thank you for your time.
- Austin
I have experienced YouTubers facing takedown notifications on YouTube. They are reviewers and are fully in the rights of Fair Use. They don't use full videos of movies, TV shows etc, they use short clips and express their views of the content throughout. Companies are using the law to takedown videos they don't like, stealing revenue from them and then getting no punishment when the claim is proven false. We must work together to update the fair use laws to include punishments to companies that make false claims.
The fact that copyright laws have been like this for so long? i honestly find it ridiculous.
THIS IS FUCKING MENTAL
Also to be sure, I want all content creators to know that the Internet is a safe place to create phenomenal content in the future. I will fight for the future of creativity; socialism and hard work and to tell every company no matter how successful they are, to always think diverse in a possible way and to help the future moving on for future generations. Also make real animal hunting and abusing illegal. Reaction Videos that steal content to upload the entire unedited and uninterrupted videos. I am Ashbasher22 and in support of animators; comedians and transformative creative people of the world. I say #WTFU and let's make the world a better place. Make YouTube great again.
Although I am not from the US youtube deals with fair use problems based on the American laws. It affects me and Hungarian youtubers aswell.
Content creators are being abused by the system. There is no punishment in place to prevent people and companies from making false claims. As a result, the system is being abused and people are losing their livelihoods due to this mess. Something needs to be done to stop this.
This law is extremely unnecessary.
Protect the self-employed:
yea basically that
I wanted to give mypersonal opinion on this matter, I´ve been watching youtube and other media (twitch for example) since years daily and for hours on end, and if there is one thing i have noticed over the years its that more and more issues concerning copyright claims keep popping up , i´ve even heared once about a guy claiming a certain water sound on youtube which ended up taking claims on a couple channels using it, i obviously cant show proof for it, but asmuch as I know it really was that bad. Once a publisher even pulled a stunt taking down all videos for a certain game so their videos and trailers get a higher place on the search list even getting whole channels deleted in the meantime, as a media/plblicity stunt. I have seen many cases where developers striked and claimed channels/videos because of things like bad reviews , reviews obviously falling under fair use, and for just playing a coupleseconds of a clip or video. I can understand that straight rips of the media are illegal, but if just clips are used and the media is used for reviews or other thingsit should clearly fall under fair use. It has gotten so bad that many youtubers fear for their channels and are afraid to really say what they want to say... and thats just sad, freedom of speech looks differently. People shouldnt be afraid to say what they think and to to have and share critical opinions on things supported by evidence. Whole channels even the big ones fear for their existence. A youtuber, Jim sterling in this case, once even got into a protection programme from google legally backing him up against false claims because they clearly saw his videos as fgair use while the developers and other companies kept trying over and over again to get them deleted due to legitimate criticism. Please put an end to this madness... ofcourse companies and people should get paid for their work , nobody should work for nothing, but theres a certain line between legitimate claims and complete abuse that shouldnt be crossed like its a sunday stroll wout any consequences, It reallyis taking on huge dimensions... It shouldnt be happening that people hat know what they are doing , strictly staying in fair use , get harrassed over and over, even dreams and lives getting crushed by companies that dont like what they hear just because they can. Please put an end to all this... it really is going WAY too far.
#SAVEFAIRUSENOW!
As a matter of fact, im not a United States Citizen, but as a common user of some web pages with a considerable base on the country (such as youtube and relatives) i can assure the major problems the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) bring to simple original content makers (some times with minimal content about the fact they mention such as one or two images).
The notice-and-takedown process under the DMCA is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
So many false copyright claims. Too many. People are getting threats with it. People are losing money from this system. Things are being taken down even AFTER they are cleared. This is nonsense. Please stop this.
The system is being used to allow bigger names have unlimited power while smaller groups have much less.
The rules put in place by the group fail to recognize the great differences between the internet of 1998 and the modern internet -- where content is much more fluid and constant. When people are making videos that are within fair use, but they are constantly being threatened, harassed, and put in the line of fire because the creator of the content they are making commentary on is upset at them without due cause, it is a problem. And when you have a system specifically designed to allow them to have more power than any other entity, it's gonna be a broken system. We need a new process to allow for content creators to appeal their material BEFORE it is taken down or they have the money from the video directly stolen.
The DMCA was created in 1998 when sites like YouTube and Twitter were dreams yet to be realized. The DMCA has become a living fossil in that it no longer protects content creators and everyday users, yet for some reason it's still in use. Please stop let corporate bullies abuse this outdated law.
Please. Make the law favor content creators and not the vulrures seeking a dishonest profit from it. It's time. We're due for a change.
The notice-and-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I agree with these statements wholeheartedly. I have left it in these words because I cannot express it better myself. Please update the laws for the internet of today and protect fair use!
STOP STUPID TAKE DOWNS, LIKE HOW IS IT FAIR THAT A COMPANY COPYRIGHTS A CERTAIN WORD..
Like how stupid, it is not fair on us YouTubers
In other words, my friend wrote a song, but was taken off youtube by someone who wrote a song with the only similarities being the same instuments #wtfu
I believe that the DMCA needs to be updated for the modern internet because, even though, I am not a content creator myself, I support many creators of parodies, reviews, and other videos that our at risk of being hit by false claims from studios. In order to make things more balanced, there should be strict penalties for those who issue false claims or takedowns and there should be a system in place which means that they aren't able to make money off the creator's video until the claim has been proven true. These are especially big problems on large sites like Youtube which have poor copyright claim systems. I hope the copyright office will take measures to help content creators instead of the major studios.
I frequently watch a lot of YouTube, and one of the most repetitive types of videos I see in my subscription box is content creators having to explain the disappearance of their content. Creators like "I hate everything" , "Nostalgia Critic" and "Pyrocynical". But every time I see these explanations I think to myself, " do these creators not deserve a voice?"
The copyright system is being abused by countless amounts of greedy, slimy companies and people who just don't like the content. Do you see my point? People who don't particularly like certain content can make a copyright claim and see the video go down.
Don't even get me started on fair use. If content is transformative (like editing and commentary) then it falls under fair use. But do film companies follow this rule... Nope. Nostalgia critic got his "cat in the hat" , " the lorax " , and "The room" all taken down ,even though they fell under fair use. But somehow, reaction channels such as "jinx" and "stomedy" are allowed to play entire videos with very little commentary. A popular reaction channel reacted to a video by "gradeAunderA". The video in question was 17 minutes long. In the "reaction" the reactor only said 7 words. I'll say that again, 7 WORDS. How is that video still up when it takes 0 effort to make, but someone like Nostalgia critic or I Hate Everything puts hours of writing and editing into their videos, but has them taken down.
In summary:
1. The system is broken.
2. Content creators are being stolen from.
3. It needs changing.
Thanks for your time
Lewis / Boguscomedy
protect the content creators, but do not destroy them.
plus it's downright cunty to be an asshole to somebody :^)
Okay, I am an average internet user that has been seeing multiple videos being taken down unfairly on the social media site YouTube. When I say unfairly, I'm saying that videos that have no copyrighted materials (such as music, video clips,etc.) are being taken down by companies (that shall not be named to protect myself) that claim that those videos are using their copyrighted materials (which they are not). I have seen this happen to multiple people, even people I never even knew. Companies and regular people have been abusing the DMCA to harass people and/or shut down freedom of speech. Here is a list of some (heavy emphasis on "some") of the known victims of this abuse:
Jim Sterling
Themysteriousmrenter
Channel Awesome
Anime America
Lost Pause
The Anime Man
Your Movie Sucks
I Hate Everything
Drwolf
Joshscorcher
TeamFourStar
CinemaSnob
Potatobombkyle Lego Productions
CinemaSins
AlternateHistoryHub
Jontron
BadComedian
Sargon of Akkad
Chris Stuckman
Bobsheaux
Sheeleシェーレ
BrainScratch Commentaries
NFKRZ
Pyrocynical
The Gaming Czar
Games Repainted
AdoseofBuckley
Totalbiscuit
Matthias
ToddintheShadows
Angry Joe
ElectricDragon505
CentralDerp
Krimson Rogue
EyeOfSOl
Dragon Mage
CreepyMcPasta
This abuse has been happening for a long time now, and it needs to be stopped. Some of the people and companies:
believe they create the law
Use DMCAs without factoring in fair use
Use copyright claims as threats
Abuse the same video multiple times
Harass content creators and steal the revenue made from original material
This matter has gone completely out of hand, and needs to be dealt with before it becomes a serious issue.
The system is incredibly open to abuse, my personal example is I uploaded video of me playing a game, the game creator had a bit on their website stating that they are happy for people to put lets play videos up.
I recieved a copyright notice shortly after upload, not from the creator but from a third party who had also uploaded content from the game.
An example of one kind of business that is unfortunately not accomodated for in this system is online reviewers and critics. A food critic can write a review of a restaurant, using its name, and tell of both where it succeeds and where it fails. They can't, for example, have their critique dismissed or labelled as illegal if it mentions a brand name if that brand name is relevant to the restaurant (i.e. a happy meal from a particular McDonalds). Yet this online system does not accomodate for online reviews using similar kinds of content. If a critic creates a review of a video game and uses screenshots, music, or a recording of footage to describe something, despite this qualifying as fair use to the human eye, it is simply regarded as "taken" by the system and flagged as infringing on copyrighted material. This includes people who create online content that is in no way infringing on any copyrighted property. Due to a lack of penalties for those who file false copyright claims, these people are given absolutely no setback for these malicious actions which are used to steal money from innocent content creators, or put them out of business entirely.
Fair use is an incredibly important part of free expression and free speech in today's age of the internet. DMCA takedowns, while sometimes legitimate, are also far, far too often being used by large corporations to attack, harass, and steal from internet content creators. The lack of human oversight in the process has lead to widespread abuse of the system and a stifling of the natural creative processes which drive cultural progress. This is an outdated system which goes beyond its original intent to become an oppressive, anti-consumer tool.
These laws must be reviewed and changed, so that they can accomplish their original purpose while also allowing free speech and fair use.
My friend and I work together on a tiny channel and even we were targeted by this, someone who didn't own the copyright free music we used tried to claim, take down and siphon the revenue from it.
Content creators who publish legal, transformative work -- or even entirely original work -- are punished by this toxic system. That is unacceptable, a huge breach of power, and detrimental to free speech.
I am totally in to this! Save the Internet!
The DMCA notice-and-takedown procedures needs consequences for false claims and complete fluency of who the claimant issuing a takedown is. Without consequence, companies will issue takedowns based on their own rules, not on fair use; without fluency on who the claimant is, anyone can make that claim. This is especially a problem on YouTube, where companies can claim a video, but keep it up and take the revenue from the video. This can’t happen in an age where YouTube is a career for many.
Free speech is the number one thing that democracies hold over the head of other forms of society. Over and over, copyright holders have been misusing their rights as copyright holders to stifle free speech that they don't like.
The Internet is an integral platform for speech, and with new mediums of communications comes ways in which we must protect these forms of communications for people who have less resources than others.
With the current DMCA laws, it is 100% possible (and frequently happenstance) for someone to make a video essay citing other video sources, and to have it taken down for violating DMCA. Even though this is fair use, the video can be taken down for weeks or months, with no repercussion to the copyright holder.
This creates a climate in which copyright holders have control over communication of one particular topic. That is not freedom, and that is not what the tenants of democracy are.
Future copyright laws need to protect free speech while citing video or audio sources, while maintaining some punishment for an infringing takedown or obfuscation of content distribution for the essay writer.
This is an important act. Fair use n3ds to be upheld in order to ensure copyright protection but also to prevent abuse of copyright protection.
As members of the free world, it is imperative and crucial to have the right to analyze, comment or criticize on popular media and it's impact on society. It would be ridiculous to be told never to say certain words on the streets or risk punishment. This is no way for a free society to behave. We all have a right of speech even if it isn't always what people want to hear but sometimes, they need to be heard in order to compare and learn from the popular opinion. We don't learn by shutting up.
Furthermore, the term of copyright possession is entirely too long. The length of time that a copyright holder holds the rights to a work need to be reduced to a reasonable length of time.
DMCA is also being used to inflict harm and to stifle free speech from content creators. It has happened many times, and I think that it's time for some change.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I'm just gonna stick with this. It makes all the points clear, and I don't think I can top it.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly. used to censor content. that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Bellow is a list of YouTube channels that have been affected in the past or are still being affected by the aforementioned issues above one way or another. Please keep in mind that these are only SOME of the many more content creators who have been and still are suffering from this outdated system.
Jim Sterling; Themysteriousmrenter; Channel Awesome; Anime America; Lost Pause; The Anime Man; Your Movie Sucks; I Hate Everything; Drwolf; Joshscorcher; TeamFourStar; CinemaSnob; Potatobombkyle Lego Productions; CinemaSins; AlternateHistoryHub; Jontron; BadComedian; Sargon of Akkad; Chris Stuckman; Bobsheaux; Sheeleシェーレ; BrainScratch Commentaries; NFKRZ; Pyrocynical; The Gaming Czar; Games Repainted; AdoseofBuckley; Totalbiscuit; Matthias; ToddintheShadows; Angry Joe; ElectricDragon505; CentralDerp; Krimson Rogue; EyeOfSOl; Dragon Mage; CreepyMcPasta
I'm not that much of an articulate or intelligent man, but I do know that there needs to be some safeguards put in place but people need to stop abusing the power of said safeguards. Hundreds if not thousands of people are in a sense suffering from the grotesque amount of the redundancy and loopholes exploited by corporations, companies and other people that I can only describe as iniquitous and vile. This has to stop or the situation will only deteriorate from here. If I worded this poorly then please find any video with the title "Where is the fair use?" or "#WTFU", the people who made them will explain this travesty far better than I.
It's being abused so internet creators are being abused to silence criticism. It's stopping people such as me from creating content without worrying. People are being harassed when they are within fair use. Channels are being shut down unfairly due to faulty systems. Businesses do not care. And then channels that do upload piracy such as Brawlbrstms3 are completely ignored. The abuse is hurting an online form of entertainment that I enjoy. So for watchers, it's hurting their entertainment, and for creators, it's affecting their livelihoods due to their money being completely stolen when they are in fair use.
I'm not even from the USA but I want to make this noted. This affects everyone on the planet who consumes internet content that is affected by fake DMCA takedowns. Youtube creators are suffering from this everyday and it has to stop.
YouTube,definitely no longer gives a damn about Fair Use anymore! That's a sad,sad fact.
Below is a form letter that generally expresses my sentiments. However, in addition to those, I believe there should be increasingly harsh punishments for repeated abuse of DMCA, as well as the possibility of punishment for attempted use of the DMCA as a method of suppression of negative press. Since the DMCA effectively invokes the possibility of government power, it actually can, in it's worst form, act as a form of government suppression of the press on behalf of major market players in media markets, which usually has the effect of being strongly anti-consumer. This is purely unacceptable in any free society and is a blatant violation of first amendment rights, in addition to being used to circumvent fair use.
Alright, here's the form letter:
although i don't make much content in terms of videos i want to be able to enjoy the content i watch online without fear of a corporate entity harassing them and destroying freedom
I can see why it was a good idea in the past. And to a degree it has served it's purpose, keeping people from posting full paid works and protecting the content people make on the internet.
But the fact of the matter is that no matter the intentions, it's now being used not only to monetize off something that big companies don't like, it's being used as a way to shut down criticism and disagreements. And while I'm just as happy to defend these companies when they need it, I draw the line when they hinder our speech, our first amendment right, just because a review of their movie ora criticism hurt their feelings.
Fair use policy has been under a direct attack by companies and/or peoples who have knowledge that their actions are illegitimate and damaging. Reviewing, parodying, commentating and use for education of copyrighted material is legal without the original maker's consent however, many content creators on major sites (most importantly YouTube) have been forced to respond to copyright take down claims under the DMCA law.
YouTube's system in handling these cases is for the most part in favor of the one filing the complaint and doesn't give nearly much power to the defendant even though a simple skim of the video is enough to end the dispute in favor of the content creator. It is due to this that cases can take weeks or even months to clear up. Due to continuous attacking and filing on legitimate videos, suspicions of bot and shield company use are brought up so there is no chance to trace back to the original parent company/person. This only bogs down the process of complaints even more.
DMCA law must be updated to make a more fair system which can catch real law-breakers and provide more protection for content creators. The current state of the law has far too many loop holes. It the DMCA law is not put under review, not only will thousands of existing content creators be negatively affected but also the millions more who aspire to create their own content. Please hear the people out.
I run a YouTube channel that every week deals with false and illegal claims on the channel's videos by more powerful companies that exploit the chance to use the take-down system. I have dealt with many false DMCA take-downs and as of this week more than half of my videos income that should be going to me is illegally going to companies that have falsely claimed my content as their own. If you count all of the videos on my channel that are privated/public, 31/40 have false DMCA take-downs put on them. This is clearly ridiculous. This whole system needs to be fixed so that sinister organisations and people can't prevent free speech from a creator. Sincerely, - Sam Davis
Let's fix the DMCA so it's not based around the non-YouTube internet anymore or whatever.
DMCA is abused constantly and in its present form completely obliterates fair use and free speech. Claims on YouTube can be filed seemingly without proof, and without all that much in the way of user defence unless one is backed by a large multi-channel network.
The law is heavily stacked in favour of large corporations rather than the people.
vily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Too often, false DMCA claims are made by anti-intellectual and anti-science groups who, in the face of not having any evidence or reason, set out to keep any discussion from happening and having their bullshit made national policy, and others who fear/hate criticism, can't take a fucking joke, and refuse the free speech medium of parody to comment on their work.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The DMCA NEEDS to be UPDATED or something like that, individual people are really getting screwed and taking people money that they use TO LIVE, people like Jim Sterling, Doug Walker, Alex/I Hate Everything, EVEN ME & loads more, people are LOSING MONEY TO LIVE FOR NO REASON WHAT SO EVER BECAUSE OF A BROKEN SYSTEM.
Time and time again it has been shown that the dmca is a system that has been run over by the speed of the internet. New grey area's that were impossible to imagine 18 years ago are now simply reality. Youtube, twitter, reddit, facebook and many more have shown the power that the internet can give to people to create and show their own work.
But it has also given power to those who would want to stifle this, and the way dmca works right now is a big part of it. I am not an american, but it is undeniable that U.S. laws sometimes have a big impact on the whole world. Do think about how to improve dmca, so that creators and fans of content do not get abused anymore.
As a purveyor of various content provided exclusively through the Internet, I am motivated to speak out against the DMCA by the most basic of means: entertainment. Like many, I would be upset if the things I enjoy were gone, more so if their absence was due to a preposterous allegation of copyright law. Beyond the most basic drives, I do not want to see the good people who make their living creating and pursuing beautiful artistic endeavors shut down. The DMCA operates on a system that was in place before Y2K; I would venture to say even for its time the law was temporary, since its creators probably assumed the world would collapse in only a couple of years. Is this truly the best system our nation can come up with? With the advent of the radio and television came a litany of doctrines an regulatory committees in an attempt to adapt to rapid advances in communication and entertainment. The Internet isn't what it was in 1998, and after surviving Y2K without breaking a sweat, it grew exponentially in the coming years, while legislation was left in the dust. This archaic framework has resulted in the unwarranted removal of content and subsequent punishment of its creators, as well as abuse through those who claim their property is being stolen. Our country has a precedent for moving its legislation forward with the times. When our first governing body, The Articles of Confederation, proved to be a complete bust, they were scrapped in favor of the United States Constitution. This wasn't perfect either, and so amendments were added to fix what was already there. Legal disputes such as Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade challenged the current system in place and ushered in change for the better even if they weren't the nail in the coffin. By setting up this platform, it has been made evident that someone is giving us the floor, a chance to challenge conventions nearly 20 years old. By listening, you can show us that the system still works, because right now, many have their doubts. Those are the people whose voices need to be heard. We speak on their behalf, those who bring us that which we enjoy, if they are unable to speak up, or worse, be heard. The Internet opens the door to experiences previously inaccessible to the population, more so than when it was conceived years ago. Many are making a switch that occurred 80 years ago when the radio reached peak popularity: abandoning one form of entertainment in favor of a more preferable one. With access to a myriad of content, provided by users with rapidly dwindling rights, the Internet has aged well. Listen to us, and show us you can too.
Pretty much, a lot of bullshit has been going down, at least on YouTube. Copyright claims are placed without real reason and people have gotten their channels and sources of income taken away because of it. I'm sure the following few paragraphs explain things better, I guess.
Too often will a Innocent Content Creator be taken down do to a DMCA claim. It is a massive problem. It would be better if someone could keep the video up till proven guilty.
Too much creative integrity and too many hobbies, jobs and lifestyles have been destroyed by greedy companies under the claim of fair use violation. Enough is enough.
I've fallen victim to this system. I create animated parodies online, and I've had numerous copyright strikes and threats; I don't even monetise, they're just taking money out of nowhere.
The Copyright Claims have proven to be a big problem for content creators all over the Web. Numerous artists, who create high quality content are targeted by DMCA, without real basis.
It is true, that YouTube and Internet as a whole is a source of a lot of problems within multimedia industry, allowing for theft, harassment and other simmilar examples of breaking basic human rights. However, more than often is DMCA used as a tool, to silence critisism, or estabilish control over other people's content.
There are hundreds of creators, who base their whole existance on YouTube, treating it as their full-time job. As any job, it requires a lot of effort put into it. Game reviewers need to buy games, set up all required hardware and software, write script for their work, edit the videos etc. DMCA however makes both them, and simmilar full-time creators (music creators, critics, or creators, who use video games and movies as a basis for theory crafting, explanation of specific aspects of said work of art and presenting it in a accesible form for everyone) vulnerable, leaving them with no ability to protect themselfs and their property.
Biggest problem of DMCA system, is that it is only one-edged weapon. It can harm only a target of a strike, but a person who is targeting someone acts without any risk. Even if a claim is false, there is no returning of money lost in process (sometimes leaving creators without food to put on their tables in more radical situations), or punishing person who put a claim in the first place. Without protecting content creators, Internet changes from open market of ideas and content, into a restricted and controlled are, in which people who speak have voice only when they support a specific side of and argument, which in itself is against very basis of democracy.
Although it is true, that content should be under protection from missuse, system should be redesigned in a way, that protects EVERYONE, giving a creators a chance to defend themselfs and punishing those who put a false claim.
DMCA get abused by companies to much, money is not equal rights.
We shouldn't have to worry about this kinda stuff as you tubers and people wanting to be Youtubers, this is stupid, so end it YA GROT LOVIN SQUIG EADED GITZ
As an addendum, I feel it is worth noting that several examples of DMCA takedown abuse include, owners of a copyrighted work issuing takedowns of content in order to silence criticism, which ignores fair use provisions. Multiple false claims resulting in irretrievable financial loss to content creators on the internet. Works that contain NO copyrighted material at all being falsely claimed. The DMCA takedowns being used to threaten/bully/manipulate/harass individual creators. Copyright claims being issued after content has been determined as fair use, and NOT infringing. DMCA's being issued by people and/or Companies that do NOT own the copyrighted material. Shell companies being used to disguise the company issuing false claims.
There is also no grace period to effectively review content that has been claimed, and to take fair use into consideration. The Immediate nature of DMCA takedowns circumventing fair use review, makes it impossible to defend against false claims, resulting in the individual creator having to wait for the false claim to expire, or having to fight off false claims, while the claimant can profit off of their work.
To the U.S Copyright Office
The past couple of decades have brought huge advancements in technology and entertainment, the greatest of which has been the Internet. Today we enjoy luxuries such as Facebook and YouTube, which only 20 years ago would have been considered a fantasy. Unfortunately, this technology has often been misused in attempts to censor criticism.
Such false claims are blatant attacks on our freedom of speech and artistic expression, two key ideals of the United States. The blood of millions has been spilled to protect said freedoms from those who would seek to take them from us. Yet again, those very freedoms are under threat, but those who's duty it is to uphold those freedoms idly stand by and allow this to happen without any repercussions for the attackers.
it has also allowed companies to profit off of said censored content which they did flag taking money out of the hands of content creators also there is no negative repercussions for false flags so no second thought goes into judging whether the material at hand is fair use or not
There are people like SoFlo Antonio who literally steal content, but now people just abuse the copyright claim, and can get people who have had hard work put into their channel down so random and suddenly. Its out of control.
PLEASE THIS IS KILLING CONTENT CREATORS
People are not using the DMCA properly.Instead of protect the content creator,the content creator is getting attacked
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws.
i am not effected by copy right failing but i know that i maybe effected some of my friends where almost lost their creation when a person called copyright on a song that my friend made the person mistaken it for a different song this is for him
While I do not live in the USA, I feel that false DMCA takedowns also affect content creators and consuments from other countries, like Germany. This indirectly affects the USA, because even if those content creaters and consuments may never leave their countries, most of the plattforms that their content is provided on are residing in the USA (the most prominent being Youtube). This means that in the end, false DMCA takedowns not only harm US-residents but also unnecessarily restrict what would otherwise be a steady cashflow to the USA.
As a content viewer, i have seen and kindly felt, how badly abused old system has been. Most of the content i see in the internet, fairly used reviews, critism, top 10 count downs, animations that do mention their source material, not to mention the material that users themselfs create, are at risk, because of an old system, put to place. Now days, bigger, stronger companies, can hit smaller people, due to this rule, not mention, most thing i hate about it, that bigger companies dont get sanctioned, if they are proven wrong. This... This just needs to stop. We do realize that world and internet are big, like wild west, but, good laws, are meant to be made, and followed, but all this feels like kindergarden bullying, bigger kids harming smaller, nerdier kids, who just want to create.
Offcourse there are people, who just post whole movies on net, but, there are sincerely people, who just either review a movie, a game, or art in general. Not to mention, game companies, that kill reviews/critics videos/text based reviews, because of under 1 minute of gameplay shown in the review.
Not to mention, companies using or just plainly abusing, smaller artists, who make art freely or selling them on their own, and bigger companies plainly copypasting, the smaller artists work, without their knowledge or mentioning them, to their own works.
These rules, need to re-evaluated, re-written, and checked again. This cant continue, at all.
This idea. Of fair use and copyright infringement is needed but for so many you tubers or internet sensations. They have Been flagged destroyed by money grabbing companies trying to steal their opinions and fair speech we need fair use! We need to be able to differentiate what is fair use and what is not so please we need fair use and a better service to help us show that our content is fair use!!
There really needs to be something to stop the monetization theft that is the biggest reason for these copy-right infringement claims. It is very backwards and quite destructive.
Fuck cool cat man
Fair use DCMA sucks and people have been abusing it hardcore and it's bad!
As a frequent YouTube vistor\viewer, it would be devastating if my favorite channels were struck down because of someone's total ignorance of fair use and free speech.
Please, in the name of art, creativity, and true fair use, PLEASE change the copyright policies currently in place.
I think the way people are using fair use is incredibly unfair. How do you think Disney would like it if some random youtuber filed a claim and got all of the revenue from the movie. That is exactly how it is for the Internet community. Stop the take down abuse now.
Also I think Digital Rights Management (DRM) fall under the DMCA. With DRM there is poor execution at the least. Imagine if you purchased a book at Barnes and Nobles got home and started to read it but the before you finished you had to move. Then when you went to finish the book it was blank. That is what happens if you upgrade your computer too much or move to another and there is no good way to fix it. So if you buy e-books that have DRM on them you have to be careful about where you store it. You cannot even move them from one computer to another unless it is in the cloud. Even then it must be a recognized device.
Honestly, the DMCA needs to be updated for the 21st century. Content creators and regular people alike are constantly bombarded by false DMCA claims with no means to protect themselves or effectively fifth back. If these were legitimate claims, everything would be fine. Most of the time, however, this is not the case. People's livelihoods and freedoms for fair use are slowly being eroded away by larger corporations; corporations who just don't understand the entertainment business of the new millennium (or they do and are exploiting the law as it is currently written). Something needs to be done to fix the DMCA so that the rights of everyone are addressed.
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Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process
Sites like YouTube, where people upload their own video content, whether it is classified under fair use, or there is no current copyright on or about the content. Multiple companies and individuals have used the DMCA notice and takedown for multiple abusive reasons, wether it was because they did not like the content or literally just to bother the content creator. If the content is monetized the person claiming the video gets the money. Once the takedown is lifted they don't have to give back a cent and they can claim any video without any repercussions. A content creator may rely on their content as their primary or only source of income, in which it damages the income when a video is falsely claimed and they never receive anything back from the inconvenience and false claims.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
My comment: I feel horrible to see that people have the ability to willfully take down anything they like easily with no punishment.
I feel that the current copyright system is horrible.
I feel that everything with the current system is bad.
I do not wish to see when this system changes for the new system to be abused. Please do not allow the new system to be abused by big corporations.
Unfortunately as well, if people really want to get something they're not supposed to, they will find a way. Making it illegal and harder for them every time they succeed will once help grow the community more tightknit, and once that community is fully grown and capable of doing mostly anything, it would be too late to change anything. You can't fully eliminate people who fight against a system they find wrong, and that's been true for ages. There's nothing that's fully impossible, provided they have the proper plan, people, materials, opportunity & motivation. Instead of therefore forcefully motivating them to make more sites where they will spread the information, make it half-authorized and then monitor that to make sure there's no outright illegal stuff on that site. You can't stop a dam which has plenty of small holes with leaking water everywhere, you can only channel the water to go through the holes you want it to go through.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
It is unfair that YouTube and content creators have to take down commentaries,reviews,and more I thought YouTube was for creativity but I was wrong please stop YouTube with this blatened fair use rule
This whole situation is a violation of people's rights. These large corporate copyright holders are abusing the the law in order to extort money and silence critcs of there work. This is not right. The DMCA laws are old and do not account for today's Internet. Instead of protecting uploaders it is used to extort and destroy there content. People who just talk in front of a camera and don't even show footage of copyright material are still getting nailed. These people are losing there right of free speech, I'm not an American but I know somewhere in your Constitution there is a law saying everyone is entitled to there opinion. These companies think not. Please change this laws. People need to be heard
The current takedown process is dated and does not hold up in today society. People and corporations have been widely misusing it to attack innocent people who have been adhering to copyright guidelines. People who make a living on youtube are forced to alter their creations so that they don't get copyrighted (and sometimes still do), or cease any further activity on their channel. The fact that there is not penalty for making a false claim is unacceptable. With no penalty, the person making the copyright claim or takedown notice can do it over and over, while the creator is getting all the blame and in the process can lose things like viewers and revenue.
As an active viewer on youtube it is an utter shame to see content creators restricted on what they can do. Channels have become less exciting and creative because of this which is a violation of their free speech and creativity. Copyright laws are important, it is in place to protect original content, but when it is being actively misused to gain revenue or eliminate competitions/bad reviews, it is harming someone's hobby or line of work, which is unacceptable.
DMCA has become a monster that is used as a weapon against private citizens. Where companies can issue a takedown when they don't even own the rights to content or when a citizen can be attacked when there is no violations made is egregious. It's presumed that the private citizen is guilty in all ways and at all times of copyright violations with no proof and no burden of proof places upon the accuser. This model has become desperately out of hand. I understand that some people do violate DMCA and I am not opposed to protections for copyright holders. But there is absolutely no fair use in the current system and it is being abused to its max. It is used to rob income from content creators, used as a weapon among abusive people or even as a threat. This was not the purpose of DMCA but that is what it has become.
The DMCA is horrifically abused by companies such as Viacom and Fox. It was signed in 1998. Almost 20 years later, it is being abused for profit. If it's not updated now, it could lead to irreversible damage. Okay, that might be a bit extreme, but that's the only way it can be put. I personally haven't been affected, but what I know is that the DMCA has been used for exploitation. Fair Use is seen as nothing more than a joke by companies. No matter who it is, you could be just a normal person, and you could get claimed. Updating an extremely exploited law to modern times could save more people than it'd harm.
-From, someone on the internet
It is not fair
Many of many videos on my channel www.youtube.com/Ashitanomihty have been removed from false claims on fair use. It took me years to restore the channel, we need a better law.
Hello, please read this!
And yes this is copied off the internet, I'm lazy, I'm not sorry. At least I read what it said before I sent it.
-Matt
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is intended to protect intellectual property on the internet and defend content creators from copyright infringement. It utterly fails to accomplish either of these goals, and instead serves to stifle freedom of speech and freedom of expression, and encourages acts of blatant censorship on a daily basis. The system is constantly being abused in order to censor content that is protected under fair use. Reviews, criticisms, and parodies are frequently being subjected to DMCA take-downs, often with no explanation being provided to the creators of said reviews, criticisms, and parodies.
What follows is a short list of situations in which the DMCA notice-and-takedown process is abused.
Frequently, individuals and companies file copyright claims on content they do not even own. Since the burden of proof lies with the entity accused of copyright infringement, Youtube videos, tweets, and other forms of content can be arbitrarily taken down with no explanation. People can arbitrarily flag and issues takedown notices on content for which they hold no copyright, silencing content creators on a whim.
Individuals who are simply talking on camera with absolutely no copyright material whatsoever in the video are being taken down. The notice-and-takedown process can literally be used to force a takedown of content that contains no copyright material whatsoever. It can be used just to take down a piece of content that someone does not like, for whatever reason.
Sometimes companies will utilize a "shield company", a third party that issues the take-down notice to protect the original company from scrutiny.
Even after a Youtube video or other form of content is cleared from one DMCA take-down notice, it can still be hit with multiple other take-downs. In other words, if one take-down fails, the original issuer can simply send them again and again from different sources.
DMCA take-downs on Youtube directly result in lost revenue for content creators.
The DMCA is constantly being used to silence content that is explicitly protected by fair use. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. Until these safeguards are implemented, the DMCA in its current form represents a powerful threat to freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Our fundamental rights are being disregarded on a daily basis.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
I have seen this happen to more than one You tuber along with other artist. I believe that the system must be changed! Stop the abuse! one it's fought for that video cannot be attacked again for any reason!
All of this!
I'm not from USA, and English is not my first language so I do appologize for any mistakes. I love the internet because anyone can express their opinions freely. But there is a difference between expressing opinions and/or criticizing and stealing copyrighted content. I care very much about content creators and websites that are also viewed all over the world.
USA is always so proud about protecting freedom of speech, but DMCA is a disgrace. Now you want people of the world to tell you what's wrong with it in less than a day? PLEASE go on youtube.com and search for WhereIsTheFairUse. There had been so many videos made on manipulating fair use.
And by the way as a Copyright Office it's YOUR job to know about these things. Thank God there are a lot of people who dedicate their time to show you the flaws of the Copyright Act.
I got DMCA'd for making a video 100% mine.
Please update volvo.
A form of legal punishment or consequence is vital for those who illegally issue false takedown notices, as otherwise there is nothing preventing these companies/individuals from performing the same illegal acts a second time, if not more times.
Personally I find it very strange that this law has never been reviewed after passing. The internet has changed so much over the years and the way people use it is constantly changing and yet the DMCA has not. No change means stagnation and means you will fall behind and that is exactly what has happened to this law, it has fallen behind. Therefore it must be reviewed and updated for the internet of today and the internet of the future, so that it will still protect the people it should protect whether that is the copyrights of companies or the fair use right of individuals.
It is clear that companies abuse the DMCA to get money from innocent people. For example youtube, if a company makes a claim to a person's video they get the money that that video is making, but when their claims are disputed and proven false they don't have to pay that money back. These companies are more then happy to use trailer videos to promote their own movies and make money, but when people make money by commenting and reviewing their work they throw effectively a tempertantrum and bully those people into removing their work. They want only to have the positives of the internet, but not the negatives. Well sorry to say but that is not how the real world works and it's time that companies are no longer allowed to live in their own bubbly world and get down to earth.
i feel like false copyright claims on youtube are out of control and need to be stopped. there needs to be a penalty for falsely claiming a video.
We live in wild ages of internet law. DMCA have to improved against abuse and harm against innocent people.
Is it impossible to demand punishment for abusers and help for victims?
The DMCA has had its time but now with a much more public system of entertainment the law is simply flawed and is destroying the entertainment business as a whole in my personal opinion.
I have seen plenty of youtube videos taken down even when the person is in there rights of fair use. This has to change, there needs to be something set in place where someones video doesn't immediately get a strike without looking into the facts. The only reason some of the channels were even able to come back is because they have such a big following of supporters, but on a smaller channel they would have no chance of avoiding there channel being taken down and would lose the ability to fight back.
Times have changed and sites like youtube need to change. Someone puts a claim for illegal copyright even when that's not the case. But sites treat it like its set in stone and take it as absolute fact. The internet needs to work the same way the real world works, innocent until proven guilty. Unfortunately as of right now you are guilty until proven innocent.
DMCA's that are in place are now used to stifle content creators and there use of free speech. There will even be videos with no content at all of someones work such as video clips, music etc. and still, they will get there video taken down just by talking about a certain movie or song. Some of these companies it feels like they think they created the law, and they don't factor in fair use. There needs to also be something set in place were after the person is cleared, they can't get multiple take downs for the same video that was made 5 years ago. Most people uphold the law, but those same innocent people are the ones that get abused the most.
Content creators have lost there revenue and ability to support themselves because of false claims on there content. The problem is even when they are proven to be innocent, they still lose all the money they would of made on the video while it is under investigation, and its the person that claimed the video that is reaping all the benefits. A lot of companies will use these underhanded tactics to get money from content creators, who some have put over 80 plus hours into there content for the viewers. Actions need to be taken now so that the future of the internet is protected.
Keep the Internet that we love
Surely you must know about the crap going on right now with the Internet and I know a lot of people will do a better job explaining it. I'm just here to get the numbers up.
Powerhungry companies like youtube intentionally abuse this crappy outdated, cringeworthy system to fuck over talented creative content creators to protect the bullshit channels that gain them more money. Every time it happens, it makes blood boil all around the world. Myself and all other people with at least half a brain are disgusted with DMCA.
Please, it's not 2000 anymore, technology has improved faster than the intellect of politicians. Now is the time to act, for human decency's sake.
Nearly every channel i watch has had a false claim against themselves even when no video or music from the source has been put in , personal opinions are being censored for no reason other than to threaten and harass. My favorite youtubers such as Angry joe show , channel awesome , and bible reloaded have all made videos about these problems with no help until a video goes up explaining the problems.
The notice-and-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The current laws and controversy surrounding this on the website, YouTube, deters new and current content creators from uploading anything new, just to avoid a potential copyright strike. Some content creators have resorted to starting their videos with the definition of Fair Use or in the description of their videos just try and avoid another false copyright claim.
The DMCA is BROKEN!! Its needs to be updated for today's internet! I've used UNCOPYRIGHTED music for a YouTube video and still got hit with copyright. They took all the revenue until I decided to entirely remove the video I worked hard on.
In this digital age, supporting free speech on the Internet should be the most important issue on the minds of our government. Nothing is more important.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
==End of pre-written part==
A lot of science channels such as Smarter Every Day are at risk due to these DMCA takedowns. Is how knowledge should be treated? With copyright strikes?
also spoopy scary skeletons
================
I'm a musician and a voice actor. I've had companies outright steal my OWN songs. To make it worse, these companies have threatened to take all of my work down and discredit me! What's ridiculous is that EVEN MY OWN VOICE WAS NOT EXEMPT to their greed!
Fair use is the exact reason why people aren't outright stealing your content. But to see that this big companies go against their own laws and steal from the little guys just because they know these people don't have the resources to fight back is just fucking sickening.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
I wholeheartedly agree with the above statement!
The DMCA doesn't work. It's a system that can be far too easily manipulated and abused, at the mercy of large corporations and, as has been seen in numerous cases, even regular people who somehow, under the law, are able to pose as corporations and take down creative and transformative content without any repercussions or punishments.
Content-sharing sites such as YouTube are by far the most affected by this, with creators being stolen from, harassed and left in the dark again and again. Movie reviewers, such as Your Movie Sucks and I Hate Everything, have been bullied with strikes so often that the former resorts to including a notice, pointing out the fair use of copyrighted content, at the start of every video.
The internet is a place for free speech and freedom of expression, but currently there is absolutely nothing people can do if their opinion is considered 'too negative' to stay up by the subject of critique. The misuse is absolutely ridiculous, and the legislation must be changed to accommodate the communities that thrive on the modern-day web. Copyright is a good thing. That's a no-brainer. But when it's as easy to have something taken down as to post a comment, when there's no communication, no face-to-face, not even negative consequences for false claims - change needs to happen.
Заявки на нарушения авторских прав приводят к злоупотреблениям и подчас мошенническим действиям со стороны отдельных правообладателей, которые используют технические и законодательные возможности во вред самому процессу создания контента, присваивая чужой труд себе и зарабатывая на нём. Необходимо пересмотреть эту политику, приводящую лишь к негативным последствиям в деле демократии и свободы слова, которую так ценят в США и в которую также верит Россия, это право закреплено в Конституциях каждой из наших стран.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I post a video with no music and I got lots a views then next thing you know I got copyrighted for no reasons
The DMCA is heavily hurting new content creators and stunting the growth of online entertainment.
WTFU!!
gg m8
Please.
Thank you.
He current system is in dire need of updating, it's being abused.
We need to protect our creators.Bring back the fair use
WE NEED CHANGE! GIVE US THE ABILITY TO EXPRESS OURSELVES WITHOUT THE FEAR OF THE POWERFUL!
Dear government
Pleals, plaeas, pleas fix the fair use laws. People that know nothing about fair use laws can take down and steal the monetisation of TouTube videos with out the creator doing anything thing rong. First videos that broke copyright laws got took down witch is good, but then videos that had copyrighted content but was supported by fair use got taken down, and then uninformed people like Deric Savig got to make up and choose what copyright laws they follow when taking down a video, then reaction chanals came and stole people's some of witch is copyrighted and some is by the inersent people who are trying to stop them and are getting support from YouTube witch is like someone robbing a bank then and then a police officer who helped stop him was the one who got erested except that so far nothing has been done to stop them, but it does not stop them because people who haven't been using copyrighted content have had their videos taken down for no reason.
But it might not end there because you have the power to fix all that I know it won't happen over night and more often than not people forget that it takes a long time to pass a new law but we've seen that you actually want to change it for the better if you didn't you won't of allowed people to make comments to you even if it takes months or years we would wait and support you in making shore that fair use laws are inforced to all content creators. Thank you for reading this comment I hope it makes sense and helps support content creators.
Seriously, don't take my internet freedom, alright?
You are the only one who can save us , do it for us, do it for youtubes, do this for everyone in the world. I am not a youtuber and I don’t use twiter, but lots of people do it for fun or even for living so thank you for this. Olso nex time you put a post like this, do a littert utorial on the post code.
Here is a list of just SOME channels affected by this far use problem:
Jim Sterling
Themysteriousmrenter
Channel Awesome
Anime America
Lost Pause
The Anime Man
Your Movie Sucks
I Hate Everything
Drwolf
Joshscorcher
TeamFourStar
CinemaSnob
Potatobombkyle Lego Productions
CinemaSins
AlternateHistoryHub
Jontron
BadComedian
Sargon of Akkad
Chris Stuckman
Bobsheaux
Sheeleシェーレ
BrainScratch Commentaries
NFKRZ
Pyrocynical
The Gaming Czar
Games Repainted
AdoseofBuckley
Totalbiscuit
Matthias
ToddintheShadows
Angry Joe
ElectricDragon505
CentralDerp
Krimson Rogue
EyeOfSOl
Dragon Mage
CreepyMcPasta
Hello,
I am an Amercian living in France and here is my opinion.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedows to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Current DMCA takedowns are being used to bully reviewers and content creators, several times I have seen companies attempt to silence negative reviews of their product using DMCA takedown notices, some of these reviews containing little to no footage from the initial product. Currently on Youtube there is a movement by content creators and fans called Where's The Fair Use? It is a detailed catalogue of creators who have had their content removed under current DMCA guidelines by companies who REFUSE to take Fair Use into account. So please take this into account.
Some of my favorite reviewers on Youtube are getting copyright strikes, even thought they were following the 1st Amendment.
One channel i know was forced off of YouTube and she had to go to Daily Motion because she did reactions to episodes of Steven Universe. She lost so many subscribers in about 3 days.
Another channel Mysterious Mr. Enter is/has been going through copyright issues. For 1 of his series he reviewed an Australian show named Pixel Pinkie. He won the first dispute, but another company, still a part of the Pixel Pinkie company recently took down his video. He states in his video talking about it that he will now just fight it in the court of law. He has gotten. A strike because he reviewed a bad show. This is not o.k. there needs to be a fix.
I think it's CONPLETELY unfair to delete people's comments, thoughts or ideas whenever a person (or robot) decides to and I think the DMCA is under attack GREATLY.
It is outdated and widely abused system of copyright protection.
Companies and corporations should never be given so much power over the little guy/gal. Where's the fair use? #WTFU
This system we have now is incredibly old and needs to be updated as we move into the future
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet, for the sole purposes of either silencing the critics, or a simple profit. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Also may I say that why they put down the video is incredibly stupid I mean just because someone puts a picture up of some guy BOOM copyright you need to change this and fast
How can anyone claim a copyright violation through a machine. I have seen content that could be used to support not only its creators, but also support those who are making the copyright claim while in no way infringing on the person's copyright. I have even seen copyright claims to things that in no way connect to the copyright in content or topic. I am also aware that companies have stolen financial revenue from the true creators of a work through copyright claims.
There have been other infringements on free speech where content is threatened to be or actual is taking down through copyright claims when other do not approve of the work. In the case of reviews and critiques, which are protected under fair use, the creators of the works being reviewed issue a claim to silence the critics. Other times, the claims have been sent simply to antagonize the creator of the work and have no bearing at all with copyright. In a time when information is sent more and more through online means, we cannot allow people to be silenced through dubious methods.
Copyright was made to help encourage creators by offering incentive and protection for there works. The internet has allowed for a fountain of creators to create exciting new works and rehashing of new ideas. By giving copyright control only to large companies, small time creators, who produce a greater amount of content and enhance our culture and economy, lose the incentive and protection that copyright was originally made to assist.
Many prominent examples of this copyright problem are TeamFourStar, Channel Awesome, and many more. These are all amazing talents that have been cut of from their source of living due to this issue. It not only hurts their fans, but it also hurts them.
System just isn't working right. Many of my favorite videos on youtube were deleted for senseless reasons. Right now there is no FAIR use at all.
The DMCA also needs to take into consideration the copyright laws of other nations, eg: if someone uses footage on youtube which in the UK is now public domain they should not be hit with DCMA takedowns if the same footage is still under copyright in the US. Same goes for fair use laws of other nations, the US needs to accept that the internet is a global world and as such people whom are under different laws also operate and need to be able to do so without being effected by laws they are not from their nation.
The DMCA system has been heavily abused by companies to shutdown and silence all of their critics and fans alike. It has been used to abuse small time creators and provides them with no way to defend themselves realistically.
The current form of the DMCA is outdated. It hinders the ability for digital content creators to exercise free speech and criticize companies or products. Every single Youtube channel that I follow has been damaged by this outdated law. Companies will falsely claim rights on content to stop negative reviews of their products and harass content creators that speak out against them. This forces content creators to lose a majority of the money gained from these videos and makes it nearly impossible for small websites or creators to make any money.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Copyright is an important law, but free speech is too. And in the actual copyright system free speech is slaughtered for the big concerns which can take down who and whatever they want and thats not right.
Anather words please fix the internet get rid of the Pentium 2 and put in the i7 cpu of new rules to stop the trolls and abuse!
its getting very old to see people constantly abused cause fair use is ignored.
Not only that, but abusing the copyright system in and of itself is not too dis-similar from behavior which in the past led to monopolies on content and industry, and being in a capitalist country, one which prides itself on the fact that it IS capitalist and IS founded on the mentality of pulling yourself up on your bootstraps this is detrimental to our entire countries' modus operandi. There is meant to be competition and individuals, companies, and regions competing with each other and attempting to make a better product, a better mouse trap if you will. Without the possibility of improvement on ideas because an individual will be struck down for critiquing or re-imagining something we will stagnate as society even more-so than we already have.
We are moving into a new world I believe. I world with better connection, a world where corporations do not control, the voice of the people does. A big factor into making that reality is excepting the internet as what it is. We shouldn't be fighting like cats and dogs over legal reasons, for all we are trying to share is our thoughts,our arts, we're sharing who are. Now is that a crime?
I am one of the many people online who is a content creator. However, I opporate on Deviantart, because I want to avoid all the fair use violations. But if this law goes into effect, all those fears will come to me. No one is safe...
The DMCA had not been updated since its inception in 1998. Therefore, this does not even apply to today's internet particularly YouTube. As a result, greedy corporations and internet trolls are abusing this law by making false claims of copyright infringement. This is a big problem because not only are people's voices and opinions are being muted, but the times are changing. People have made watching user-created content apart of their daily lives. The people who make such content (Nostalgia Critic, Your Movie Sucks,etc.) are having to put with such erroneous claims on a daily basis. It's gotten so bad that companies use bots to automatically take down user-created content. This needs to be put to a stop. We live in the Digital Age and it's about time the government gets with the times. It's the only way to move forward. Rights are being violated all because of this obsolete law.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
It's gotten so bad even people who make videos where they just talk about a movie or reenact a scene can get the video taken down or even have their channel banned.
This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While I approve of the above statement, I'd like to add that a lot of content being blanketed by the DMCA is in fact, not harmful at all to the original sources, and might even bring in more attention for the original product.
It's sad to see so many nice little things on the internet disappear because of blanketing methods like the -heavily- outdated DMCA, and it needs to change. As the internet evolves with the years, so should copyright protections and any protocols/acts associated with it, change and adapt to the times we're living in.
Many content creators on YouTube are just hobbyists who use the site to do what they like to do best; post a gameplay video from a videogame they like, with some music they feel fits with it. Or someone's cat being funny, with some cheerful music in the background. Name it, there are probably a whole host of videos about whatever we can think of.
It's these small channels, uploaders and other small-time YouTubers that suffer from this the most, and unlike some of the big channels out there they do not have a dedicated team of lawyers and digital rights specialists behind them to protect their content from being flat-out destroyed.
Please, all we ask as a community, is to review, revise, and research the current DMCA, and change it to fit with the changing times. We all appreciate the fact that copyright -is- an important thing and should -always- be upheld to protect original content, but not as it is done right now. Change is in order, and that change -needs- to happen.
I sincerely hope that not just mine, but others' posts reach you and that our honest wish to see fair use restored to us, the community, can become a reality once again.
The so-called 'copyright trolls' abusing the DMCA system right now, severely damage creative content by being simply mean and being bullies, destroying other people their work while placing false claims, and even making money off of said claims. Were the DMCA to change, content could and would be protected, and copyright wouldn't be in danger.
We hope for a swift solution to this issue.
DMCAs do more damage than good. While the intentions are there, it is just way to easy to abuse it. It hurts content creators who just want to make a living. They are not actively trying to break copyright laws and steal from other creators.
Yeah, it sucks that youtubers can't get the free use they totally deserve. I'll support this thing as well as I can.
In most cases, content is taken down by jealously and from the other's unique point of view, almost never by a true original creator. If some work is indeed copied blatantly reused, this should not be allowed. We are all artists that try to get by, make the world see our vision, in form of unique, inspired of indeed, even fan art.
If someone is jealous on the ability we have and flag something for removal, automated systems take over and take the content down, which is NOT justified.
For instance, two channels (Channel Awesome, IHE) had unfair strikes on each of their videos. IHE being the most abused, considering he created a "Damn Daniel" (which was created under fair use and the original was made as a small video on Twitter) video and it got taken down by a "Merlin" company, and the original creator has messaged him, saying he knows nothing.
There was even a YouTuber who got taken down, because he was TALKING IN A CAR ABOUT A MOVIE! As you can see, this has got to stop!
The dmca is very flawed and companies will take anything down even if it falls under fair use including reveiws and things that fall under public domain. The system is very biased in the name of companies and seems to do evertthing to take the power out of creators' hands. Although I am not a creator I have heard some of my favorite content creators complain about the issue and do understand how it hurts people. You could try and give penalties to the companies who make false claims which could help stop the problem
Videos, containing a guy reading a story, that has been posted to internet for everyone to use as they wish, were taken down. This has to stop.
As a retired military member, I have supported and protected the Constitution of the United States for twenty years. In recent years, the first amendment to that great document has come under assault using the very law designed 18 years to protect it in this digital age of communication.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in its current form has been heavily abused and destroyed whatever intent it originally was penned. The system now is heavily biased in favor of artificial persons holding copyright and too commonly used to censor content that created and protected under fair use. This system has had disastrous impact on free speech, political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs refinement to provide new safeguards to protect against abuse and actual consequences for companies and persons that infringe on individual citizens free speech and copyright.
Hold accountable companies that, through use automated scanning to find potential copyright, issue take down notices without reviewing the suspect content nor verifying its fair use to copyright content. Without that accountability, takedown notices create de facto censorship and violates the copyright of the content creators who have no recourse against such action as its individuals versus an union of corporations. According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
The DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible and protect those companies that provide valuable hosting services. However, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited unionized artificial persons' copyright and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts stifles the type of content that has grown in the last 10 years which is immediate generated content. Art, videos, ideas, music and events now have a short window to exploit for the fame to caught and commercial profit to be gain. The takedown notices interfere with this new market and cost content creators much needed revenue.
To remove this abuse, those that issue takedown notices need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. Sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become virtual public spaces, entities that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech and individual's copyright.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibibt free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The laws that are in place for the internet isn't for today's internet. This needs to be changed.
I believe in good faith laws. No one should be able to censor and deny based of whim, pure emotion, or robot algorithms. A dancing baby was taken to court over fair use. It is ridiculous how easy it is for corporations to just take down content in bad faith.
If thought and creativity is to grow, this law needs to be updated
I have no reason to edit what's here by default. I agree with it. This shit happened to me and I want this to change!
Wtfu we have the right to use ower fair use. Nothing and no one should be able to take that away from us
Being able to silence people who give you bad reviews shouldn't be allowed anywhere in the world. Yet it happens even in the 'civilized' world with these DMCA takedowns. Once these claims are finally lifted, the content in question is outdated and won't make the creator (barely) any of the money it could have.
A lot of videos are being taken down and these videos are one's I want to see all I can say is good luck to this forum and others.
This is affect several people around the world, creator and citizens alike. Please fix these problems within the takedown rules and abuse so that everyone has a chance to express themselves and let everyone see it.
Additionally I feel that the current form of DMCA alows companies to legally steal money from content creators with no recourse. Any law or process that allows intentional theft from innocent people who abide by the law is an immoral and faulty law.
Copyright abuse is bad, Mkay?
Please leave YouTube alone I went to hard times In my life and lots of videos made me smile again this isn't fair please stop
I have personal experience with the DMCA and current takedown procedures. I am a video producer who is trying to build a business out of my production. I am scrupulous about fair use and licensing. The only music I use in my productions are public domain, licensed under Creative Commons, or I have explicit permission from both the artist and the rights holder (if different from the artist).
However, I have been served with three takedown notices on YouTube using the DMCA. All three were for music that I had explicit permission or a license via Creative Commons to use. In two cases, my arguments were rejected flat out. In the third, the "copyright holder" (who is actually a licensee and NOT the copyright holder) has refused to comment and simply left the claim to sit with no action. That means I am unable to earn any money from my creation due to a three minute song used in three hour video that I had a license to use in the first place.
The current DMCA enforcement involves no human interaction and encourages abuse from copyright holders. There are NO consequences whatsoever to copyright holders who falsely use DMCA takedown notices to silence critics and fair use productions. Even if the claims are dismissed as false claims, the only one who suffers is the content creator who was accused. In the case of YouTube, if a copyright holder files a false DMCA takedown notice and claims the monetization - EVEN IF THE CLAIM IS PROVEN FALSE - the party making the false claim does NOT have to repay the money they have literally stolen from the content creator they filed the claim against. This is wrong.
I am an individual who is attempting to start a business by creating something people enjoy. I am directly hampered in my efforts to do so by large corporations who suffer no consequences if they attempt to silence me. This is the opposite of the American Dream we were promised and the government must take action to protect its citizens from abuse.
For example, a channel I really enjoy to watch for its movie reviews/satire, has come under heavy fire thanks to this system. The biggest example is that almost all of the movie reviews from the company Dreamworks have been taken down and could only be reuploaded as still pictures of the title.
A power that has for too long been abused by corporations to silence critics and fair reviews.
DMCA has allowed big corporations to control the internet in a way that inhibits free speech. If someone gets their content taken down, the individual in question is unlikely to ever be able to defend himself. This is absolutely unacceptable.
Youtube started out as a video-sharing platform but by now it has grown to a place where little communities exist at Youtube channels. It is now a place for people not just to get entertainment but to learn, meet new people and other cultures and now this place is in danger because of the DMCA takedowns.
I have seen a lot of channels taken down. Small channels just disappeared and probably never come back. Big channels (because those are in danger too), however, sometimes returned after being terminated. And it was because of the communities work. They had so much power that it brought back a channel. It is just one of the many examples why are content creators on Youtube so powerful: making a tenacious community, but there are other stories too.
These communities didn't save a channel just because it was a great place to hang out but because these channels were terminated because of absurd reasons. Just one example: A content creator made film rewievs that contained no pictures just he talking about films. His video got flagged with the reason being: it contained content of the film which is considered stealing. Now I ask: where is the stealing in just talking about a film? It is even an advertisment for the company, and what do they do? Flag the video, it gets taken down, probably the channel follows it and it makes its community hate the company which was praised in the video!
It is again just one example of the many, but there are others too and not just in the content strike category but in community guideline strikes too which are again: do not make any sense. And channels are just being taken down, people become more and more angry and leave Youtube for good and one day Youtube may go bankrupt because of the lack of people watching videos and the lack of content creators who give some of their income to them. I am not an economist but I feel that it probably can affect the economy in a bad way.
People cannot do much about this problem. They can share tweets on Twitter and comments Youtube with #WTFU, #ProtectYoutubers and others, make content about it (there are more than 70 000 videos on Youtube with this topic while I write this letter) and now they can send comments and mails to the U.S. Copyright Office. I am doing this right now and ask you to make some improvement to make Youtube great again.
The DMC hinders creativity and art online on websites such as YouTube and stifles creators of content such as YouTube reviewers of movies or games, etc. And with ZERO penalties for those crying wolf and putting up false claims, it is an incredibly unbalanced and unfair system that hasn't changed since 1998. The world has changed, the internet has changed, the DMCA has to change with it.
The system is broken, you should listent to the youtubers.
Copy rights have ruined too many videos. holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The DMCA is severely out of date and is being used to harm more people than it helps, false claims and companies ignoring legitimate fair usage are rife on the Internet, especially youtube, and it's destroying people's livelihoods. This is not ok. The landscape of the Internet has changed drastically since 1998 and as entertainment switches over to becoming increasingly Internet based, these outdated laws and procedures become increasingly damaging. There are numerous examples of creators being bullied by claimants (who then withdraw their claim when they realise that they are in the wrong) for example youtube user IHATEEVERYTHING (IHE) vs. Derek Savage (cool cat creator) where IHE was actively threatened by the creator despite his review being entirely within fair use law. Something needs to change, laws governing the Internet (something that has grown exponentially) should not be allowed to get more than a year or two out of date.
I say that most people should have the right to free speech to post what they want and that they are following the copyright laws
I know most of this message is a template message, but I have read through it and I have to say, that it covers manny of the issues I have with the DMCA system of today. I'm all for the protection of copyright but not with a system that is so one sided that it is like a fodbold game, where one team has all its players on the field while the other team has a goal post, which if the other team scores a goal in, leads to a copyright strike.
Where's the fair use?
Taking away our free speech is taking away our identities, the DMCA is incredibly flawed and is used in such a way by those who wish to control those who have the bravery to state what they think; it is simply lacking of human rights.
Shell companies frequently file false DMCA Strikes against content creators on the internet, in an attempt to hide thier motives and claim content that they don't even own.
Many corporations and companies file DMCAs against critics for no other reason than to silence crtiticism. This falls under fair use, yet because there is little to no human review of DMCA strikes, the critics get silenced, and their livlihood destroyed, all because criticism couldn't be taken.
There are even several cases of someone uploading a critical piece, for instance a video, where the pieces of copyrighted material were either not present at all (Instead eaturing someone just talking in front of a camera), or was publically distributed to the public (For instance, trailer footage for a movie or video game) and the video was still claimed by companies.
The law needs to be updated to take into account new sources of entertainment.
I have spent many hours working on my videos and am so thankful for the people who have watched. Invalid use of copyright law has made me scared to post. I never feel safe posting what I should feel proud of. These companies are doing something wrong.
Being on Youtube for several years, I can tell you the fear of uploading content which is of my own creation or comes under fair use because it coud be unfairly taken down and have a negative effect on my channel. Several of my videos were hit with unfair strikes and claims, most coming from companies that have nothing to do with the content. The current rules also means that its also extremely difficult to make a counter arguement. I've had friends whose videos were taken down without warning or the abilty to argue their side of the story. This make the system unfairly one-sided towards corporations.
This needs to stop. The abuse of laws is a major problem in America, and this is no excuse. The system has been corrupted by corporate greed and panders to them. Not only that, but these DMCA laws are so poorly executed that they can be abused by anyone for any reason. This stops now.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I Wanna Take Down Abuse Of Those People Whom Stop At Nothing To Make The Internet Suffer, This Madness Must Be Stop!
I love remixing music. Whenever I post it on YouTube, I get copyright claims, saying it's the same thing. This isn't true, the music may be speed up or have sound effects in it. Once it was in blocked in some countries. I'm to scared to fight back to this big companies.
In particular, YouTube channels such as I Hate Everything have had their channels completely taken offline due to abuse of the outdated DMCA system. Viewers such as myself also suffer, as we suddenly find ourselves no longer able to access content from the person at the receiving end of DMCA abuse.
Please.
You suck! But really make a stob!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on Fair Use and users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Fair Use is the doctrine that states that "Excerpts of copyrighted material may, under certain circumstances, be quoted verbatim for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research, without the need for permission from or payment to the copyright holder." Therefore, if a content creator on a site such as YouTube uses copyrighted material in a review, satire, education or just provides commentary upon a piece of media such as television, movies, video games etc. it is legal for content creators to receive revenue from their transformative and legal creations. However, for years on sites such as YouTube, content creators have been fighting a losing battle with companies who are able to take down any type of content such as online videos that included their copyrighted material within it, often in order to silence and restrict the free speech of content creators to reduce the amount of negative information being spread about the company's copyrighted work, in order to receive more revenue due to lack of knowledge surrounding the content and therefore, profit without any need to provide sufficient evidence, provide sufficient justification for the case being made by the company/claimant or even consideration of any repercussions of unjust and even illegal claims that they could make as there are no penalties/punishments being put in effect towards these companies. Some companies even outsource other companies such as the rights management company 'egeda' to make fraudulent claims for them consistently so they don't directly have to deal with the takedown process they are abusing. There is even an option to take all the profits from the monetization of such videos on YouTube rather than taking them down so that they can make money off of user-created content that isn't theirs and threaten the livelihood of people who create online content that incorporates fair use as a job.
Producing this content is a job for some people and in a system that hasn't been updated since its creation in 1998 that can be abused so easily by companies and even individuals to create false copyright claims and threaten the jobs and content of so many people, it is has become very difficult for people to earn a living off of their content, some of which have been around for years, due to how ridiculously flawed the DMCA system is.
What started out as a means to protect studios and content creators is now being used and abused to silence and steal despite the DMCA requiring the claimant to consider whether a video is of Fair Use or not BEFORE issuing a takedown notice, of which companies such as Sony Pictures and UMG ignore and therefore are able to continue to take down or take the revenue from content such as videos on YouTube, sometimes even entire channels from content creators are taken down, sometimes without any takedown notice whatsoever. Other companies in particular that abuse this system consistently include Egeda, Viacom, Universal Studios and Nintendo.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amount of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Change needs to happen now, its not 1998 anymore, its 2016, the twenty-first century, the internet has come a long way and as the internet and technology has changed, the law has to change to do what the DMCA was and is supposed to do: Protect studios and content creators that incorporate copyrighted material under fair use and meet the demands of the Digital Age and to conform U.S. law to the requirements of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and treaties that the U.S. signed in 1996.
As a Canadian I'm aware my voice will not count as much as American citizens, however the DMCA has still affected myself greatly as many sites such as Youtube are still accessed primarily through the United States. The result of this is even on my own channels I've had copyright claims, and thus lost revenue, on videos I've created that would arguably fall under fair use. More distressingly I've seen the DMCA used to stymie free speech with copyright strikes or the threat of them used to silence people who differ on opinion. As it stands there is no risk to a claimant filing a DMCA claim and this simply cannot be allowed to stand. There are too many claims filed under the current system, likely a result of the lack of risk to claimants, to be reasonably handled by a human being. What is needed in the modern age of the internet is a greater burden of proof on the claimants with comparable penalties facing them for false claims as those that face being accused of stealing copyrighted material. The DMCA as it is currently written is woefully inadequate for the modern Internet and it is in desperate need of being rewritten to not only protect modern content creators but to also ensure the continuation of a free and open internet.
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DMCA is being abused on a consistent basis to take down videos online which fall under fair use. DMCA law is outdated and needs to be updated for the modern age we live in today, to protect content creators and creative people who are currently under assault from DMCA takedown abuse without a chance to defend themselves. Websites like Youtube are forced into a position where they must enable the easy abuse of takedowns because DMCA law makes them legally liable otherwise, in cases where a takedown is warranted.
Thank you.
This system has striking similarities to the early industrial monopoly system whereby smaller competitors were squeezed out of the market by then legal processes in the name of "protecting interests".
I wish I had the time to properly do a personalized message, but the time pressure here means that I will leave a couple of short thoughts in front of the form message.
The current use or rather misuse of DMCA takedowns is severely hurting the future of content creators. It threatens their economic safety and it weakens the content.
There is no question that copyright is important and breaches should be taken seriously. But the current implementation only hurts the individual content creators who do not have large companies behind them.
It is the copyright holder that has to prove their copyright is being breached, not the content creator who has their content removed or their income taken while the DMCA take down is being processed.
The process is completely reversed.
The current DMCA is hurting the ability to do creative work and it is taking energy away from spirited individuals just to avoid minor costs for large companies to uphold their own copyrights.
Thank you for reading.
people are abusing this system to scam money off of people who did no wrong or silence any form of criticism. i probably would of tried to become a animation reviewer if it wasn't for the headaches from corporate harassment that reviewers face. a new system is needed.
The DMCA is being abused constantly. Just going to name some notorious abusers: UMPG, UMG, WMG, SME, EMI, Kobalt Music Publishing. These are probably the most common Content ID abusers on YouTube (music).
Instead of being used to protect the content creators, it's now being used to steal money from them and censor them.
Let's start fixing some glaring issues:
1. Guilty until proven innocent mentality.
If anyone on YouTube submits a copyright claim, or even worse, a copyright strike, you're automatically treated as guilty, even if you haven't done anything wrong. That is just wrong. If a claim or a strike is submitted, no one should be punished until the case is resolved. Especially when someone makes money off of making YouTube videos, if a claim is submitted, the money generated from the ad revenue should not automatically go to the person/company who submitted the claim.
If a claim is submitted, all the money generated from the ad revenue should go to a side-account, and the one who wins the case should get the money.
This system relies too much on honesty, that's why people are abusing it, and that's why innocent YouTubers are getting punnished for no reason.
2. Repercussions for fraudulent claims and strikes.
Another reason why huge corporations abuse this system is because for them filing a fraudulent claim has no consequences. Why aren't they punnished for a fraudulent act?
If a claim or a strike is proven to be fraudulent, the company/person who submitted it HAS TO be punnished. There HAVE TO be consequences for companies and people who abuse their power. I.e. a fine they have to pay to the person they threatend.
3. Better defense against claims and strikes on YouTube.
Literally the ONLY thing, we as YT content creators can do to defend ourselves against a fraudulent claim, is filing a dispute, which, for some unknown reason, goes TO THE PERSON/COMPANY THAT SUBMITTED IT IN THE FIRST PLACE. That doesn't make any sense at all.
A dispute should go to an unbiased 3rd party.
If you recieve a strike (assuming the system is still as broken as it is), you should be able to file disputes against other claims!
That's about all i have to say about this. Please, don't let this be an April Fools joke. If it is one, then it's seriously messed up.
Thank you for reading this. Let's end this abuse now.
Personally I am not a creator or user of youtube, devianart etc. but I do write and absolutely love some of the comics, videos, music and so on those we still do have acces. Please, do not abuse fair use, since it gives so much possibilites to create some of the most wonderful pieces of art I have ever seen. I still continue to find more and more, and I get inspired of them too. Some of my best stories would have not been born, without contents of youtube, or other sources those I use to seek inspiration.
That is all, yours truly: Harri (Harry) Kolehmainen.
Though not a content creator myself, I have witnessed many creators suffer as a result of the current state of the fair use law. Their livelihoods are threatened by unjustified and false copyright claims even when their work is under fair use.
As a result we find content creators all around the Internet suffering, never knowing if their content will be took down despite being under fair use and many times working for weeks on a project only for it to be taken down.
Those content creators that do provide entertaining, legal videos are being bullied by an abusive automated system that destroys a content creators hard work. This system will allow a legal wrong person/company to claim rights on a video and suffer no consequence if deemed wrong.
The fair use law needs to be updated to accommodate these smaller content creators as not to be bullied by larger people/companies on incorrect claims of copyright and stealing of monetisation.
I couldn't say it any better than they did. (see below)
-thank you Trent
P.S. It makes me really sad when I see my favorite YouTubers get false copyright strikes,because you might not understand but we've become really invested in these guys (and girls) and if this law doesn't get passed I can't watch them.
In short, DMCA is being abused as hell.
First and foremost, there are NO consequences for false claims.
False claims in the Internet streaming services such as Youtube has been a place filled with false claims that affected many of the people which I personally get my entertainment. This issues must be dealt with
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
As a German with interest in politics and history, I am generally concerned about all attempts at censorship and thought control.
In recent times it's become common for the DMCA to be misused for exactly these purposes, as well as general harassment, the details of which being explained in the standard form following below.
As a person who watches most of their content on the internet, it is tiring and troubling to see videos being removed that do little more than entertain or educate. People who create such content have the right to be protected as to make a living and be allowed to share creations with the whole of the internet and world.
I have no television, just a computer. I watch nothing from any major company, just individuals. While aware that I am a tiny minority, having access to entertainment and the ability to support those to create videos tailored to my wants is a better system than what any other allows. Copyright law needs to be adjusted to allow creators, not copiers or those who reupload without any change, the ability to make their videos without harassment.
There has to be a better way than what currently exists. Changing times call for changing laws and while the legal system is a maze that I do not pretend to understand, there are those who do. Independent creators and billion dollar companies can co-exist and hopefully that day comes soon. Thank you for opening this to allow us who have moved on to a new frontier have a voice so that this place can remain free and open.
The fair copyright rules are shit, and businesses get away with tal ing down videos because their is somethin with fair use in it. What the fuck the rules r retarded #wheresthefairuse #wtfu
PLEASE HELP US THIS IS A JOKE
#MakeYoutubeGreatAgain
I'm glad this website is here, so many of my favorite youtubers are being effected by this.
DMCA is not even slightly updated for online use. FIX IT.
Some works are taken down regardless of whether material from what they are talking about is in it or not - if it has it in the title and the video is just people talking on camera about it with no clips, it could get flagged. Videos are flagged repeatedly even after claims have been settled.
I also think it is ridiculous how pretty much anyone is allowed to make you take something that's even remotely similar to their stuff down, and I have heard some stupid examples of this, where it was a video that wasn't even on the same subject material or genre, but because it had similar structuring it was taken down.
I am a YouTube content creator and I follow legal guidelines for fair use. I make basketball videos following all of the guidelines yet the NBA steals all of my income on YouTube and it is not fair.
This NEEDS to be addressed ASAP!
DMCA laws are persistently a challenge most content creators on the Internet face, who're well with in the legal rights of fair use.
Obvious examples include reviewers and journalists who negatively portray someone's work, and are met with take down strikes in order to censor and preserve positive face. This is done not only by small companies who maybe affected greatly by negative press, but also much larger organisations. An example would be Nintendo who will commission strikes on any video using their IP's to have them removed- or in some cases monetise the video to make money, even if there was never monetisation originally.
Not only can all these companies abuse the system freely, they do so without consequence. There's no backlash for false takedowns allowing literally anyone to do so.
With the way companies abuse the DMCA system to censor whatever negatively represents them, we as consumers of media must protect content creators rights to free expression, and in doing so changes must be made to the current DMCA ensuring a more thorough fair use system.
Far too many times I have people hard work being taken down or stolen by other simple because they mention something own by other another company, or by people who by people who have nothing to do with anything with video. Copyright as is now is not only biased it is broken, big company have abuse this system so much, it has only made things worse people who ethir trying make living or just want entertain others.
This is too true and needs to change:
"According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review."
The notice-and-takedown process of DMCA is completely incompatible with fair use and heavily biased in favor of copyright holders, wrongfully assuming all notices are valid. Upon receiving a takedown request, the service provider has to take down the disputed content immediately, leaving no time for reviewing it. Then after the counter-notice the issuer of the original takedown request has 10-14 business days to respond. That's 10-14 business days of arbitrarily silencing basically anything on the internet, since neither the uploader nor the service provider has any chance to dispute the request in that period of time. Also, that may differ on larger sites, for example on YouTube this process takes longer, giving the presumed copyright owner 2x 30 days of censorship. That's two weeks to two months of reduced competition, which in a capitalist system not only hurts the censored critics, but the entire industry as well.
Of course it's not a solution to just reduce the time to respond to a counter-notice, because if the copyright infringement is valid (which is fortunately still 70% of all cases), it may take that long to file a lawsuit against the offender. But it doesn't mean the process cannot be optimized. I'm not a lawyer, so I can only give a rough concept to be further refined, but I would like to propose a modified takedown process as described below:
1. The copyright owner issues a takedown notice under the same conditions as 17 USC §512(c)(3), and the service provider takes the content down immediately.
2. The uploader can now place a counter-notice, still unchanged (17 USC §512(g)(3)). The only difference is that the content is replaced immediately.
3. Now it's the copyright owner's move, and we need a new type of notice here. This should state under penalty of perjury that the copyright owner will file a lawsuit in 10-14 business days. The content is immediately taken down, again.
4. If the 10-14 business days pass with no lawsuit filed, the material is replaced, and the copyright owner is liable for any damages caused by its downtime after step #3 (the same type of damaged described in 17 USC §512(g)(1)).
If both parties are determined, this process should be considerably faster than the current one, since the status of the content always agrees with the latest answering party. In regular cases it should take exactly one more notice for the copyright owner, with the only change of a short period of unauthorized uptime between two immediate actions. However, in cases where fair use is misinterpreted and/or takedown requests are abused, the notifying party may not want to file a lawsuit, and the procedure ends with step #2. In this case, which is shown by practice to be the current problem, instead of a delay of 10-14 days or more the content could be replaced immediately if the uploader wishes so, closing the loophole which is actively being exploited to harm free speech.
Also,this is causing youtube to go insane..
DMCA is unfair. People are unable to show their creative side, because of it. People are unable to do anything even slightly unoriginal because of the DMCA. Take fangames and fanmovies, for instance. People like creating their own stories using a story that already exists. But these kinds of things get taken down. People like to make projects based off of what they love, but DMCA takes them down.
Copyright laws written for the 1990s have very little place in the 2010s. Times have changed considerably. During the inception of these laws, a website was a big investment, and anyone who wanted to host copyrighted content had to essentially go out of their way to do so. The modern Internet has a user-centric infrastructure, where users are creating and posting content with no hosting costs. Today it's incredibly easy to host copyrighted content, but incredibly hard to determine fair use.
Theoretically, it should be the claimant's job to determine if fair use is a factor in the claiming of content under DMCA, but since there are no penalties for false claiming and the system allows for claiming on behalf of another group, content claiming has become a big business for "rights advocate" groups who don't necessarily care about Fair Use. There need to be penalties for false claims to keep groups from essentially claiming any video using their name, images, audio, or any other part of their media without taking Fair Use into account.
This would possibly be a necessary evil if it actually worked in the first place. It is incredibly easy to find infringing content with no Fair Use coverage whatsoever. This is proof that the system simply isn't working.
The DMCA truly had become obsolete, as it was made for the Internet of the 90's, the things had changed, and we need something way more better to protect freedom of speech, and stop this abuse from the companies, and al the false claims that truly limit us in this new digital age. A change is needed.
How messed up copyright law is across the world is no secret. Adding something like this is borderline oppression. We honestly need to put a stop this madness occurring every few years. Anytime something like SOPA appears and the government even considers it for a moment gives me a lack of faith in humanity. Are you all so out of touch?
Greed needs to stop.
As the blanket statement goes below..
So please oh please. Don't support the DMCA on this one.
The reason why I'm doing this is because I think it's important that people have the right to say what they want about copyright content, with clips of that content to help others understand what they are saying.
i want to become a director and internet critic and i don't want to be taken down for some reason when i start.
John enter a man who braves the law and we should never see him arrested
The DMCA has been a nightmare for anyone in the business of creating online content. For sites like youtube, it's practically a death sentence. People have their videos taken down (in many cases, these videos are how said people make a living) even when there are no infractions. The DMCA was created for 1998. The Internet's grown since, and the DMCA is like a pair of pants that fit back then, but we need to accept that the Internet isn't a child anymore, and that it can buy it's own clothes.
Thank you for your time.
Scroll down for the TLDR version. Or read. Reading is a good thing.
TLDR: How about making actual democratic laws? Laws for the people, not for the companies. Laws that ensure we, the majority you were elected to represent, can create, communicate, and express our thoughts without risking unfair and unjustified harm from economical heavy hitters. Show us that sitting on a pile of money does not give you the right to do whatever you want to others. Otherwise one might start wondering if you are too snug in the pockets of these corporations to do your job.
I have seen time and time again people on sites such as YouTube, who make video reviews for a living, having their content taken down, even though they are legal under fair use. This results in a loss of earnings, and makes it impossible for these people to make a living. It's like a professional critic being fired for simply doing their job. America is supposed to be the country where anyone can be anything, but if we don't allow people to do some thing ad simply as review a movie we are denying them that ideal. I ask you, American Government, "Where's the Fair Use?"
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Okay, time for some words of my own ;)
Listen, I understand the desire for rights owners to support DMCA. There's a lot of content out there that uses other works - I get it. But it's gotten out of hand on Youtube. It's ridiculous. I mean, it's clearly gone FAR BEYOND being abused.
Critics all over the internet have been getting slammed unfairly for this junk. CRITICS. They need to show the things they're talking about. And any of these videos, if put in front of human eyes, would absolutely fall under fair use.
We need to pull back DMCA; we need to rethink it. It's clearly something that a bunch of algorithms and robots can't handle. And heck, if you're telling me that all these large entertainment companies can't hire a few people to look at internet videos and manually see if anything is abusing fair use, I'll call you a big, fat liar. Because you know that's EXACTLY what they should be doing - at least, it's a solution for now (it also would create some jobs, which is good for the economy, but whatever).
It's out of control, and it needs to be stopped.
That's what I came here to say. There's a reason #WTFU has been trending for months - Where's the Free Use?
Thank you. Have a nice day... that's not April Fools either, that's genuine. It's strange that you guys made the deadline April 1st though.
The DMCA is being abused on a disturbingly regular basis. This needs to end now before it gets any worse.
According to a recent study from Columbia and Berkeley law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
When does the government by the people, of the people and for the people start? At the rate things are going if it's not soon, it will be
I'm a recently-started content creator - holder of many ideas, but not a lot of them are put into action as of right now. Despite that, and as a lover of animation, the video format and digital art, three of the bigger growing mediums on the Internet right now, I see many content creators that, with basis on their original work or the work of others, with no intention of stealing and solely for voicing their positions or expressing themselves through said work, get their content taken down because of unlawful acts of hatred or selfishness from big companies, maybe even in fear of their own reputations being scratched, without acknowledging that for some people, their culture - the shows that they watch, the music that they listen to, the films of the current era - can also be a way of expression.
The human being is a social one, and loves sharing its likes and dislikes. Even I love to share my love of cartoons and music through fanart, and it has even become an outlet for when my original ideas faulter. I also understand the reason behind laws protecting content creators from thieves and scammers - I too could become prey to them. But when I, and many others, are constantly afraid to express ourselves because the "big boys" can shut us down and very easily take our hard work away, stripping some of their very daily bread, just to keep our small sums of money earned or simply to protect their image for pitiful reasons, it becomes a problem.
I'm calling for action, and I know I'm not the only one.
I think videos shouldn't get taken down for no reason, its wrong and it needs to be fixed.
As someone who has seen several of my favorite reviewers and content makers having their videos taken down by either corporate greeds who inly want profit for themselves, entitled haters who just want to take away their hard work because of petty reasons, and sometimes even just a maker dissing out all sorts of criticism because of their "flawless" work.
If this is a chance to change it all, to stop those entitled, greedy people from messing up with content so freely abusing their power, then I'm all in to change the DMCA forever.
Although I'm not from the US because of the global nature of the internet this is a problem for everyone.
The model for DMCA takedown that has evolved today is economically unfair to the host & takedown victims where legitimate fair use is concerned, but largely economically cheap for the copyright holder.
The host (e.g. Youtube, website owners) for example pays [an employee] for the cost to take down content. In recent development, hosts have now automated the takedown process due to high and growing cost, but as a result, bogus claims cannot be readily identified automatically. Bogus claims are frequently made by copyright holders who can not, or will not, differentiate fair use content from content with malicious act against copyright law.
The issuing of a takedown request is not cost-free because the copyright holder undertakes the cost of finding the infringing content and issuing the takedown. In their own efforts to reduce costs, they have also automated the takedown request process which results in bogus takedowns being filed.
Content platforms such as YouTube allow this automation to happen (one platform two systems - the takedown request & the takedown). Using sophisticated audio and video frame matching, it can detect copyrighted content easily, but it can't detect fair use of copyrighted content.
Due to automation errors from both the hosts and the copyright holders, the high cost has now been passed directly onto the content developer. The cost is not only financial, but economical, as it can also be applied as lost opportunity cost. These costs impact developers' abilities to produce stable income and/or stable content. Unlike the host which is usually large organisations capable of funding the costs, content developers vary from amateurs, professionals and studios who may or may not be able to afford these costs. The process to appeal is often more costly than the content produced; as a result the content is sacrificed, even if it was legitimate.
A preventative suggestion: A bogus takedown may be negligent; a misuse of the fair use provisions of copyright law by the copyright holder.
Making bogus takedowns negligent opens the ecosystem to prevent bogus takedowns from happening as the cost to the host and content developer is offset, while the cost to the copyright holder is increased only if a negligent takedown is made. This puts the onus onto the copyright holder and ensures higher quality automated systems are put in place to minimise negligent takedowns. This negligence clause will not impact smaller copyright holders who issue takedown requests manually in smaller scale.
Some theoretical examples of how this new ecosystem can play out (barring court action to resolve more complicated disputes):
1. In order to support legitimate takedowns and allow room for small error, some financial transfer of cost can be made from the copyright holder who issued the negligent takedown request to the content developer and the host. This prevents the problem where the hosts, such as YouTube, redirect the content developer's revenue to the copyright holder, with no recourse once overturned. That revenue can now be refunded to the content developer if the bogus takedown is made negligent, plus any additional penalties for lost opportunity cost.
2. Negligence need not involve a financial penalty. A negligent takedown may result in a strike against the copyright holder. A copyright holder with a high strike count can be ignored for all future requests for a period of time, or the "damages" can then be distributed to any victims identified via relief system such as preventing from future takedowns by that particular copyright holder for a period of time.
We hope you are prompted to take action.
I had my youtube account terminated over this, and I did not break fair use rules. When I appealed, no one got back to me.
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Many comments that will come to you regarding DMCA and Fair Use takedowns will regard media such as popular music, television and film. As a classical musician, I have often uploaded videos to YouTube or other streaming sites where content has been "flagged" or identified as not my own by record companies who have no specific right to the music I perform that is within the public domain. As a result, footage I have recorded and posted for educational purposes has been taken down in the past; and I have lost a potential revenue stream owing to companies claiming income on content that is not their own but is quite assuredly in the public domain. Quite frankly, the current regulation is unfit for present day use and is demonstrably exploited on regular occasions in all forms of internet media - in its best cases, it is an inconvenience and deterrent to those wanting to use the Internet to share content; in worst cases, it is akin to censorship.
I strongly urge the US Copyright Office to review what the DMCA is trying to achieve and put clearer regulations in place to prevent the exploitation of those posting new content on the Internet - enable those creating content to maintain their right to free speech.
Now, I haven't experienced this happen to any creators I know, yet I am at least a little worried as to what may happen in the future, will my drawings of characters I make up be forced to go away? Only time will tell, but I would just like to say, I'm in this battle.
Anyone can make copyright claim and there is no backfire even if it is not true. Same company can make copyright claim in the same video and they can take profit on it without it never returned videos maker.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
And Hollywood don't want to accept that they make bad content, people comment and restring his rights, this has to be stop.
This law is abused in almost every way on the Internet. Without any protection for the content creators I am in fact afraid to become one seeing as my profit could be taken away for no reason besides corporate greed. There have even been videos taken down with no content besides people talking in a car!
Just from my own experience just watching Youtube, I have seen basically all my favorite Youtubers get in some sort of automated copyright trouble. None of them do anything wrong, they do not upload full length movies to there channel or rip off other people's content, (and some that do are not punished for it) so I, even from an outsiders standpoint, can see that the DMCA needs to get it together and fix some things.
For example, a year or two back when the youtuber Captain Sparklez made a parody of Gangnam Style, which everyone and there grandmother was doing back then, his was singled out and automatically flagged. It took him months to get it through and back online, but by then the Gangnam fad and gone by, so he was out of luck.
Another more recent example was something that happened to the youtuber I Hate Everything who did a movie review. His movie REVIEW was evidently too much like the actual movie, because it got Youtube to remove his entire channel. His livelihood, gone. If it were not for him having so many people care for him and complain to Youtube, he would never have got it back.
So I do think that we need to fix fair use law to make it so that those who make perfectly legal content do not get completely screwed over, while Youtubers like Jynx who upload the entirety of other people's work go unpunished.
One of my YouTube videos was taken down and I recieved a copyright strike. I only included a short snippet of the song and I'm sure it fell under fair use. Please hear our voice and change something because this is just wrong.
xoxoxoxoxo
For this, my friend and I are afraid to capitalize on our podcast for fear of legal recourse. Is this an American value? To be bullied by the big corporations so that making a living is not a viable option, and should the corporations be legally wrong, they not get penalized?
My favourite channel that tells ghost stories, all of which originated online and had full approval from the authors, was struck with copywright by some company no one's ever heard of before. They had no involvement, no license, no legitimate claim, yet they were able to bring down the content so easily because of the automated system.
Stop
^what he said
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Just also wanted to note, that while I may not be from the United States, I wanted to sign this as it doesn't *just* affect the United States. In an internet which is accessible across the globe, content that it DMCA'd in America also means that it isn't available here. Also, websites like YouTube will take down videos because of DMCA notices or threats even if the content creator is based outside the USA.
The current system also is constantly abused, with people and companies reporting false DMCA notices or even using it as a threat. Just look the YouTube platform, which even if a copyright notice is filed falsely, they will still give the content creators revenue to the people who falsely filed the copyright claim, basically stealing from them. And while this is partly an issue with YouTube, it is also due to them just trying to protect themselves from the broken copyright laws in place.
We need Fair Use and freedom of speech i understand what pain us Youtubers have to go through just to make a video in fear of fair use Just keep Fair use
There is also the matter of political goals, by silencing truths to keep invalid agendas going. Stop them, because they make the world worse archaic ideology all over the world, not only stereotypes.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that
The DMCA was created before the modern internet, It didn't take into account sites like youtube, and entertainment like let's play series, or video reviews of digital products, moreover, it does not in anyway, hold the people who are issuing DMCA responsible for anything.
Moreover DMCAs are widely used as threats and intimidation by companies that think they make the law and that their company policy dictates what is legal and illegal.
There so many articles on how to make DMCA far better using existing laws, that it is absolutely incredible that this outdated system that's causing so many problems hasn't yet been fixed.
DMCA is negatively affecting people all around the world. It is being abuse not to protect content creators, but to attack free speech, an american first amendment right.
The sistem is broken
Please take off fair use all great youtubers are being taken down because of this this is not fair to any people making content and you guys/girls are ruining there hobby/ passion with the Fair use claim
The DMCA is wrong. It is an outdated system that allows evil, greedy corporations and just awful people to destroy other people's creativity by issuing copyright strikes and claims on videos and websites. This system needs to be taken down and replaced with another system that allows the creative people of the internet to share new and original ideas with the nation. Stop the DMCA.
Just please, add real, tangible penalties for those who abuse this system.
I have seen too many content creators suffer from false claims made for their videos (youtube). This hurts both the quantity and quality of the videos.
Many fan projects and reviews have been unlawfully taken down or discouraged even though they are under fair use. Many video game, film, and anime fans have been threatened by the companies and original content creators. It has negatively impacted the very industries that need help right now and has soured the fan base based on corporate action. Enough is enough.
Please
change
Youtube
Please
be
fair
Help
everyone
in
WorldWideWeb
Stop
automating
the money
and the reputation
For a fairer and safer internet.
You know, the internet isn't something you can control, right? The internet is a place for everyone, and we won't let you shitlords take that away from us.
For more information please watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
YouTubers get videos (That they have to make a living off of) taken down unfairly all the time. It's not fair and needs to be screened more carefully when a video is flagged for copy written material.
Legal matters such as these need to handled by a human mediator and not an automated system.
A lot of problems with the DMCA are that large companies are being abused, the creators are getting screwed over when obviously under fair use laws, when companies try to get an extra buck and silence the youtubers. It cuts off their revenue, and the 3 strike system Youtube uses is constantly abused because of the DMCA being out of date. SO to summarize what i just said, is that the DMCA is pretty much being abused by large companies and assholes to takedown or claim videos of youtubers, and steal the creators hard earned revenue, and even just straight up delete their channel.
I am not a content creator and have never been personally affected by any DMCA claim. I fully understand that content creators put time and effort into their work and rely on said content to provide in their livelihood, wether fully or partially. In that regard I understand that these creators need a way to protect their work, without doubt.
The current system does seem to have some core problems which need to be adressed. As I have said, I have no personal experience with DMCA claims, but in my years on the Internet I have seen content creators struggle with one major problem: abuse of the system.
This seems to come in 2 forms: automated DMCA claims which by its nature cannot check for fair use and intentional false DMCA claims which are used to stifle criticism or free speech. The main problem here seems that it looks like there is insufficiënt accountability, or even none at all, in regards to these false claims.
There may be more forms of abuse of the DMCA but as I have said, I am not a content creator and the content which I follow has never been subject to any other form of abuse of the DMCA.
In conclusion, the right for content creators to protect their work, and thereby their livelihood, is an absolute must however this right needs to be exercised with due responsibility and abuse must be met with accountability.
I have seen so many content creator's content falsely removed from the Internet. This affects they're livelihoods and their audiences. A lot of companies abuse the DMCA, believing they make the law, and that they have control over the Internet. This needs to stop.
Additionally a "small claims" style judicial process for DMCA claims needs to be brought in to ensure that individuals or small companies can afford to take legal action against genuine abusers of their original content. Alongside this there should also be a cheap/easy way to legally report websites or companies who either repeatedly ignore valid DMCA takedown notices and flagrantly allow for repeated theft to go unchecked and this report should generate a review of their "Safe Harbor" limited liability status if they are found to have deliberately and/or knowingly ignored valid DMCA claims. On the other side of this there needs to be a way for smaller businesses or individuals to report companies or groups who are pressuring sites to make blanket removals of ALL work that they consider infringing without the possibility of a DMCA and Counter-Claim process, this is being done by engaging in expensive litigation proceedings with businesses that cannot afford to fight them and so are effectively forced into becoming complicit in the censorship that the larger entity is wishing to impose!
The DMCA allows for angry companies to wrongly strike channels, since the tools to abuse the system are laid in front of them. All the power is put with the claimant, and none with the creator. In other words, wrongly taking down videos is a PIECE OF CAKE due to the DMCA. Several cases have proven that this system is used to abuse innocent creators. Like...
I Hate Everything Vs Derek Savage
Channel Awesome- Several Videos
YMS- Several Videos
I Hate Everything- Channel Wrongly Taken Down.
Pyrocynical Vs Sam Pepper
Team Four Star- Channel Wrongly Taken Down With False Companies.
Jim Sterling Vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher.
Mr Enter Vs Australian Publisher.
Plus, when a video´s monetization is removed from the creator and given to the claimant, even if the defendant proves innocent, the money still goes to the claimant!
How about a temporary side account?
Thanks!
And I believe that everyone knows or watches a YouTuber who's videos and sometimes the most popular videos have been take down. so like we did years ago Washington tear down this law
Large corporations have the ability to take down a video for whatever reason, at one point the sound of myself breathing was the cause of a single video me and some friends made, the video was not monetised.
stop bogus DMCA takedowns and protect free speech!
Make the difference with the fair use
Copyright law is important but DMCA is terribly outdated and there has to be a way for content creators, such as critics, to make their content at peace. And sometimes, when there isn't even any content from the film, just talking about it, the video might be taken down just because the copyright owner sues the video without even watching it. And do the people watch the video themselves before taking it down? Apparently not since videos like these have been taken out, without any compensation for the income loss this action might have caused.
Sop bogus DMCA takedowns! Protect free speech!
As the world becomes more globalized, and internet content becomes more prevalent, not only on the US, but the world, the copyright laws become something that is not only the problem of a single country anymore. The type of entertainment the internet offers can cross borders, and become something that everyone can truly enjoy. Cultural convergence points can be seen everywhere, but this creates a problem when the copyrights law enforcement becomes so unbalanced and broken.
Not only do people from around the world get affected by the loss of their favorite internet content created videos, but creators from the most diverse places can also get affected by unjust copyright claims, seeing as the content they make, even if under fair use, can be attacked and menaced by people and corporation that abuse the system for their own gains. Things being as they are, the law must be revised and rebalanced, not only for the sake of the United States, but for the internet as a whole.
When people can report content just to be malicious and the content gets taken down without a second thought? That's ridiculous. This is a new era for the Internet and this is certainly not 1998. There are people making their livelihoods off of videos on Youtube and elsewhere, and when their content gets taken down constantly, that effects their income. Update Fair Use now!
People are taking advantage of the law and abusing the common man for acting within the letter and spirit of the law. Please help us adjust the law to benefit the growth of our culture and allow free speech to continue to be free, rather than at the mercy of a few abusive Lawyers, Hollywood, or DMCA takedown companies.
People like Doug Walker, JoshScorcher, and Anime America that have inspired me to make videos and interact with people throughout the intenet, but it's the constant and unfair copyright claims that restrict me and multiple other people who make videos.
The fair use problem has gotten out of control. There have been multiple cases on YouTube people have bullied, threatened, and denied people their freedom of speech on what they thought of their films. One of these cases involved the YouTube Channel, "I Hate Everything". He posted a review of the film, "Cool Cat Saves the Kids" and was pretty harsh about it. The director, Derek Savage, watched the review and was so hurt he demanded the review to be taken down and an apology. Even though he is well in fair use. Another case involved the reviewer, Brad Jones (The Cinema Snob). Jones has a series of film reviews where he reviews a film in a car with his friend. He uses no clips and no music from any films. Never the less the review was taken down on "copyright infringement". This is the most ridiculous problem I have ever encountered on the Internet and I demand it be fixed before it threatens more people's lively hood.
It has taken down many channels that have fair use in their content
Enough of this shit. Content creators being choked by false claims needs to stop.
Я не для того выключал AddBlock на YouTube чтобы деньги с рекламы уходили третьим лицам, которые даже не имеют права на эти видео.
I know an artist who made a amazing video but was taken down because of a song she didn't she did not clam as her own thankfully it was brought back up but that should have never happened.
I am a big fan of the Nostalgia Critic (the person who led me to this petition) and he does reviews of either old movies or new movies cashing in on nostalgic value. I have found my way to several movies through this and have bought them because of this. He also states that he is allowed to use this footage because it is for critique, which is allowed in fair use. Not only that, but if a movie is too recent, he makes his own versions of the footage (I.e. Jurassic World). This is his job.
When fair use is not acknowledged, he gets a video taken down by YouTube for some reason or another that is not valid. If he gets too many videos taken down for "broken copyright rules" then his channel can get deleted forever and he and his cast and crew will have no job. Either that or he can no longer monetize his videos, leaving him no reason to continue if he cannot keep up the quality of his videos without the money coming in from past videos. Many more people like him rely on critiquing movies to make money. Most times they show someone a movie they think they'll enjoy (or just want to see to see if it's really as bad as everyone says it is).
If you remove fair use, hundreds of people will lose the jobs they have worked so hard to earn. Millions of fans will be in an outrage. And even the movies that are trying to be so-called "protected" from being ripped off will get less exposure than before. Videos should only be taken down if they are an entire movie posted to YouTube illegally? Not if it is being used for critique. Please stop this abuse.
The DMCA is being flat out abused by companies and individuals alike as a means to censor any content they don't agree with, to harass and bully content creators and in some cases actually steal the revenue they have no rightful claim to. This is a serious issue as it not only is giving free reign to the people who will exclusively abuse it but it is creating a system which otherwise talented creators are beginning to feel uncomfortable creating. We live in an amazing age where anyone can share their creations, their ideas, their opinions and become successful doing what they love, however with too much power being in the hands of the people looking to censor and stifle those people to assure they are the only game in town, they are creating a hostile environment for creators and stifling innovation. Not only is the DMCA being abused by shell corporations to attack individuals for little to no reason, in an increasingly disturbing trend many creators content is being removed by individuals who hold absolutely no claim to any of the content, and in fact the creator(s) have explained that they in fact own everything they used themselves. This is extremely troubling as it could not be a more clear example of abuse of a broken system for the sole purpose of harassing an individual anonymously online with absolutely no consequences to the party placing the fraudulent claim. It is being used to actually steal money from the creators during the period it goes "under review" and when its of course found to have no violation, the thief gets to keep the money they stole! It is an environment actively encouraging this kind of behavior and it needs to end, NOW. There needs to be severe consequences for fraudulent claims and there needs to be actual laws in place, not just guidelines, protecting the content creators. The internet will continue to grow, it is the most important human invention to date, it allows anyone around the world to express themselves, to connect and share their ideas, it should be an environment anyone can feel free to create and share, we need this, it is too important to ignore.
Dear Government,
The DMCA is broken. It's being used as a club to batter YouTube channels and hurt people who are doing this for a living. Honestly, not getting to see Nostalgia Critic's reviews or Bronies React, which likely falls within fair use, as the organizer uses several people so that there's always someone talking. The two I just mentioned were completely fair use.
However, I'm going to bring up GradeAUnderA's argument about reaction channels like RashardtheReactor and others. They will put the entire video in the corner of the screen, usually without permission, and barely speak during the video. How is that getting by fair use when Doug Walker and Eli the Computer Guy are constantly slammed by this?
Copyright Office, the DMCA is woefully outdated. It was meant to handle sites that nowadays we look at like "Dang, this was the best you could come up with?" We have amazing looking websites with complex algorithms to help us find what we want. The DMCA was not meant to handle YouTube, Twitter, or basically anything else.
People can take down videos that have nothing to do with them and not get punished when that happens! How the heck is this "fair"? The DMCA is being used to censor individuals who disagree with whoever is wielding them. You what other society killed free speech?
North Korea.
You want to head down the same road North Korea is on? If not, Fix the DMCA. Now.
#WTFU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw
Laws should be updated regularly. This law in it's current state just yells for wrong usage towards people who aren't even breaking it in anyway. If DMCA stays as it is now, it's wrong. It'll mean that the law will be used even more to harass people. There's no justice in harassing people.
The current take down process puts too much power in the hands of rights-holders. It wouldn't be so bad if the Copyright system in this Country wasn't abused to the point that works now expire centuries after they were created or after the author has died. Thank you Sonny Bono. Thank you Disney. NOT!
There needs to be real and effective penalties for those that abuse the current take down process to censor or limit speech. The penalties need to be strong, and they need to be severe. Abusing the DMCA to limit speech should be as punishable, if not more so, than statutory Copyright infringement.
Copyright owners should be required - again under an effective penalty - that they have concluded that the works they are requesting to be taken down are not a fair-use extraction or derivation.
And finally, the safe harbor allowances of the DMCA need to be extended to service providers AND content creators that provide an explicit safe harbor inclusion for fair use.
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George Ellenburg, Marietta, Georgia, April 1, 2016
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No more take down!! Bring fair use back!!
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I am agree, I have to copyrights from different studios. I wanted to stopped all those discrimination. Today is a free speech, so is better all people have own way to post a video. I am for and I wanted everything to stop for being such painful. Youtube must be a place for everyone, not for other people who try be more rebels. Must be stopped and be free for all. DCMA must be out, no more DMCA, must be eliminated from Youtube.
I think we should post what we want online. What's a fanbase without fanart, animations, etc.?
Everyone knows that the DMCA is being abused a lot.
I know a few persons who had to mute or even remove their videos because some music in the game or where ever had a copyright on it.
There are also persons who needed to remove their videos for an unknown reason. I remember someone who had to remove a video because the quiet background (ingame) music had copyright on it, it is just unbelievable. I also have a video I had to remove because it contained a copyright soundtrack while I have seen other videos using it and they were NOT taken down. Thanks for reading.
The DMCA is being a abused by companies that are using it take away the money hard working content creators deserve, they are doing this by using loop holes in the DMCA as it wasn't made for modern day internet but for the 1998 internet which is vastly different from today. So please take a look at the DMCA takedowns and stop them
I believe that the copyright system is messed up because I've seen tons of youtubers not make money for there hard work I feel like it is way to easy to cliam something that's not yours
Many channels, including my own, have been heavily sttacked and abused by companies and youtube. We all do our best to follow the faif use laws, all except youtube. They have bots that automaticaly take down videos or entire channels if copyrighted material is found, even if its well under fair use. They even take down videos that have NO copyrighted material. No pictures, no videps, no music, just 2 people talking about a movie in a car. Imidiately taken down. There are countless channels being harassed right now and we are getting tired of it. They are taking away our monetization, they have no people to look over these claims and when tgey do, the people behind it will make up any nasty lie to take our channels down and take our money. Sometimes tgey will go so far to say that they alone MADE the fair use law. Sometimes they take down videos to whipe out comebtary on their work or to silence the competition. There are so many things that are corrupt about the DMCA now and we will all fight until it is fixed. I cant even post so much as a tutorial teaching video with music without it getting banned from the world the minute it is posted. It is destroying our freedom of speech and our hard work to make the internet a better place. Youtube also pays some damouse content creators up front to lie to us. That nithing is wrong. But its not going to work. I am michael, and i will never give up the fight.
I know a youtuber ('IHE' )that got two copyright strikes because he made a bad review on a movie and the creator of the movie just didn't liked the review.
people file claims on content they dont own you can create a normal vlog type video and it can be taken down by abusing DMCA
This means a lot to the Internet and to me, can you change this?
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Both the fair use laws themselves and the system used to enforce the laws are being abused by companies not just wanting to protect their interests as they should be able to do, but to take down people for the slightest infraction. Complaining about their products while some users are able to upload whole movies taking away revenue, these companies still see fit to take down critics who are well within the bounds of education and opinion outlined in fair use.
There should be penalties for those who break these rules yes, but also penalties against companies that file false claims. Youtube and Facebook need to look at their policies and perhaps collaborate with the government to reinvent the idea of fair use. To find a balance between content creators online, and the content producers whose work is being used well within reason or misused
I have seen too many content creators destroyed by abuse of copyright abuse. It must be stopped
There are a number of content creators who are affected negatively due to the outdated DMCA, and through no fault of their own. There are multiple instances on Youtube alone where the failings of DMCA are evident. Some content creators may only talk about a film without providing video or audio from the source, but their video may be removed regardless. It is possible for companies to file complaints on content they do not own, which may be used to shield other companies who want videos taken down. Companies may even threaten or harass creators and use the DMCA as a shield for such behaviour. Ultimately, not only does this mean lost revenue for content creators on Youtube, it also stifles creativity from these creators and the viewers that they inspire. People will be reluctant to share their creativity and information in an environment where the DMCA remains unchanged (or where a new, more relevant act is not present).
This youtube video (address below) also discusses the above mentioned issues as well as other ways the DMCA has affected content creators:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
Thank you for your time and consideration
The Digital and Millenium Act, as a content creator has greatly effected me. I used to make Let's Plays on YouTube but due to many fraudulent claims on one of the frankly smallest channels on YouTube from what I'm aware of, I've been forced to move away to using a lot of footage, now more than normal most of my YouTube videos are vlogs or rants because at this point I'm scared to do anything else if the footage isn't altered in some way. So yes, it is used to be abuse, threaten, take down, or even just to silence criticism. I point to Mysterious Mr. Enter, h3h3, YMS, and IHE for not-so great examples for these.
DMCA is out of date and abused by corporations, who use it for harassment of individuals and small companies. Give it back to the people. It is anti-competitive, and holds back this industry and many others, while ruining the spread and freedom of information. It contradicts "the land of the free", and turns it into "the land of litigation, with liberty and justice for the rich only".
I don't make ANY money on YouTube because I'm not opted into the thing to makemoney. But recently, or a good time ago, two of my videos were claimed for copy right. I thought notbing of it butafter some research the copy right claims where made by "companies" where they don't exist or have no grounds to do it. In one video I was hit with a copy right claim from company in CHINA and the translation said it yo be the chinese branch of Disney. I sent disputes about the claim and nothing has came back to me. It has almost two years. I sent in dispute after dispute and nothing gave. My channel only has nighty-eight subscribers so I was not profitable from so these claims were by some people who wanted to steal my money that I made for that video. Basically YouTube has became the nesting grounds for legal theviery. The company its self does not care at all. It could take weeks before you finally hear something and even if YouTube does not respond nothing would befixed anyways. YouTube does not care at all about of the content creators using their service. Only the big name users such as Pewdiepie, Machinima, Rooster Teeth, SMOSH, etc. are what YouTube is worried about. Why? More money.
DMCA Take downs are ruining the internet, the only thing you see them used for anymore is bogus take downs. If it isn't a company who refuses to understand fair use, it's small game developers who don't like a game review. It's never been so easy to stifle creativity and free speech before. If I was to make a movie or video game tomorrow and someone gave it a bad review, all I would need to do is use a DMCA takedown on them and there is nothing they could do to stop me. The worse part, is I wuldn't be punished at all for this.
People and companies who do this, are not punished in the slightest. Every day they ruin people's buisnesses and lives and there is no way to stop them. Some people, like a group/company called MERLIN LTD even file false copyright claims against videos without being linked to the content at all. Recently they claimed against someone's video for having music that belonged to them. Except the video was 7 minutes of pure silence. THERE WAS NO MUSIC, but they were still allowed to file a copyright claim against the non existant music in the video and claim the monetary gain from the video.
DMCA Takedowns are being used daily to illegaly steal money from hard working youtube content creators and to stifle any kind of review they disagree with. They're no longer even being subtle about it.
THEY ARE OPENLY BREAKING THE LAW AND NOTHING IS BEING DONE ABOUT IT, because the DMCA is so out dated, that it allows them to do whatever they please, and gives content creators no way to defend themselves unless they want to spend time, energy and money trying to take the claimer to court (and even then, they can just drop the claim, then file a new claim and start the process all over again)
Please, take a good, long, hard look at this outdated system and understand that the internet has changed a LOT since it was implamented.
Plain and simple, basic rule of democracy is "innocent, until proven guilty". DMCA takedown is basically punishment before a trial. Guilty until proven innocent.
Currently DMCA has being used for controlling free speech. If I say something about particular ip, no matter music, cinema, video games or whatever, the publisher can remove my comment simply by claiming DMCA and filing take down notice. And my comment is gone, no matter what. And if I do not go to Cort of justice about it, to fight multimillion dollar corporation, my write of free speech is gone.
There is your DMCA.
Listen, you need to fix your system. I love art and music and I use songs that keep getting removed, reagrdless how I use it legally and only as art. I think this is unfair and this system is the only cause of it. Please fix it.
I've seen many of my favorite youtubers slammed, harassed, and abused by the DMCA process, and I'm tired of hearing about it. Change the law.
As an avid watcher of YouTube I get tired of not getting to see videos because of false copyright claims. Fix the law!
However it's not just big companies abusing the DMCA to either silence their critics or people using their content or property (Usualy within fair use I might add). Anybody can make their own company to use it to their advantage and hurt people who now make their living on the internet. From reviews critical of a product only to have the creator censor that video to original pieces of music being monetized by somebody other then the creator because anybody can do it.
I feel that I have been restricted by this act not only regarding the content I watch, but I feel intimidated into not making YouTube content since many of the content creators I watch that don't even incorporate fair use by not using other people's materials at all are being abused by the DMCA. How could I start, when others much larger and more influential than I struggle unfairly, reviews and parodies have been flagged, even if no content from the source has been used.
#WTFU
The notice-and-takedown process used by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
All too often the little guy is hurt. Big movie business are yet to go bust.
I support this act due to the fact you won't take the big youtubers down but the small ones that have had no time to flourish and the unfairness of the situation
Why are we moving backwards towards more censorship??
The DMCA is extremely outdated for the internet of today, Companies are constantly abusing this system to take away content which is most certainly under fair use, the biggest abusers of this is on youtube. It goes against everything the internet should stand for, free speech and fair use.
This entire policy is an example of an outdated system created with no forethought at all. Currently the DMCA is broken bill allowing corporations to silence negative opinion, steal revenue of content creators, and all the while protect the companies from any penalties for these actions.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The DMCA needs to work in favor of all content creators, not just companies that want to bully individuals into removing legal content without due process.
I have been on the sidelines too long while those who I follow and enjoy listening to are being abused, all for the sake of someone earning some money. The worst part is that the ones I often view are subject to this abuse while many others, who do worse things that actually do infringe on the DMCA go unpunished, namely those who falsely submit a claim.
The abuse under DMCA prevents the artistic creations, the opinions, the voice, and educational use of people online. The internet has always been a place I have found resources, information, news, art- ranging from visual to performance, and discussions. Overall it is a wide collection of people who can share all these ideas and creations. Recently the DMCA has taken a further step in preventing videos that relate with a company's property (such as characters, or title), which is understandable, but it now is getting to a smothering point. Sometimes the videos involve people TALKING about a movie they just saw, or a skit involving the movie are taken down. There were no images from the movie, no songs, just a reference to the film. A good majority of the time with these videos the movie is fully credited, and for many, especially for myself, it has brought attention to a movie and make me want to watch it, even if the review or skit or general feeling was bad. Sometimes people put in a load of work on a project and than they go online to see it has been taken down. Not only that, the people who blocked them can make profit off the video, made by others, after it is blocked. That is upright abuse. If I had to pay a fee for every time I drew fan art when I was younger and now, I would be thousands of dollars in debt. The truth of the fact, is other's art of a subject has drawn me to a lot of topics and therefore going to the original source, including movies. When I see people responding to a movie, show, comic, book, or other media, I instantly get intrigued. However if these sources were to be taken down before I discovered them, Id never have seen or cared to learn about it. What the DMCA is doing is not only abusive, but destructive to the freedom of the internet and ultimately themselves. I understand the worry about others making money out of another's characters or story, but the truth of the matter is that sharing a story with everyone and not completely erasing SO MUCH is much better in the long run. Taking other peoples work down is abusive and is hypocritical as well. It is creating a monopoly that only larger companies and people with the ability to create can push down other's artistic endeavors; along with people who are doing it just to pick a fight. Not to mention it is giving companies and others too much power over peoples work, and it begs the question: How far can they go?
Thank you for reading
-Clio Wilkerson, 18
Thank you so much for listening and considering to take action on this truly important matter!
I don't have legal expertise or knowledge, but I do know that many many people are having their income taken from them unfairly from multiple copyright strikes that are difficult to defend themselves from. This law is outdated and needs to be relooked at.
Just as a start before getting to the technical details, it is absolutely obvious that the DMCA needs a revamp to get on the same level as the Internet that it is trying to protect. Thousands of incredible creators have been affected for ridiculous, insignificant and even nonexistent reasons, tearing their channels (and their livelihoods) down and ruining the communities they have worked so hard to create. We cannot simply stand by and let disgusting Internet trolls, companies, hackers and bots exploit the viewers and steal from the creators. This is not right, and we cannot let this continue any further. Many channels have had copyright strikes on videos from years ago, while their current work is stolen and reuploaded by other users, who pretend to be the creator in question. Even in the comment section, nasty troll comments are not being deleted and bots have been posting links to the fans, leading to sites that will hack their devices and gain access to private information. These horrific actions must come with a consequence and we must update the current DMCA to make it accountable for the modern day Internet. I hope this comment is read, along with the many others, as this issue is deeply affecting so many of us and it needs to be resolved.
Millions of people have called for reforms to draconian application of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by powerful corporations seeking to stifle the sort of grassroots creativity that is the sould of the Internet. The DMCA is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
This truly needs to end. The amount of people undermined by the outdated fair use system is numerous and is still ongoing. There is punishment for the people receiving accusations, but none for the ones giving them, which essentially grants the accusers unlimited access to misuse the system.
Change the system of fair use to grant more power to creators of content on the internet so they can defend themselves and diminish the power in the hands of those that would abuse it. Let this be a step towards a fairer and better functioning modern world.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet. In the end, we have been treated wrong on the Internet because of false copyright. Let us be heard.
SAVE IT PLS
In many cases, the DMCA is used to steal content from independant producers and it enables copyright holders to break their own rules. Copyright holders can explicitely allow their users to use their content in certain ways and are nevertheless legally shut down this type of use. Because of this, the DMCA creates a situation were copyright holders aren't bound to agreements with their customers. And this breaks a key tenet of liberal legal philosophy: pacta sunt servada.
And if there are no penalties for abusive DMCA claims, copyright holders can send massive DMCA claims and don't face any profit loss even if 99% are deemed injustified. This system does effectively reward companies for abusing the law.
You might have heard about the outrage about the prime minister of turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, actively trying to shut down a video created by the german public broadcasting, where Erdogans Civil Rights violations are criticized. (THis is the video which Erdogan demanded to have taken down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2e2yHjc_mc) The DMCA allows the exact same procedure to happen massively every day, albeit on a smaller scale.
Overall, the DMCA is an obsolete system made for an obsolete internet. Nobody currently uses that internet, we're all using a new one. Which means it's pretty simple: We need a system that works in the CURRENT internet, not the 1998 internet
You are punishing the innocent and aiding the criminals it needs to stop.
I believe that fair use is an essential part of maintaining the structure of creative video making. If fair use is disentigrated, then creations that are good enough for people to want to use them (and these people respect the creators enough to give them credit for their works) won't get the popularity they deserve for almost no reason.
My friend and I were trying to start up a music review Youtube channel. We made a total of four videos, but only two are still there! We followed fair use policy religiously the entire time that we made the videos, and yet our best two videos were removed. We tried to dispute the copyright claims, but that didn't work.
It is unfair to take down a video that reviews content. A "review" is permitted under the fair use policy, so we followed the rules. Also, it is free advertisement for those artist's music. It might open up people's eyes to a song or artist who they had not known of beforehand.
As a content creator I should not live in fear that I may anger an individual that may abuse this system to damage my channel despite having no legal ground to do it.
I may not have created any content that has been targeted by spiteful haters or corporate goons, but I am currently subscribed to 5 channels on YouTube that have to face this problem everyday. Sometimes more than once on the same video! It is far from fair and definitely greedy and spiteful. The DMCA is 18 years old and long needed something new to accommodate today's accessibility to media. Please do something about it!
The DMCA's takedown of people's videos because of wanton ignorance and greed has cost many hard-working content creators their well-earned livings. This is both unfair and unethical.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders - or the businesses they partner with/represent - and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use, making their takedowns unlawful. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. My opinion is not that copyright should be a free-for-all, but the current implementation of these laws is nonetheless an infringement of the rights of creators.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet; and results in innocent people being punished for the acts of a computer program.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign; commentary on the dangerous and often false claims of religions institutions can be silenced BY those institutions; small creators are strong-armed out of the game by larger creators that can afford to fight these unlawful claims & people that create this content for a living can lose their money, with no hope of retrieval, causing not only mental suffering, but physical suffering if they cannot afford food or pay rent. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
And as a person currently pre-producing content for online consumption, especially moving into the realm of criticism, I fear for my freedom of speech. Please, help my voice to be heard.
I'm saying that the current way of copyright is horible, I personally am not a creator.But i am a viewer and the problem is that i can't view some of my favourite content creators content becouse compeny can strike them (for example) for having an img of there content and they strike them for audio usage, they strike channels that make there own content and they claim its theres, they strike content that is not theres (for example a youtuber named "nfkrz" is getting strikes on MOST or maby ALL of his videos for using a song for 5 seconds at the start of every video, the original over allows him to uses it but a person featured in the video does not so he strikes him for using "his" content.) Also some companies strike there content after they said they can use it, what i mean is that the creator can ask them "can i use you're content" they will say "yes you can" 1 day after the video or whatever is posted they can say " oh i change my mind you can't use it now give me the money YOU EARNED because i am richer then you and i can do this to steal YOU'RE MONEY. I know i am young and shouden't be talking about this stuff in my teen years, but i wanna watch content without worrying that i will miss some it due to some rich comeny beaing retards.
DMCA takedowns are very clearly being abused and this needs to stop.
We need to have consequences for abuse of DMCA. Perhaps a 3 strike system, anyone who wishes to issue a DMCA must submit information proving they represent the company, they can not issue a DMCA if they are not from the company. After one strike, the individual may not submit a DMCA strike, after two strikes, the company will face a fine and the individual cannot issue a DMCA strike, after three strikes, the company cannot issue DMCA strikes again.
All thought these copyright claims are to stop piracy lots of people do that anyways and these laws are harming more people's way of life on the daily it needs to change
Besides that, DMCA is from 1998. Back then, the internet was a lot different and most of the things on the internet today, was only a dream or a fantasy back then.
DMCA take downs have become an outdated and abusive form of claiming copyright. Right now, they are used as threats to people, companies are filing claims that don't even have anything to do with the particular content, and some content is being claimed multiple times by bots. Many channels have been affected by this, such as;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkcWbvnN0
(I Hate Everything, who was struck by false copyright claims by Derek Savage, who did not like that IHE was giving an honest review of his film)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ9U8YLY
(Team Four Star, a YouTube channel that creates non profit parodies based on the show Dragon Ball Z, I repeat NON PROFIT.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nULnD9OQ
(An anime reviewer who had a DMCA take down notice by making a Vlog about snow, nothing to do with what the DMCA was claiming.)
To summarize;
""
If you want to help ensure the happiness of people, if you feel you want to do the right thing; Please, in the name of God, do your duty.
Stop bogus DMCA takedowns and protect free speech!
I don't understand why they keep this nonsense of make the world too perfect in speech, like a ditator's rules.
Stops, just stop them !!!
The notice-and-m Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Right now, video creators are having so many troubles with creating fascinating content, and so much entertaining, useful, and just plain good videos are took down every day. Because of that, not only video creators are getting screwed, but video viewers as well. I personally believe that the time to stop selfish corporations and separate greedy people has come.
The DMCA guidelines are not updated for the internet of today. People are using the system wrongly and falsely, such as claiming thing they do not own. These are especially bad in the gaming community of Youtube. Please take this to capitol hill to help the internet as a whole, thank you.
Take down the abuse
Furthermore, fair use have been misused. We have been docked for piracy even when we follow the rules. We will not stand for the unfairness anymore. We will fight back (not physically) if we are being taken down because we are hated. We hope that you will consider fair use and the problems it caused. Multiple videos and channels have been taken down for "copyright." Let there be no more internment camp for the Internet.
And Hi GPS rocks. Yeay
The copyright system of YouTube is out of control
Our critics and other content creators are being harrased by companys who don't understand the law,and the ones that do are spiteful
And would do anything to take down those videos
It amazes me that so much is gotten away with this kind of copyright abuses. A lot of grate YouTube's suffer from this
The DMCA is being abused to censor free speech. It is too easy for corporations and copyright trolls (third parties) to remove content they do not own, just because they don't like it, without any repercussions.
People on YouTube are getting taken down everyday because of false copyright claims. One of my favorite YouTubers, I HATE EVERYTHING, has gotten two copyright strikes in the past because of an illegal take down of his footage.
He is a satire/review youtuber, which means he has more trouble with copyright than say a beauty guru.
These wrongful claims affect a persons livelihood. That is not right, especially for a person that tries to be as professional as I HATE EVERYTHING.
Please, do something to save these innocent, great channels that did nothing wrong. And take down the channels that do do something wrong, for example, reaction channels. They are braking the law but they somehow get to stay but innocent channels don't?
I'm trying to be very respectful, but please do something about this. Please.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is undeniably outdated and heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders. It is too commonly used to censor, abuse, and harass content creators who participate in the act of fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. Videos consisting solely of commentary and void of any copyrighted works are falsely claimed as infringing on copyright. Individuals who make a living from fair use are put at risk of losing their jobs. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
As a filmmaker and radio producer living far from the east or west coast, I know directly how important the Internet is for creative expression, research, sharing ideas and new media.
As a YouTube content creator, fair use must be brought back and the abusers punished.
Here's a YouTuber who is being harassed by another YouTuber abusing the copy right system just to con him for money and has threatened to take down his videos which he has if he didn't get $1000. Here's a link of the situation: http://youtu.be/rlUtwVOZ0Yc
#WTFU ?
SHIT BE WHACK, YO!
There have been multiple false copyright claims and multiple false strikes for people who have been protected under fair use. Even when one tries to fight these claims, they're not given a platform to stand on, which makes it harder for people to make new content. Most of it comes from corporate officials who feel as though anyone using their content either positively or negatively even for a few seconds is NOT under fair use. I understand it's hard to argue against these people but this has gotten to the point where even anyone can file a copyright claim even if they have nothing to do with the content. We need an update on fair use immediately so that we can protect content creators.
I know this e-mail will just be in a wave of similar ones, but, I do have a suggestion too. A quick search on youtube with #WTFU can show a lot of the arguements on comopanies' (big and small) occasional abuse of the current DMCA, I do hope you will level the playing field.
Good luck!
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There's a little blurb underneath this message that was prewritten when I started submitting, and I will leave it intact but will add one more thing. Copyright claimers need to be penalized for wrongful claims. If anyone and their grandmother can make a claim on any video for any reason with no consequences, we have a big problem. Content creators make a living out of making content, and claims keep them from eating their living. Anyone can come in and make a claim, and if there was no reason for the claim.... nothing happens. Someone just lost money because someone else didn't have a valid reason to make a claim, and the claimer doesn't suffer any consequences. This is wrong and in my opinion is the most vital component that needs to be fixed.
Note Due to DMCA that it is a violation of Civil Rights, and Against the first Amendment in the Constitution.
The DMCA is largely dated and effects content creators worldwide. Penalties need to be put in place to prevent spurious DMCA claims which would easily be defeated under fair use in court.
The following is a prewritten comment. Even though I'm not it's author, I fully support it's content.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on GENERAL expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
On multiple occasions I personally have witnessed channels being attacked and taken down over videos that are CLEARLY within Fair Use guidelines. This includes videos in which no copyrighted items are used whatsoever. Just a person talking in front of a camera, and it's being taken down or a claim is made on it.
The outdated system is being CONTINUALLY used to steal revenue from creators, or just to attack them and stifle free speech. There are many incidents where companies use false/shield companies to issue claims and take downs just so that they can claim they had nothing to do with it, when in reality they did. I personally have had incidents, and the system is so stacked against creators that it's almost impossible to fight back, even when it's the claimants who are infringing upon laws and rights. Even when the claimants are doing that, the laws an guidelines currently in place favor THEM. Especially in light of the fact that most YouTube claims do NOT go through a live person, but through an automated system that immediately attacks the video and takes it down or shifts the profit earning to the claimant, rather than a person who is actually trained in the laws involved in this to look over the video and see if the claim is actually true or not.
There need to be some serious revisions made to everything, and most importantly there need to be PEOPLE involved in this, NOT a computer system that will automatically censor anything. There also very desperately need to be penalties of some sort for abusing the system and for making false claims. Right now, NOTHING exists to stop companies taking revenue or making false claims. And in regard to illegally taking revenue when it's not warranted, the creators it's stolen from DON'T get reimbursed for lost revenue. They just have to deal with it, even if it's their ONLY source of income. The entire system is flawed, and it leads all YouTube creators and subscribers to ask: #Where'sTheFairUse?
The notice-and-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
PS. Don't be North Korea.
Because of every issue with copyright, I'm too afraid to take advantage of everything possible, especially with YouTube. Anything is possible, and with that feeling of safety coming from a good copyright system I might be able to finally to be a content creator.
A personal comment: I don't watch a lot of online videos, but I still know at least five content creators that have had content removed unfairly. This is very worrying.
_
The system of the dmca is one sided, and only helps the companies that are using it. Now and days people can't go around posting their work without the risk of an unfair copyright strike. Even just the music is enough to get their video removed. This needs to stop
The abuse by corporations or thieves through this system stops any creativity, discussion, or criticism. I know many who are too afraid to do anything on YouTube for fear of having their content taken down or people making money off their hard work by creating a false claim against them. Often my favorite content creators do not even use any copyrighted material, but the mere mention of a copyrighted product such as a movie can get them taken down often for the negative criticism they express. This is a violation of free speech and needs to be put to an end.
The problem with the takedown system is that it, essentially, is a fossil and fails to account for the internet of today. It is far too rife for abuse and tends to do much more harm than good. If anything, there is most certainly a need for fines or any other sanctions for false DMCA claims. Those making claims that their copyright is being infringed upon, yet when they are clearly making a false claim, must be punished at least in some way. This is of utmost importance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
So, we are all aware of the current state of this dilemma, but anyways here is a little recap: Over the past few months, content creator on sites like YouTube have been wrongfully accused of using copyrighted material(film clips, music etc.). Normally,by the act known as the DMCA or Digital Millenium Copyright act proposed in 1998,this material would be either restricted,muted or even deleted. But a huge problem has occurred in the shape of so called "owners" claming videos that,allegedly, use their content in a either unrespectfull or illegal manner. These claims are most of the time made without making sure that the content being claimed is breaking something called Fair Use. What is Fair Use? It is an legal doctrine that is there to prevent problems like false copyright infringement. In this article is says that a content creator can use the content of another creator(be that a single person, group or company) if it fills out certain criteria and those are:
1.the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
2.the nature of the copyrighted work
3.the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
4.the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work
Most companies now a days do not take these rules into account and give out blind and/or automated claims, not even caring if the content fits any or all of the criteria listed above. Not only that but they actually get away with things like using dummy companies to take the blame instead, putting up claims that they don't have the rights to put up or, in some cases, either misrepresentation or fraudulent impersonation of content holders. This, unlike the "claims" they dish out to content creators that did nothing illegal or unrightfull, is completely against the law and is absolutely punishable.
Why is this happening?
The DMCA, although used, is completely outdated. It was intended to be used for the "90s" internet, which was quite simplistic and primitive compared to the internet of today, where anyone can post a video or music spot whenever they want.The rules of the DMCA, while they do prevent large amounts of pirated movies and song to be handed out online, do not shield the people that make reviews, rants or even just commentate on the movie(with absolutely no stolen content whatsoever). This makes it hard for people who make money, with commentaries on movies video games or even music,
Old laws are far too outdated. Please take at least this one step to stop the ravenous and unfair DMCAs that are going on everywhere. Large, small, or even fake any companies can very, very easily instantly shut down anything they don't want people to hear. Even people with no right whatsoever are able to simply issue one without any reason. If what's being taken down contains nothing copyrighted whatsoever, it can still be taken down and ruin someone's day, week or life, depending on what it was. And the person that sent it gets no repercussions. Please, make this better.
The system is out of date and is now but a tool for people the steel money from others.
Just think and put your self in the shoes of video creators.
If you just turn on your camera and talk about how much you love a type of flower. Then someone can just file a clam and tack it down. And you can do this for everyone on youtube no matter what. and the best part is. You can steel money from them and get thousands of dollars. And if you get caught? No big deal. Because no one can do anything to you.
Like I sed. this system is nothing but a tool for those to steel money from others and get away with it 99% of the time.
On multiple occasions I personally have witnessed channels being attacked and taken down over videos that are CLEARLY within Fair Use guidelines. This includes videos in which no copyrighted items are used whatsoever. Just a person talking in front of a camera, and it's being taken down or a claim is made on it.
The outdated system is being CONTINUALLY used to steal revenue from creators, or just to attack them and stifle free speech. There are many incidents where companies use false/shield companies to issue claims and take downs just so that they can claim they had nothing to do with it, when in reality they did. I personally have had incidents, and as a creator, I often have no choice but to remove the video.
Another issue is the autodetection function that YouTube's system has in place. It detects something (often times very FALSELY detects) supposedly copyrighted in the video before said video even goes live, and will shift revenue earning from the creator to the "owner" of the content in place, even if there truly is no violation present. It puts a claim on the video before it's even posted, with no real way to fight it.
The system is so stacked against creators that it's almost impossible to fight back, even when it's the claimants who are infringing upon laws and rights. Even when the claimants are doing that, the laws an guidelines currently in place favor THEM. Especially in light of the fact that most YouTube claims do NOT go through a live person, but through an automated system that immediately attacks the video and takes it down or shifts the profit earning to the claimant, rather than a person who is actually trained in the laws involved in this to look over the video and see if the claim is actually true or not.
There need to be some serious revisions made to everything, and most importantly there need to be PEOPLE involved in this, NOT a computer system that will automatically censor anything. There also very desperately need to be penalties of some sort for abusing the system and for making false claims. Right now, NOTHING exists to stop companies taking revenue or making false claims. And in regard to illegally taking revenue when it's not warranted, the creators it's stolen from DON'T get reimbursed for lost revenue. They just have to deal with it, even if it's their ONLY source of income. The entire system is flawed, and it leads all YouTube creators and subscribers to ask: #Where'sTheFairUse?
On multiple occasions I personally have witnessed channels being attacked and taken down over videos that are CLEARLY within Fair Use guidelines. This includes videos in which no copyrighted items are used whatsoever. Just a person talking in front of a camera, and it's being taken down or a claim is made on it.
The outdated system is being CONTINUALLY used to steal revenue from creators, or just to attack them and stifle free speech. There are many incidents where companies use false/shield companies to issue claims and take downs just so that they can claim they had nothing to do with it, when in reality they did. I personally have had incidents, and as a creator, I often have no choice but to remove the video.
Another issue is the autodetection function that YouTube's system has in place. It detects something (often times very FALSELY detects) supposedly copyrighted in the video before said video even goes live, and will shift revenue earning from the creator to the "owner" of the content in place, even if there truly is no violation present. It puts a claim on the video before it's even posted, with no real way to fight it.
The system is so stacked against creators that it's almost impossible to fight back, even when it's the claimants who are infringing upon laws and rights. Even when the claimants are doing that, the laws an guidelines currently in place favor THEM. Especially in light of the fact that most YouTube claims do NOT go through a live person, but through an automated system that immediately attacks the video and takes it down or shifts the profit earning to the claimant, rather than a person who is actually trained in the laws involved in this to look over the video and see if the claim is actually true or not.
There need to be some serious revisions made to everything, and most importantly there need to be PEOPLE involved in this, NOT a computer system that will automatically censor anything. There also very desperately need to be penalties of some sort for abusing the system and for making false claims. Right now, NOTHING exists to stop companies taking revenue or making false claims. And in regard to illegally taking revenue when it's not warranted, the creators it's stolen from DON'T get reimbursed for lost revenue. They just have to deal with it, even if it's their ONLY source of income. The entire system is flawed, and it leads all YouTube creators and subscribers to ask: #Where'sTheFairUse?
Having the right to freedom of speech be taken away sets us, the common people, back, and only allows progress for the copyright holder. There are many instances in which people have been silenced for having an opinion, or had something claimed for using content that doesn't even take up a quarter of said thing. This law benefits the copyright holder more than it should. It is being abused to the point where people are afraid of what will happen if they upload that video, tweet that tweet, post that Facebook status, or anything along the lines of that. It's ridiculous, and there needs to be a change.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet without any valid justification. This has come to a point where shell companies are being founded specifically with these systems of automated notice-and-takedown systems in mind as their main source of revenue, using this currently legal form of theft against victims with often very little to no options for recourse.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone and sets at risk our most basic legal principles.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
On multiple occasions I personally have witnessed channels being attacked and taken down over videos that are CLEARLY within Fair Use guidelines. This includes videos in which no copyrighted items are used whatsoever. Just a person talking in front of a camera, and it's being taken down or a claim is made on it.
The outdated system is being CONTINUALLY used to steal revenue from creators, or just to attack them and stifle free speech. There are many incidents where companies use false/shield companies to issue claims and take downs just so that they can claim they had nothing to do with it, when in reality they did. I personally have had incidents, and as a creator, I often have no choice but to remove the video.
Another issue is the autodetection function that YouTube's system has in place. It detects something (often times very FALSELY detects) supposedly copyrighted in the video before said video even goes live, and will shift revenue earning from the creator to the "owner" of the content in place, even if there truly is no violation present. It puts a claim on the video before it's even posted, with no real way to fight it.
The system is so stacked against creators that it's almost impossible to fight back, even when it's the claimants who are infringing upon laws and rights. Even when the claimants are doing that, the laws an guidelines currently in place favor THEM. Especially in light of the fact that most YouTube claims do NOT go through a live person, but through an automated system that immediately attacks the video and takes it down or shifts the profit earning to the claimant, rather than a person who is actually trained in the laws involved in this to look over the video and see if the claim is actually true or not.
There need to be some serious revisions made to everything, and most importantly there need to be PEOPLE involved in this, NOT a computer system that will automatically censor anything. There also very desperately need to be penalties of some sort for abusing the system and for making false claims. Right now, NOTHING exists to stop companies taking revenue or making false claims. And in regard to illegally taking revenue when it's not warranted, the creators it's stolen from DON'T get reimbursed for lost revenue. They just have to deal with it, even if it's their ONLY source of income. The entire system is flawed, and it leads all YouTube creators and subscribers to ask: #Where'sTheFairUse?
The current takedown system under the DMCA is broken. It was passed before the turn of the century, and no one could have ever imagined what kind of platform for creativity the internet would have become. So many people have used the principal of Fair Use to release masterfully created content, but the biased nature of the DMCA has allowed for large corporations to stifle this content, interrupting or redirecting revenue for their own gain. A new system must be put in place that protects individuals who create content on the internet.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
To add more to this statement I want to say that as person currently pursuing a career in art I believe that companies should held accountable for false DCMA notices because they don't agree with a person's commentary. They should not be allowed to cause financial harm to anyone who uses Fair Use in the correct way. It's unethical and it stifles someone's freedom of expression whether it is artistic or something that involves commentary/criticism.
Sincerely,
Shaquawn Newton
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright law abusers who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The DMCA, in the way it is written and enforced right now, is severely outdated and not adapted to the internet of today.
Multiple issues have been witnessed, noticed and talked about, such as:
- YouTube users and creators (mostly critics or parodists) being harassed by right-holders, despite the law allowing fair use of content in cases of transformative works (examples: "Channel Awesome", "I Hate Everything", "YourMovieSucksDOTorg", "TeamFourStar") ;
- YouTube creators being illegally attacked and stolen from by false claimants, who abuse a broken system to take ad revenue away without any repercussion (examples: "ChibiReview", "I Hate Everything") ;
- Facebook users literally stealing content from creators and getting money from it, while Facebook does not do anything (examples: "SoFloAntonio" as thief, "h3h3production" as victim) ;
- YouTube users or creators being intimidated or threatened out of posting polemical work about certain movies or YouTube videos, a lot of times with success (examples: "PrankInvasion" as bully, "h3h3production" as victim).
More generally, the DMCA policy protects bigger companies, and smaller creators can only "win" when they are notorious enough to fight back with bad publicity, or when some initiative is taken in their defence (such as the lawyer Ryan Morrison, aka "Video Game Attorney", famous for helping internet users who get into trouble when they have done nothing wrong).
A lot of people have talked and written about all of these issues (fair use, illegal claims, internet intimidation), and ideas have been submitted to help solve these.
Society changes, some companies may suffer from these changes if they do not adapt to the new cultural and technological realities.
However, the government has to follow the flow of society, and not of anachronistic companies.
The law has to adapt to the present day.
Its bad what they are doing.
I've been watching youtube for years now. And it's scary. There are many content creators that make really good content. But now I can barely watch any creator without them showing and having problems with copyright. Their channels, videos and freedom of speech are threatened by the copyright problem. Anyone can take someones channel down without any questions asked. These content creators are suppossed to make content for the people. There are so many channels that are breaking the law and they can get away with it! And the channels that don't do anything wrong are getting punished even when they are listening to the rules! So something has to be done about it. A channel named GradeAunderA made 2 videos about this and he has every single detail. This has to be fixed!
Bloody reptilians. This is why we can't have nice things...
Anyone can issue a DMCA take down weather they are the copyright owners or not, DMCAs have been issues against game footage by people who have nothing to do with the game and the devs are shocked to hear it. There have even been cased when owners of media have had their own original worked claimed by someone else. Columbia even DMCA'ed one of their own videos. The model is being used to squash fair use and take down critical opinions of media.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium CopyriAct (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The DMCA is a law that has good intentions, but has resulted in a lot of absuse and bullying by large companies who don't understand the value of fair use.
As a person who creates content, this directly affects me. I afraid one day my drawings or videos will land me in the same position as other content creators; with my content being claimed by someone else because they want to make a quick buck.
One possible way to discourage automated takedowns would be to only honor the notices that give an explanation of how the copyright was infringed.
The DMCA is an antiquated system that is being abjectly abused. The Copyright Infringement clause is being grossly misused on YouTube, begetting the company to automate its takedown process and strike hammering blows on content creators (both fiscally and creatively) who are well within the bounds of Fair Use. Like avaricious remora clinging to the belly of a distended larger mammal, abusers have found a way to sap payment from content creators, and, in doing so, are siphoning peoples' lifeblood.
YouTube has become a monolith in the entertainment industry, and I laud its progression into such a powerful media dynamo. However, if YouTube is to continue as a platform for entertainment created by everyone for everyone, then the DMCA is in need of a drastic overhaul, and I put my faith in my government to address such an issue that affects all of us so much.
""
Where to start... All of the above, pre-generated comment is true as far as I can tell. Here's what I understand of the situation as it currently stands:
A video is removed the moment it's flagged. This prevents the channel owner from receiving views and, subsequently, from receiving ad revenue. Even if the claim is then appealed and overturned those lost views result in lost profits for the content creator. Claims need to be reviewed by humans, not robots or automated software, before action is taken; if the claim is found to be correct, THEN the video should be removed and an appropriate penalty for the infringing party can be applied.
An account is suspended immediately if three (I think) videos on that account are currently flagged. This applies even if the claims on one or more of those three videos are currently being appealed or reviewed. Multiple claims can be made on an account at once, giving the channel owner no time to even make an appeal before their channel is shut down. Again, this greatly disadvantages the content creator that owns the channel, depriving them of views, revenue and feedback in the comment section. As above, a channel should not even be considered for suspension until AT LEAST one of its videos is proven to infringe on copyright.
Content such as reviews and parodies that are derived from other source material, but should be protected by Fair Use... are not. There was even one review that consisted of two men sitting in their car talking about a movie they had just seen - no video or audio from the movie was used at all, yet the video was flagged and taken down. In addition to affecting the content creator's income, this actually infringes on their right to freedom of speech, especially in terms of reviews, as it enables their opinion on the work to be completely silenced. There's no doubt in my mind that some less scrupulous copyright holders have probably abused the current system to remove negative reviews of their products, all in the name of "protecting our copyright".
Some copyright holders have been using "shell companies" to hide their identity when making a claim. Although I'm not sure if this is illegal or unethical or anything, it does seem both pointless, as a Google search will usually tell who is the copyright holder of a given work, revealing who would actually make a claim on behalf of that work, and frankly a bit cowardly in the case of large companies; considering the vast amounts of money and legal power they have at their disposal, why they feel the need to hide behind a false name is beyond me.
While on that topic: when making a claim, how does someone prove that they actually represent the work they claim ownership of? Can anyone make a claim under any name? Because if so, that's another major flaw. (If that is not the case, kindly disregard this paragraph.)
In some cases the claimant can keep the flagged video up but request all of the future monetisation from the video. The monetisation can be returned to the channel owner if the claim is appealed against and overturned, but any ad revenue that is collected by the claimant BETWEEN the claim being made and being overturned is allowed to be kept by the claimant. This might be the most egregiously broken part of the system. Not only does the content creator lose income in this case, but that income is taken by a (usually) wealthy corporation whose claim doesn't even have to be accurate in order to both demoralise a creator and steal their money in one fell swoop.
In summary: as the system currently stands it discourages independent creators from publishing their works on YouTube and other content-sharing websites. The DMCA is a relic that needs heavy reworking or even just straightforward replacement to meet the needs of today's Internet.
Current copyright law is severely outdated and no longer suits the internet society of today. Content placed on the internet can be taken down without review by a human being first, even if the grounds for said takedown are a misinterpretation of the law or even consciously malevolent in nature. Copyright holders can prevent any commentary, review, satire, parody etc. remotely related to their intellectual property to be censored, even if the censored content falls well into Fair Use laws.
The use of computer algorithms to automatically remove any potentially copyright-infringing content creates a "Guilty until proven innocent" mentality that is being severely abused to censor any form of criticism, thereby preventing these critics from exercising their right to free speech.
The laws surrounding copyright and the internet need to be updated to protect critics and satirists. The content they create is not illegal nor slanderous in nature, but copyright holders can nevertheless treat it like it is without consequences up until the moment they are proven wrong, at which point the content creators have lost valuable time and revenue in a fruitless legal conflict. This needs to change.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works such as this https://www.takedownabuse.org/
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works~
Долой произвол и притеснение со стороны DMCA! Свобода слова - Благополучное будущее!
#WTFU
Surely in this day of near light speed change in internet and electronic worlds, laws and processes regarding this world need to keep up with the changes. Rules developed literally decades ago are pretty much prehistoric by now and certainly require updating. Sadly by now ways have been found to outsmart and abuse protections that were put in place "eons" ago in electronic time. It's time to review and update those procedures in order to make sure they benefit the many rather than just the few and the nefarious.
Please Please Please make this happen! I beg off you!
The Digital Milennium Copy Right act (DMCA) is abused on places like youtube and it could easily grow to misuse on more general websites if this is going to be considered a model.
1. People/corporations make false claims all the time on content they don't own, including on videos based on copyrighted content but feature none (suchas a movie review) in which the person is sitting there just talking about it.
2. People/corporations make false claims all the time on videos featuring music mixed using stock loops which were designed with the idea that individuals could use said loops freely with a program, suchas Sony Acid, to create their own tracks and profit off said tracks
3. People/corporations make false claims all the time of videos which fall under fair use, including critiques using footage and parody.
4. People/corporations are using the DMCA to make false claims on videos in which the critique isn't to their liking (IE criticisms not praising said content) which, while not everybody is going to like what you do, is a suppression of free speech and the polar opposite of what the Internet was created with in mind -- information.
5. Under the DMCA it is risky to critique a film using music from said film and talking about it, as even a small snippet -- depending on the company -- can be caught by Youtube's content-ID system and, as a result, said company gets control of said video. How're are people supposed to talk about the things they like under the DMCA/Youtube's Content ID system when it punishes them for doing so?
6. As implied above, it's easy to file claims on content that one does not even own and the creator of said content is punished while the filer of said claim is allowed to move on without consequence to the next set of false claims.
7. The DMCA is being used (frequently falsely and without consequence to said actor) as a weapon to hamper the progress of artists that have messages that people/corporations don't like, IE to CENSOR SPEECH.
8. Because of the flexibility given to companies/individuals abusing this system it would not be a stretch to suggest it's possible that said entities believe they have the right to create and structure the law to enact any form of punishment they deem worthy on individuals using ideas -- even loosely based on expressing ideas of their content (sitting and talking about it) -- in order to censor them.
9. DMCAs are being used without factoring in fair use at all, and therefore can easily be abused.
10. DMCA's are being sent by shell and representative companies/individuals to keep from tarnishing said entities image, as their representation of the actual law is controversial and questionable enough that said entity wouldn't wish to attach itself to it thereby sheilding itself from backlash from fans (IE, it knows it's questionable and/or sleazy).
11. People can use the DMCA as a way of threatening others legitimate content for the purpose of censorship and control.
12. Videos on Youtube get hit multiple times by the Content-ID system via the DMCA even after their cleared, frequently by the same company/individual, a shell company, and/or an entity wishing to attach itself to said video for the sake of vampiring some of its revenue, if not just temporarily.
13. Companies/individuals are known to attach themselves to videos they don't own when they're first released and getting the most views to get the highest earnings off video, and by the time said video clears the dispute process the entity gets the earnings regardless. It is not put into a neutral fund, therefore allowing abuse of the DMCA.
14. The DMCA takedowns, legitimate or not, result in potential lost revenue and harassment.
The DMCA is frequently abused without consequence. The issue is its done without consequence and therefore one can see that it could be damaging to the Internet as a whole if said abuses are brought into practice.
Below is origional form letter I also agree with:
The notice-and-takedown process under the DMCA is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
There should be oversight of DMCA takedown notices. The current lack of due process threatens free speech.
Really not fair save fair use
Stop DMCA takesowns and protect free speech. Save fair use
If there was a fine, or some other legal penalty to deter companies from making false claims then they would stop using the automated systems only, and perhaps some compensation for the content creators as it is crippling to have a false claim if that is their primary source of income.
DMCA has killed fair use.
My wedding video was taken down from Fackbook (I only have 200 odd friend) and YouTube (as a private link). I had to appeal it twice to get it up. It's my wedding video there is no reason that should be a hassle to post to family and friends. The laws need to be updated. I should be able to post a video that was made for me and paid for to really a small number of people.
The current system is being used to BULLY and THREATEN content creators! Creators are being threatened to either take down negative reviews or their channel will immediately be hit with so many claims that they'll be banned, which is extremely damaging in YouTube's "Three-strikes, you're out!" policy! This is some people's livelihoods, not baseball! Things need to be looked over BEFORE the channel can be banned, not given the ultimatum of "Oh, well, be careful or you'll get banned and your channel removed before you're even given the opportunity to combat the claims!"
It's reached a point of incredible ridiculousness and it's gotten pathetic. Creators are constantly attacked and have to defend themselves, even if there's o reason for them to be doing so! THere are NO penalties in place for false claims, there is NOTHING that deters companies from making them. Simply put: "Get proven wrong? THAT'S OKAY! We'll just go after THIS video instead!"
And this is another problem. Often times, companies will go after the smaller channels because - since they ARE smaller channels - they have much less ability to defend themselves, so they often get buried under claims and end up as major victims of corporate bullying without being able to even squeak out an argument, and without people noticing, all because they ARE a smaller channel!
Everything has gotten insane. It's time to put an end to it and revise the system, and the laws to actually fit today's internet. SAVE THE FAIR USE!
ALSO, having videos of clouds being copyrighted is the stupidist thing ever. To have channels terminated for a 5 second clip of a song by a person who didn't even make the actual song is not right. PLEASE STOP.
All over YouTube there have been false copyright claims getting filed. Some reaction channels have uploaded entire videos and silently watched them with saying nothing, and then they profit from it instead of the creators profiting. Tyrone Magnus "reacted" to GradeAunderA's video in which Grade exposed reaction channels such as Tyrone. When the reaction video went up Grade didn't make any money but yet Tyrone did, so once Grade's third party claim went into effect, Tyrone deleted the video meaning Grade wasn't profiting from his hard work.
Sam Pepper filed false copyright claims when someone exposed his pranks as fake. Even though their videos fell under fair use they were strikes and Sam walks away fine and unharmed, he's no punished for a false copyright claim.
I hate everything had his channel deleted temporarily because he made a video of him destroying some DVDs which is apparently against copyright and fair use, somehow. And then automated system is a joke. To YouTube it was just another claim, there was practically no thought, just a generic email sent, and then once people started to make a noise about it, IHE got another automated email just saying oh yeah your channels fine. There was no apology just a your fine.
And then there are channels like Jimmy Kimmel, who show movie clips, which under this copyright everything idea, may have been taken down. But yet they're untouched cos guess what, they make loads of money and YouTube can't ruin them so they get complete immunity and turn a blind eye to this crisis
And there's the lovely man that is Derek Savage, who had several videos taken down because they made a bad reviews of cool cat saves the kids, a horrible movie which I think he directed or something like that. OK so he made an apology, but only to IHE for striking him, not the others, because that would be kind and considerate.
So, fix this, its an absolute joke.
I've had several of my videos, arround 12, taken down because of copyright infrigment, but as it is stated by law, all the following subject are under fair use:
Criticism & Commentary
A book publisher used several stills from the famous 1963 Zapruder footage of President Kennedy's assassination for the historical book Six Seconds in Dallas. Time Inc., the owner of the footage, sued the book publisher for copyright infringement. In Time Inc. v. Bernard Geis Associates, the court ruled that the publisher's use of the stills was "fair and reasonable," in part because the use was based on a factual and historical news event.
Parody
An episode of the TV cartoon "Family Guy" made fun of comedian Carol Burnett's image and signature characters from her 1960's comedy variety show. In Carol Burnett v. Twentieth Century Fox, the court ruled that the show's use was fair, in part because the "Family Guy" episode was designed to parody Burnett as a public figure, using a relatively small percentage of copyrighted material, and would not substitute for the original in any market.
News reporting
The Washington Post newspaper used three brief quotations from Church of Scientology texts that were posted on the Internet. In Religious Technology Center v. Pagliarina, the court found the use to be fair, in part because the newspaper excerpted only a small portion of the work and the purpose was for news commentary.
Art
American artist Jeff Koons used a portion of a designer photo advertisement (a model's legs in Gucci sandals) amongst a collection of iconic images in his painting, "Niagara." In Blanch v. Koons, the court held that the painting's use of the copyrighted images was a transformative fair use, in part because it commented on fashion and consumer culture.
Scholarship and Research
A biographer of author Richard Wright quoted from six of Wright's unpublished letters and ten unpublished journal entries. In Wright v. Warner Books, Inc., the court found that the biographer's use was fair, in part because the biographer's purpose was to educate and inform the public, and his use constituted less than 1% of Wright's unpublished letters.
A researcher at a nonprofit foundation used quotations from an unpublished, historical literary work in her academic presentation. In Sundeman v. The Seajay Society, the court ruled that the researcher's use was fair and noted that the work was transformative and was used solely for the purpose of scholarly analysis.
Time-shifting
A major electronics manufacturer developed a video tape recording device that allowed the consumer to "time-shift"—record a complete TV program in real-time and hold the show for a later viewing. Several major film studios filed a copyright infringement suit against the electronics manufacturer claiming the device could be used for copyright infringement. In 1984's Sony v. Universal Studios (aka the Betamax case), the Supreme Court held that time-shifting with a VCR qualified as fair use. The courts noted that the private, non-commercial home taping of free television programs for later viewing was not infringing and did not hurt the market value of the copyrighted material.
Search Engines
A Google search engine turned the photos on a subscription-only website into thumbnail images for its search results. In Perfect 10 v. Amazon.com et al, the court ruled that Google's use of thumbnail photos was "highly transformative," since the search engine changed the image's original purpose of entertainment and aesthetics into providing Google's users with links to images.
Personal Note: I've been using YouTube for nearly three years now, and in the past year and a half have seen the abuse of this law escalate to a degree I doubt anyone really saw coming. Well, anyone who didn't look at the big picture.
The DMCA, while it was put into place with good intentions, is being abused and gives no incentive for it to not be used frivolously.
A big corporation could flag a video for just speaking about their product, or use a smaller company so they won't be help liable, if someone, say makes a review about a movie they think is bad.
They can even take away revenue and completely destroy a channel, or at the very least neuter it.
Please, revise this out of date and broken law.
With High Regards,
EmpressWolf
Get your shit together. #weresthefairuse
Copyright is an important thing, and I completely understand why it exists. When people make things like movies, books and albums, they expect to have some power over how their content can be used. And that is a completely justified assumption, no one wants their content used in a way that makes them look bad and lose money. However, in recent years, some of the copyright holders have been using their authority and tools on the Internet without any regard about the legal nature of the derivative works made using their content. Recently, this behavior has been most notable on YouTube with its creators' inability to justify their derivative content with the Fair Use doctrine.
However, if I'm completely honest, I've always had conflicting feelings about the whole making-money-out-of-reviewing-movies-and-games trend on sites like YouTube, even though people claim that it falls under Fair Use. I mean, for instance, if someone reviews your creation and claims it to be the "worst" of its kind ever, chances are that you might want to say something or act in return. Some of these instances have ended up with the copyright holder blocking the content, ranting about it or even threatening the creator of the derivative work, but on some instances it has also shown the utter lack of knowledge about things like Fair Use on the copyright holders' behalf. I feel like this would be a perfect chance to finally make certain things clear for copyright holders and content creators alike, such as whether or not it is truly allowed to make money out of talking over an easily identifiable copyrighted visual and audio material? I believe that these kind of questions are the ones in the most dire need of definitive answers, before any proper legal changes can be made.
However, I have to agree on the consensus that the majority of content creators seems to share: Identifying and claiming copyrighted content through automation completely ignores doctrines such as Fair Use. While the system does prevent users from uploading content and letting them make money out of it, these current systems only make their claim decisions based on what they can identify, regardless of the context. And even without an automated identification, a copyright holder or even a complete stranger can claim content as their own, and even claim the money made through the content's monetization. And even if this content is deemed legal later on, the claimant gets to keep the money, no questions asked. So basically the current system works in a way, that the copyright holders have practically nothing to lose. They can currently claim all they want, grab the money generated through creators' contents, even threaten them with legal cases, but the copyright holders don't have any consequences for doing any of this.
Regardless of how this will turn out, I hope we could finally make things clear for everyone: What kind of usage of copyrighted content is allowed for monetization? On what basis can a copyright holder claim content? What type of content truly falls under the label of Fair Use? Even though I'm not a US citizen, some of my favorite online videos involve them playing games, having fun and making money out of it. I want to support what these kind of people do, but more than anything, I want to know for certain whether or not what they are doing is legal, and whether or not the copyright holders' recent actions are truly justified.
It heavily favors big corporate interests. It allows them to abuse it with automated take down requests which can take days or weeks to contest, and when you contest them, they can just deny your request and pretty much have little recourse. It allows them to be very heavy handed about not allowing for any legitimate fair use, and in some cases can cause the actual rights holder to have to spend inordinate amounts of time on their claim. For example, NASA had video taken down by DMCA because a youtube news video used their free to use footage in their news article and their bot detected a match in NASA's video and issued an automated DMCA takedown on it. Its so easy to abuse like this and contesting a takedown is orders of magnitude harder and more expensive than the takedown itself. And guess who has a bigger legal department.
Combat the Wyrm wherever it dwells and wherever it breeds.
Так что не надо дурить, ребята из правительства США
-default in the box
If I post a video with a song playing the whole video, yeah, it can get copyrighted.
But 10 seconds of it in a 10 minute video? that's stupid
why would you do that
it's called
FAIR
USE
This has allowed copy write holders to place claims on content that is well protected under fair use. Allowing companies to shut down anything they seem fit, regardless of the legality
stop bogus DMCA takedowns and protect free speech!
Also: It seems that every decade a new medium or artform is invented and could possibly change the world. We must not let corporate greed destroy its chances of development, as that would be unethical and harmful not only to the creative industry, but to human culture and creativity as a whole. I believe that laws like the DMCA should be updated with the emergence of such new mediums, to better judge, whether a certain work is infringing copyright or is simply another harmless type of creativity and expression.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, a on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
We live in a world where the concept of remix, as presented by Lessig in 2004, is a cultural one. We live a Remix Culture, which means, we live in a world where we redo all the that has been done until now. #WTFU
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
=========
Where's The Fair Use?
#WTFU
There are plenty of videos on the internet about fair use and how it is being abused by big businesses. It needs to be fixed cause the system in place now is broken.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is hea vily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
False claims against videos and strikes against content creators who create videos under Fair Use have been abused and also hit sites like YouTube has outdated screeners that will even strike videos or take down videos that follow Fair Use, even if it's just a video of people talking about or reviewing a TV show or Movie with minimal to almost no images. Many times the videos will be hit once, be cleared and then hit again for the same exact violation even after it was already cleared by YouTube.
FIX THIS SHIT!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that would otherwise be protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use, which includes reviews, satires and parodies. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract and steal money from innocent victims. Victims who also earn their wage off of sites like YouTube who have YouTube and sites like it as a full time job. This is also done so as to take down legitamate criticism and reviewers who, no matter how cynical they may act towards a product and towards the creator and publisher of a product ( the reviewer may act cynical toward the publisher and creator of a product for legitamate reasons to), they are perfectly within the boundaries of fair use and should be protected as such. This is done, quite a lot of the time, because the person who is giving the copyright strike, which is usually the person who made the product that's being critizised or/and is the person getting critizised him or herself, can't take the criticism being given out by the reviewer, and so abuses the out of date DMCA copyright system , along with YouTube's broken and often hypocritical copyright and community guidelines strike system, to shut down that reviewer's legitamate criticism, along with, in some cases, the reviewer him or herself.Not even original work made by a content creator on YouTube for example is safe from copyright. Even if this work is based off of or is even set in the same world/universe as a franchise a company may own, and even if it contains actual characters from that franchise, the work created by the content creator and even the way the already existing characters are portrayed in that piece of work, is ownership of that content creator or group of content creators alone, along with anything they create own their own set in that already existing franchise, and so does not breach copyright. Unfortunately, these people are the worse hit, even those whose content, such as animations, are entirely their own. These people, along with reviewers and creator of parodies and/or satires of things like video games, animations, movies, anime, etc can constantly face everyday unfair and unjust and even illeagal copyright strikes, which can stifle their personal creativity, their free speech and their personal freedoms. This also stifles people's own livelihoods and their jobs, since this may be their own full time job. I also said before site's,like YouTube's, Community Guidelines strike system is both hypocritical and out of date. I'm talking more about sexual content specifically. There can be great danger for posting sexual content from games, movies, animations and anime since a community guideline strike may quite likely follow. On the other side a person can post real life sexual or even pornographic content onto YouTube without fear of a community guideline strike, not even an 18+ restriction on that video (meaning anyone, even children, can watch those videos without difficulty). The way to deal with this hypocrisy is to allow this allowance of sexual content for all mediums, not just real life, prank, social experiment or pornographic ones. This goes for all industries to. They need to be completely allowing of any sexual content without thinking they need to censor it, especially if they think they have to adhere to people, so called SJWs, who, to sum it up any sexual content or negative content on anybody who isn't a white male is mysoginistic, racist or sexist. These SJWs are, most if not all of the time, wrong, and can be easily disproven. This means that companies don't have to adhere to their demands for censorship and shouldn't adhere to them. What I'm trying to get across here is that companies and people in general have to know how to properly stand up for themselves, and also be able to completly allow sexual and negative content and not be so sensitive toward everything since, if nothing else, we're passing these negative or bad features onto our children. Back to copyright, the DMCA is out of date, since it was made in 1998 for the 1998 internet. The internet has changed a lot since then, because at that time people mostly just went on websites to enjoy content on the internet, these websites in particular being made by a group of people ranging from a small business to a big company, and sites like YouTube where people could post, share, comment on and make a living out of videos was a distant fantasy. Nowadays, the DMCA doesn't take fair use into question, nor does it take in conjunction with fair use the single content creators on sites like YouTube for instance, people who work on a channel on their own, and people who create content on their own. This out of date DMCA system therefore can be and is being horribly abused by just about anybody at this point to do quite a number of things to content creators, whose content more than likely falls under fair use. With this old system, firstly, people can claim copyright and give out copyright strikes on content that isn't theirs' and that's protected by fair use, they can even claim copyright and give out copyright strikes on content a content creator created by him or herself and, legally, the content creator should own him or herself. This is done so as to take down that content, or even the channel making the content, since the person giving out the copyright strikes may not like it and/or the channel making it and want it and/or the channel making it gone or this is done to steal money a content creator may have made off a video which now has a copyright claim on it. Secondly, in conjunction with what I said before, These false copyright claims can stifle free speech, and quite a lot of the time, people give out false copyright claims to do this. This is because they don't want to hear them, primarily, voicing their own opinions on things like games, movies, anime, animations, fashion,etc, since it may be different from their opinions on those things , and it may hurt their feelings, especially if the content creator is criticizing the things that person giving out the copyright strikes or claims likes. This is wrong, since the content creator giving out his opinions and criticism on those things are well protected by fair use, and aren't breaching copyright, even if the criticism they give out is wrong (if this happens continuously, the wrong criticism on multiple products the same content creator may make, along with the person giving out the criticism is also harassing the same content creator visciouslly, without no good reason to do so, then this is defamation though). These poeple giving out these false copyright claims for the reasons stated before are the ones at fault here, and need to learn how to take negative, or positive, opinions and criticism on things they either don't or do like, even if that criticism isn't constructive, though they can complain and respond to false and/or not constructive criticism. Thirdly, not even people who just talk about something without any type of copyrighted footage or music from the thing(s) their talking about are safe from copyright strikes or claims, even though this clearly falls under fair use. Some companies even believe that they make the law, and that they don't have to adhere to the current laws, especially not the fair use law. Fourth, these copyright claims and strikes can be and are being sent by so called shell companies, whose purpose is to send out copyright claims and strikes while shielding the real companies sending out these strikes and claims. Fifth, these copyright claims and strikes can be and are being sent out to threaten content creators not to talk about, or not talk bad or good about games, movies, cartoons, animations, anime, fashion, etc, and to make sure they don't critisize it, even though they have every right to and are protected under fair use. All of this can even happen to videos that have already been cleared under fair use or have had this drama happen, and have settled out in favour of the content creator, in the past. On the community guidelines side, These community guidelines strikes can be given to old videos that have already been cleared on that front or already have an 18+ restriction on it. We need real people looking at these copyright claim and strikes proposals to see if they're true or hold any water or not so that innocent content creators don't get any false copyright strikes, copyright claims and/or content ID claims put on their channel. Hypocrisy also needs to at least be fought against by big companies like YouTube, where hypocrisy is rampant, by allowing all to do what some can only do at the moment without having to fear of community guidelines strikes, not just those select few in those select forms of entertainment. Rules also have to be put in place, that are so specific to a point where there is no grey, exploitable area, just clean black and white. These rules should protect innocent content creators from being attacked by big companies, one rule being that a company must fully prove that a video or creation is in violation of copyright or community guidelines. Another rule is that a company must pay dearly if a copyright strike or claim placed on a channel or video respectively is false, like paying back all the money a content creator may have lost from a video due to an unfair copyright claim from a big company, with quite a bit extra for compensation, even on the community guidelines side, if the strike given is false, then YouTube has to pay quite a bit to the content creator who got the strike. How much YouTube pays back depends on the amount of strikes given out by YouTube onto a channel, the affect it has on the channel and the effect it has on the content creator's channel. If the person giving out the strike or claim has a channel on YouTube for instance then I believe that they should have to suffer everything they gave out to another channel plus a little extra if it turns out to be false. So for instance, if you give out a false copyright strike that's proven to be false, then you should get two copyright strikes put on your channel while also relinquishing your copyright strike on that channel. Also, if you put a false copyright claim on a video that'proven to be false, then you should have to pay back compensation for that copyright claim to the content creator who owns the falsely copyright claimed video, as well as relinquishing that copyright claim on that video the content creator owns. If that video isn't monetized, then there has to be a reasonably high set amount of money that is to be played back if the copyright claim put on a video is proven false. If the video is monetized then the person who gave out the false copyright claim on that video then have to pay back at least 5x the amount of money a content creator may have lost on a video for how long the copyright claim remained, as well as relinquishing the copyright claim on the video that the content creator owns. If any content creator tries to abuse this system though, then they have to pay money back to YouTube, as well as having to deal with a copyright strike placed on their channel. This can be verified by actual skilled people looking at this system and seeing and figuring out if anyone's trying to abuse it. So if a group owns two channels and one tries to a get a community guideline strike on the other so that other channel will prove that strike to be false so that YouTube will lose and will force them to give them money, YouTube can then look into this to see if they're abusing this system and if they are they can punish them as such.
Internet laws need to be updated to protect fair use of online content. Internet users need to be protected from attempts to inhibit free speech, including takedown actions and harrassment. This is vitally important for free speech as well as smoothly operating economy in today's world. The internet is not just for corporate or religious fanatics.
P.S. When George Orwell wrote 1984, he did NOT mean for it to be an Instruction Manual!
Currently around the internet every day videos are being taken down because of "fair" use. Unfortunately companies are abusing this law as their way of taking out negative criticism on their product. Not only is this unfair but it violates the a law already put into effect, the right of free speech. Companies are using the fair use law to bypass this and make sure no one can say anything bad about them. This needs to stop. Please change this law to modern standards and stop content creators form being unfairly banned or having their content taken down
Henry Jenkins, Mark Duffet, Lessig, Katharine Krug, Joan Rodriguez-Amat, all of these and many more are academic professors that have done everything in their power to shor, through research, that the DMCA is not only outdated but that it actually stops users from producing what they want because of copyright infrigment that makes no sense.
This violates the human right by intimidation, stopping the creatives minds from producing what they want, shutting them down.
LETS CHANGE IT! #WTFU
I believe Fair Use needs to be protected. Its a common human right and copyright holders are not respecting it. Save fair use now!
My community has been having problems with a person named Derek Smart who is using false DMCA takedowns to get content creators real names, phone numbers, addresses, and emails and using them to harass people. If the person doesn't challenge the DMCA takedown then he wins because he has silenced descent to his opinion, if the person does challenge the take down he uses the personal information gathered to harass, intimidate, and dox his opponents.
He has done this to numerous people, including children under the age of 18.
The fact that this system not only allows, but ENCOURAGES harassment is an atrocity. You MUST fix this.
The DMCA is among the worst pieces of litigation to happen to this country in the last 2 decades. This has single-handedly caused the USA to lose 20+ years of progress towards a more free market. It has stifled innovation and sunk many technological evolutions which would have kept the USA leading the world. The DMCA has set us back decades of social progress and made the world a far worse place to live in. The simple fact is companies should not have rights, only people should ever have rights, for the very reason of corruption like the DMCA.
And seriously. Ive been on youtube long enough that this is the most EASILY abused system for destroying creative works ever created. Not even the government has been this horrible against individuals cause of the DCMA.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The sheer hostility is great factor in many of these disputes, knowing there is a method in which a person takes a moment of their life, 5 minutes exactly in the most hasted cases, to file an unworthy claim or take down only to disable the "competition" is damned by many true content creators, it only stresses the creative aspect, not to mention that the creation of content is in all our best interests, we would have more to watch, Hollywood would have more to pick from, and cancerous messages on youtube would be heavily protested in a manner that would be heard from the creators side of the spectrum. it would also help with the narrowing the "search" for good and bad content on youtube, if no true steps are taken and positions in power are simply waiting out their turn, then were just going to have pornography in all our web pages, you would be setting that standard by not giving real life changing occasions like this(YT) an ear and heart to look up to. there is real content theft by some of the most popular channels on youtube, such things being allowed will create a movement support for generations to come, its a scary thought to be able to think and say any dehumanizing remark with no consequence, except what a few smart followers do. please and thank you.
In my personal experience, there is clear abuse of copyright takedown notices. I make nonprofit, educational content that has been illegitimately flagged as violating copyright. Some of my content has been unjustly censored or had advertisements added. The advertisement money goes to abusive corporations that profit off of my independent content. This has happened before over the use of work that's in the public domain yet was claimed by an abusive company. When using snippets of work that is copyrighted, it can be argued that my work is fair use because it's educational, nonprofit, and transformative.
Often, the only way to remove fraudulent claims is to risk going to court. That is not something a legitimate content creator, especially one who is trying to share knowledge through art, should have to deal with.
As a content creator and consumer of created internet content, I have seen numerous instances where the DMCA policies have been abused.
I myself when I grow older want to start a YouTube show where I review Movies, and other forms of entertainment. I have witnessed companies abuse people who do this on the internet with the DMCA, even when the video is full Fair Use. Most companies who file these false claims have little to no penalties for companies who do this, even though it is illegal. The DMCA needs to be updated to include the internet, to get ride of the censorship and abuse that these companies do when they file false copyright claims.
The notice-and-takedown process under the (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction ( Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Fair use is highly ignored by Hollywood. As a fan of many shows which rely on Fair Use, and the inspiration to do work in their following, I would be distraught if they were challenged, and the DMCA has been killing our entertainment, and will presumably come for me too, due to me even mentioning films in my videos. The DMCA is devouring our entertainment, and will stop future generations from being inspired to work on original and thoughtful commentary and humour. Hollywood, please stop. You're only hurting yourself.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open
, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The DMCA law has been abused for far too long. Many people on Youtube are sick of this and our voices are not being reached to the staff of YouTube or anybody with a high enough power to change anything.
There are many videos on Youtube that are within fair use, but are removed anyway by big corporations and other groups that don't even hold the rights to the claimed video. Yet there are actually videos that are intentionally infringing copyright but don't get removed at all.
The system on Youtube is a guilty until proven innocent system. Even then, if you send a counter-claim to prove your innocence, you would have to be extremely lucky to have a real person to review the video to see if it actually infringes copyright because the system is only covered by bots.
Many beloved Youtube channels are being taken down as a result of the broken system. They are not even informed what they did that was wrong, they are just flat out accused and automatically guilty. If the channel is revived (which is very hard, you would need a large enough fanbase to protest for you) Youtube still does not notify you what you did wrong and they do not even give an apology.
Many videos are removed by big corporations most likely because they are trying to surpress critism and reviews of them or their products. Perfect examples include videos that are taken down by corporations at hollywood eventhough the videos are reviews of the movie without any footage, just simply reviews. Many Youtube video creators are not the ones infringing copyright, it is the corporations that are infringing their freedom of speech.
Thank you for taking the time read this, I hope that this is informative and that something will be done to fix the system.
People's livelihood's are being threatened on a daily basis. Videos are being taken down in which people are talking about movies in their car. Shell companies are being set up to take down videos unfairly where people are only speaking their minds. This isn't a democracy, this is a anti competition, anti capitalistic, anti freedom monopoly. Hollywood is bullying inocent Americans who are creating content with a law written in 1998. The system needs to be updated to a 2016 model now, or the American people should boycott Hollywood.
And while we're at it, extending copyright on older works that would have been Public Domain already has been disastrous and horrible and unnecessary and unconstitutional. It gotta go back!
I have seen how this effects honest hardworking Youtubers that work for far less then anyone on TV, yet have way better content then anything on TV.. FIX THE FAIR-USE NOW....Please..
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate cogmpetition and extract money from innocent victims.
YouTube and corporate companies have tried to take down certain videos online even though they are in the fair use act. This is not right and people shouldn't be punished for abiding by the rules.
P.S
Why was this done so close to April Fools, that seems like a deliberate attempt to cover this up in the usual overload of April Fools videos and the confusion of this potentially being an April Fools prank, meaning that the results of this will not truly reflect anything and honestly this should be taken again at a better date to properly reflect how people feel about the abuse of DMCA.
The content ID system and this so-called 'crackdown' on piracy is harming this industry in more ways than I could ever imagine. These DMCA takedowns have not prevented piracy and is only giving pirates more excuse to keep pirating. It pains me to see that legit content creators are the ones who keep getting punished and for what exactly? For promoting someones work whether it be a movie or a song which should be protected under fair use... not abused. Movie reviews are my favourite source of entertainment and to watch my favourite critics keep getting their video's taken down is disgusted.
As a Youtuber myself, I have stopped making video's altogether because I am too afraid that my account will get deleted. I have even contemplated suicide as my final video as I felt that was the only way to tell these big companies that what they are doing is unfair and wrong.
While many still continue the fight, I had given up all hope. It is ironic that YouTube, the site designed so that even the average joe can become a star, is siding with these big shot studio's, worried that pirates will prevent them from affording their payments on their second yacht... All I wanted to do was to promote my favourite movies and songs, what is so wrong about making a little bit of money from that?
When Doug Walker started the #WTFU trend, a speck of hope was ignited in me that maybe JUST maybe, we have a fighting chance. I hope they succeed, they NEED to succeed... PLEASE help them succeed not just for me or Doug or all my favourite reviewers but for everyone who is a content creator, who wants to be a content creator and who enjoys watching these content creators and wants them to keep making content and evolve their work.
I, myself, have a dream of making my living through YouTube, as a content creator who can make people laugh like they did for me during a very hard time in my life. This system and its flaws are putting all of that, and all of the people I respect most in the world, at risk.
EVERYBODY HAS RIGHTS SO LET THEM KEEP EM.
Exde
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
- Paul Evans
The false accusations of violation of the fair use agreement have to stop! Artists, content creators, reviewers, parody writers, and fans all around have a right to create their work and to post it online. We have our right of Free Speech and Freedom of Expression as lain out by the Constitution of the United States of America and its subsequent Amendments, and those rights as stated by our forefathers shall not be infringed. And it goes down to more than that, everyone is entitled to their peace of mind and their privacy, we deserve to be able to create our content, speak our minds, express our opinions, and do so without fear of retaliation. Regardless if that retaliation is declarations of slander or worse, the peoples rights are not toys that can be tinkered around with and manipulated based on how the so called "representatives" are feeling on any given day. Stop the Hate, stop the attacks on the peoples rights, bring back the fair use!
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
It's sad to see that a lot of companies and people are just stealing people's money and/or jobs because of a flawed system. And that while absolutely nobody could do a single thing about it. Writing e-mails to youtube is ultimatily pointless since absolutely nobody will see it, the only thing you can do is raise awerness and hope for the best.
Please change this for the best
Youtubers and other media content creators believe that if someone else who is not directly related to your content in some way; uses it when not given this "false permission" then they are allowed to copyright strike a "youtubers" account. This could mean the end of their career, or huge loss in revenew, youtubers including H3H3Productions, LeafyIsHere, Pyrocynical, Channel Awesome, I Hate Everything, and many many more. It's blantantly clear who is posting these copyright strikes, a few examples are Sam Pepper and SoFloAntonio, there has been heaps of Youtube Drama over the past 2 months because of the copyright laws not protecting innocent youtubers over getting strikes on their channels, The DMCA is literally ruining lives because of their faulty system which is incapable to help people, It seems nobody on the Internet knows how the Fair Use System really works, and maybe it's time to change that. Even people without any music, any content, just sitting in front of their camera talking about a subject get copyright striked; The equality in youtube is at an all time low. Fix your laws, DMCA. We are fed up with what's been happening to our channels, writing these paragraphs upon paragraphs is what we must do to get your attention? some of the most popular channels on Youtube getting taken down, with specific email reports to the DMCA about the fair use law isn't enough to get your attention? We from Youtube beg you, Fix your Fair Use laws.
I believe that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is outdated and abused just so that corporations can benefit from works under Fair Use. I understand that the DMCA has been used to curb piracy, but it is now being used wrongly. Corporations are using DMCAs on rants, fan-films, and reviews, which fall under fair use, as well as benefiting the original content. I request that the DMCA would be renewed to fit modern society.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was written back 1998 when the internet was just starting out. Back then it was good enough, people didn't steal as much content and companies didn't try to claim everything they could see. However, 18 years later the DMCA no longer works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders/abusers and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Some people are even sending takedowns on YouTube to videos that put them in a negative light and used all original content, even though they do this thousands of times they have get no punishment.
Let me preface this form letter with a personal statement:
I'm sick of seeing legitimate, fair-use content taken down. It is unreasonable to allow unaudited, and incontestable automated takedowns. Because most of the takedowns are automated, there's no culpability for fraudulent claims. This is nothing but monopolistic content holders squeezing the little-guy because the pendulum of power has swung into their favor.
The DMCA has been a complete and utter failure for consumers. This is only one example.
Thank you for considering.
--------------
Most of the following comment was written for me before I even accessed the site, as I am sure you will be able to tell Since you will likely receive many just like it. I'm not going to replace the pre made comment because it makes the point better than I could. I just want to say that I am a real person who can vouch for the validity of these words and I have seen DMCA attacks destroy promising youtubers in the past for content that was utterly harmless, like a video of two people sitting in a car talking about the movie they just saw. DMCA law can be used to attack any video for any reason or none at all because it holds absolutely no repercussions for the accuser and has the potential to destroy the livelihoods of the accused. YouTubers often make their living through their videos so it is not just a matter of disrupting a hobby, DMCA accusations can be hurled non-stop at YouTubers with absolutely no justification because it costs the accusor nothing to do so while the accused could potentially lose their whole livelihood. Please consider taking a close look at the laws and adjusting them for the future. Thanks.
The current DMCA is outdated. It is easily abusable (especially on Youtube). On Youtube, it is being used to:
-File copyright claims on content they don't even own.
-File copyright claims so that the video's income is sent to the claimer, even when the claims are completely false, which it is a mayority of the times.
-File copyright claims as a way to censor the video. Taking the video or even the entire Youtube channel down just to get rid of a negative review, even though the review falls in fair use.
-File copyright claims to attack the individual making the video, to make it so they don't get the money the video makes in the two weeks after the claim. Or to even try to take the channel down. This while the video falls in fair use.
-File copyright claims to take down videos that don't even have any copyrighted music or copyrighted video at all. Video's of people discusing a movie in a car, with no copyrighted material used, have been taken down using copyright claims.
-File copyright claims on video's multiple times, even after they have been cleared before.
On Youtube, the revenue made by videos that are striked with a copyright claim goes straight to the claimant for two weeks. Even if the copyright strike has been taken back by the claimant, the creator of the video does not get it's revenue back, and the claimant gets to keep the money. The claimant is NOT penalized in any way, even if all of the claims they have made turn out to be false. This way companies and individuals can abuse the copyright system to steal money from video creators. The DMCA law has to be revised to protect content creators from abuse like this.
In short, DMCA policy is a fossil that does not account for the Internet of today.
The DMCA is hugely outdated and the government needs to be aware of the swiftly changing scope of Fair Use for creative content creators and the internet as a whole.
I am a huge supporter of free use and creative expression on the internet, and the way that people are abusing the system is beyond horrific.
People who don't even own the content (such as video clips or music) claim they do in order to take money from monetized videos by content creators, and when they try to settle the matter (since the content they used is within legal boundaries, such as for satire or critique), they refuse to lift their claim. Severely damaging a channel, or even resulting in it being taken down.
Additionally, there are online reviewers and parody artists who may not even have clips of the film or any audio samples, and are still being hit with copyright claims by companies who disapprove of their content (usually for a negative critique). This goes against free speech in every way.
Even a parent putting a family video of their child on a YouTube channel gets hit with copyright because far in the background might be a song, and the company then gains money from what should be a humble, small channel.
There are no repercussions for companies and individuals who submit these false claims, and there NEEDS to be. I have many friends who have had their channels shut down or attacked because of people claiming copyright over their content, but do not own the right to it at all!
I am sincerely asking you, not only as a content creator, but as a supporter of Fair Use, the rules need to change. And they need to change soon. More and more users are having their livelihoods put in jeopardy by selfish, close minded or oblivious individuals and/or companies that abuse the DMCA laws for their own gain.
Where's the Fair Use? #WTFU
I have already given you two comments about this, but this is very important to the point where I must tell you again: The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily and unacceptably biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had extremely dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speeches can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can't be undone.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or refuse to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet. There are numerous examples of the system being blatantly misused, if not outright abused, for the purpose of censorship or “hand-slapping.” (I.E. IHE and Derek Savage and Mr. Enter getting a single video targeted multiple times)
The main problem with the DMCA right now is that it was designed for a much older internet, being designed for the one of the 90s, where large sites like Youtube were just dreams, now that such sites exist; the DMCA is now holding them, along with the content creators of these sites, back.
What's been appearing regularly on sites such as Youtube is people abusing the DMCA, either to take down or cripple creators they dislike, or to silence them entirely.
A good suggestion would be to impose penalties for people and corporations who abuse the system for their own gain, that way, companies with legitimate complaints can still have the same rights as they used to, and legitimate creators can continue to create what they want without the risk of getting harassed by people who want to take them out.
Claims had been filed under videos that they don't even own. one company even "manually" filed a monatization on multiple videos on behalf of a musical artist, when the artist was asked about this by the video creators, he was never asked or asked the company making the claims to do it. but the company was still able to steal money from videos (this is straight up fraud).
several companies could even be breaking the law and get away with it because of the lack of consequences for making false claims. If a person accused someone of rape and turned out they were lying, there would be consequences for this.
companies must be punished or charged for making false claims, they should not keep the money they steal from people for monitization and they should not be given the ability to make as many claims as they want while the content creators are only able to appeal the claim 3 times, where on the 3rd time their page is shut down
the money made from monitization must go to a side account and given to the correct party when the claim has been resolved. actual human beings instead of bots and automatic machines need to look over the claims, as well as make copyright claims. and until there are actual legal consequences for making false claims. companies have unlimited freedom to make as many copyright claims as they want, as often as they want. Even if the claim is obviously false and fraudulent.
Кто, чёрт возьми, если не мы?
People within fair use have unnecessarily had videos and Channels taken down like Nostalgia Critic and I Hate Everything. In a new age where the Internet is becoming more and more important the copyright laws need to update and companies need to learn what is and isn't fair use. This effects new content creators trying to start content and bigger channels scared to show content within fair use because of the broken copyright system. A video of a baby dancing to "Everything is awesome" from The Lego Movie could be taken down for playing The Lego Movie music. It's a system from 1998 that needs updating for a new age of the Internet when YouTube is growing and T.V. is dying the DMCA needs to make major changes.
There were probably 100 people who could explain the situation better than me, but I feel I should put my two cents in anyway. The DMCA is in serious need of updating. The Internet it was created for no longer exists and it is incompatible with the internet of today. Companies and businesses are abusing this outdated law to silence criticism and even threaten content creators who's videos fall under fair use. I implore Washington to listen to the people and update this relic of the past.
Please, I have not had content that was effected, but I know many who were. I don't want to see others fall into crisis because of misapplication of fair use. And if I enter that realm, I would hope that I would be protected too. So for all of us, Please.
DMCA takedowns have limited my free on the intenet. Many times have i posted a video criticizing a movie and have it taken down even though i didn't show any footage. All i did was talk about it. It is unfair how my videos are taken down without any realistic way to get them back.
First of all, yes you have probably seen this comment before, but it's for good reason: .. If you read this comment, please do something to stop this.
DMCA is super outdated and needs to be changed/updated to protect content creators.
Please, do not let big corporations continue to rule over the Internet. The Internet is a place where everyone from everywhere can talk, voice their opinion, and make a living. There are multiple content creators and companies who make a solid living uploading content to YouTube, but because of the faults that allow content that falls under free use to be taken down, censored, or re-monetized in favor of the claimant, many have faced struggle after struggle. Matthias is one; a large amount of his videos were falsely claimed simply because a specific individual was in them. Due to this, he no longer received any income from those videos.
It doesn't end there. The Internet is supposed to be a place where everyone can talk freely about anything; where everyone has a chance to make something, and contribute something. Why should big corporations be allowed to decide who and what is breaking the law? Why should they be allowed to take down a tweet or a video just because they didn't like the creator's opinion? Isn't free speech, coupled with fair use, supposed to protect our right to speak out?
Please, do not let this continue. Protect our rights, and stop the mass amount of bogus copyright claims.
A lot of my favourite YouTube community members have had their work interrupted with a lot of consequences, by companies abusing this copyright system. These abusive companies can make use of this system without any consequences. I believe this needs to stop otherwise you can say goodbye to creativity outside Hollywood.
Copyright claims mis use is wrong, i think youtube made it to easy to get youtubers/contentcreators get shutdown, this are people that live from youtube they do allot of work and effort but these days we are scarred to lose everything. If you steal videos its fair, if you use music thats not from you or not paid its fair but dont let us get striked by unfair reasons !!
As a let's player, I've encountered problems where I've had to address DMCA claims. I am a minor content creator who has only been doing this for less than a year but I and everyone in the field has heard about or encountered problems with DMCA
Most of these are targeting content creators rather than protecting them. The take downs are often done without any investigation at all. In many cases, I doubt any human even is alerted and the takedown is automated when the complaint is made. People only look at the content if we the creator challenge the takedown. Because it is automated, the takedown can be used to paralyze a content creator's channel or website by making a set number of takedown orders and then their account is suspended until they can work out a challenge and get it back. This results in loss revenue and getting the multiple challenges cleared does not prevent a company from doing it again with a fresh set of challenges. It doesn't matter that the challenges are invalid, because the punishment is automatically levied.
The burden is being placed on the accused to prove that their content is their own or else falls under fair use. We're not being given innocent until proven guilty. The assumption on the part of the companies isn't that we're guilty: it's that we will give up because they can drown us in challenges.
The DMCA is, in thought, a violation of a core of humanity and fundamental rights to human expression. Therefore, it cannot be in substance a law made to protect the greater good.
As a new teacher I gather many new ideas from the internet. I can also say that It is important to have free speech because my students need not only to see different opinions, but to see a variety of oppinions that they might be agains in order to develop their critical thinking skills. Varieties of opinions do not happen when free speech is compromised.
This is also improtant to me as a citizen because if there is a streaming of important news, then as a citizen it should be my right to make informed decisions. This cannot happen if news can be cut off or removed due to bot error.
The notice-and-takedown procekss under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Before i get to the meat, here are my thoughts. YouTube is in an attack from people abusing content claims, taking down videos, and down right ruining others careers. Multiple content creators get copyright strikes even if using fair use because people abuse the system that is set.
The DMCA is a bad outdated software which users are using to abuse different content on the Internet such as harmless videos and photos people put up, aswell as getting money from creators YouTube videos. It's a software that's ruining the Internet 1 day at a time and needs to be stopped!
DMCA takedowns are effecting free speech and effecting so many Youtube channels of great quality, and that may possibly end their channels.
Abuse of DMCA takedowns have had a personal effect on a community I am a part of where a large project was taken down because of one disgruntled developer.
Also the trolls will use this on it's advantage to erase things that they don't like.Please i beg you,protect the internet's free speech.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. I once created music video's for YouTube that was considered fair use, but due to the lengthy process of fighting these DMCA notices and the inability to have a proper time windows to do it, has left me banned from uploading future YouTube content regardless of my fair-use dealings. To prevent such content harassment, the DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. A computer see's a picture and if the picture carries a copyright, it is immediately considered infringing and labels me a criminal for using the photo under the fair-use doctrine.
Thanks for your consideration.
From a proud Texan,
Mark Zapalac
(979)877-8682
mszapalac@hotmail.com
I do not post anything to youtube, but I watch several channels which feature movie reviews. DMCA takedown procedures have taken down several videos which consisted of two people talking about a movie - no clips - no music - no copyrighted material. This is an egregious misuse of DMCA and violates the "fair use" doctrine, which allows for use for critical analysis. Further, the fact that companies can order videos to be taken down with no reason limits freedom of speech, a basic constitutional right.
There needs to be a reasonable penalty (payable to the target of the takedown notice) for each bogus takedown as compensation to those who have been impacted by the DMCA. Nearly 1 out 3 takedowns are bogus, and this negatively impacts legitimate speech and the copyright of that speech. Corporate copyright cannot be seen as more valuable than individual copyright, or the system becomes corrupt.
Simply put, companies have no accountability for abusing the system and the law needs to change to ensure equal protection for both parties. I understand the excessively punitive laws may seem necessary to stem the large amounts of content, but these laws provide no real avenue for content creators facing false claims. I urge you to take your time reviewing the legislation to ensure fair use is actually fair.
I would like to add that this system makes me personally afraid to create my own online content. What is going on right now could potentially deprive the online community of what would otherwise have been enriching ideas from many people.
I don't want this to happen, and since this is a democracy you are required to listen to me and the hundreds and thousands of others who also don't want this.
I may not be a 'content creator', or have much knowledge of the law, but what I do know is my entertainment. Specifically, the video site Youtube. While the copyright claim system of the website itself is broken, it shares its roots with the DMCA's terms and provisions: power is put in the hands of the copyright holder. This means that anyone, from international corporations to a single man who made a movie, can issue takedown notices on a whim, without the 'offending' content containing anything copyrighted, or even if it is protected by fair use. This leads to many reviews or parodies being taken down by people who, at times, have no real knowledge of the laws they are "upholding", or are even using these laws to silence negative viewpoints of their copyrighted material, for example a review of an objectively poor movie being seen by its creator and promptly taken down.
These broken systems are also taken advantage of by possibly the most parasitic entity on the internet: companies who issue DMCA takedown notices to steal advertisement revenue from videos AND FOR NO OTHER PURPOSE. This a clear misuse of the pre-existing laws around this subject, and just goes to show how out-of-date and easily-abused DMCA laws are. Being designed for an internet still in its infancy, these acts are far overdue an overhaul to be better suited to the modern and diverse place the internet has become.
In my unprofessional opinion, the loopholes and exploits that these 'protective' measures contain should be identified in full and either amended or replaced by a more modern system, not only to right the flagrant misuse that is all too common in these communities, but also to protect a new and diverse form of entertainment that is slowly gaining momentum in the global stage; much as television did to its predecessors in the 1950s, the internet is similarly replacing other platforms as a viable form of media and should not be ignored by the government to be hindered by outdated laws and greedy corporations that want to keep their current edge in entertainment and not have to adapt to a changing public interest. In short, the DMCA desperately needs amending or replacing to protect the future from those who might unfairly hinder its growth. Thank you.
Constantly seeing content creators complaining about copyright claims is irritating. It's time to stop.
DMCA is majorly outdated and needs to change or be removed, it is harassing and hurting content creators that use fairly other content to make their own work. It is ridiculous and needs to change
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error Andijijy does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair ujijjiikkkikkse exceptions, therefore site: https://plcs.rosettastoneclassroom.com/en-hkhkhikikkkhikijhjhkhhkiiikikkkjij in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
In addition to these facts, I am personally a content creator on YouTube and have been affected by fraudulent DMCA claims and takedowns.
This need to change.
Also, "takedown" needs to be added to all official dictionaries.
The notice-and-takedown under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
#WTFU
Dear reader,
I would like to introduce myself as a small-scale content creator on Youtube. Lately it seems the site has been blowing up with conversations about copyright, fair use, and the abuse of the system.
Youtube has a system for copyright that gave various creators a hard time with copyright claims, since those can be filed without any penalty for a false claim.
I only have had small cases where problems with fair use landed on my Youtube channel, but there have been increasingly bigger cases through time.
I would like to refer to a number of Youtube videos which show the problems that have occured for them.
They have more experience, and more right to speak, than I do.
However, I am sincerely concerned, as I use copyrighted material that I adore as a way to entertain others, and in the meantime give others a chance to explore my choice of background music and pictures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkcWbvnN0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjXNvLDkDTA
Thank you for considering my words.
There are many that can express this better than me, and I will support their expertise by copying their words.
I hope we can make this work.
Thank you.
- Lars "Vezonmodder" Bout
The current tools and practices used to enforce the DMCA are archaic, broken tools that have been hijacked by big business and third party groups that steal money from honest media/content creators.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works!!!
Companies and sometimes even individual people put claims down on you-tube video content they in no way own or they abuse the current law to hide negative reviews while you-tubes system itself not only allows this but encourages it allowing holders to put down claims without any repercussions for false ones then allowing the claimer to steal the money that rightfully belongs to the content creator without taking the law into account what so-ever
these videos can consist of parodies (see teamfourstar whose entire channel got taken down for a while), reviews (see "Nostalgia Critic/Doug Walker"), impressions (see cinemasnobs "Midnight Screenings" where he just sits in his car with a friend(s) and just talks about a movie he just saw, NO clips or footage from the movie at all), or anything else that uses even 1 second of an image, audio, or addresses a copyright protected asset is in danger of being taken down
at the moment these are the main uses of this abused system that I know of but this could easily be used to hide anything that anyone doesnt want others to see (ie political statements")
see here for Doug Walker who addresses the issue much better than I ever could along with some ideas to help fix it (at least on youtubes side of things as the biggest area of abuse)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
(at the very least his third account idea to temporarily hold money being disputed over needs to be put into effect)
I am growing tired of the endless streams of videos created to protect the rights of those being abused. Fair use should be there to protect content creators, their peers shouldn't have too.
My favorite youtuber CaptainSparklez had many of his parodies taken down despite the fact that they had no lyrics in common with the original song whatsoever. How does a minecraft parody possibly infringe on anything?
As a digital artist, I would never want my copyright protection to supersede the right to free speech, and that is how the current situation stands. The DMCA is often used as a bullying tool to silence unpopular speech and criticism. Videos on youtube are removed when they only include an individual's face when they give unpopular opinions on media or even at times, just unpopular political views. This is a disgrace to the American system.
Fair Use must come first, and the loopholes that allow DMCA's to be abused to remove content that an abuser wants to bury must be closed.
Stop with DMCA, in France we have exactly this problem with the different movie group for the copyright. For example i created a video recently for prepar a show in youtube, but 24 hours later my video was deleted because i use a music copyright "walking policeman" or "la marche du gendarme" from the movie "The Gendarme of Saint-Tropez". And I am not alone in this case, so time is running out to protect my tweets and videos.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Before I comment with what likely everyone else has already copy pasted to you, I'd like to list off some examples I've seen that have affected some people's content I enjoy.
Doug Walker, also known as Nostalgia Critic on youtube is someone I view on a regular basis, and makes critical reviews over nostalgic content, as you can see the name checks out. But within the year he and his studio have been plagued by Copyright Claims through youtube's systems, none being disputed in court. His videos have also had their monetization taken away prior, on account of using footage that was well under fair use.
Angry Joe, also a content creator constantly abused by this system. He has had several reactionary videos removed on account of showing the trailers of movies. Even blurring them images didn't help, they were searching for the titles, and claiming whether there was footage in it or not.
Jim Sterling, one of my favorite game reviewers has been repeatedly 'trolled' (pranked, harassed, inconvenienced) for his reviews of video games. He's been copyright claimed simply to discredit his account, and prevent him from speaking out against bad games. Companies such as Warner Brothers and Ubisoft constantly monetize his videos, even though he doesn't monetize them himself.
Now, let me be frank. I know Youtube's DMCA-esque system isn't ACTUALLY DMCA. But it's certainly a symptom of a broken system. These people deserve rights like any other company, the ability to defend their content. And right now they can't/Don't know how to.
That is the failing of the DMCA.
Derek Smart in one of those people who has been abusing the system on several occassions by sending false DMCA takedown requests in order to get personal information which he could then use to doxx the uploader of a parody video.
Hello my name is Devon Schneider. As someone that wants to become a content creator on Youtube within the month and it makes it intimidating to feel like I could be be successful. With channels I really enjoy like Channel Awesome and TeamFourStar getting hit with copyright strikes and have things shut down on them that effects their livelihood. As someone who believes strongly in freedom of speech it is something really important to defend when it the new age we Live in. With there being a huge uprise in online content creators, we need to make sure the foot paths for them is not straight into failure. That they have a fighting chance to upload reviews of movies, shows, or games. That they can commentate a game they are playing with out the fear of losing money on it. To feel like their voice matter in this new age of technology. i truly hope with this we can take a step in the right direction.
-A concerned citizen and hopeful content creator
Devon Schneider
Too many YouTubers are losing their money to fake companies and never get it back if and when a claim is settled. People's livelihoods are at stake here. Please update the terms of fair use.
This system was made for the internet in 1998. This needs to be updated.
Give us back our liberty of speech. Internet is a communication service that must provide its users freedom of saying whatever they legally can through text, photos or videos. Stop this injustice. Thank you
what makes places like youtube great are the amount of content but this in not what i am talking about all i ask to to help a large amount of people being hit with copyright strikes but are still under far use.
please help that is all i ask
People often place copyright claims on videos that have no copyright content at all and are able to get monetary gain for it while the creator gets no money. These copyright claimers are not punished in any way for placing false copyright claims on other's original/fair use content, which essentially empowers them to make money off of any other creator's video. This is not a victimless crime, as the creator is left with no revenue from the video.
This is definitely a crime and needs to be punished. However, those who commit this crime go completely unpunished while the creator who has done nothing wrong is left to suffer. The DMCA, which was written in 1998, needs to be updated to the 21st century, as the Internet was a much different place in 1998. Video sharing websites like YouTube were nothing more than a dream when this law was written.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Several content creators that I enjoy watching on youtube have been struggling with copyright over illegitimate claims. This not only hurts the content creator but their fan base as well.
The DMCA process has reached a point where it has failed, with the help of computer programs that scan content and automatically issue DCMA notices, there have been cases of content creators having a DCMA strike against their work because they have included some of their own original content in a different video.
There have been cases of individuals using DCMA to remove videos they don't like despite knowing full well that the video falls under fair use, even to the point where they've admitted the DCMA takedown was a mistake, promised to retract the DCMA takedown request and then ignored it until the timelimit has passed and the video became available again.
Large companies and corporations are using DCMA takedown requests to threaten and abuse content creators. Content that clearly falls under fair use is at risk of censor as a result of DCMA. Due to the way DCMA is being enforced, it is open for abuse, and needs to change.
When a person who has been creating original content videos for viewing on the internet over the course of several years can effectively have their entire history of work removed from the internet, because someone else (without any form of consequence whatsoever) issues several DCMA requests within a one week period. There is a fundamental problem.
There has been a Harvard Law professor, who's online lecture video "William Fisher, CopyrightX: Lecture 3.3, The Subject Matter of Copyright: Music" got taken down because of a DCMA request. While explaining the nature of copyright and he used approx 2 minutes of different music clips to help illustrate his point about cover songs, during a 24 minute video.
Through the DMCA system, there is an option to redirect advertising revenue to the claimant, as opposed to having the content removed. Even if the DCMA claim expires, is retracted or proven to be false, the revenue earned during the period under the DCMA, still gets passed on to to whomever sent the DCMA request, again with no consequences.
There has been a court ruling stating that Fair Use must be considered before any DCMA action is taken, which is being ignored due to the lack of consequences.
Revenue earned is being effectively stolen, due to a lack of consequences.
Livelihoods are being threatened, due to a lack of consequences.
Currently the DCMA system is broken, it is open for and being used as a method of consequence free abuse and harassment. This needs to change.
Youtube has been falling to shits and these laws that are taking down big Youtubers is honestly bullshit. These guys have jobs and some of these people earn more in 3 months than the president earns in a year and these big companies are taking them down just for the smallest FUCKING thing. Pull your head together government.
Entertainment company's like 20th century Fox, Sony Picture, and Disney have been taking down internet video for "copy right infringement" when some videos have NO FOOTAGE OF SAID MOVIE
For example the Nostalgia Critic have a video about Jurassic world before it was on DVD so he had actors come in a do a review, it got taken down. So he did another video about TV commercials and it got taken down for an Apple Software commercial where he joked about Apple taking over the world. This abuse needs to stop NOW
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
I also find this really annoying to use the viewers and the people who make the content because there a re really amazing videos out there and you can clearly see that the uploaders took their time to make these videos to their fans. But it gets taken down because they added 5 second song to it. Please take care of this and help this stop as soon as possible.
Thank You
I know of a certain youtube content creator by the name of AnimeCenTrul who constantly receives copyright strikes. Since his channel is always restored, however, this leads me to believe that the copyright strikes are unjustified and are clearly an abuse of the DMCA takedown process. Another youtube content creator who has had similar issues is Chibi Reviews. His channel received copyright strikes for allegedly stealing content. However, all of his videos are just him talking in front of a camera. Whoever made copyright claims against him apparently didn't even view his content before deciding to make a copyright claim. This behavior is despicable and should not be tolerated.
governments need their laws and right now many people are defying them on you tube. the law states (and rightly so) fair use laws which protect people who use copyrighted works in an appropriate and legal way but there are companies and individuals out there who don't give a damn and are going against the word of the government to make illegal copyright claims to fair use content.
simply because you tube allows them to: people are falsely claiming other peoples work as copyright infringement even though in reality it's fair use. non of these claimants would win in a fair caught in the United States of America but because You Tube doesn't care about that it allows random people to abuse and harass innocent people.
As for why this concerns the government and why the government should care: they are not just being immoral, they are defying you. governments need to demonstrate strength, power and if you let random people brake your laws then what's to stop them from continuing and what's to stop them from expanding.
good luck to you should you wish to try and stop them.
Not only is what these review videos doing fair and legal, it is also hypocritical to let copyright holders go after them with false copyright claims, when every other product gets a pass for review and/or parody purposes. If someone was to do a review about a hair product, no one would bat an eye. If anyone was to do a commentary on a famous piece of art, again they are protected. When reviewers such as Leonard Maltin review movies for a living, they are perfectly safe. The law needs to protect those on the internet who do the same for a living, not only because it is fair use, but arguably enough, they are reviewing and/or parodying a product (A movie, TV show, Game, etc.) . Movies, despite the fact they are art, are also a product, and I would argue they are under the same laws as the consumer protection act. These reviewers voice information about these products, which in some cases show their inferior and/or knockoff quality, such as Transmorphers and/or Little Panda Fighter. Consumers deserve not only to know what they're buying in terms of consumable or physical objects, but I feel like they deserve to know what the movies that they purchase are like. Movies such as Transmorphers or Jurassic Shark hardly ever get a good thorough review since most movie critics who review for a living don't even bother to touch things that haven't been in theaters.
Also, reviews provide excellent viewpoints on different films and they analyze what went wrong with the production and/or style of the movie, which I would again argue is a valuable resource for learning about past mistakes and not repeating them. Nowadays no one would think about re-using footage for the same movie twice in a row, or thinking that producing, directing, and writing in the hands of one person without input from other people is a good idea, but this is because of reviewers who look at productions that fail and find where exactly they went wrong.
It is a shame about so many reviewers (especially on Youtube) who rightfully call out bad movies or shows (like Pixel Pinkie, The Oogieloves, etc.) get flagged falsely by vindictive copyright holders who either don't know or don't care about the laws in place to protect these people. It is also a shame when movies that are good when receiving praise from these reviewers (in rare cases such as Studio Ghibli, ) are also taken down despite the fact there was nothing negatively said about them. Please put in some protection for these people who are just trying to express their opinion about a medium they love on the internet. The internet is the last public forum where people come together to talk and discuss, and it needs to be free from restraint from big companies who would be willing to silence people for expressing their opinion.
I'm sick of content that falls under Fair Use being taken down unnecessarily. This is just taking away from content creators and allowing people to take down whatever they feel like just because they don't like what was in the content, or they just don't like the person who created the content.
People have YouTube as a job, and if their content is being taken down for malicious reasons, what are they going to do? How will they support themselves or anybody else they have to support financially?
This is nonsense, and it needs to be fixed very soon.
Stop this madness and protect this awesome world!!! :D
I want my gosh darn Cat memes and Dank memes. SofloAntonio and SamPepper with the famous LEAFYISHERE must be protected
Pyrocynical and NFKRZ are fighting for this law. Along with the glorious IHE and Channel Awesome.
It. Sucks :(
The world of entertainment, education & social change has been radically changed with the advent of the Internet. As a content creator I love creating videos that make people laugh, smarter & create themselves.
However in this day in our creative endeavours I am fearful of making content. Too many established YouTubers than myself have had their livelihoods damaged, future's as creators destroyed and time making fun videos for people to enjoy turned into hours of copyright damage control caused by fraudulent/unfounded claims by businesses & corporations.
YouTube and social media used to be a place where creativity was celebrated, and now it is vilified. Not by the consumers, but by the competition. And with most creators like myself not making enough money to do this as a full time job and companies armed with lawyers & social clout to make their arguments unrelenting I cannot see a future for creators in the current state of 'Fair Use'.
Also:
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Personally, I find this to be a matter of free speech. If someone has the ability to silence and censor a video simply because it is critical of a movie or show they created, how is that better than what totalitarian dictators do? These large companies are silencing opposition like Stalin did when he sent political opponents to the Gulag. Yes, they are still alive. And yes they can still try to do what they used to. But not here. Not in this realm (the Soviet Union for Stalin and Youtube for these large companies like Nintendo and Sony. ) Please, for the love of our Bill of Rights. Protect freedom of speech and Freedom of the Press!
No to an arbitrariness!
Companies have constantly been using DMCA claims to take down videos and take revenue from content that they don't even own. They have been using DMCA claims to stifle free speech if the videos in question have opinions that they don't agree with and to dodge criticism. Even videos with just camera footage and no copyright footage in question are being taken down by these DMCA claims. Videos are being taken down without even factoring in fair use at all. Another shady practice being used by companies is that they use "shell companies" to file DMCA claims for them on videos that clearly have fair use so that the real company does not have their reputation destroyed. These DMCA claims are even used as threats towards content creators, and videos are even being hit with these claims multiple times, even though these specific videos had their DMCA claims resolved, and yet they still keep getting claimed.
DMCA takedowns have been used to harass content creators for sharing their opinions. It has also been used to temporarily steal revenue from these same people with absolutely no repercussions. This is a terrible practice and needs to be stopped. Derek Savage is an offender that I think of first when I think of stifling free speech, because he didn't agree with the reviews. I Hate Everything, Your Movie Sucks, Nostalgia Critic, and many others have been negatively affected by this and it shows in their content. The outdated system of checking whether or not videos are copyrighted need to be changed for the future content creators that are still struggling to keep their channels.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I have had at least six videos taken down, even without publishing them AT ALL. Most of them have been set to private (as in, NO ONE can watch them) and I've gotten claims saying that there is copyrighted material that can hardly be heard/seen.
This is getting ridiculous. I am tired of not being able to do anything that I enjoy doing.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) desperately needs balance to protect the free speech rights of creators -- and most particularly those creators seeking to critique, parody, and otherwise comment on copyrighted content -- expressions that are critical to a free and democratic society.
The DMCA is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders, and is too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use through abusive and automated uses of the notice and takedown system.
There is currently little to lose, and much to gain, from sending mass, blanket takedown notices without dedicating any time or resources to determine whether content is, in fact, used in a manner that violates the rights of the copyright holder.
And the law incentivizes publishing platforms to automatically side with even the worst and most egregious abusers of the takedown process -- and to stifle the expression and creativity of individuals, rather than risk consequences of inaction.
There must be penalties for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I have personally suffered loss from the automated take down of my original content because a bot wrongly flagged my original work. (This did not even contain material claimed.) These automated processes make mistakes, lead to loss in revenue, and I deserve to be able to contact a person to rectify it immediately. Things need to be changed.
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I'm an upcoming online content creator who's having a hard time uploading videos due on the ongoing copyright fear from major studios.
The way it stands now the law is unjust and unfair. It would be a great use of government time to illuminate the law as it stands and reassess a more up to date law. Thank you
Also, why are you trying to slip this under the radar of people by giving it such a short timeline?
So, what I'm gonna write here won't be perfect, prepared, or anything. I'm certainly not as informed as most of the directly concerned YouTube (and other) creators are, for instance. But this needs to be done. I can't watch, once again, abuses like that happen, and not react to that.
First, and foremost, before even discussing anything about the way the legal system itself makes no sense : how can a decision to delete content be left to a flawed automated process ? Not only that, but a flawed automated process, with no real way to protect oneself, apparently. There is no presumption of innocence : the person who put the content online is directly guilty and has to do everything by him or herself to even dream of being found not guilty, with the risks of having even more problems, and that EVEN if they did nothing wrong. All of that just because someone decided that they didn't like it, and didn't care what happened to the person as long as they got their way.
I love creators, being a would-be writer myself. And I wouldn't want someone to deem that there is some pseudocopyright infrigement in my future work, where there wouldn't be. And I don't like the idea that my favorite creators, and the others even, could have their precious, hard-worked, original content deleted, just because it didn't please someone with money or power.
So, if you want to keep an automated system for that kind of things, I think there should be some guarantees. First, the system should be less "dumb". But that might not be possible. So, then, strikes, sanctions, shouldn't come automatically. There should be a place for the incriminated person to defend him or herself. And then, if defense there is, there should be someone to review the defense, instead of taking stupid decisions automatically to please copyright holders and other copyright trolls. And, of course, there should be punishment for fraudulent claims. Because if they can do it freely, they will never stop. They need to know and understand, those copyright trolls, that they can be punished too for their malevolent acts against freedom, creation, and expression. Because they want more money for their brand new cars doesn't allow them to ruin other people's lives and cherished creations.
So, this might seem a bit confused, but I needed to say a word about it, first as a person of the audience, who doesn't want to see all those marvellous creators, of superb content, be destroyed by people who don't care and just want their money. Because yes, I know there are creators on the "copyright" side too. And I know they need money too, and that they don't want their works to be attacked either. But there is a difference between that and trolling.
Yes to creation, no to trolling. And since we are talking about Fair Use : there should be a Fair Copyright Law Use too : just to protect your creations from being stolen (and I really talk about stolen, as in "I take your idea, and make it mine without doing anything of my own", not shared. Because culture is created to be shared... and some people still didn't understand that either... but that's another story.), and not to make more and more money on innocent people's backs.
Yes to Fair Use, on both sides. And no to copyright trolling, automated, but not only.
This abuse of a system that was meant to help is damaging not only individual people but is damaging other companies that are struggling and need to advertise, they use this system to censor and destroy their competition, effectively monopolizing the market. These need to stop
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error, abuse and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
And this has hit me I think harder then other youtubers because I have been taken down from YouTube twice and never could of gotten them back. The abuse of the copyright system is so bad it ruined my efforts to make a YouTube channel and make it a job to support me and my family because we are not well off. So please US government fix the copyright system.
I've seen videos taken down permanently by bogus claims. Companies that have no connection to content file claims and have stuff taken down. Fair use is real but companies seem to think that anything that pertains to them even tangentially is a violation and they have it removed.
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Sorry, I've made a mistake in country ZIP
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
"I very much would love to post my music videos on YouTube. Essentially I use footage from other products such as movies or Japanese animation tv shows with using music from other artists (Such as Coldplay, One Direction, or Eminem). However with their copyright system, I can't do that. I know that's not fair use, but it's my art and it makes me happy. When I show it to people, they love it. I just wish other people got to see it as well. I am not only looking for monetization, but I just want to make stuff public to the world."
-Joesph
While I try to enjoy the videos put by youtubers I try and watch again but is taken making less content
I keep getting copyright claims
I'm a startup channel on Youtube and more than one of my reviews have been blocked and taken down despite them falling under fair use. I've even had videos made up 100% of my own content. The structure of the law is completely unfair. There needs to be restructuring of the law to force change for the better
The DMCA needs an update. Plain and simple. Our justice system is founded upon the principle of innocent until proven guilty, but under the DMCA, it is the other way around. We need liability for companies that abuse fair use content, harming small businesses and creators. We need justification that a copyright claim is not covered by fair use before removal. We need punishments for false claims. In short, we need to re-balance our copyright system to protect the creative interests of all, not just powerful copyright holders.
Additionally, my original youtube account got taken down 10 years ago because I made videos where I hosted a silly talkshow parody. Meanwhile, just about everyone I knew got their accounts suspended simply for doing music videos or other parodies. How is this "fair" use?
It's true that there needs to be some sort of enforcement to stop illegal activity and protect rights. However, when these laws are grotesquely abused and left unchecked, it demoralizes individuals from doing the things that they love. Therefore, it's time that we take a look at the system and fix things for the better. #WTFU
#WTFU.
This system has to change to protect fair use! There is SO much knowledge, entertainment, news, and even countless artists (that end up abusing the DMCA with their takedown notices, and that we wouldn't even know existed without the content creators that these artists are unfairly attacking), that my children and I have grown from because of content creators. Not to mention that the vast majority of these artists benefit by getting noticed, because of these content creators that reference them, regardless of the content creators' critique. Because of content creators, everyone can win. But not if artists are using and abusing the DMCA and ignoring fair use laws. They wrongfully punish and abuse content creators with DMCA, infringing on free speech which equals: content creators go away = artists don't get discovered and/or noticed by the masses = the masses miss out on both artists AND content creators = everyone loses.
Again, #WTFU - Where's The Fair Use
I'very become a regular viewer on some of the big channels that are being attacked by those corporations that claim copyright infringement. As a regular viewer, I know how these creators are doing their best to avoid getting these claims and use their own creativity to entertain. These people are doing their best, using thier right to speak freely to create something enjoyable and profitable so they can continue to flourish. They deserve the pay they are entitled to, they deserve to speak their mind, positive or negative, and I fully support their cause.
It is not fair that the people who upload content, even when it's under fair use, get punished, while the people responsible for the copyright claims/strikes can keep going on unpunished.
The DMCA needs to be updated and to be updated for the internet of today. There are too many content creatirs on line that have been harassed by automated copyright strikes already. These strikes result in loss of revenue for people who live off of the income the recieve from monitization of their videos. The strikes (because they were given by a computer) are almost always unjust because they lack the small amount of effort of watching the video to actually see if it viiolates copyright. Another problem with these practices is the fact that many companies are issuing claims just because people are speaking negatively about a movie, news report, or political practice. These companies are suppressing freedom of speech and harassing innocent citizens all because no one involved likes hearing the truth or having bad publicity. The horror stories spread throughout the internet are immense from families being threatened with legal action because of a video of their child singing along with the radio to a review of a movie resulting in a persons youtube channel (and by extension their livelihood) being destroyed. This needs to stop.
This affects so many content creators, many of whom rely on these videos as a source of income. Notable channels who have spoken out against the outdated system include:
I Hate Everything
CreepsMcPasta
Jim Sterling
Themysteriousmrenter
Channel Awesome
Anime America
Lost Pause
The Anime Man
Your Movie Sucks
Drwolf
Joshscorcher
TeamFourStar
CinemaSnob
Potatobombkyle Lego Productions
CinemaSins
AlternateHistoryHub
Jontron
BadComedian
Sargon of Akkad
Chris Stuckman
Bobsheaux
Sheeleシェーレ
BrainScratch Commentaries
NFKRZ
Pyrocynical
The Gaming Czar
Games Repainted
AdoseofBuckley
Totalbiscuit
Matthias
ToddintheShadows
Angry Joe
ElectricDragon505
CentralDerp
Krimson Rogue
EyeOfSOl
Dragon Mage
And many more. Stop their suffering.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Content creators are being wrongfully affected by companies who claim their video and all its revenue, even though the video is completely in fair use! This completely ruins a content creator's livelihood and makes it so that their hard work remains in vain, and all the revenue in the pockets of greedy owners of honourless companies.
I know below is a pre-canned answer, however this is a serious issue and many people I have come to care about are constantly under threat of their livelihoods as entertainers being taken away, all because they are part of a new paradigm and not the old corporate structure. Please take this seriously and see how this is hurting people.
Well, it's just crazy. Even when you are not from US and do not really have examples of fair use abuse in your country - you can see the effect in your youtube subscriptions. It's just robbery. There is no penaulty. If someone wants to - he can just took away thr monetization, or even take down the video. It's just unjust.
Не хочу жить в эпоху корпократической инквизиции.
Когда обнаглевшие денежные мешки вставляют палки в колёса всем и каждому, кто осмелится хотя бы упомянуть их драгоценную "интеллектуальную собственность".
Этот закон порочен по своей сути, и должен быть изменён, если мы не хотим погрязнуть в болоте творческой стагнации.
Reviewers who say bad things about products, works of fiction, pieces of art and the like that they review get silenced by companies who take down the negative reviews by false copyright claims. Small business owners have their revenues cut and livelihoods threatened both by the copyright claims as well as the self-imposed limitations on their work caused by fear of possible copyright, which leads to compromised quality of their work. Though these content creators usually have the law on their side, abusing DMCA is much easier than fighting against that abuse, thus making it easy and lucrative to exploit the system to silence critics who are hard pressed to fight back.
DMCA has to be altered to meet the requirements of today, as the Internet has changed massively since 1998.
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
DMCA is being heavily abused, that should be fixed.
Be nice and take a look on it so so many people can have a better time on the internet.
I do not want this to happen to me as it might happen to others. This is why YouTube is starting to suck.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
From the content creators of the internet,
please fix the DMCA.
This DMCA business is getting to be ridiculous. Can you not police our media more than it already is? Thanks! I have never been a fan of the DMCA, and I knew they would soil their "good intentions" with bull.
I follow a very popular podcast on Youtube and recently they have been hit with a DMCA strike. The premise of the show is based on the hosts commenting on news and political views that people voice in youtube videos. The DMCA strike was filed by a disgruntled person who had his own comments, who were outrageous, commented on. The person who filed the DMCA also stated in a video that he filed the DMCA purely out of spite. He hasn't discussed the criticism of him and purely based his accusations on petty remarks about the race of the hosts and nothing else. He is also well known for previously doing this to other channels.
This person also hosts a "comedy channel" where he uploads long videos from stand up comedians in order to mine clicks. The media he uploads is, unlike the podcast that I am watching, not at all transformative in nature.
However the podcast channel has been down for ten business days that is two weeks. Fortunately one of the hosts has another popular channel that they have used to upload the podcast episodes on.
The fact that Youtube ALWAYS airs on the side of the claimant is scandalous.
Needless to say, this has cost this podcast ad revenue and they are currently preparing to take the claimant to court. It shouldn't have to go this far. They are apparently taking him to court in order to make the statement that no one should just be able to get away with abusing the system in this way purely out of spite.
I also want to mention the case of so called reaction channels on Youtube. A large channel like Fine Bros Entertainment produces content that clearly is transformative in nature. However, there are multiple channels that only feature a person that just sits in front of a screen, does not comment at all and at best sometimes lets out a chuckle.
These people have hours that technically are uploads of other peoples content. True, you can claim that you, as the creator, have the rights to the ad revenue but when that is done the host of the reaction channel just takes down the video and on top of that just gets to keep the ad reveue he has made from content produced by other people. This is disgraceful.
It is also worth mentioning that there are people who even file DMCA's on content that they don't own and some videos that only feature people talking on camera are also brought down by spurious claims. Fair use is being ignored, some companies even believe that they create the law and some companies even have the audacity to use shell companies to wash their hands of false claims. People even use DMCA claims as pure threats and many videos are also brought down even though they've been cleared. That Youtube is unable to store the names of cleared videos in a database seems absurd to me.
Enough is enough.
I have recently started making reviews on YouTube, and was outraged when I learned of some of the trials and tribulations the people I admire were having to go through to post their content. Review videos often are nearly all footage of the reviewer, or clips so short and indistinct that any interested parties would still have to invest in the product being advertised. Shutting down reviewers for giving negative reviews of a film or television show--which is the majority of what I have seen happening on Youtube, since positive reviews seem to hang around for much longer--is the same as accusing a newspaper of libel for giving a negative review of a book. It's an unfair verdict, and it makes anyone thinking about going into this business terrified that the same could eventually happen to them. As someone just starting out on YouTube, the abuse of copyright claims makes me terrified to upload new content because I can't afford to be sued by someone for fifteen seconds of video.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Hello, I am a content creator for reviews that focuses on a lot of Japanese movies and TV series such as Godzilla and Super Sentai. Every time I upload a review that I have spent countless hours making I am worried it is going to be taken down due to something that the copyright holder does not agree with or feels I have violated their copyright.
This is a trying process as not only does it mean my hard work was for nothing, but it also makes it hard to even try to make a living off of my work. I have had videos get claimed and taken down by a variety of companies be it Warner Bros for 15 seconds of footage from a Worst Movies of 2015 video to 18 seconds of footage from various Japanese programs I have reviewed. The worst part of this is that a lot of these claims are not even made by the company itself, but rather someone representing them. Someone called MC is often the claimant for for Warner Bros and they constantly reject disputes without even listening to the case.
In addition, ad revenue is automatically given to the claimant regardless of whether or not the claim is legitimate, which is completely unfair to the hard work among ALL content creators.
Something needs to be done to fix these be it a new set of better guidelines to follow Fair Use or the policies that were set in place with Youtube claimants need to actually watch the content before they can be allowed to make a claim. Right now, companies can make a claim on a video regardless of the length of the clip, the length of the review, if they don't approve of the nature of the review (some companies are claiming videos because the review was negative), and so forth.
Thank you for your time.
I feel like this form letter provided adequately expresses my views on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
I had heard many stories of DMCA takedowns, but only recently have I started seeing so many Internet content channels I follow being affected, and in some cases practically shut down, because of copyright claims that would later turn out to be completely illegitimate.
The biggest problem here is that there appear to be no penalties for false claims; this invites abuse, and many companies have made wrongful and damaging accusations.
Copyright claims should not be managed exclusively by automated systems; they need to be reviewed and examined by human beings who understand the law, and fair use in particular, as well as the production and distribution of Internet content.
Thank you.
Under the weight of my opinion (and I believe I share this opinion with a lot of people) the creation of content should be free,it should not be so heavily restricted because that will somehow attack the freedom to expres.
Beyond the realities of the fiscal costs to the enforcement of Section 512 of Title 17, of which I am under the impression is numerous and most burdensome, there is the moralistic cost that plagues our nation with such a law.
It is a fundamental right of a citizen of a republic to be able to freely express ideas. A republic ceases to be a true republic with a populace unable to freely express ideas, and unwilling to fight cumbersome resistances of the expression of ideas.
John Locke argued that a political society exists to protect property, of which includes, life, liberty, and estate.
Laws such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act protect copyrighted material in exchange for the loss of personal liberty of expression. In a just society, such an exchange would be placed on equal footing, allowing for a compromise between the right of a Copyright Holder, and the right of the general public to fair usage about the copyrighted materials.
Systemically, under the DMCA and its enforcement, a Copyright Holder is permitted to determine what is considered fair use of its property, and is fully allowed to enforce punitive measures against said alleged violators. In this system, the accuser is allowed to punish the accused as the accuser sees fit, denying the accused to their right of a speedy and pubic trial, acting under their own rulings. In all other laws relating to copyrighted materials, the accuser is not permitted punitive measures against the accused beyond mailing a cease and desist letter, and must go to a court to enforce the cease and desist letter.
One major source of online content is YouTube.com, popular largely due to the high volume of visitors to the site, and the ability to monetise videos.
Under the provisions of the DMCA, an accuser is permitted to make claim on a monetisation, claiming all assets of an accused's video accused of violation of the Copyright Law of 1976. During the appeal process that an accused video must enter in order to be cleared of Copyright Law violations, all assets made from such a video is given to the accuser. The accused is not given such assets during the process after the process has been cleared, and the accuser's claims have been proven to be in the wrong.
In this system, the innocent both must prove innocence after being assumed to be guilty, and is punished despite their innocence.
In my opinion, this law which governs the citizens of the United States of America, is in violation of the fundamental rights entitled to all citizens of this nation. It makes a mockery of the Sixth Amendment, prohibits the rights entitled by the First Amendment, and does not aid in enforcing the Copyright Law of 1976 in the general public's benefit.
This has resulted in numerous horror stories from content creators, as their content is unjustly accused of violations, by larger content creators, with more resources at their disposal.
These larger content creators are acting within their rights to protect their property, under provisions established by the laws of the land, and the court rulings on the laws.
In order to make a more fair society of content creators, those with less resources must be allowed equal footing within the law.
By making a system more fair for both the accused and the accusers, this will allow for the creation of more content. The punitive measures allowed under the law serve only those with the resources to protect their property, and do nothing but hinder the benefits of the creation of content by those with less resources.
The right to freedom of speech must never be determined by an individual's ability to finance it. This law ensures that freedom of speech is jeopardised by allowing wealth and resources to be a major factor in the determination of what falls under Fair Use.
The law must be altered.
It must be altered to allow for a blossoming of content.
It must be altered to allow due process to the accused.
It must be altered to allow for a person to reap the full fiscal benefits of their labour.
It must be altered to allow for a system that ceases to inhibit expression.
It must be altered.
I to am a content Creator I suffer from the DMCA'S reign. My videos get strikes and taken down falsely. Even when I'm able to fight the copyright strikes back my videos get taken down once again. Many other content creators I know who I enjoyed watching are gone due to the fact the DMCA laws and rules are unfair. People who at times use no content audio or anything but themselves still get there videos taken down. Is this right? How can you steal someones craft away from them and claim it as yours? Please help us stop the abuse of DMCA take down.
**Though not a content creator, I have witnessed creators including Sargon of Akkad, and Todd in The Shadows, get hit for exercising their free speech, engage in competition with other content creators, and is often a means to harass, and fiscally stifle opposition. DMCA is outdated and is resulting in the stifling of free speech, competition, and job creation.**
The DMCA is ruining lives, careers and families. Bad people use the DMCA to get rid of what they don't like; like Sam pepper, he filed false copyright claims whenever he felt intimidated; a man named logdotzip had his YouTube channel taken down for three days because of false claims. The way that claims are handled are, in fact, fairly stupid; the claims are done by companies if they don't like what one youtuber said. All in all, please make this system more fair, make the person filing the claim show in court and have evidence that their copyright is being violated, and that they had their copyright before the video was uploaded; because if you do that, the companies filing fake claims, the YouTubers filing fake claims, and anyone else filing a fake claim, will bugger off when they see that they have to appear in court, in real life, and it isn't just the person being claimed against having their YouTube channel deleted.
и я считаю что свобода слова, совести, вероисповедания,должны быть поддержаны законом.
I feel like the copyright act and fair use has been well not given its right state of mind way to many youtubers and tweets are being takenbdown even though they are protected by fair use that doesnt seem to stop compainys from doing things they want and it needs to stop.
Shame on you.
TL;DR version: The DMCA SEVERLY needs updating to prevent this loophole abuse, and it's WAY overdue at this point. IT NEEDS FIXING NOW.
The DMCA hasn't been updated in years. It is way to old to work in our modern times internet and can be abused to damage people making a living of websites like YouTube. If video material is used for Fair Use companies shouldn't be able to take them down and steal the money made by the video maker.
That's why I think that the DMCA has to be replaced or at least renewed.
The copyright law is being abused on such a regular basis. There are companies that will censor content creators that don't deserve this treatment in the slightest. And then these creators get punished, however people that clearly abuse it don't recieve any sort of backlash, even if they get called out on it. I'm tired of seeing my favorite entertainers sitting there and worrying about something thay could potentially ruin their careers and my entertainment. This is the 21st century and it's time that this law has been updated to fit this new millenia.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech, though currently filing a knowingly-false claim to remove content for up to two weeks is not penalized in any way.
Hello Lawmakers,
I'm not from the US, but this is such an important issue that I feel compelled to write to you now. I don't think it's hyperbolic to say this is going to affect how we approach the future of global culture. Where once there were distinct fields sparsely populated by career professionals, now almost anyone can be a 'creator' and share their work with the world.
Culture does not exist in vacuum, ideas do not spring forth without prior influence; people build upon the work of others by copying, transforming and progressing. Once this new content is released into the world, others may do the same with it. Limiting this through copyright has been a useful tool in the past to incentivise the production of new works, but over time is increasingly at odds with how people actually create. Re-evaluating copyright itself is for another time, but the first stepping-stone on that path is before you now: updating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to be sensible in 2016.
Your Supreme Court has regularly mentioned that Fair Use is a 'safeguard' that allows copyright law to be compatible with the First Amendment. It is therefore incredibly worrying that the DMCA notice-and-takedown process is knowingly being abused on a regular basis to remove content that is actually covered by Fair Use rights. The reasons for this abuse are manifold, but they all stem from the same problem: there are no repercussions for doing so.
US-based companies such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter need the legal tools to be able to fight back and actively discourage those who would seek to remove people's freedom of expression. Introducing such tools into the DMCA is paramount to solving this problem.
Please, lead the way in protecting the future of human culture. The rest of the world is watching very closely to see where you take this.
Yours sincerely,
Duncan Hemingway
Foreword:
I do not myself feel well versed enough in the specifics of the problem, the practical effects are easy to see. The copyright claims system is often blatantly misused to censor criticism and to stifle completion as there are no penalties for erroneous or malicious takedowns - especially since the burden of proof is on the accused rather than the accuser.
I want to add my own personal view before the well written appeal to reason that is below. DMCA has resulted in my personal videos being taken down with people claiming copyright infringment with no music/movies/pictures of any sort being used in them, nothing but family memories that i put up to save and share. Also as a person who enjoys playing games, i like watching game reviews on youtube to seee if a game is worth buying, and with them containing game footage with no spoilers, they get taken down as infringed copyright. A game. Something with no dollar value unless you are the one playing it. There are so many things that get abused because companies feel entitled and try to silence anyone who would post negative reviews on their product, which reduces the overall quality as people buy things without knowing its bad, because people cant share their experiences. I feel this limits free speach more than it protects the copyrights of developers. It is not a illegal copy, it is a review to help the buyer make an educated decision. Anyways, those are my personal gripes with the current law, and incase you have not already read the official petition wording, i have left it following this message. Thank you and take care.
Hello. I'm an independent creator. The fact that YouTube allows content to be taken down automatically without ever crossing human eyes or ears is appalling. In many, perhaps now even MOST cases, Fair Use is being violated. This is madness, and people's livelihoods are being affected.
My name is Zelaf, and I dissagree with the current DMCA takedowns current fail of complying Fair Use.
I myself am only a viewer of video on the internet and am normally not at financial risk of the current system. But many of the creators that I follow HAVE been harmed by the draconian system. They get their revenue streams taken away due to "copyright claims", even though they are simply talking about said content without ever showing any video or audio. Their videos can even get taken down due to companies or other individuals, in a attempt to censor them for calling out what they find to be terrible products. Yet, when they are found innocent of those claims, ZERO repercussions happen to the company or individual who started the claim.
If someone took away your paychecks for a month because they thought you were stealing, then when found innocent, wouldn't you want what was taken from you? Of course you would!
The original purpose for this bill is now outdated and solely used to protect multi billion dollar companies that are afraid of changing way in which the world consumes media. Be a servant of the PEOPLE, not for corporations.
This needs to happen
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse. Companies that infringe on users’ free speech and hijack just earnings need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
In my personal experience even content recordings which by all accounts are within the Public Domain may be identified by automated systems and revenue lost from very personal video content, in my case a family story of my great grandparents surviving a bushfire.
Automated flagging is only one part of the problem, however, as close friends of mine using absolutely no copyrighted content whatsoever have had their audio-only critical film reviews flagged by corporations despite being entirely the voices of he and another person. In this instance all revenue from the channel and YouTube account access were lost for several weeks, health was endangered as he lost sleep and worried, and his livelihood in making original content online completely within his rights was threatened. After Fair Use was proven, a process which took much too long given the entirely pure nature of his content, no lost revenue from the event was restored and the corporation in question was not held accountable in any way.
Technology changes and the law changes with it. If we were still operating motor vehicles under the same laws as were instituted when they were first introduced to mainstream social use, we'd be in very dire straights.
Things simply cannot go on this way.
To summertime all that is mentioned in this statement, this current DMCA is outdated by today's Internet standards. In 1999, the internet was slow and was mostly used to gather information, but now it's a fast paced world where not only we get information but we get news faster and more diverse than what we get from our local news or any news outlet in general since news spreads faster from word of mouth thanks to social media like Youtube and Facebook. Many people need fair use of copyrighted, material even if it's just to use 5 seconds worth of a clip or 20 minutes, it is needed to have discussion and inform the public the what, why, who, where, and how about a topic. Companies abuse a vague copyright claim on sites just to silence people who disagree with what they have to say just to either stifle the negative press or just to cash in on the sheer mention of their product. I know companies tend to silence online reviewers because of negative reviews but that is denying free speech, and that is our first amendment in the US Constitution. So please, fix the DMCA to give us fair use that is described in detail what I regular person has the right to post and how much copyrighted material we can use. Also make companies accoutable for their false claims and take downs since all it does is silence media creators on social media and restricts free speech. And if you need more information in the struggle with the DMCA, copyright claims, and media creators, please watch this video ( https://youtu.be/zVqFAMOtwaI ) because reading all this text will most likely see this as white noise. Thank you for time and understanding of this predicament.
Whose side are you on: the corporations' or people's? Make your mind up.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
People like critics and reviewers have a right to talk about the content that is out there.
Protecting one's content is incredibly important, but abusing the copyright system in order to steal and profit from someone else's video, or censor something that you simply don't like, is absolutely unfair.
Targeting reviewers, critics, gamers, artists etc. is essentially targeting someone who not only makes a profit from the time, effort and passion that they put in their own content, but it also affects their audience.
This isn't censorship. This is like silencing us with a thick roll of duct tape.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
On top of that there should be rules in place that determine who is in the right on a particular takedown debate before giving the money to either side of the claim. A copyright claimant should NOT get the money earned from a video as soon as he/she places the claim, but only as soon as it is determined that the claimant has claimed the video rightfully and that it is copyright material in his or her possession and does not fall under the concept of "fair use". At the same time a video content creator should ALSO not get the money until it is determined that the material he or she produced actually falls under fair use or is their own self-created material. Therefore the money being made from the video in a phase where a claimed is issued on said video should go into a side-account and only be granted as well as paid out once the claim has been settled and the right to the video has officially be given to one of the two parties.
The computerized takedown systems in place on youtube violate the law of fair use. This needs to be solved!
Along with what is said below, the DMCA goes farther than just issuing take down notices for online content. It disrupts what consumers should have the right to do with physical objects they own. They should have the right to modify any product (electronic or not) to fit their specific needs or for entertainment. DRM should be allowed to be circumvented as long as the product was legally obtained before circumvention. The "hacking"/unlocking of products should also be in the rights of the owner. Case in point Sony vs. Hotz, and many others.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected by fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Hey, we need to fix this! Corporations are abusing the DMCA to take down videos with false take down notices.
Basicly that ^
This needs to stop.
Along with what is said above, the DMCA goes farther than just issuing take down notices for online content. It disrupts what consumers should have the right to do with physical objects they own. They should have the right to modify any product (electronic or not) to fit their specific needs or for entertainment. DRM should be allowed to be circumvented as long as the product was legally obtained before circumvention. The "hacking"/unlocking of products should also be in the rights of the owner. Case in point Sony vs. Hotz, and many others.
In addition to these words, it should be known that this isn't only a matter of fair use, but allowing this to happen is simply a violation of MILLIONS of people's work, their blood, sweat, and tears poured into every creation that they make. It should be well known that this goes so much farther than companies protecting their copyrights. The freedom of creation that the internet has presented to the world shouldn't be taken away from us, much less so than by big companies harassing those who are innocent. There can't be anyone who would actually want this, can there? These acts of censorship are simply unacceptable.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Along with what is said below, the DMCA disrupts what consumers should have the right to do with physical objects they own. They should have the right to modify any product (electronic or not) to fit their specific needs or for entertainment. DRM should be allowed to be circumvented as long as the product was legally obtained before circumvention. The "hacking"/unlocking of products should also be in the rights of the owner. Case in point Sony vs. Hotz, and many others.
The notice-and-takedown process under the (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction ( Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Companies have been getting away for violating Fair Use using unfair copyright strikes on digital media for too long, and nothing has been done to stop it.
Many of these websites do a poor job protecting their users from false copyright claims and claims on material that are legally made.
Websites like Youtube do not even require copyright holders to prove that they actually own the material, nor do they bother to check to see if the video falls under Fair Use before taking it down, or monetizing it.
Youtube also does not have any penalties for false copyright claims, yet has harsh penalties for anyone a claim has been made against before the user can even prove their video to be legal.
Many videos have been issued copyright strikes simply for being a negative review on the material, even though such reviews are completely legal under Fair Use.
The DMCA was designed to protect those that invested in content creation in the late 90's. Today, it's implementation hurts more content creators than it helps. It need a major revision, and I agree wholly with the comments below:
The need to get their act together so cold whatever is it needs to be updated for this century I mean come on this is a 2016 note 1990 whatever
The DMCA has allowed takedowns on content with less claimability than a simple chat.
It's common on big sites like YouTube to find videos with footage from copyrighted material, but not often should it be taken down.
For example there are a lot of reviews of movies or videogames with images or clips of the subject, but most of the times there's only 5 to 10 minutes tops of footage whilst a videogame might last dozens of hours, plus it's all commented for the sake of the review.
All this content should fall under Fair Use but copiright claims are constantly abused and put under big pressure channels with thousands of subscribers like Channel Awesome or Jim Sterling.
This also happens with parodies as talented people like TeamFourStar have their videos constantly taken down, even though the content they take for their parodies is far less than the original, is completely redubbed, reedited and they don't even make a profit out of those videos.
These content creators should be protected more by the law.
For our rights. I m speaking for every content user in our world. A little peace of justice would not cause any problem for human rights
The current DMCA laws are in desperate need of revamping. When video game, movie, or music companies are allowed to take down your FAIR USE content because of some bogus algorithm, there's seriously something wrong. To that effect, people posting clear FAIR USE of themselves comentating or playing video games, a movie they watched (with clips) or listening to music and forming opinions based on said media and that being taken down due to DMCA is wrong. The entire system needs an overhaul to protect people's rights to FAIR USE.
IHE, YMS, H3H3, leafy, channel awesome, all of these people have been harassed CONSTANTLY by a bunch of no good losers either wanting money, or just got angry because they cant take criticism. This needs to stop before one of these channels gets taken down.
These channels are peoples source of income, don't let that get taken away.
While I do not make money on YouTube, I still feel like this effects me. I post music on my channel. Sometimes I use Novation Launchpad which works by playing pre-made loops. I bought these sound packs with my own money and I organized songs are with these loops. When I posted them on YouTube, I would get copyright claims on the videos, from people who have made songs are with the same loops I used. They run ads on the video and I don't like them making money on something I created even though I'm in the right. The loops are royalty free and no one can own them. I've also gotten claims when I've used Apple loops. I would like it if the system was fixed to take into account these loops that are royalty free and are created with Novation Launchpad or Apple.
Corporate copyright holders are using the DMCA to attack content that is protected under fair use. They are exploiting the law in order to crush competition and in doing so they are damaging people's ability to engage in free speech and innovation. The DMCA needs to be updated to protect the rights of individuals and small companies to engage in free internet speech without being bullied by entities with some axe to grind.
Companies are electronically scanning internet content and are able to issue takedowns arbitrarily, without any review process. This is a shocking affront to free speech and must no longer be allowed. Companies should be held liable for unfairly removing content that is legal. They should have to compensate those whose free speech they have trampled, and whose profits have been affected by their aggressive actions.
The DMCA needs to be updated to reflect the changes in technology since the time it was originally signed into law.
This affects a lot of people, and allows majority companies to tyrannise minorities on sites such as YouTube, something needs to be done to protect content on the internet. There have been SO MANY videos taken down illegitimately with no consequence to the faceless people doing this, yet lot's of consequence for the victims of the videos being taken down.
Now I know I'm not a big youtuber. I know that. I'm not going to BE one until I'm older. But. In the future, we won't have dickheads falsely taking down my videos, or anyone else's for that matter. Youtube is in such a bad shape, and we the community need to get them away from the shit-hole they're about to step into. Please. Join us to stop false takedowns and monetizing videos. Bring back Fair Use to the internet.
Hello.I have bad english,but i have big love to youtube's critics,trolls and simple people who just show their opinion on Youtube.I don't like when i can't watch my favourite critic because their videos was deleted because they have scenes from film,moment of song and more,more,more.And i want know what happening with my favourite channels on Youtube,i want know that this channels protecting.This strikes make me sad and i understand that people who take the money with help for their videos.I want see justice.Sorry for my english.Your Tim.
I'll be quick, maybe a 'lil too short.
Somehow people are getting false claims on a Site called Youtube.
These claims then don't get any penalties.
Because of this people lose some of their income effectively being stolen.
This all because of the abuse of youtube's copyright system.
I know Youtube is a company, I have no clue if they have the rights to keep this broken mechanism. And/or advertise it as Fair use.
But I'd be nice if you* could bring out some kind of statement regarding Youtube's "fair use" system.
Have a nice day/night.
~ James Willson
P.S.
The post code is fake, and so is the name.
On my youtube page I record myself playing the piano for fun and use certain games on the WiiU. If this copyright is put in place not only would I not be able to put my gaming stuff up, I would need to do an insane amount of research to make sure that my playing by ear is not copyrighted on any other place in the world, in which I want to post my musical talent on a weekly basis. They want me to have professional level stuff in order to post but, all I can afford is a smartphone, my WiiU and some imagination.
All in all. If the DMCA Laws is not changed to account for todays internet. Then it would be such a dick move and thats coming from me. A single teen from sweden who would only be affected by losing some of his best forms of entertainment because of all the faulty copyright claims.
The internet has changed alot in the last few years and so should the DMCA. Nowdays so called "internet trolls" can takedown others peoples work under the copyright claim even if there is no copyrighted content. Sites like youtube are constantly under attack by the trolls, videos are being taken down all the time under the copyright claim. For example : the claimer doesn't like the person that made the video so he decides to copyright strike it. The DMCA needs drastic changes.
The Internet is vast and is as much of a place of freedom as was proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence. But now, the DMCA is too dated for the Internet to truly be free.
One huge problem is with YouTube. If you search, too many YouTubers have complained about not being about to do what they want because their stuff is "copyrighted". It isn't companies just to take advantage of the DMCA and claim those videos, just because they can.
It doesn't stop there. On the virtual art site DeviantArt, hundreds of users have threatened to quit because of the fact that DeviantArt is straight-up allowing other people to steal art from the site and sell it.
This is not what the Internet is. We need to change the rules and make sure everyone has fair use of the Internet, and not a totalitarian Internet.
Before the standard form message, I would like to say personally that this whole thing has gotten out of hand. The fact that fake copy-right holders can make as many requests to website, YouTube particular without so much as a slap on the wrist if shameful and needs to be changed right away. Those who completely ignore the concept of "Fair Use" need to be reminded both by the FCC and by Monetary means that 'Fair Use' is protected by copyright laws and by the courts.
Please take this into serious consideration and update the DMCA or when creating a new version of it. No one should be able to ignore the law and not be punished for there greedy misdeeds.
There needs to be severe punishments for false copyright claims. This will stop people from initiating takedowns on content they don't even own. Corporations are using these claims to harass content creators.
I myself have seen youtubers I watch online everyday suffer from DMCA abuse, and as an up and coming youtuber myself, this is something I'm very concerned about. Copyright like the DMCA needs to be eliminated as the technology advances and companies take advantage and scam others for the dumbest of reasons. This isn't the 20th century anymore, this is the age of computers, in which they become a part of our daily lives, and I don't want to see the freedom of the Internet taken away from the people because a sleazy executive didn't get a few dollars.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I uploaded a short forty second video from a TV episode on Wednesday or Thursday this week, which I needed for my English presentation today. Within an hour, the video was taken down for copyright. There was no way possible I was claiming ownership or making profit of the video - I was merely using it so I could pass my assignment, and my class. In the end, I couldn't show the video, and is pulled down my grade.
Also, current copyright laws allow false claims to be made, hurting content creators across the internet, and the penalties for filing such false claims are never enforced.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech , fair use of copyrighted works and independently created works. individuals have used DMCA takedowns as a form of bullying, placing strikes on works simply because they want to silence the creators often simply because they can.
The DMCA is being abused and it NEEDS to be updated. So far the DMCA has not been updated for the 21st century and that needs to happen. The DMCA - an anti-abuse system- Is being used by others to abuse the content creators its supposed to be protecting. There are so many companies impersonating the owners of intellectual properties that never get punished, and there are tonnes of videos on YouTube and other video sharing platforms that get taken down by the owners of the properties but are way inside fair use. And it is now a day in the life of a content creator to face false copyright claims every month and, for certain channels every week or less
People are receiving claims on something that has no copyright content in it at all, simply two people talking on camera. Other people have problems with fair use. They are reviewing or are criticising something and still receive claims.
We need to stop this DMCA takedown bullshit. This ruins reviewers careers by taking down their reviews just because they may use clips from their movies. This needs to stop. They're not putting the whole movie online, they're just giving their opinion.
The DMCA is outdated and all too often abused by corporations or individuals to target content creators unfairly. For instance, content creators on Youtube who use film clips in a manner that would fall under Fair Use being targeted by production companies or film makers and forced to take down videos that are and should be perfectly legal in our current system. This abuse is done frequently for profit or to silence critics who may say things that said companies or corporations might not like. For whatever reason it is done though, this abuse must be stopped.
We need to update our laws in ways that protect content creators on the internet. We need to make sure that Fair Use is being upheld and protected. We need to protect content creators, and by extension all internet users, from censorship. We need to uphold and protect freedom of speech online. We need laws and regulations that make sense with the internet of today, where more and more people are posting and viewing content every day. We can do that by examining our current laws and the ways in which they are currently being abused, namely by examining the DMCA and how it is being used to silence or extort content creators online, and then implementing appropriate changes. We can and we must fix our current system. We must stop the abuse and protect free speech and Fair Use.
The basic principle is clear: content creators are being punished for completely legal actions with no means of appeal, which is a violation of the fundamental principle of free speech.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too comy used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Just Stop...
I've seen entire Youtube channels taken down because of how copyright is currently run. I get it, companies want to protect what they create, but what about reviewers? What about those who do parodies? What about those who just want to talk about a trailer? Something that is meant to be advertised. What about those who did this and were not monotizing a video where they showed the trailer? How about someone who got written permission to use a trailer and then still had the video taken down? There needs to be consequences for false copyright claims. Otherwise there will be companies that will take advantage of copyright right law.
What's worse, I've seen companies who knew about this loophole in copyright and claimed videos. The kicker: the concent that was considered copyrighted was not even theirs. Any company can claim a video and say any content in a video is theirs, even if nothing was created by them! My hope is that this will be stopped. I hope that the proper change will take place.
Fair use is being bullied and infringed upon by the current laws for the Internet process of today, which is 17 years old now. This isn't just for you tubers though, it's for sharing ideas, beleifs, expanding the human element of creation, expression and growth. It's being stifled by corporations looking to control anything said about them, trying to stop any negative feedback, an expression of free speech.
Speaking from a personal perspective, I have a couple of videos that have had copyright strikes against them--even though they fell under fair use. I don't have a big channel on YouTube, but they were slightly popular videos. A couple of them were created for educational use, and it is stated that they were--but I was still given the notification. This doesn't affect me as much as it does other channels like "The Nostalgia Critic" or "Team Four Star", who make their living doing this, but it is very important.
The laws governing these practices were made back in 1998, when the internet was still new and there wasn't even close to 1% of the content created today. This law is outdated and has been taken advantage of by mass media corporations in an attempt to make even more money by attempting to use a law that, quite frankly, doesn't apply like it should anymore. I agree that the rights of copyright holders should be protected--but at what cost? This stifles creativity and makes it seem as though creators that have their content taken down are criminals--when they are well within their legal rights. I beg you to please revisit the DMCA, and make sure that large corporations can't continue to bend the law to suit their needs & stifle the legal creativity that has suffered because of it.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Please someone fix this. im tired of seeing my favorite youtuber beeing afraid of false copyrights and cant tell much more cuz my english is very bad , but please if someone read this, help youtuber and the internet in general become a better place for content creators
idk what to write here xd
The notice-and-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The current DMCA takedown request mechanism does not have significant penalties for people who maliciously and improperly deny the free speech and fair use activities of other people, use it in lieu of SLAPP actions, or use improperly constructed software to detect and report DCMA violations without verifying that the targeted work truly is a violation.
As a result, content creators across the country are being harassed, silenced, and shut out of the public commons by unscrupulous or uncaring corporate entities who do so at no cost to themselves. We do, after all, have a major corporation, which made nearly all of its money publishing derivative works of public domain characters such as Snow White and Robin Hood, who shoved back our copyright laws so that their own aging characters would NOT enter the public domain as the characters they co-opted had.
Allowing corporate entities to decide what is responsible and what is not has led to a situation in which everything that benefits corporations at the expense of individuals becomes the standard in regulation, whereas NOT ONCE has a legal change or update which benefited individuals and free speech at the expense of corporate branding, copyrights, or trademarking has ever happened in the history of this nation.
Doesn't that seem a little unusual? If incompetence or short sight were to blame, we should see error bars on both sides of the issue. But we don't, and we know why.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and i, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The DMCA takedowns are completely misused on content sharing sites such as youtube. We have seen examples of videos being deleted, despite there being no copyrighted footage being shown in the video, videos that have been taken down simply because someone didn't like the way their material was being protrayed in the video, even though it used under full fair use, and with no actual repercussions to the people issuing these takedowns.
It's grotesque, it's stifling creativity and free speech. This is an issue that needs to be addressed today.
If this comes through to someone who's listening, please, watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI to hopefully understand exactly why this system is so broken.
im too lazy to write something proper but i pretty much believe in all of this so yeah.
Anus
I'm upset because I've been working on my channel since 2014 and I don't won't anything to happy to my channel nor my favorite youtubers I watch everyday. I haven't hit 1000 subs yet and I'm at 715 and I want to hit 1000. People are supporting us and enjoying us as a hold because we give them entertainment sometimes daily. I'm also not very sure what going to happen but please I was told a little information and us Youtubers/Fans shouldn't have to go through any mess. Also why terminate peoples channels for copyrights if we are working hard putting days of our life to better improve our content
Some of my favorite YouTubers have gotten strikes from videos X years old. There's 3 copywrite strikes, then it's termination of that channel. Lately, a bunch of companies started raining down on these people, I am fans to 2 of them that had 200,000+ subscribers, just taken from them...
This has mad me mad because when i uploaded a vid you closed it you need to protect the internet
I am an american! I have freedom of speech, among other rights. I take these rights seriously. The public is NOT OK with removing our rights for the false protection of companies.
Chris Press
7724753024
capress01@gmail.com
Now, I'm not the largest creator I know. I make short animations and, admittedly, I have almost no following. However, the number of creators I follow that have been affected by problems with the DMCA is staggering. People I look up to have had content taken down for reviewing or simply mentioning the existence of an intellectual property (and, no, non-disclosure agreements were not at play.) They've had their livelihoods almost disappear due to false claims, and no one in a position to change this problem seems to care.
There are three gaping holes in the current system, as far as I can tell.
Many copyright take-down systems have no human moderator to determine the validity of a claim; if disputed, copyright conflicts seem to work in favor of the plaintiff (guilty until proven innocent); perhaps most insultingly of all, if a claim turns out to be fake, the attacker receives no penalty for the false claim, leaving them completely capable of issuing a second claim as soon as the first one is refuted. Heck, many offenders at this very moment already use multiple accounts or dummy companies to place multiple claims on the same piece of content at the same time. The DMCA has essentially become a game for many of these kinds of companies, like a board game: choose what content you want to steal the revenue of, file a claim, and watch the money roll in. If the claim is refuted, then you didn't get your hard-exploited money, unfortunately. But, don't worry about it. You'll get another opportunity next turn.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately disenfranchised legitimate competition and extracts undue money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Russia with you. We can stop it together.
If the corporate copyright trolls insist on maintaining DMCA takedowns, then the Digital Millennium Copyright Act should be removed and a new act must be ractify to stop and criminalize abusive, fraudulent takedown notices.
Many people, know as "Let's Players" on the Internet and YouTube in particularr, feature video game content on there websites and channels. However video games often contain cut-scenes, which have been deemed videos owned by the game developers. Because of this, many videos of Let's Players get flagged and taken down because they show the cut-scenes. There are other similar examples of this with different types of videos or on different websites. The copyright laws concerning the Internet should and must be updated to apply to modern-day's technology.
While the system is clearly well-intentioned, greed appears to have overrun the companies that issue said takedown notices. For instance, merely including one or two video clips can get you a copyright strike, despite the fact Fair Use says one can use said clips.
The current system of DMCA takedowns needs serious reworking. There are plenty of comments here with reasons why it needs this, and some probably even of possible avenues of doing it. I will just simply add my voice to say with certainty that the current system is abused and misused to silence unwanted acts of Fair Use. Thank you for your time.
The current DCMA has wide-reaching effect across many countries, affecting content posted from anywhere, hosted in US servers.
My key concern is caused by a combination of the "Safe Harbour" rules, the lack of penalties for false notices, and the high volume of notices which may be sent to a service provider.
These result in service providers being highly incentivised to remove content immediately upon receiving a notice, without any review of the legitimacy of that notice. This can and has amounted to enabling censorship of the Internet, violating freedom of speech (which I understood to be a core principle of the US constitution).
Don't agree with something someone has posted upon a third-party hosting provider's service? Submit a DCMA complaint about it. The hosting provider likely won't have the resources to double-check that the content truly violates copyright and will remove it.
The solution I see, is a penalty system for false infringement notices. If an infringement notice includes URLs to content which are clearly non-infringing then the submitter of notice should be made to pay a penalty fee towards the service provider. This fee might typically be used to:
1) Cover that service provider's administrative costs towards dealing with the incorrect notice.
2) Perhaps reimburse the poster of the content, which would have been temporarily censored for no good reason.
This would discourage DCMA-notice-senders from submitting high volumes of poor quality notices (such as those harvested by keyword "bots"), and in cases where poor quality notices are sent, the service providers are compensated in a manner proportionate to the number of bogus notices they receive.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown.
Some of my favorite people I watch on Youtube are attacked daily by these false claims, and have had their entire livelihood at risk due to these kinds of false claims. Please consider this stance, because I don't want to see people I love to watch and laugh with shut down because some company abused their power.
The law regarding Fair Use is obviously too vauge and generalizes each category of Fair Use which makes the law broken.
There needs to be a rework of the law which can safely determine what is and what isn't considered Fair Use.
Youtube has been hit with companies claiming copyright on videos that use a few seconds of something that could even be an hour long. This is completely Fair Use but yet the Youtuber does not have the financial capability to fight back.
There was a recent case of a Youtuber that did have the money to go to court, named Ray William Johnson. This case proves that Fair Use Laws are too vauge.
The original judge of the case sided with Ray William Johnson, stating that all of the videos in question (apart from 1) was considered Fair Use. However, after an appeal from the losers of the court case, a different judge said that every single video violated Fair Use laws, and an extra amount videos were brought into question.
This meant that Ray William Johnson had forty videos claimed for violating Fair Use, when the original amount of 18 didn't to the other judge.
I hope you see why this is not okay, this is different to one judge giving a murderer 25 years and a different one say life without parole. This is one judge saying that a person commited a crime, and one judge saying they didn't. (I believe the second judge was actually defined as a Jurer.)
When Youtube first started up, companies tried suing Youtube for the videos put on their website, even though it was the users who uploaded them.
This led Youtube to protect itself using DMCA laws, also causing Youtube to put a three strike system in place.
Because of the laws, the three strike system has lost people extreme amounts of money due to companies easily filing copyright claims on videos they didn't like, or on videos that used small cips of the copyrighted work. All completely in Fair Use.
Youtube can't due much about this.
When a company claims a video, the revenue from that point on goes to the company until the Youtube user disputes it. A company can then agree to the dispute, or it can dispute the dispute.
What happens next? Oh yes, the money continues to go to the company.
The only way a Youtuber can fight back against this is by going to court, by as said before, Youtubers simply don't have the financial capability to fight back against DMCA claims.
These are the laws, but they shouldn't be. You can change them and you should, because companies can keep getting away with stealing money when Fair Use is in clear use.
Make specific laws for each fair use category. For example, critique. If you are critiquing against something, if you are making an argument to why someone is wrong, then you should be able to use the whole of the copyrighted material. If you are critiquing in favor of something, then you are adding nothing to the argument, so I can see why Fair Use does not apply.
This is the same for all categories. If we are using something for paraody, what percentage of the original work can we use? What if we add nothing visually?
You need to expand the Fair Use laws by making them more specific. You need to make the change.
FOR THE SAKE OF ALL CONTENT CREATORS ON THE INTERNET, STOP THE ABUSE!
AND BUSH DID 9/11
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a disaster - a system that is being abused to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
As a consumer of this content and a citizen of the US, I want my fellow citizens right to express themselves in manner compliant with copyright guidelines to be protected. Articles in a newspaper can't be silenced with spurious claims from unknown parties. Ad revenue from a television program can't be seized by detractor of that program. A song or book that meets fair use guidelines can't be erased by a copyright troll. Why is online video unique?
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgement to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Best,
Ariel
p.s. Listen, that form letter above is the best clinical expression of my feelings. To be more candid, please, Youtube and other similar sites are where most of my entertainment is. And not just that, it's a place where voices that normally wouldn't be heard on tv can be heard. The DMCA as it is can potentially silence those voices and that's not okay. Every voice is valid, and we can't stand by if those voices are cut short by fraudulent claims on videos. Thank you for your consideration.
Lastly, please keep the internet a place of the people, not another place for Billion Dollar companies to make more money that they don't need.
Kind Regards - Gregor from Vienna
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ speech need to be held responsible.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Among that many of the people being claimed are not doing harm to the product they simply want to entertain others
AND DON'T FUCK WITH MY PORN!
DMCA takedown stifle creativity and hurts creators. It needs to be stopped and replaced with something that the public has a hand in making.
Since the introduction of the DMCA the Internet has undergone a development no one at the time could have expected. Sites like Twitter and YouTube have become the primary sources of entertainment, income, political and artistic expression for many people. The DMCA while created with good and important intentions offers too much possibility of abuse and is becoming a detriment to the Internet.
The notice-and-takedown procedure makes it too easy for companies to remove content from the Internet without justification. While theoretically the content creators have the right to ***** unjustified takedowns they are often prevented form doing so by the websites as well as the potential cost of a legal process against multi billion dollar companies. Even if the claim is revoked it can cause irreversible damage. Nowadays many people make their living with content on the Internet. If that content is temporarily removed by a false DMCA claim the creator can potentially loose out on weeks and months of revenue.
While the system is intended to allow copyright owners to remove copyright violating content it is often abused to prevent political expression, silence criticism or even to harass creators. Since the notice-and-takedown system features no penalty for false claims there is no reason for a company not to submit a notice.
This leads to cases such as companies issuing takedowns in cases that would be considered fair use in any court, companies issuing takedowns of content that does not contain any copyrighted material or even people taking down content that the do not own the rights to.
The DMCA system is heavily biased towards copyright holders and too easily abused for censorship, harassment or personal vendetta. It is becoming one of the largest impediments to fair use and free speech on the Internet and is in desperate need of complete revision:
Most importantly it needs to include penalties for false copyright claims. Also the immediate removal of content and later investigation into its legitimacy is a guilty-until-proven-innocent approach which has no place in a modern judicial system. A copyright holder needs to show some basic evidence that they own the rights to material in the content in question and that it is not covered by fair use before the content can be removed.
Something needs to be fixed with DMCA take-downs , when a legitimate fair use occurs and is taken down that is just gross.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works. People on Ex, YouTube are using the DMCA to take down videos that sometimes doesn't even have copyrighted material in them, and for threatening the creator that if they don't take down the video, they'll get a strike on their channel. They'll also do it to videos who have a different opinion then them, and even companies like Sony and such take down videos that have negative reviews of their Movie/Video game.
Please fix this. I want to watch my favourite YouTubers and not have them be abused by a broken system.
I Think Fair Use Should be Saved and for Companies To Stop Randomly Copyright Striking Channels and Videos, This Should Be Done Because Companies Make Money off of our Own Content and it is absolutely outrageous.
Youtubers who are just doing videos with no music and no footage other than just them talking are getting taken down, whats fair about that?
Youtubers can also be threatened by getting taken down, whats fair about that?
DMCA was made for a long time ago not modern internet, it doesn't work anymore.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
In addition, I have many friends who are currently trying use YouTube for monetary growth as well as just getting their own content out there. At least half of them have had a video flagged even when the video was 100% fair you, the music, images and story lines even. So let's take a step back and solve this problem.
People i know and love as friends and family are being trolled by fake copyright claims.
My internet friends are being reported for no reason what so ever, my youtube friends hated on being taken down videos removed. All because they live of their money earned FAIR AND SQUARE. The company's taking the channels down for the channels earned money.
Why i'm notifying you is so you can stop this bring fair use back into our lives like people did for fair trade. WE WANT OUR FAIR USE BACK THIS IS STUPID. PEOPLE ARE BECOMING HOMLESS BECAUSE THE FAKE CLAIMS AND THE COMPANY'S THINK THEY OWN THE FRIKING LAW. My friends my family are becoming homeless because of this stupid Law.
People are working together to stop this please can you help too. Soon everyone will be homeless starve dehydrate commit suicide and hurt themselves. Please stop this people are counting on you to help us build a better community.
This system of fair use is utterly broken. Due to not having concrete standards as to what fair use is, companies and other powerful figures are able to censor content creators without punishment. At least one YouTuber has had to go to court over the issue of fair use because of the fact that it is entirely unclear at best and horrible at worst. This is the United States, land of the free, where people have rights to freedom of speech. But this silly setup we're in only exists to maintain the status quo by not allowing anyone to criticize the practices or content of companies, politicians or other entities. People have their livelihoods taken away on sites like YouTube due to this bogus system, and on top of that due to YouTube's setup a claimant recieves all money earned from a video's ads if they claim it despite it not having been proven yet that it is their copyright. In essence, in efforts to stop theft, you've allowed theft and the oppression of creators all over the place, and that is sickening, unacceptable and hypocritical!
Please, copyright holder also will benefit with the expose their ideas get from Free Use. Do not let Short sightedness hurt us all.
This is effecting not only myself but the creators of content that I watch, including freedom for their videos, income and fraudulent claims that hold no water yet are still taken as word of God to be true.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system can effect on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk and cannot be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. Companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Statutory damages for abuse of the DMCA takedown process or failure to adhere to any fair use review should be imposed. Automated takedowns inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I'm not sure that anyone in any position to change things will actually read this, but it's something worth saying regardless. The current state of DMCA takedowns, copyright claims, and the bullying tactics of untouchable corporations has to stop. If you are to take anything from this message, let it be this: we aren't asking for the copyright system to be entirely dismantled. No sane person would want a Wild West of intellectual property use online. What we want, what we /need/, is a level playing field. We need people who create content online-- be they reviewers, critics, journalists, or just some folks in a car discussing the movie they just saw-- to have some peace of mind that the things they post, by and large well within the scope of fair use, will be safe. We need to know that the things we say online, be they strictly opinions or for use as a purchasing aid to consumers, won't be taken down spuriously simply because someone out there with some money and corporate ties doesn't like what's being said. It's an issue of free speech, plain and simple.
There are cases, of course, where the question can be raised whether something posted online counts as free speech or not. But those concerns aren't even being brought up by the owners of IPs out there. They are taking down videos, deleting entire video channels, and ruining the livelihoods of online entertainers and critics on nothing more than a whim, firm in the belief (and rightfully so, unfortunately) that these content creators can't do a single thing about it. We need copyright protection, obviously. But it's getting to the point where we need protection /from/ copyright holders even more.
The point overall is, while copyright law was fairly effective in the past, the advent and rapid growth of the internet and of digital formats vs analogue ones has brought forth a whole slew of new issues that the old laws are entirely ill-equipped to deal with. And the fact is, up to this point, they haven't even been trying to deal with it. They've been taking down content, sight literally unseen, with no evidence more than someone out there (not even necessarily the copyright holder themselves) hollowly insinuating baseless legal action if they don't.
Like it or not, times are changing. The internet is slowly but surely becoming the place where everyone gets their information, and where many people discuss what's important to them. We need to take action now, before things get even larger and more complex, and come up with some fair and just policies to deal with IP disputes in the twenty first century. Because, as I'm sure you can tell from the rest of the comments here, the current way of doing things just isn't cutting it.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily based in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The February 2nd, I uploaded a video named "Parlons de Meitantei Pikachu" ("Let's talk about Meitantei Pikachu"). This video was defending the product from abusing comments and hoping for a release in France. However, my video has been took down mainly because it used pictures of their trailer... despite the fact the video respected "le droit de citation" which is the equivalent in France of the Fair Use law. I decided to do other versions of the video with the hope it didn't took down. The second version has been took down but the third one too which is even more ridiculous because in the latest version, the "offending" part included blurred pictures of the trailer in the background covered by illustrative pictures and a moment with just a white number on a black background. You must understand now that the use made of the DMCA is utterly ridiculous and something must be done to prevent people from talking freely of what they want. Thank you for your attention.
These false claims are both illegal to file and illegal to knowingly harbor and allow on the part of websites such as YouTube.
The DMCA is being used as a cudgel against free speech and has negatively affected my favorite content creators and has put pain to my reluctance to join in on the Youtube craze. Please fix this!
The DMCA is an outdated law that doesn't account for today's content creators. It is being heavily abused against anyone with something negative to say by some big corporations. And there's no punishment for them filing a false claim, so why wouldn't they? You need to include some form of punishment for false claims, so that companies will think twice before taking down someone's review, or parody. (both of which fall under fair use) so please for the love of all that is holy, do something about this monumental abuse of power.
Thank you for the opportunity to express my opinion
~Daniel McCann
Update this Act, yo!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I support the following message, which is as concise as I could offer myself.
I support internet content creators and critics. I do not support abuse of a system implemented originally to protect against unfair use. Abuse allowing people and companies to silence legitimate critique, humor and opinion - and to stifle people from making their own living.
These people who make the content get very angry over this. The people who steal this content ride on others success its wrong.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet. There have been videos taken down of individuals sitting in cars discussing their opinions on films they'd just seen. I think anyone with half a brain could see that that is clearly nowhere near sufficient in making a copyright claim. Many everyday hard working people make their living on Youtube, and it's absolutely atrocious that multi-million dollar corporations are targeting people using a broken system. It also isn't acceptable for trolls and scammers to continue to hide behind anonymity, seeing as how only one side has prove innocence or guilt. With all the current issues going on in the world today, people need to be more aware than ever. If you look throughout history, every time political speech begins getting censored, trouble arises. Small businesses also have to deal with an increasingly difficult market, again due mainly to the bigger corporations. The last thing small business owners need right now is to worry about having claims filed against them for trivial reasons, resulting in more money being lost that they needed to keep their business going and survive. Without free speech, we have nothing new ever. No innovation, no research, no questions, nothing. Just because a criticism isn't taken well doesn't mean it should be targeted. If we continue to rely on automation, more people are going to suffer, and more individuals will lose everything they've worked hard for. Let's put an end to this before it completely gets out of control.
Bogus copyright and trademark complaints have threatened all kinds of creative expression on the Internet. EFF's Hall Of Shame collects the worst of the worst. https://www.eff.org/takedowns
Copyright strikes are way too easy to make for how much damage they do, and can often ignore the actual blalant copyright offenders.
Please work towards finding a good solution to this problem.
stop abusing rigths!
Abolish the DMCA!!!!!!
The DMCA is horribly outdated and needs to catch up with the ways that people are using the internet today, in the 21st century.
We need to protect the internet we all love.
What I have seen over the years with fair use was that there are many companies and businesses that are good about and actually know what it means though for me I've been seeing many companies and people on the Internet illegally claiming copyright infringement on videos like Derek Savage, Viacom, and Fox to name a few that have taken down videos that were completely under fair use and came out u
The notice-and-takedown process under the (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
stop bogus DMCA takedowns and protect free speech!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
From a personal perspective, I am an individual that has thought about creating content for YouTube that would likely be in danger because of the current policies. While this wouldn't be my livelihood, as it is for many others, the continued abuse of these policies makes me wonder what the point of creating the content would even be. The DMCA is in dire need of revision and I pray that you listen to all of us and take steps towards that.
All this can specially be seen in websites as Youtube, where users who use fair use correctly can be punished by taking their videos or even their channels one, one example is the case of "I Hate Everything", who posted a video about talking about his opinions about a movie, all under fair use, and in a few days his channel got taken down.
This really needs to change, as the needs of the internet are really changing now, and it just can't be regulated by such an old regulation such as the DMCA.
I've uploaded a video on my page before and it started getting moderate views, but for some reason it got flagged and it did not have any harmful material on there. It didn't violate YouTube's rules and regulations. I tried to file a complaint to get the flag off, but all I received was a robotic response saying that the video was a violatikn and I couldn't upload any content for about a month.
Abuse of this system by zealous companies and networks punishes creators and harms the Internet. When anoninomity is stripped away and Corporate giants wade into a community of individuals they only destroy any semblance of creativity and happiness.
Please let us, the members of this Internet, real users, work out our problems.
On YouTube, many lesser known content creators who use very little copyrighted content have had their videos stricken with copyright claims, resulting in these videos being taken down with no investigative process whatsoever being performed to verify whether these claims are legitimate or if fair use applies. At the same time, more popular creators who alter content very little are free to continue doing so with no consequence. As this continues to happen it becomes apparent that corporations are targeting smaller channels simply because they are weaker and lack the means by which to fight back. This make it very difficult for these channels to gain the traction they need to get off the ground. Such blatant bullying has no proper place in a community of talented, hopeful artists.
revoke DMCA, it's been an atrocity since the beginning
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As a content creator and a creative person, stop bogus DMCA takedowns without rhyme or reason.
Fair use needs to be protected on the internet. Fair use is an important concept in copyright law and often feels flimsy or out of date when up against multinational corporations. There should be some positive or negative incentive to companies that acknowledge fair use and at the very least, some penalty or cost for sending out a DMCA notice.
As of now these notices are being used loosely and at will to bully content creators and thus copyright is not doing what it's intended to do—foster and protect creativity and transformative works.
While copyright infringement in the information age is a deep and complex issue, what is clearly evident is the fact that the current law does not provide a just system for addressing the needs of content creators and consumers of media. The system in place is outdated and has been abused by entities that are large enough to afford to go through the broken legal process to repress free speech, stifle creativity, and silence criticism. Should the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) be brought up to date, please consider the following:
1. The law should allow due process for alleged infringers of copyright without the content being immediately removed. This will deter false claims from being used to censor criticism.
2. The law should have penalties for false claims to discourage abuse of automated takedown systems to remove content that is clearly not infringing.
3. The law should have fair use integrated into its language so that it is clear to content creators what falls within those boundaries. There should be a process for determining fair use that is quick and speedy but not infringing upon the rights of the content creator.
While there are other issues that must be addressed with the DMCA (which shall surely be addressed in the thousands of other public comments), these three points highlight the major issues with the current law and its abuse. Ultimately what should be crafted in a revised DMCA is a law that upholds the rights guaranteed in the US Constitution to free speech and press. Thank you for your consideration.
Fair use is very important to me. Please take action in helping those who have been hurt by these copyright claims!
Plus you took down SpaceX Launch You Up, so fuck you
Why are people's opinions getting video's they created taken down?
Why is it ok for people to threaten people with copyright strikes on youtube for no reason?
Why are people and companies able to take revenue from the people whho earned it without a justified reason?
and Why are rules and regulations made for the 1998 internet still being used for the 2016 internet when so much has changed including what can be done on the internet?
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
Please listen, this law is not only out-dated, it is harmful, it sets terrible precedents for future online-entertainment, and will torment countless creators from producing wonderful content for everyone to enjoy. You do not have to remove it, simply update it, amend it, apply more restrictions that place the burden of proof upon the claims.
Big you tubers get around copyright but smaller you tubers always get striked. Bots are being used without even researching and the creators have no recourse, when they are striked for no reason. Using music in videos is PROMOTION. IT should be allowed.
what these companies are doing is illegal ruining the lives of my favorite youtubers
The DMCA has harmed the livelihood of talented, hard working and dedicated media content creators.
The DMCA has now given the power to anyone that fancies a takedown strike or monetization on any content creators videos. Channels have been wrongfully taken down and lost revenue from the lack of human involvement as part of the DMCA on YouTube and online content formats. People who follow fair use are punished constantly whilst the instigators get no punishment if they illegally and wrongfully sabotage a content creators work.
Quite frankly, the recent events abusing the DMCA system have been ridiculous, and as someone who may have to rely on the affected website(s), this is quite scary.
THIS IS ALL TOTAL HORSESHIT. THERE IS NO PROBLEM WITH YOUTUBE YA DUMB FUCKS
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use, due to having not been updated to keep up with the modern day internet. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are abusing this system by taking down over people's videos that are using fair use. People are losing ad revenue from those who are taking down their YouTube videos. Even people that are just talking about said product, content, or movie, which has no copyrighted music or footage are still having their videos being taken down. People that are trying to make a living off of ad revenue or starting to make a YouTube channel based off of other content, which should be okay with the fair system if wasn't abused or broken. I believe that the people who are the most subscribed on YouTube aren't even getting effected by the system because of how popular they are and how it would effect YouTube as a whole. Even now these words that I am typing out might possibly effect those are trying to make a difference on the system. That is why you people must fix this system that is being abused by people who are using to harass people and to take down other people's video that they don't like and their only purpose is to destroy that content creator. Even though those people are claiming that a content creator is using their content, when in actuality that person who is making a claim doesn't even have the ownership of said product. We now living in a world where the majority of the people watch content on the Internet or making profit off of YouTube ad revenue, which they can't even do due to false claims and video take downs. I am just hoping that this issue may get fixed soon.
The right of people to produce their own content is sacrosanct, we cannot allow big corporations to use outdated laws to run roughshod over small groups of, or individual creators. This stifles the system of competition that Capitalism and Democracy are based on, giving more power to those already in power and taking it away from those without. I know I'm not a US citizen, and I know I cannot realistically hope to influence US politics to the same degree as one, but the United States of America could set a positive precedent that would be echoed by the whole of the West. Besides, even over here, I can still feel the effects of this law in my everyday life: Youtube content creators, for example, based anywhere in the world, are frightened of you using music that even sounds like copyrighted music, let alone if it's free-use or not! The sickening ease with which companies can take down content and the terrible difficulty affected creators face in appealing DMCA takedowns is wrong, and must be stopped.
Who do you protect? The people or corporations? YOU Worthless fuckwads you all ought to die if you don't change this. So do something right you dumb dumb dummy shits.
Personally for me it means a definite freedom of speech & art. I want this. Content owners won't get bankrupt e.g. if someone (consumer) will use their product after asking a permission for using it. Also it can be good for both sides to make a law even for contentmakers on YouTube to purchase a Law Authored Pass (LAPs) for an year or just for a half-year for free using all materials belonging to someone. Even 5% of total youtuber's year income will be taken and stored into e.g International Found of Authority (IFoA) for futher directing a definite part of total amount to owner of content 've been using. Hope my thoughts will be heard
PS: youtube done fucked up
*Original*
To be honest, this has been a problem for a lot longer than the internet. It's not just "abusing the system", its becoming more and more like propaganda and, most of all, censorship. In a country that's supposed to stand for freedom of speech, that sends the wrong message.
But It's also a problem for smaller content creators. It's hurting them financially, and by extension their families. Because these people make a living by making these video's/music/drawings/etc. It's not just ruining the internet and our culture, but also our lives.
The easiest way is to make company's pay for claiming falsely. Don't let this be a one-sided battle! Nobody is saying that copyright shouldn't exist, but it can no longer be abused the way it is now!
This system is outdated, and if you don't fix this, so are you.
Covering events at the Dan Marino Foundation walk for Autism video that we took of the events was struck down because of the DJs music playing for the event was in our video on YouTube.
On Facebook and YouTube a video we made with copyright permission for the music the video was struck down.
It has become to easy for anyone in the world to tag a piece of content, and then steal all of the profits that that content has made for the original creator. This is absolutely shocking to happen on something as open and world spread as the internet. On a daily basis millions upon millions of people connect to the internet from all different parts of the world, and the pure fact that there is something so unfair and easy to abuse as a simple fair use system is absolutely terrifying.
Copyright claims and loopholes are being constantly abused on sites like youtube, forcing creators to battle claims that are unfounded and untruthful, and causing viewers to go elsewhere to get their favorite content. This needs to change and the rules in place for copyright need to be respected by both individuals and corporations.
DMCA takes down legal and fair use videos and other posts. It needs to be stopped.
#WTFU
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new and modernized safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction (Lenz v. Universal Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This still primitive process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) free speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright 'trolls'(3rd party copyright holders, often shell companies) who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
I Vaillant, strongly urge lawmakers to rethink this law and those like it, as the internet and by definition social media websites have become more and more international and having influence on almost the entire global economy, to limit free speech and to limit content creators from engaging in what is a potential entertainment business will only serve to deter and degrade progress and cause social, political and economical distress.
The internet is the catalyst in a revolutionary change in entertainment and greater freedom, companies with laws and regulations like DMCA are trying to stifle this, this law and the uproar from industries to support and people to go against it are no different than from times where renting books were introduced or when radio and television was introduced, time and time again this cycle repeats, and everytime laws are made to combat this it's only is to the detriment of humanity.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I want to help people to stop this ridiculous situation with copyright problems and very often strikes of Youtube bloggers/
My own comment: I make YouTube gaming videos, using my own music. I created it, I own allllll the rights to it. And yet, all these companies keep claiming it. I'm sick of it. I had to threaten a lawsuit if two of the companies didn't rescind their claim. Creators and people working under fair use shouldn't be allowed to be targeted by bully companies, with a law that doesn't work. Everything the DMCA targets, has grown. They need a new plan that doesn't infringe on our rights. America is a free country. The Internet was designed to be free.
Why is there a culture of control within lawmakers?
It's just not compatible.
Companies are also taking advantage of fair use. They are taking down and striking videos purposely. This allows them to receive unearned money and stifle the mouths that say things that they do not agree with. Fair use is constantly abused and misused on YouTube and this needs to change.
Fair use has had a much more significant effect on the innocent than the guilty. People who have done nothing wrong are the ones who are affected by the misuse and abuse of copyright.
DMCA is a failure and not in the best interests of the people's free speech. People are being unfairly stiffled and it is not fair. Something needs to change and quick.
Recently, on video hosting sites, such as YouTube, false claims of copyright have been filed. Most of the content that is being targeted is protected under fair use, but nonetheless large corporations and video hosting sites are still striking down on people using automated systems that unjustly frame content that is "legal". This new epidemic that has plagued the internet is an extreme attack on the freedom of speech of the U.S. people that has not been noted until now. The bogus and unjust DMCA take-downs must be stopped to restore the freedom, equality, and safety of the internet and to protect the first amendment rights of the American people.
Copyright holders need to be accountable for their actions, just like they expect us to be, should we infringe their rights.
Copyright holders should be able to certify their information before takedown notices are sent out.
Trolls should not be allowed to randomly (automatically) spray the Internet with notices, regardless of the impact it has on innocent or legitimate users. Trolls should not be able to operate on their own account, and if acting for copyright holders, they should be subject to the same restraints and constraints, that WE expect copyright holders to abide by.
WHERE ARE MY RIGHTS?
Freedom of speech and fair use should be paramount, not the greedy search for people and organisations to persecute.
DMCA was created for a reason - that is to protect copyright holders and copyrighted content on the internet. A laudable goal, and for which legislation must exist and be enforced.
However, instead of being used for that purpose, this law has been abused time and time again to restrict content protected under fair use, notably to silence unfavorable reviews, parodies and other free speech that callous corporations and individuals would rather see silenced.
I may not be American, nor even have been there, but I know the United States prides itself on its freedom of speech, of allowing everyone to pursue the opportunities they see. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act's outdated and biased nature has been used to instead crush free speech, strangle innovation and harass critics. This needs to stop.
The Digital Millenium Copyright Act is not an effective system for defending copyrights. It is geared toward systematic abuse not only by corporate interests, but against them. The system allows for harassment, defamation, and in some cases, economic harm to anyone who becomes the target of someone with computer access. As it stands, false claims can be made without repercussion, and the victims of such claims are left to defend themselves. This flies completely in the face of US law and justice, where individuals are innocent until proven guilty, not guilty until they can prove their innocence.
. It have gone to far with the copyright strikes and we need to protect free speech. This needs to end as soon as possible. They strike people that completely use the content with fear use and people are abusing them for no good reason.
Quite frankly, the system as it stands is antiquated and no longer tolerable. It saddens me that people (and corporations) will champion free speech for themselves, but abuse outdated laws to silence their critics.
By all means, take measures to prevent piracy, but take REALISTIC measures to combat a well-defined crime of piracy so the system is not abused to this level again.
Also, please create consequences for those who waste the time and resources of our Copyright Office and government to abuse the current system.
Thank you,
Tom
DJ/actor/model
Keep the Nazis away from Youtube Poop!
I'm just going to put it in simple terms. The DMCA takedowns are heavily biased. Small or kind of big youtube channels that are trying to voice their opinion on something are being held back thanks to the bigger channels that don't want bad criticism of their "content" (which most of the time is rarely good content). In short, the takedowns shouldn't be a short 3 strike thing, there should be actual evidence needed for a takedown to happen instead of someone just not liking what the video said and taking it down. This kind of takedown act is turning youtube into a monopoly by letting channels with horrible content get money from people with actually good content because they have more views or subscribers which is something that should not be happening. Another problem is with facebook being used as an outlet for people like soflo antonio to steal other peoples videos and rebrand them as his own without crediting the original creators. This needs to stop,Now!
i have had videos i would work on for hours upon hours if not DAYS and that i created and worked on and Ive had copyright strike placed upon me for content that was not even in the video and instead of talking to a representative of you tube that would have fixed this quickly i had to talk to the claimer stating that they were wrong and proving myself not guilty only to have them keep the claim on me and also have a strike put on me and have the video taken down which i then just deleted all my hard work and start from scratch which takes even longer now that i had to reformat the content differently. hours and days were spent for someone to put a false claim on me and in the end make me delete something i put my heart and soul into .
This is Human me, first off. I'll let the Robo-letter take over at the end, since I find that it is well-thought-out, well written, and that I agree with much of what it says. But before that, let me chime in with a couple things.
First off- I believe that Copyright is, at this point, a little outdated. Or at least, the implementation of it. I'm not saying we should get rid of protections that businesses have, but I do think that serious thought should be taken as to how copyright interacts with the sheer volume and accessibility of information the internet provides, and I don't think that any of the answers involved include more stringent controls. Perhaps easier and cheaper-to-obtain licensing, or a system in which copyright holders MUST go to the court or third-party arbiters in cases where they believe their copyright is being violated. That, at least, would mean that significant costs are incurred by the copyright holder as well, so that frivolous suits are not so common (though that may put more allowance on the ability of a major corporation to steal copyrights from smaller businesses or individuals- perhaps a system of restitution to the party that wins, which will repay court costs? Most of what I know about this process is from the Chapterhouse vs. Games Workshop case a few years back, so I don't have the breadth of knowledge that professionals would to determine the correct course of action here).
But in any case, the ability of DMCA takedowns to remove (effectively, censor) works is horribly prone to misuse- I know of at least one case, and probably many more, where a video has been automatically muted due to a robo-Copyright system, when the audio in question was a clear parody of the original work, sharing (as far as I'm aware) none of the original except rhythm and melody from the original work- a clear violation of the First Amendment- this is also causing the creator of the parody to lose viewership, and through that, revenue.
Perhaps a better way to handle this situation would be to make the DMCA not take down or remove the work in question, but rather to limit these claims to a tag, or marker on or near the work, not obscuring, changing or limiting it in any way, that allows viewers to know that the work in question may be in violation of copyright- thus allowing people the ability to pass possible judgement themselves.
Alright, back to the Robo-letter.
I'm a big fan of movie review Youtubers, and they of all content creators have been hit the hardest by the DMCA take downs. It's so frustrating to want to watch a video and then find it's been pulled because of "copyright violations" even though the video complies with Fair Use. We NEED to fix this blatant abuse of free speech. People use their Youtube accounts to pay their rent, their gas, their food bills. By having a video pulled they can be pushed into poverty. This is awful and we really, truly need to fix it. There needs to be balance. Sure, there are blatant copyright violations on the internet, yes, that's true. But a movie review with clips is not a copyright violation, especially considering that every reviewer I have ever watched credits the movies, TV shows, or other media that they used in their show. Please, please fix this before our world no longer has the beautiful content created every day by Youtubers around the world.
The notice-and-takedown process under the (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Under a court sanction ( Music) companies are able to use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The way the DMCA is right now simply allows corporate entities to steal money and take down videos that are completely fair use and that don't violate any rules.
I agree with all of the above. People are being harassed by big companies for content that is rightfully their's to use. Sometimes the content doesn't even have clips or sound that belong to the claimant yet they still go claim the video as theirs. Even when a video has been cleared for fair use they are sometimes hit again for the same reasons. Companies that use these outdated ways of claiming their content need repercussions for harassing content users who have done nothing wrong. The DMCA needs to be updated to coexist with the new internet and those who use it.
I'd like to stop this problem because people's channels on YouTube are being taken down especially for no reason.
Because the DMCA works international this is an international issue as well and as such I, a citizen of the Netherlands, feel obliged to make my voice heard in regards to the DMCA law. Remove this archaic and restrictive law completely.
People abuse the outdated DMCA system to scare content creators into taking down their content, even though the content in question falls within Fair Use terms.
Why are so many videos being taken down over false claims with no repercussions. I'm tired of hearing my favorite you tubers being harassed by unfair copyright takedowns. This needs to stop.
To all of this I want to add a few words as a Youtube watcher and a fan of multiple Youtube content creators.
This situation heavily reminds me of Net Neutrality case of 2014, when cable companies attempted to create premium data lanes for companies, which could afford it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpbOEoRrHyU
Basically, I, personally, consider it another attempt by bigger companies to create olygopoly or even monopoly. In this case, the monopoly of thought expression. Yes, there are people on the Internet that ARE violating copyright laws, but I've heard from numerous content creators, that DMCA actually was used to harass them.
Chris Stuckmann
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I55seO4d1Kw
Doug Walker, part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC3NIdiZF_E
Doug Walker, part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFlgx2LTdeY
Which resulted in #wtfu movement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
Those people already expressed the law part of this situation better than I will ever be able to. All I ask for is:
1) No olygopoly or monopoly on thought expression. I've read 1984 by George Orwell. Loved the book, hated the regime.
2) A compromise between human and program ways to check internet content on violations. Perhaps, addinig actual lawyers to to the process could help. For example, if the quantity of complaints reaches some level in percentage, only then a lawyer checks the content on violations. Similar way for complaints by copyright owners, just minus checking the number of complaints.
3) I want bigger companies to stop slowing down progress and start to incorporate it in their policies. In Youtube criticism case - don't shut critics down. Instead, try to incorporate them in their promotion campain. Well, you know, like reviews before the official release. Many of the attacked Youtube content creators do exactly that.
Thank you for your attention!
I have a friend who had a video taken down due to half-heartedly singing "Nothing really matters, to meeeeeee" from Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.
I had another friend who used a backing audio track that was put online as free to use content, and had a DMCA put against them for someone who had used that same backing audio track and put lyrics over it.
I've seen DMCA's used several times as an attempt to silence bad news that corporations did not want a public eye on.
I understand that people have a right to get paid for their hard work, and that copyrights are important, but this law is being exploited to silence criticism and creativity. Please do away with it.
I've been a huge follower and fan of YouTube ever Scince it first launched in 2005, from videos of epic fails to tiny channels uploading content daily for fun and entertainment for others, it's an amazing site and I do not want to see it go away, however, now that I've grown older and wiser, I can see the darker side of what's happening to the site I love so much. The DMCA has been constantly used to shut down and even silence critics, it's been used by malevolent companys to shut down competition, and it's also been used by shell companys to more often steal a quick buck by making a completely false DMCA. I for one am done being silent, I wanted to make a YouTube channel myself and voice my own opinions, and I wanted to make my own content, however, with the way the current DMCA is being used, I'm scared someone could easily take me down in a heartbeat if they didn't like what I said, and you see how that is a MASSIVE issue to not only the Internet and how it operates, but it's also a massive issue to the very Core of the American people, freedom of speech.
#WTFU (where's the fair use) has shown people who has been affected by these false or malevolent DMCA takedowns, and it's clear to show that the Internet as a whole has had enough. Its a long and hard road to go down to get this fixed, but we're willing to see it through to put and end to this abuse of a system that was supposed to protect content creators, but now it's being used to stifle creativity and small people who can't defend themselves.
I think that YouTube and all these other sites are messing up the internet. Its not the creators fault, its the people who find loopholes to take out the creators
The overuse of DMCA takedowns blocks growth of variety of content created by smaller/medium entities. Disney and others build their empires on derived content by introducing new form of expression to old stories. At the moment is very hard to do the same.
Abuse of DMCA takedowns is also used as way of stealing monetization revenue from smaller entities on various publishing platforms.
Licensing is important. But we need to enter next level of Licensing oversight, which will be beneficial for entities of all scales in new media environment.
Really, some people abuse the fair use system and youtube dosen't do snything about it.
New youtube users who want to become content creators will lose their rights to upload any videos if nothing is done about this. I use to have a channel that uploaded travel videos on youtube. However, fear of copyright strikes caused me to shut down my old channel no thanks to the flawed system in this matter. It's hard for new gamers to get into the let's play channel genre as well as other content creators to live on a Youtube ad revenue salary when their are trolls and automated bots going around and putting strikes on them. What good is it to adhere to the Youtube guidelines if someone is going to try to take your channel down for nothing? Youtube must answer for their mistakes and do something about this. There are communities that work to get rid of bots on their websites as well as trolls all around the internet. So why is it taking so long for Youtube to do something about this? Just find the channels who sent out false strike claims and ban them from youtube. It showed be a crime to send out false claims on someone who didn't violate the guidelines to start with. Pass a law that deals with fraudulant claims on Youtube and make a deterrence on what happens when users create bot accounts and have those accounts terrorize other Youtubers. If Youtube wants to continue having videos uploaded on their website, then let them know that they need to do something. Otherwise, current Youtubers, new and old, will have to take their business to another website that deals better at dealing with trolls and bot accounts than Youtube's guidelines.
Bonjour, certaines personnes abusent de la loi pour faire de fausses déclarations vis-à-vis de Youtube. J'ai supprimé une de mes vidéos il y a quelques années à cause d'une revendication monétaire qui était fausse, j'ai eu ce genre de coup plusieurs fois que j'ai pu contester sans soucis, et récemment, j'ai laissé une vidéo en privée dont une partie de celle-ci n'a plus de son, et récemment on m'a fait une revendication alors qu'après recherches de quelques personnes, la revendications est bien abusive du fait que le studio prétendant n'a rien à voir avec celui qui s'est occupé du son du jeu.
Je précise que je ne monétise pas mes vidéos, car ça ne contient pas du contenu créé exclusivement de ma part.
The system in place is highly unfair to Internet content creators.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ creative speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to creative speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit creative speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Please we have to stop DMCA we need support so we can have the future. I wanna see more new youtube vids and goanimate and more so we need to stop DMCA. We need all for the future!
I, as well as many others are quite tired of this antiquated system that, in today's internet society simply does not function anymore. Please consider the points made above when making you final deliberations, and realize what the very real and far reaching implications that your review of the DCMA could cause.
The DCMA is being abused...
I may not be a United States citizen, but with how many websites are based in the US, and therefore have to adhere to US copyright law, this is an issue I still feel very strongly about.
The current writing of the DMCA is antiquated in the world of the 21st century, and makes it far, far too easy for corporations to crack down and censor people while trampling all over Fair Use with impunity. You don't need to look very far to find hundreds of examples of:
-Game developers taking down negative reviews with copyright strikes because they can't handle negative criticism.
-Companies hitting reviews and parodies on YouTube with copyright claims while ignoring Fair Use so they can make ad revenue off the videos.
-The fact that YouTube's utterly ridiculous copyright system allows people to claim the same video multiple times, even after it was put back up.
The DMCA was passed in 1998, and it has not changed a bit since then. It's time that the DMCA was revised and updated for the 21st century, and it's time for far harsher action to be taken against fraudulent copyright claims.
I have been on youtube since 2008 and there have been plenty of content creators I love that are affected by the horrendous DMCA abuse. Teamfourstar is one of my favorite channels that are constantly being taken down even though their content falls under fair use through parody and satire.
The abuse of the DMCA is getting out of hand. It's an outdated system that gives to much power to the company and no power to the content creators.
As much as the DMCA might be needed (or something similar), the way it functios currently isnt the way it should. Anyone can claim ownership of content and have videos taken down on YouTube for exemple. As a content creator myself, I feel like I owe it to my viewers and every other content creator to send this message saying that the DMCA needs to be revised and have new methods of filing in complaints. I wouldnt like a vídeo of mine to be taken down for wrong reasons.
Simply put, the DMCA is out of date. It is incompatible with the modern internet in which the users are also the content creators. It was not designed to deal with Youtube.
It also unfairly stacks the deck in favor of copyright holders in a guilty until proven innocent system.
There have been several instances of videos being taken down that feature absolutely no copyrighted content, such as spoken word reviews of films that feature no music or imagery. And that doesn't even take into account "Fair Use".
Content creators have had their work claimed by third party companies on the behalf of copyright holders, their money stolen while undergoing a lengthy appeals procedure.
While copyright is certainly important to protect artists, in its current state, it is too open to abuse.
Keep your hands off our stuff!
~Nate Adams
Like do faq main I like newgrounds
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
There needs to be new laws put in place for fair use. At this point, at least on Youtube, fair use doesn't exist. Anyone can file a copyright claim or strike on any video and they don't even have to prove that the video is a violation of copyright law or that they even own the copyrighted material. Youtube has taken a guilty until proven innocent approach and have screwed so many channels in the past who have done nothing wrong. They've even gone as far as to remove whole channels and not even give the content creator a good reason as to why their channel was taken down. Below are some videos where these content creators are very angry with youtubes broken system and yes, it's not just a few channels that have been screwed over but it's almost EVERY CHANNEL ON YOUTUBE that have been screwed over in the past by youtube's broken DMCA system:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0W...
Jim Sterling vs The Slaughtering Grounds publisher (STILL going on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6J0...
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ...
Team Four Star's issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkc...
IHE vs Derek Savage (False DMCA and bully tactics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nU...
Chibi Reviews gets a DMCA for talking about snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWys...
Charisma on Command vs a MMA Company - MMA company thinks it makes the law!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXo...
Mr Enter and the saga of DMCA after DMCA takedown on the SAME video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlUtw...
NFKRZ and how ransom is now on YouTube!
And those are just the channels that spoke out about this. The current DMCA system is extremely unbalanced because if a company files a false copyright claim, they don't get punished but the content creator gets punished even if the claim is false and may even falsely get their channel deleted and they didn't do anything wrong. We need to take steps to balance the DMCA system.
1. Punish companies who make false claims
2. Don't assume the claims are always valid and punish the content creator.
3. Don't let companies steal content creators money simply because they filed a copyright claim on a certain video
4. Don't automatically take down channels. A channel must only be taken down if someone at youtube has investigated the situation and found out that the channel is violating the rules.
At this point, companies are being treated like kings while content creators are being screwed over left and right. Content creators currently feel the exact opposite of protected by youtubes broken DMCA system and they all feel like their channel can get falsely deleted for no reason. This needs to be fixed. We need our fair use back and we need to make content creators feel protected again. At this point, fair use on youtube simply doesn't exist and something needs to be done to bring back fair use and to stop companies from falsely claiming videos and screwing people over. I hope you take a look at those videos because they all describe exactly what's wrong with youtubes current DMCA system. It's broken and it's designed so that large companies can get away with any false DMCA claim while content creators are constantly screwed over and content creators are sick and tired of being screwed over by this. So please, we need change.
Stop trying to control our lives, we are human beings and we deserve respect.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
It should be updated to reflect current new Internet trend of user generated content sites.
All content based on the law itself must be a critique or a transformative in nature. I support anything that will give a legal precedent to content creators over the abuse of any corporate entity that would stifle them.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
In addition to the automated message below, I would like to add my own two cents; any law that permits large companies to take the revenue of large numbers of citizens without due process or even human intervention will be abused by some companies to increase their profit margin. Given that the livelihood of many youtube channel owners depends upon the revenue that these companies are taking, we are well beyond the point that a change needs to be made.
This was supposed to be something to protect our integrity. Now it's mostly a tool for abuse in the hands of the big corporations. This is causing trouble in your country, in my country and in many other countries out there that have nothing to do with your laws in the first place. Please, stop it.
Bush did 9/11
I am an online creator and a viewer. And I have found that the current DMCA system is screwed up.
The act is incredibly dated and in the hands of dangerous companies it can screw safe creators up.
This is a day job for many people, the money they get from reviews is what helps get them food and rent, and with the current situation taking the money frorm potentially safe youtubers, it hurts their bottom line.
If you can pass fix it
There have been companies who have violated and stolen revenue from YouTubers who deserve it. This needs to change.
The process for filing claims are broken, and the laws are not clear, especially with the modern internet. The law needs to be made clearer, and there needs to be consequences for filing false claims. There is nothing stopping me from shutting down a Youtube channel I don't like, and even if I couldn't shut them down, I would get no punishment. This has happened to many internet personalities, and can happen to anyone online with no warning, even if they haven't broken any laws.
DMCA is missused by companies to take down our rights for fair use. And when fair use wins, it's too late for the online creator. Here more:
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The Internet in our days has bake much different and even though it has given the opportunity to be creative there are many people that do take advantage of other people's work and without any permission and calling it as just comment.Also the exact opposite can also happens as people and companies without proof take down content.That is like guilty till proven innocent because nobody really take time and effort to see what trooly happend.
Small list of links on the issue:
- TotalBiscuit's video - two years old and still relevant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfgoDDh4kE0
- IHateEverything's video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH-8PqS84qA
- Sargon of Akkad's video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBxSdej8cXk
- MundaneMatt's Thunderclap:
https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/37912-where-s-the-fair-use-wtfu
Stop the Robo-Censor now!
The DMCA system is broken and easily exploited by many corporations and people to stifle criticisms, steal money and destroy the lives of content creators. Ways this can happen are three to four hour videos being taken down because they contain a five to ten second sound clip thus destroying that creators ability to make money of that video or someone making a video and monetize it as it is protected under fair use as that video is used to explain and critic a product and it is taken down. Examples of this included the youtube channel known as Channel Awesome having videos of theirs that are protected under fair use being taken down because they were negative towards the film in question. A worse example is when this Channel made a review for Jurassic World that was a made using there own actors, sounds and music but was still taken down because it was critical of the movie in question. We ask that you please fix this broken system that at this rate is stifling and worse may even destroy the online community of content creators that do this for a living.
Free expression is too important for bullies to be able to make false takedown claims without consequences. By making sure there are consequences for false takedowns, we can fix the problem.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they ar crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
I've seen websites flourish to huge extents to this new medium the internet has become. But almost all of these websites get stifled down and the people that work with em harassed entirely because of 1 thing: Companies, and sometimes individuals, using DMCA as an excuse to extort, harass, or silence those who use parts of their works under fair use, and sometimes not even using their work at all! And the people that I've seen get this treatment most of all are critics, be it video games, movies, tv series, music, etc.
What has happened with sites such as YouTube or sometimes personal websites that host videos or similar media, is companies send threats and take down notices on anything that shows any amount of their content in em, no matter how small, or just talks about it. If it comes to websites like YouTube, it's extremely common to see companies make shell accounts or contract some companies to send DMCA notices to individuals, since the system in that websites is flawed and automated, they often use it to take the revenue off the person and to themselves, and using shell accounts, once a DMCA has been countered, they have another company send another one.
As I said, sometimes a piece of media may just TALK about another one, not showing any visual or audioclips from it, and yet, if it is any less than perfect, it gets taken down or the revenue taken from it to give it to the company making the claim.
Companies like Nintendo have been using DMCA as a way to strong arm content producers under their wing. Taking any revenue of any video that has any amount of content from any of their video games and then opening a "partnership" where the revenue is shared between the company and the user, but filled with limitations as to what the person can post about the company, which is specially grating when it comes to critics of the company.
Let's not forget the system is so terribly done that often groups not affiliated with any company or produce use this to take revenue out of work they have no relation to. For example, Terry Cavanagh's video game VVVVVV and it's trailer. Terry is an independent game developer and his game had music made by the independent musician "SoulEye". However, when Terry posted videos of his own game with the music commissioned to SoulEye, his videos were claimed by a faux company under the claims the music was taken from em without permission... even though this group had absolutely no relation to SoulEye, and the videos had no revenue on them at all.
This sort of abuse is out of control and needs to stop. Such a law can't be allowed to keep being used by almost anyone to strong arm, harass, take advantage off by taken money out of things that aren't theirs, threaten, and silence those that have any sort of say on content made by others or themselves.
This is extremely critical! Please support this.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Dienoughgital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.enough is enough
You can't change hearts and minds in a day, so I'll leave my thoughts here and hope that the collective efforts of everybody will create a change. All systems have flaws, and the DMCA is no exception to this. Everyday, all over the world, people take and make content, some are blatantly stealing copyrighted works while others are using it in a creative and adaptive manner. Please learn to differentiate between the two, because fair use is NOT stealing, and should not be under attack.
Put the burden of proof on the accuser! No video should be removed or revenue altered until the claim is validated! Innocent until proved guilty as the saying goes.
Allowing punishment before proof of a crime flies in the face of the personal rights guaranteed us in the US Constitution.
Protect free speech!
Companies that take down people’s online content for no reason should be liable for statutory damages.
STOP SILENCING THE FREE MOVEMENT OF DATA.
Imagine that someone could take things out of your your house just by claiming that you had stolen from it - and that your landlord is required to help them. Imagine that if it turned out they were wrong, they would pay no penalty at all. That's what's happening here.
I would also like to add that there are many "popular" youtubers that either abuse or flat out break the law against fair use, for example, react channels. These certain youtubers will use whole, unedited videos of the thing there reacting to, while adding little to no input, they use movies, shows, games, even other youtubers content without permission, while other responsible youtubers are trying to follow the rules of fair use and still get punished! The system for YouTube claiming a copyright is totally one sided as well, it mainly favours the person who "owns" the content, even if the youtuber is following the rules and not breaking any, if a claim is filed against you and a video YouTube will take down your video with barely any notice. The lack of human interaction when dealing with YouTube copyright claims feels empty and heartless, an automated system shouldn't be in charge of deciding who's right and who's wrong. I would like to point out another example, someone on YouTube once did a test to see if a video would get claimed, even if there's no content, they made a video with the title "Damn Daniel for 15 minutes", In the video it is just a static picture of a pair of white shoes, with no sound or video at all, and somehow it got claimed by a company claiming the own the rights to "Damn Daniel" Does this not show how one sided and unfair the DMCA is? You can literally have a video with no copy righted content and still have your video taken down. The last example I'd like to bring up is that you can't even film yourself talking about a movie and have it taken down! This one youtuber goes to see movies, and after them, talks about it infront of a camera with absolutely no footage or content from the movie what so ever, and yet he has had videos taken down just for TALKING about a movie. The state of DMCA is terrifying, I'm afraid one day, all of my favourite content creators either will be too scared to make videos in fear of having them taken down, or they get so many false claims against them that they will lose their channel. I wish to create my own content myself but I'm too scared to even try cause of the current state, if you read this please take it into consideration, innocent people are being punished while guilty people don't even get in trouble, the DMCA needs to get changed to fit the times, it's obviously outdated. Thank you for your time.
The DMCA does not use the principle of innocent until proven guilty, and gets abused on a very large scale.
Many false claims are being made against innocent creators, and they are going through as legitimate. This is costing honest and hard working people their income, income that is needed to not only provide for their family and themselves, but also to allow them to become productive members of society.
The ability for so-called "copyright trolls" and even legitimate companies to literally censor and unfairly profit from the work of others is both a handicap to free enterprise and a dangerous precedent to set with regard to free speech and expression.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is--like our entire federal government--heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse, and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. (As if "our" government ever held corporate wrongdoers accountable for anything!)
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and to issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, thereby resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e., legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and to extract money from innocent victims. In other words, business as usual.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken off line at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech. (Not, of course, that "our" government is interested in protecting individuals' rights.)
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step toward creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged, as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
As it stands, the DMCA is a tool often used for harassment and stifling free speech. Individuals and companies often file take-down requests for material they do not own. The Internet and our culture as a whole has changed a great deal since the law was first written. It is time to revise outdated policies to work for today.
I live in a place that a mere 20 years ago had the worst propaganda and most tightly regulated media since Nazi Germany, a lot of which still hasn't disappeared yet. With that said, even if I don't live anywhere near the Americas I need to at least attempt to make my voice heard in this battle for free speech.
The Internet has changed the world, that is a fact, it has happened much too quickly for some to really keep up with the change however which is incredibly dangerous. Yes, we may see the Internet as that cesspool of the most horrid of ideas and people or the place where your 15 year old kid goes to watch stupid cat videos, but the fact of the matter is that the Internet has become much more than that. It has connected the world in ways previously unimaginable and with that, it has given new life to the entertainment industry. It has made it possible to earn a living doing something one is good at and enjoys doing if one has as much as a camera and talent. And those people, those people who manage to build a life out of nothing but hard work and talent whom I assume the US still idolizes as examples of "the American dream" are currently under permanent threat of having their lives destroyed.
How is that? By leaving one of the most important laws for the regulation of online content creation untouched for almost twenty years. This is unacceptable. This has enabled corporations to exert pressure on independent individuals who CANNOT fight such accusations. Companies who do not own any of a certain intellectual property can still not only remove the content of people to whom critique or parody of such content is a day job, they have the power to take the monetization from it. in essence, imagine working a day job in a factory, you finish your shift and as you're about to collect the compensation for your work the guy who owns the popular Pizzeria across he street and has about 20 stores in the country comes up to you and says "I'll be taking this now, thank you" while taking your wage. This may seem as an extreme analogy to you, or perhaps even hyperbole but I assure you, it is frighteningly accurate. Of course that outright theft goes unpunished and such actions are rampant at this point in time. Some of these corporations have even taken the liberty of saying they are above the law! Worse, this has given birth to a new, disgusting industry of shell companies that exist solely to relay content ID claims for bigger corporations as to make it even harder for the people who already can't fight this.
Ladies and gentlemen, I implore you, revise the DMCA law and help shape the future, a future that looks forward and makes it possible for anyone with the talent and will to create to do so. Don't be regressive, make the right decision.
Thank you.
YouTube is an american site it is a tool for freedom and speech its being abused by people who dont have a proper argument they can just complain and a video is taken down consequently people loose revenue people who depend on YouTube for a living its unfair and unjust that a video can be taken down without proper cause. The DMCA is a fossil of the internet the internet is constantly changing but it is not because the internet is constantly changing laws have to be constantly changed the internet today is not the internet from 1998 we have to move forward
Yeah, this is the spheel, and to be honest, I completely agree with it. This NEEDS to be updated, the whole DMCA thing.
The fair use is being a bused and we need to reform these laws to accommodate those unlawfully affected.
The lack of protections on fair use has negatively affected the income of many independent content creators who do not have the luxury of a legal team. Please fix this issue.
TAKE IT DOWN PEOPLE GET COPY WRITED FOR NO REASON
The DMCA system was made based on a different generation of possibilities and technology, and it is in dire need of a new update to reflect a generation where older schools of thought are not only behind the curve, but woefully obsolete in the modern context.
This needs to be changed. The way content and information is created and shared over the Internet has changed drastically since the creation of this act, and continues to change rapidly alongside the advances in our technology. We can no longer afford to simply get by with an act that does not take the present and future reality that is the Internet into account.
Our freedom of speech is in jeopardy. We need to save it.
Please read and hear our voices as we stand against the abuse of fair use content.
The notice-and-takedown process under the (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Hello. I have been a fan of online critics since discovering one, by accident, in 2009. That critic, being Doug Walker, has entertaining me with his videos to this very day.
Also, from then to now, I have enjoyed other personalities via their videos, including, but not limited to: Jeremy Jahns, Chris Stuckmann, Schmoes Know, Screen Junkies, HISHE, Itsjustsomerandomguy, etc. There are quite a more, but that would take too long.
The point is these hard workers have made me laugh and learn, through time good, bad and ugly. The bad and ugly times are when I need them the most. Without them, who do I turn to?
Plus, because of my appreciation for these artists, recently I have started work on a YouTube channel of my own called: CRAZY V.O. The home of Crazy Viewing Orders! As of this moment, there is only one video on it, showing illustrations I drew with a free iPad sketches app. Chances are some unscrupulous people may claim this innocent channel, involving art, movies, and pop culture, to be a problem to them.
Honestly, in the words of a certain blind lawyer from Hell's Kitchen:
"Take your shot!"
Thank you, takedownabuse, and Support Fair Use!
#WTFU.
This great nation was founded on a few simple principles. Free speech and print were one of them. Do not let a few power-hungry people impugn this.
As it stands currently, the DMCA takedown process is pretty bad. Many of the personalities I consume content from are a victim of this system. The current process has been abused to the point where I don't hear about how it actually helps copy write holders. Instead, it is used to censor people and gain profit. I urge you to reform this system so that there is consequences for abusing it.
And now for whatever this automated message says, which probably contains a bunch of important facts.
You damned fools, stop playing games with our privacy.
I've had original work taken down by fraudulent DMCA notices many times. Individuals, as well as corporations abuse it to chill free speech and commentary.
Let's put user rights and freedoms above those of corporations.
Furthermore, I would submit that wanton prevention of the sharing of opinions and on and advocations for any art, via posts and links and the like. Could be equated to stopping people talking about those arts. Are we oneday going to block people from simply mentioning the artists they have a view on? Will there neednto be a subscription in place before the topic can come up between friends in a resterant?
And not only this pre-written message, but it's pretty crappy that someone can't create artwork of their favorite show and have it taken down because the copyright owner doesn't like it! As an example, of course.
As a content creator I believe some copyright protections are good. However, I believe the system was designed for a time when it was mostly individuals owning copyrights. These days large groups monopolize and abuse content laws, and some delineation needs to be made in order that the true spirit and letter of your mission is followed.
Thank you.
P. H. Madore
http://phm.link
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet. According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review. While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims. The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone. To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech. Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
In other words, cut the crap.
I would also like to mention that, even though I'm located in the Philippines, I have also been affected by unlawful and ridiculous DMCA takedown notices. I tried putting up movie reviews on YouTube a few years ago but I stopped. I was totally fine with the getting negative comments and the like. But it became too much of a hassle because my video were being hit by copyright claims even though, as they are critiques of media and used in a transformative manner, it should fall under Fair Use rules.
I did try to fight the claims for a while but I just gave up as, once I successfully fend off a claim, two more of them would show up. Sometimes, these claims were incredibly questionable. For example, I did a review for the 2012 comic book movie The Avengers yet I was receiving claims from Russia and China of all place, not the official copyright holders.
I do hope the DMCA laws change to keep up with the current times as new media and up and coming people who would like to use the Internet for entertainment purposes in the correct way like me are discouraged because, even though the law is supposed to be on our side, it's the big companies who don't follow the laws who could bully the little guy.
Please, this is very very important to me and for the rest of the creative culture of the USA.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
-I've personally had videos on YouTube flagged for copyright. I did a top 5 best and worst comic book movies where I included the movie trailers for each movie prior to discussing why I liked or disliked the movie and the video still shows, but now I can't make any videos longer than 15 minutes. I also made a wrestling one that I used caws to stage the WM match between CM Punk and Undertaker that included the entrances and titantrons and Punk's got flagged for copyright. In no way was I claiming the previews, any scenes I may have shown or the titantrons and pre-match promo as my work, but I believe the commentary, opinions, critical analysis of the films and the video of the wrestling game where I provide commentary with my brother to a match I played on the game as fair use. I think had a human actually watched the videos, they would have determined that I wasn't infringing on somebody else's copyright. The lack of human interaction on YouTube from itself or the creator is alarming and ridiculous. It's especially ridiculous when all the trailers, titantrons and theme intros can all be found on YouTube, which is where I got the videos in the first place. My account at walker1984 says it is in good standing, but with all the copyright claims I had to respond to has left me without the chance to post videos longer than 15 minutes.
~P.S. my brother had a video flagged because of a Whitney Houston song was playing in the background at a Burger King.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
And by "heavily biased", I mean that the DMCA effectively allows big companies to effectively beat up internet users and take their lunch money like a playground bully. In fact, it allows anyone to do so; "moral guardians" who find content offensive, hate groups with an axe to grind against the creator, politicians or companies that wish to silence criticism, the list goes on.
The DMCA made sense in the Web 1.0 days, when the only content creators were giants who needed protection against hordes of mosquitoes, and it can do that. But today in the Web 2.0, many if not most content creators are tiny ones who need protected from the giants, and the DMCA not only doesn't protect them but is part of their problem.
False takedown notices don't even have to be generated on purpose to do their damage. Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone, and the DMCA has no provision to even try.
I believe a standardized process for notice and takedown procedures should be part of any update to the DMCA. The process should mirror the civil process:
1. A claimant can make a claim to a hosting site that certain content violates the claimant's copyrighted material. Claim must be made in good faith and claimant must have standing to claim. Claimant must provide evidence to this effect.
2. The hosting site will notify the content's publisher/uploader (may be the same as the hosting site) that a claim has been filed and will be investigated, while THE CONTENT REMAINS AVAILABLE. Hosting site will include claimant's evidence in notice. Publisher/uploader can provide evidence to fair use or lack of standing of claimant.
3. Claim will be investigated for standing and merit. If claimant provided evidence, this would be a simple double check of public record. If claimant did not provide evidence, claim should be dismissed immediately.
4a. If content violates copyright, it should be removed.
4b. If content is fair use, claim should be dismissed with prejudice.
5. Claimant and publisher/uploader will receive notice of decision and reasoning for decision. Decision and reasoning will be kept on file to prevent duplicate or nuisance claims and weed out publisher/uploaders who willfully violate copyrighted material.
A standardized process for notice and takedown would protect free speech while giving legitimate claimants a remedy before escalation to civil action.
Every day people are silenced. Be it fair use of copyrighted materials or sincere mistakes by the algorithms in place. The measures in place silence all kinds of messages crossing the gamut from humor to political. The results being in immediate takedown with little chance of appeal (depending on the host) and strikes against the account that, at times, leads to the forced closure of the account altogether. This is wholly unfair, especially in the spirit of "innocent until proven guilty."
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process under Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that's protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
There is also the disregard for fair use, with copyright owners censoring videos by falsely claiming abuse of copyright, or gaining revenue off of another's video. Many content creators have been attacked in this way, even when the law says they are within legal right to post such content, and the attacker suffers no consequence. On the contrary, the only ones who are at risk are the content creators, despite the law granting the right to produce said content. The landscape has changed quite a bit in the last 18 years, and adjusting current laws for current trends in media needs to be taken into consideration, otherwise the Internet will be reduced to a censored network controlled by arrogance and fueled by spite from irresponsible copyright holders trying to censor critics.
I am neither a content creator, nor a U.S. Citizen, but the internet is for everyone, and I must make my voice heard. I beg of you to stop this harassment of internet users, content creators and websites. The law is not a tool of corporations, it is the structure provided by the government for the good of the people. Please, do something good for the people and modernize these archaic laws. We are all in this together.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright abusers who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
I appreciate DMCA can be used wisely and appropriately, but I have encountered serious issues in the past:
I worked for a sports media company who made sports DVDs and videos for major sports companies, and I regularly found myself in a running battle with what I can only describe as copyright trolls taking down content off youtube and other websites on the grounds that we didn't have permission to use the footage (we did, having licensed it for that kind of usage) or that we were infringing on a company's copyright... even though all of the companies in question were our clients, and had expressly said that we could use their brand in this context, since we were promoting a shared product for mutual benefit and profit, and our contracts stipulated that we both were able to promote the content online in the manner described.
The problems really began because many of these 3rd party copyright troll companies (ostensibly working on behalf of the clients they were systematically undermining) had no interest in withdrawing complaints, even when it was pointed out beyond shadow of a doubt that we were using material legally, as defined in a contract, and worse, even once their error was pointed out, they often just continued making complaints about any new or further content we posted, no doubt touting their 'success' to our shared clients, even as they helped undermine our client's profits by curtailing our ability to promote our products.
Worse still, as most websites have an 'x many strikes and you're out' approach to 'repeat infringement,' these copyright trolls wrongfully removing content ad infinitum meant that our social media accounts were simply suspended or deleted on a regular basis. Our only hope was to communicate to our clients what their 'copyright guardians' were doing, and even then there was no guarantee that it would stop, I strongly suspect because parts, or perhaps the entirety of the process were being automated by dumb web bots. For example, one major broadcaster had our content removed as it said we had illegally used their footage. The problem with their complaint was that we had bought the footage off one of their main competitors, meaning it hadn't even come from the same camera, let alone the same broadcaster, and they had absolutely no right whatsoever to make the complaint. Appealing to YouTube and pointing out the complainant's error to them made no difference. These sites simply do not have the manpower or will to check all complaints, so a DMCA takedown request becomes as good as a sure-fire censorship/suppression tool, and repeat accusations of copyright infringement (whether true or not) can be enough to ultimately silence a channel or social media presence entirely. This obviously has severe implications for both legitimate content usage and promotion, but far more onerously, for free speech rights on the whole.
DMCA, as it stands, is broken. It works FOR large corporations and AGAINST content creators on the internet. It's being used to block bad reviews of poor products, to unnecessarily take down perfectly fair-use videos of all sorts just because a given song is in the background of a video or something.
Why is it that people can file false copyright claims against content creators who are doing nothing wrong? Why is it that if someone puts a third party claim on a video they can keep the money even after the claim is shown to be false. Why is it that the DMCA is being abused? Fix it.
Big companies are abusing the copyright system, please STOP IT!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) suffers from numerous flaws that beg for correction:
-- it is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders
-- it is too often used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
-- it has a chilling effect on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet.
The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. Automatically scanning content for possible copyright violations has been shown to be vulnerable to significant error and denies reasonable due process to alleged violators.
As currently worded and implemented, the DMCA’s provisions are disproportionately skewed in favor of corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Freedom of speech comes before corporate profit, because it is one of its prerequisites!
Please watch the very informative video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
It's not a joke or a satire. It is 100% honest. Listen to it. See how the law is being broken without the government knowing.
Please...
<- Yes. This.
In addition, some companies tend to engage in 'trolling' behavior, issuing DMCA requests for content they themselves do not hold copyright to, on behalf of other companies that have not given them the authority to do so. Refusal to accede to such illegal requests for megaupload.com was followed by an illegal joint action by the FBI and New Zealand law enforcement agencies, arresting Kim Dotcom for FOLLOWING US LAW, while not even being a US citizen.
Please put a stop to the companies using bots to automatically take down people's videos for the sake of DMCA. Most of the time, the bots are wrong, & the videos and posts of innocent people are automatically taken down. Even worse is that the same innocent people are also being punished by having their accounts automatically suspended or terminated when they didn't even do anything wrong to begin with. This major problem had been running rampant for quite some time now, & is only getting worse. Please put an end to this nonsense!!!
Many videos that I've seen have been taken down by other channels. The channels didn't even own the content. It was fair usage of the content and many videos have been taken down due to the same thing.
The DMCA is a failed experiment in cultural control. Those of us who grew up alongside the internet do not recognize the artificial boundaries which the law has attempted to impose upon content creators regarding their work. Outright plagiarism is wrong. Fair use is not plagiarism.
Many innocent people who use legal practices have been unrightfully stripped of their voice due to insufficient legal protection. Even worse, they can have this done to them by complete strangers who have never even heard of the content they are claiming and can still take away their free speech based on little more than a whim. This situation must be fixed, and the people of the government can fix it. We are undergoing a crucial step in making the U.S. a better place. The betterment of our country should not, under any circumstances, be taken lightly.
Hi guys,
My name is Nick and I'm 15 and I live in England. I recently started a YouTube channel of my own, after being inspired by countless people like The Angry Video Game Nerd, JonTron, ProJared, CinemaSins, the Nostalgia Critic, the list goes on. I found it amazing how anyone could simply shove a camera or phone under their nose and spout their opinions to the whole world. Just the thought that I could have an awful day at school, and going home, I could not only play video games to take my mind of it, but I could share it with the whole world, and instantly I knew, that this is what I want to do with my life. Even the one subscriber and the 70 or so views I have now shocked me. And at first, I thought
it was a perfect system, but looking closer in, it is anything but. I never really understood all the copyrighted stuff going around, and so I ignored it for the most part, but when I made my own channel a few weeks ago, I looked up the laws and policies, and understood fair use and copyright infringement, and knew what to do. Thankfully, this was round about the time that Doug Walker uploaded his video campaigning for fair use. I watched it, and for the first time, I really understood what everyone was getting so mad about in the YouTube community. After watching that, I went straight to I Hate Everything's channel and watched his side of it, and couldn't believe that clueless people like Derek Savage could just take down any video they wanted for no reason, and with no punishment. I don't know what exactly you're going to do if this is successful enough, but I'm sure it will improve the system in some way. What the worst part is is that just as IHE said, if he had a smaller part on YouTube, Derek would have gotten away with it. And that is what I am worried about, that people with smaller voices like myself are being abused and even taken down for no reason other than copyright holders not agreeing with their videos, or looking at their names and only seeing a dollar sign. I fear that this is a great cause you are setting up, and I wish you all the best in getting YouTube's systems to change. #WTFU
Best,
Nick
I need to protect my videos and we need to End the DMCA. I'm planning to make a comedy dub spoof show, George of the Jungle called George Abridged Reborn, it's a more mature show. With DMCA wins, not only I, but you'll lose too, Washington.
Time to fight along with us, Washington. And Bring it against the DMCA.
Also, Smike had almost all his vids taken down because of this shit.
Either that or this is a very dark April Fools joke, which wow... Ever heard of the boy who cried wolf?
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
I am not doing the copy paste message as I don't see how thats supposed to help so here is a legit hand typed one.
For a start I live in Scotland so while I am not affected too much by this, it is still silly, stupid and needs to stop. Almost ALL the time these days my favourite youtubers are getting DMCA take-downs for no reason, some of the worst being Cinema snob getting a takedown for a video where he sat in a car and TALKED about a movie he had just seen with his friend, the time any video with the word "Pixels" in it was taken down in an auto DMCA rampage by SONY, and the NUMEROUS times that DMCA's have been filed in an attempt simply to steal revenue stream OR to censor criticism.
Now while most of this IS still illegal activity for some reason it very often goes un-punished, not only that but there are other things that downright SHOULD be illegal but are not, for example there are a multitude of channels appearing that leech of the success of bigger channels by doing "Reaction" videos where they have the ENTIRE un-edited video they are reacting to in the bottom left side of the screen, this would get taken down in a heartbeat (and rightly so) if it was a movie picture made by a company, why are individual makers not afforded the same respect?
The current out-dated policies of copyright need to be re-vamped keeping in mind freedom of speech and the creative power of the Internet.
DMCA's should NOT be an instant attack that can hurt true artists, entertainers and educators, there needs to be human interaction in reviewing and questioning the validity of a claim before it happens, I believe that the TV will die and soon all video will be done through the internet, but that can't happen with the current foundation being as poorly designed as it is...
Corporations control TV, radio and newsprint. Let the internet be for the people.
Let's make a consumer-friendly environment.
Too often people use the DMCA as a club against free speech, not for legit uses. Safeguard people's rights, stop the abuse!
The above is what is suggested I submit, but I agree with all of it. Far too often do I see instances of fair use and other legitimate uses of copyrighted material taken down by copyright holders. For instance, the YouTuber CaptainSparklez made several song parodies and posted them to his channel. They became massively popular and remained available for several years. Recently, though, two of the videos were taken down for supposed copyright infringement and he was forced to replace the audio in both. Last time I checked, parodies do not break copyright law; if they did, Weird Al would be out of a job. The abuse needs to stop. I'm all for having the ability to protect original work online, but when the system is abused like this, it needs to be revised.
A copy right strict on YouTube is not to protect content, it's was made to make copyright holders stop complaining to Google. Now it has been perverted to a threat copyright holders use to gain money.
By placing a strike on a video, company's have the chance to take the monatisation from the youtuber. This works especially well for copyright holders because there are no punishments for false claims. There are even hireable company's to put out false strikes. It is rare for any video with more than 10000 views to not have at least 2 strikes against it at any one time.
If there are 3 strikes, the content creator has severe consequences. It takes months for a Appel to be sent out and when you finally receive a response, it is entirely automated. This means that massive YouTube channels can be taken down without any human knowing until the YouTuber can get its fans to bully YouTube into bringing it back. This results in ether a channel being removed, even though it is under Fair Use, and the YouTuber having no way of bringing it back, or channels have to be so massive that anyone at Google will be forced to bring it back.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Fix copy right laws please. People being able to DMCA stuff for no reason helps no one. :)
Copyright protection laws hinder the internet's ability to evolve humanity's communication methods. They are road blocks for the sake of the old way of doing things. The internet will change how information is shared regardless of copyright law.
The DMCA is an outdated concept which desperately needs updating for the internet of today. It is biased in favor of corporations or other groups who have the ability to strong-arm small content creators regarding the content the creators distribute. Companies can use DMCA to remove content they don't approve of for almost any reason or no reason at all, with no regard for the legality of said content. There is no legal recourse for the creator of the removed content in most cases. It amounts to a stifling of free speech.
False DMCA claims are harmful to people who make use of social media to make a living by allowing almost anyone to claim that content is infringing on copyright regardless of whether it is infringing on anything.
The internet on the whole needs an updated policy that can properly protect people who have done nothing wrong.
pretty please.
Youtube Red have taken down every Japanese pop and Vocaloid songs because of copyright. I can't explain to well but you can read this article of this crisis is here: http://en.rocketnews24.com/2015/12/04/japanese-music-and-vocaloid-content-disappears-as-youtube-rolls-out-new-paid-service/. Please stop Youtube Red from taking down Japanese music and Vocaloid content.
Where is the fair use?
I like free things. I do, really. But when it comes to movies, music or videogames, youtube is not the right place to enjoy this kind of content.
Well, that's not exactly correct. What I mean is that I don't want to watch a 1+ hour long movie on youtube, instead I like to hear if it's a good idea to buy it based on video clips and recommendations. I listen to music on youtube just when I want to find new stuff by trying new albums or enjoying the nostalgia given by older songs. And of course, I don' want to just watch videogames, I'd rather play them. But if the content creator is an interesting person than I might see his videos instead of just playing.
That's why I'm signing this, to help content creators keep doing what they are doing if they can, or else it would be a loss for everyone
I'm gonna state this plain and simple the DMCA is not helping at all, what it is doing is hurting anyone one who uploads on sites like YouTube including but not limited to, Channel Awoesome, I hate everything, Jim sterling, Anime America, Alternate History Hub, GradeAUnderA, and TheMysteriousMrEnter.
The DMCA allows companies, develops, directors, writers, etc to silence anyone who's opinions they don't like and allows them to avoid using the legal route. Companies like Nintendo, Digital Homicide, Fox, and Sega just to name a few. Some good examples I can think are Digital Homiced taking down Jim Sterling's video on their game The Slaughtering Grounds, simply because they didn't like that he was negative about their game and wanted to silence him and now are making false allegations against Jim Sterling and are trying to sue him.
The channel I Hate Everything has had to deal with a lot of bullshit in the past from people like the creator of Cool Cat Saves The Kids, Derek Savage who not only took down his review which was protected under fair use law but also attacked him personally and telling his fame base to go after him. He also had his video I Hate Damn Daniel a while back, it's now back up but it still serves as a good example.
This isn't a recent thing either it has been happening for years. Years ago TotalBiscuit was hit with a copyright strike by the developers of Day One Garry's Incident who took his and many other content creators videos down to try and silence negative criticism. Not surprisingly all it did was bring more negative publicity to the company and TotalBiscuit's video was brought back.
Silencing critics is not the only thing that companies have used the DMCA for, a few years ago Sega removed dozens of videos that had footage of or even mentioned Shining Force 3 in order to get the trailer for their new game to the top of the search ranking.
The DMCA is a broken and abused mess that allows companies and individuals to silence critics and opinions they don't like and need to be fixed as its getting worse with every passing day.
The notice-and-takedown system needs to be fixed two address two large issues. First, with the rise of algorithmic takedowns, the task of defining fair use right have been in effect take out of the hands of Congress and the Copyright Office and into the hand of technology company. Their behavior has been to frustrate fair use, and moved the needle of copyright balance between users' rights and content owner rights' far toward the later, without fair consideration for the needs of all. Second, the notice-and-takedown system is being abused widely to bully, silence criticism, or gain unfair competitive advantage in the marketplace. This has to stop, and it can be stopped by rigorously enforcing a strict set of punishments for abuses.
-----
Companies use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue AUTOMATIC takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for RATIONAL judgments about possible fair use exceptions, thus resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has zero checks or balances and is more commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone by simply reinstating the content after a review process. Copyright claims need to be fully proven up front before anything is removed.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
To allow such acts to take place is to attack on the premise of "anyone can make it" that is emphasised by capitalist society; the current laws have resulted in the content creators on the internet being crushed under the boot of the corporations who are able to use the current laws to keep them down.
The everyday use of the internet and the way in which the internet happens in the present has evolved from the Digital millennium copyright act and as a result has grown to show loopholes. In trying to protect creators of content, you now only succeed in stopping the creation of content.
In my personal experience, I have a had YouTube videos that have had been claimed by companies under dubious terms. A reaction to a movie trailer was claimed by the company that distributed the film, despite only using trailer footage that was available at the time, and despite the use of it for critical examination. People with no claim over a song I used in a video (the song was from a non-profit internet series) staked claim on this video, and are currently profiting off of it. These incidents, along with others that myself and others have been through, prove how antiquated the DMCA truly is, and that it is time to update the law into the favor of the people, the people who just want to use this content in the fair way we should be able to without threat of repercussion.
This is some bullshit. Dmca are being used to stifle free speech.
Just yesterday I clicked on a YouTube video from Facebook and it wasn't there. As I remember,it had political content I wanted to see. But I domn't get to view the video someone had put a lot of work into. This denied me of my 1st Ammendment rights to view and creator's to display.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Why are we giving more rights to corporations than to American citizens? As DCMA currently stands, content providers are required to blindly do whatever "copyright holders" (quotes because the party making the request often does NOT hold the legal copyright) ask; meanwhile, Americans who are completely covered under fair use have their voices silenced, and even their livelihoods and incomes jeopardized. And there are no repercussions whatsoever for the corporate bullies. Essentially, our First Amendment rights are being sold to the highest bidders. What happened to government FOR THE PEOPLE?
They Can abuse the copyright. In my opinion its very very shit
I'm sure you've gotten plenty of these so far, but it's a concise statement of the problems that I myself have witnessed.
Cosigned,
Jennifer Mitchell
The notice-and-takedown process under the (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Many youtube channels keep losing videos, because many companies take advantage of an outdated DMCA. This isn't fair because they videos fairly use content, and yet they're still removed; some of them get hit multiple times, even after their clear. Some of theses companies don't even own the content, some of them are shell companies to bigger companies. Hell, some of these videos are only talking about movies, not using any of their content. This is a list of channels that were affected by this:
-Jim Sterling
-TheMysteriousMrEnter
-Channel Awesome
-Anime America
-Lost Pause
-The Anime Man
-Your Movie Sucks
-I Hate Everything
-Drwolf
-Joshscorcher
-TeamFourStar
-CinemaSnob
-Potatobombkyle Lego Productions
-CinemaSins
-AlternateHistoryHub
-Jontron
-BadComedian
-Sargon of Akkad
-Chris Stuckman
-Bobsheaux
-Sheeleシェーレ
-BrainScratch Commentaries
-NFKRZ
-Pyrocynical
-The Gaming Czar
-Games Repainted
-AdoseofBuckley
-TotalBiscuit
-Matthias
-ToddintheShadows
-Angry Joe
-ElectricDragon505
-CentralDerp
-Krimson Rogue
-EyeOfSOl
-Dragon Mage
-CreepyMcPasta
-Channel Badguy
-Fraiser Blaze
-Darkkefka
-The Mystery Zone
-RedLetterMedia
-LittleKuriboh
-The Mad Wasp
-RiceGum
-MKatwood
-Trillbee Reviews
-TheBibleReloaded
-Chibi Reviews
-DSPGaming
-Mr. Nightmare
-Saberspark
-Drunken Peasants
-Villacasti Flores Arenas
-Cuchallain
-Diamanda Hagan
-Dubious Khan
-Terror Obscura
-Film Brain
-Betsy Lee
-YourMovieSucksDotOrg
-Geek Remix
-Misty Chronexia
-Cinemamassacre
-Legoboy123456789
-Shane Dawson
-CartoonLover98
-EmperorLemon
-Coolcat001100
-Jambareeqi
-MyAbridged
-PurpleEyesWTF
-Templayer
-Canal Nostalgia
-Velberan
-Gameplayrj
-BadLipReading
-Decker Shado
-Jaimetud
-Nathan Sharp - NateWantsToBattle
-Corarius
-VloggingGeek
-pokemon reorchestrated
-BlackCriticGuy
-GLLance99
-and many more content creators I couldn't think up
This isn't a funny matter. The companies responsible for these false DMCA claims think they create the law, but they don't. They're using an outdated DMCA to be bullies: they are harassing, threatening, and/or destroying content creators, and stifling their free speech. Viewers, like myself, are victims of this because many of the videos we enjoy watching are being taken down because of these false DMCA claims. Even YouTube because they're constantly attacked by these false DMCA claims. And who know how many websites are victims to this, but it needs to stop. Please stop this nonsense! Update the DMCA! Please!
There needs to be a massive overhaul of the DMCA. Many content creators on youtube that work within fair use are victims of false claims. There needs to be some sort of accountability on individuals or organizations that file these false claims. Right now it is the content creators that take these massive hits by having their channel taken down and losing their revenue.
It is also blatantly obvious that there are other content creators that continue to thrive even while working against fair use by straight up stealing others work.
Please be a positive contributing force in this issue and support the creators who are promoting fair use. Thank you.
I have worked in creative conjunction with several content creators to help create original content on major video-sharing sites, including, but not limited to YouTube. The DMCA has been a major hurdle in establishing a fine line between Fair Use and Copyrighted Content. I cannot count how many times my clients' creations have been taken down in the name of a unrelated dispute or simply to silence their message. It is an imbalanced system that only favours those with an established corporate base, where their dispute resolution process is handled in priority over smaller networks. Worse yet it has made ad-revenue streams on YouTube one of the most unreliable sources of income for partnered content-creators.
Numerous times I have had to lend my resources seeking legal aid in order to help my clients seek a resolution to the burdening number of DMCA claims filed. It has become part of the job description, on top of the already demanding role of creating new content every day to interact with their audience. It's a frightening reality that has made the rise to success insurmountable for most. It is time to say we've had enough.
Boilerplate to follow:
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected by fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I'm sad that nothing have been done earlier. :(
I have kept the full required comment detailing the full rubbish companies and people do to content creators online. But I wanted to say this, a point that may never be read. Online content for me has had hours of endless information, fun and enjoyment not only by myself but sharing it with other people also. Making memories that sometimes we still talk about today. Fair use is important not only for those making these videos and its viewer but for the memories people gain from these videos. It's important and needs to be reviewed. End of. 1998 is almost 20 years ago, the Internet changes fast so should the laws around it.
One of my video from youtube was take down due to so-called - copyright where it not even at all. It just my gameplay of my own records video.
Fining the DMCA notifiers for each fraudulent take down notice would inspire them to be aware of the rights of human beings which should be at least on an equal plane to corporate profits.
Automated take down of possible DMCA violations is a violation of the public's right to free speech and can be used to violate the right to free speech. A process must be installed that prevents automated take downs prior to review and imposes penalties if the take down is invalid.
Лично мне всё равно.
Several times I've had to remove videos that used music for the sake of Satire. I find that Fair Use has been ignored in many videos, not including mine.
It needs to be fixed as people just starting out on making videos don't stand a chance with the false copyright claims.
I've seen far too many social media channels I like being threatened, harassed, insulted, and harmed by companies (and third parties representing those companies) filing repeated unwarranted claims on content. This needs human review.
Or in other words:
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate0 copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
If this happens the result could be disastrous! If this happens there will be consequences and it will be your fault Washington. There is no doubt that We the People of the United States of America will rise up to correct a wrong, hopefully it will be a non-violent protest. The United States Government is taking things too far and it needs to stop! All the scandals, all the corruption, you all need to open your eyes. You are leading this once Great and Powerful Nation into a black hole, not a ditch not a crevice but one of the most destructive forces in the this known finite universe. There will be consequences if this continues and the People will Fight for their Rights. Upgrade the 'Fair Use' rights now!
The notice-and-takedown process under the (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-anti takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Furthermore, I, along with my peers, run a YouTube channel. Sure, it may not be the most notable among all the others, but it is something we still work on because we see a career in it. One of the struggles that comes with it, however, is this thin line of fair use. We can't explode our creativity into our content because anymore people can get flagged for anything, and half the time companies aren't even aware of doing such. Not only that, but some companies claim all content in that video could be theirs, even though we should have rights to a stable fair use system.
A Youtuber by the name of AngryJoeShow has gone on record to discuss highly of how unfair fair use has become. In fact, his video is still up if you, the reader, will give it a look and get a genuine idea of how important a stable fair use system is. This man quit his job, took a huge risk to pursue something he loved, and because of the way fair use works now, has been forced to modify his videos because unreasonable claims were made that companies refuse to release. Even though they know it's unfair.
The internet is vastly changing and with it creaters need to be assured that there is a stable fair use system updated. Without that, people who pursue passion online will be stripped of making amazing art. The way fair use is now is basically the same as the story of the businessman who shut down a little girl's lemonade stand because she was selling lemonade that was made by a company. Does that seem fair?
On numerous occasions I have had my Internet Service cut off for "numerous DMCA violations". In fact I was legally sharing the Open Source program Linux Mint! I protested this to my ISP (Cox) and was told that there is no appeal, so long as I used Bittorent for any reason I would be harassed! In my opinion, this harassment is a direct abuse of the intent of the DMCA!
This system is broke. There are so many instances of channels getting copyright claims for no reason. The videos uses were under fair use, yet the false claimers continue to get away with it and claim the videos' revenue. Yet the youtubers who repeatedly make money off of others' hard work continue to flourish today. Channels like copy channels that steal videos, and reaction channels that have little effort and editing put in, AND they don't even get permission most of the time from the original video maker. I was planning to start my own channel in the future working with some friends, but Noe I fear what might happens to me because of all this injustice. My content could be blatantly ripped of or stolen, or my whole channel could be taken down for attempting to defend it. So I would hope to see change in the future so I and others won't have to worry about unjust copyright claims.
P.S. This is Ricardo Clemente agreeing completely with the preceding prepared statement. I realize you will be receiving several of these e-mails all bearing the exact same message, and I just want to affirm that I personally stand by this message 100%. Thank you and please get a hold of copyright abuse. God bless.
The system currently in place is entirely outdated and doesn't suit the modern internet at all, it is important that something be done to protect fair use and the freedom of speech we all should have.
STOP TAKING DOWN ABRIDGED EPISODES AND GOOD PARODIES
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is rotected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I know multiple channels that have been abused of this, a few including DYWTBA_Brony and AnimeAmerica.
This needs to stop!
They said it better than I could, so here's the standard comment. But I just want you guys to know I'm a real person who agrees wholeheartedly with everything being said below.
While the text has been generated, I see no reason to mess with perfection. The system is flawed and it basically means that artist will never be able to work again without having to devise an entire battleplan. Once free speech is restored, the world of art and press will go through a revolution.
In addition to the info below the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8&feature=youtu.be
Does a good job of explaining several of the issues of the DMCA which was made for the internet as it was in 1998, almost 20 years ago.
Поддерживаю петицию
Right now, there is a massive loophole that allows people to downright steal money from content creators without any repercussions. I'm talking about people or companies claiming videos as their own on YouTube - to which YouTube (google) responds by immediately directing all the revenue that content generates, to this completely unrelated party.
The DMCA is being completely abused, and must be revised to protect people from evildoers. Some people even file a DMCA claim just because they don't LIKE a video! This is terrible and unfortunately affects the whole world, as YouTube is located in the US.
Also, mind you, this is a huge thing, involving a lot of money, which is probably why it's so lucrative for some badly mannered people to exploit. Please fix this!
The DMCA is in the way compressed copyright. Things need to be more streamlined so that more business can be conducted.
I do not create videos on YouTube; in fact I rarely post much of anything to the internet. However, I thoroughly enjoy seeing reviews of movies and games, and I thrive on listening to video game soundtracks while doing homework.
Regarding Fair Use and the DMCA, I've seen far too many of my favorite channels, Such as Channel Awesome, Gilva Sunner, and BrawlBRSTM receive notifications that videos they have created have been removed, or they have outright had their channel shut down in the past or present. And this only accounts for some of the YouTubers I frequent regularly! I've seen plenty of other soundtrack focused channels have content removed and I'm left completely mystified.
Some of these individuals post material for a living, and others just for fun. Sometimes both! These videos the channels create can take hours upon hours to compose, create, and edit; companies that wish to abuse the DMCA can remove that video in minutes. That doesn't seem fair whatsoever.
At the very least, the DMCA should be reviewed in order to ensure proper use of material online, ESPECIALLY if the last revisions and reviews made for the document were made in 1998. The internet is constantly growing and adapting, and the laws concerning Fair Use should as well.
It's saddening to see content creators of any kind being forced to fight off people abusing the current system on platforms like youtube, as there is no penalty whatsoever for wrong claims.
A person or mutiple persons actively checking over take down notices before they are implemented would GREATLY reduce the number of fraudulent claims. Another advantage to this would be that money gained from alleged "infringement" would not be exchange to either party until the matter is resolved. Thank you very much for taking my comments seriously.
The bogus copyright infringement take downs are an abuse. There are very many that amount to censorship and it's tiresome when the ones who are always believed are corporate lawyers. The government is supposed to work for US, too. Fair use is plain and easy to understand, but without a hearing of any type, content is taken down under the threat of corporate punishment. This has to stop. Our own right to self expression is not taken lightly in the Constitution and some of the great American founders' literature. This is what we stand for. Corporations are abusing this to censor and break competition. It's unjust and must end.
Подтверждаю, даже в РФ такая вот вещь начинается. Так что я против!
In conclusion, DO SOMETHING ABOUT THESE OUTDATED BILLS!!!
It's just incredible how many people I've seen having their channels on YouTube destroyed by flawed copyright stuff, we are not talking about something simple, WE ARE TALKING ABOUT THE WORK OF MANY PEOPLE. People who work every single day to entertain the public but are cut short by unscrupulous companies that abuse a system that doesn't work and no one does anything, it's been years since this started and we haven't seen any solution, not even near.
WE NEED A SOLUTION NOW, THIS IS NOT OKAY.
Some channels that have been affected:
Jim Sterling
Themysteriousmrenter
Channel Awesome
Anime America
Lost Pause
The Anime Man
Your Movie Sucks
I Hate Everything
Drwolf
Joshscorcher
TeamFourStar
CinemaSnob
Potatobombkyle Lego Productions
CinemaSins
AlternateHistoryHub
Jontron
BadComedian
Sargon of Akkad
Chris Stuckman
Bobsheaux
Sheeleシェーレ
BrainScratch Commentaries
NFKRZ
Pyrocynical
The Gaming Czar
Games Repainted
AdoseofBuckley
Totalbiscuit
Matthias
ToddintheShadows
Angry Joe
ElectricDragon505
CentralDerp
Krimson Rogue
EyeOfSOl
Dragon Mage
CreepyMcPasta
And I would say, those channels aren't even the 1% of the ones affected by this outrageous situation.
Stop bogus DMCA takedowns and protect free speech!!!!!!
As someone that lives in a country that in repeated ocasion violates the básic human rights I am really scared that it's really easy for anyone to take down a video criticising the goberment, or to eliminate competition, or only be a general anoyance to other people. I might not live in US, but México is highly influenced by the policies that are implemented in US, so please take notice that everything that happens un you country has a global impac, specially with you nightbours in the south.
-------------The next is the automate message but I do think is true-----------
Every single day,people from all over the world create content that should fall under fair use, but don't.
Even though, I'm not based in the United State, Youtube is. And this website put people to work, allow them to create wherever they live.
In 2016, the world has never been more connected, sharing creation has become common sight, which makes the abuse of this law more and more problematic everyday.
Fair Use was created to allow people to build upon things they love, by adding their own vision, criticize them etc...
We, as content creators, see everyday; hours of work being wasted, just because the DMCA isn't updated for today's standards. And unfairly put the blame on creators by taking their channel down, which is for some, their day jobs.
Just a small look on Youtube.com shows how many people are affected by this, and the number grows everyday.
Free Speech and Fair Use are building blocks of liberty for countries all over the world, and if the DMCA isn't updated those building blocks are at stake not only for America but for the whole world and the future of our societies.
We have found a great tool that shall shape the world of tomorrow and I beg you to don't let that go to waste.
Thanks for hearing us out.
As both a producer and consumer of content, I need to make a comment on this.
DMCA is a good thing, but only if it is enforced for the appropriate reasons it was created. Allowing false takedowns of videos which don't violate the DMCA, and deletions of commentary on articles and topics is not a way to treat those who Do Not infringe on copyright laws. In fact, it is an attack on free speech. And yes, you hear people spout on about free speech, mostly when they're complaining about not being heard. That's true. But the fact of the matter is free speech is one of the foundations of the country, with good reason. So when you do not break any CDMA law but are targeted anyway, there should be consequences for the party at fault. Not just to shut down their infringement, but to curb the FALSE and INAPPROPRIATE claims. Some parties target those who would discuss their dislike for a particular topic. Say, someone running for office, and they spot YouTube videos from voters who dislike their politics, personality, hairdo, whatever! Some of those people are directly targeted for copyright infringement because they use a photo or slogan or what have you. And it happens way more often than you would think. And way more often than it should. A lot of the problem is the tech that companies/brands use to scour the internet for unlawful use of their brand/material. This is okay. But the problem is that some of the tech they use is automated -- bots. Basically, a robot that is given a script of things to look for and if it finds it in use, it reports back as "unlawful usage". The problem is, computers don't understand context. If I'm not allowed to use a popular singers' song in my videos because it's like putting their music on the net for free, that's fine. But if I have the TV on in the background and a super bowl commercial comes on promoting the half time show and a 2 second snippet of a song is heard in the background, my video can be pulled from the internet and I am blacklisted. Sounds far fetched? No. It happens on a daily basis. And that's what we're afraid of. If there is no context to how the CDMA is interpreted (by bots) and no consequences for the brands that falsely accuse others, then there is a big problem and our country will turn into a dictator state faster than you think. The United States of North Korea. Or China for that matter. Sounds bad, right? Just make sure the laws aren't abused are policed properly. That's what I'm saying.
Everything above this sentence is a form letter. That said, I have read it in its entirety and I agree with every word. Now I'd like to take a moment to mention my personal experiences. I watch a lot of YouTube, for entertainment, for instructional videos, and even for the news. I am fully aware that there are individuals who simply place an entire song, show, or movie on YouTube for the masses to enjoy. That is a clear violation. However, when content creators spend hours, days, weeks reviewing an item or parodying an item only to have it removed because it was intercut with footage or music from the item it was about is wrong. It takes away from their hard work, it can take away from their finances, and it takes away from the entertainment of people like me who enjoy watching it. There have been quite a number of YouTube videos that I've watched over and over suddenly disappearing because of the abuse of fair use. Part of it stems from YouTube's method of handling strikes, but a large part of it is that the law doesn't take into account any penalty for companies who abuse or at least misunderstand what fair use is. This needs to stop. Changes must be made. To continue to let things be would be dishonorable, unfair, and arguably illegal. I hope whoever is involved in this will take that into account. Thank you for your consideration.
I personally have had to refute false copyright claims on one of my videos at least 3 times a month in the past 6 months - and the claimants never even provide a song that's CLOSE to the one I use, to which I have full publishing and monetisation rights, but the current process means that doesn't matter, and they can still harvest some of my income until YouTube reviews it and turns down their claim.
Fair Use needs to be fixed to protect content on the Internet. Everyone who uses the internet is at risk so we need to secure copyright law and help it adapt to the future of content viewing and help protect the artists who create said content from abuse.
People deserve the right to say what they want. Freedom of speech should be protected under the U.S. constitution, not trampled upon by big business. Copyright laws exist to protect original ideas, not to censor the public.
While my comment may not be as eloquent or as well worded as the default one, it is equally impassioned.
In fact, many times various companies flag videos of youtubers just talking. They flag videos when clips of videos are used for criticism which is considered fair use. Many people (youtubers) careers are youtube and when they are operating within fair use they are still flagged, falsely, causing said youtuber to miss out on the profit they require to live and get their channels i.e. the equivalent of firing someone. Also, the three strike allowance is insufficient. Especially as the same person(s)/company can flag the same video multiple times even when the youtuber has been cleared as having stayed within the boundaries of fair-use.
Other people will be nice. I will not be RUDE. But I will not be nice.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act has been a monstrous, ill-conceived, destructive force in copyright since its inception into law in 1998.
It's been used as a way to stifle scientific research, fair use, innovation, competition, and has even been abused to circumvent EPA guidelines and to outright quash free speech. This is unacceptable and repugnant.
The DCMA was created under pressure by corporate copyright holders and strongly favors copyright holders even in situations where the law has flatly and without caveat ruled against them. The abuse of the DMCA takedown has come to the point where it would be right to call it a joke, save for how incredibly unamusing it is. Automated DMCA takedowns bypass fair use entirely through unconditional, unfightable takedowns being used to crush criticism. Manual DMCA filings have been abused to remove content that the "copyright holder" in fact has no claim to whatsoever. The complete and utter lack of penalty for abuse of this system has led some unscrupulous individuals to wield the law as a bludgeon to harm their critics: Videos which contain clear fair use of the content in question, or contain no actual segments of the content in question, but have been taken down through a DMCA claim, or have had their ad revenue seized immediately with no requirement of proof by the copyright holder and no recourse to reclaim the revenue, a practice which looks suspiciously like government-sanctioned theft.
As a whole the abuses caused by the existence of the DMCA are repugnant, unacceptable, and must stop. At the very least, if no better system can be put into place (and I am certain a better system COULD be put into place, but IF no better system CAN be), then at LEAST there should exist some recourse for content creators harmed by false DMCA claims to gain recompense for the harm done to them by said claims. Fines levied against the filers of multiple false claims might serve as a balancing weight, or perhaps the outright removal of their ability to file such claims, as I can think of no more fitting justice against those who would try to take the rights of others than to have their own rights revoked.
I trust the U.S. Copyright Office has the best interests of all in mind and will take appropriate action to halt the flagrant misuse and abuse caused by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
THE DMCA IS BROKEN!!!
A system that was designed in the 90's has absolutely no merit in 2016. Fake companies are claiming videos that they have no right to claim. People sitting in cars talking about a movie are being claimed. People who have gotten permission from music creators are being claimed by companies not associated with the music creator. The system is full of corruption and these issues need to be addressed.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Imagine the outcry if it was legal to use automated bots to delete content on the Internet simply because it mentions a trademark or copyrighted work. Wait, if you're a corporation - it is. The DMCA is used every to sabotage competitors, silence critical speech, and there is no penalty for false filing, so millions of bogus complaints are issued each day without human oversight.
I have watch YouTubers who have had their own songs and music flagged for copyright even when they aren't covered by a label.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Currently, the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I understand that copy right law is there to protect creators of original work. However, abusing it on Youtube to be used as a censorship tool is plain wrong.
-Personal Letter about Fair Use-
I am a graduate with an honors degree in animation. During these three years of practical and theoretical research, I've learned a lot about how to produce an animated film and the techniques used to construct a script through visual media. These projects are designed for distribution to film festivals and the general public. I was awarded a distinction in Context and Cultural Practice in Art & Design. Since then, I wanted to share with users of the internet my film critique on what makes a good investment, in time and money on entertainment. But in order to express these points, I need to be able to use a few clips of copyrighted material.
My internet project was designed to critique animated films and television series, to let the public know what makes a film good or bad and to raise awareness of films that did not have/had an insubstantial promotion budget. I was set and ready to get started on my film critique series, but recent controversy has put the project on hold. Many film distributors are claiming that a lot of content creators on the internet are abusing copyright law. Content creators have the right to dispute these claims, under fair use for the purpose of critique and review. While some disputes are resolved, others are denied, more often due to a lack of proper analysis into the online creator's disputes to save their videos. This is putting internet content creators in danger of losing their main source of income.
It is never my intention to use a substantial amount of copyrighted footage per film. In doing so would practically be giving away the film without permission. I do not condone piracy. I do believe I have the right to express views and critique films without fear of unwarranted copyright infringement disputes, simply because the copyright holder cannot take criticism. Criticism is used to let the public know what an individual will be investing their time and money on and to help the artist become better. Everyone needs a way to protect their freedom of speech in their own way, whether its in person or through the medium of user created videos.
Let's upgrade Fair Use.
-Original Message from Fair Use Campaign-
In a true Democracy, each and every SINGLE (not corporate) user should have the same rights of access and use. The internet is for all, and not just the most rich and powerful.
This initianive may be used to silence valid criticism and surely should be stopped.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily abused by corporate copyright holders--too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use or legitimately owned by the poster. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs an overhaul bit lacking that new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Stop companies from using DMCA as a tool to intemadate and harass creaters. Assign harsh fines and penalties for companies making false claims. Protect hosting sites and allow them the time to prove or disprove claims. Give creaters ways to prove the innocents and seek compansation for lost wages from these cleims.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse, and companies that infringe on users' free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations, and to issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA's safe harbor provisions are important for making an open and participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals' rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
DMCA is abusung its power, to the detriment of free speech.
The notice-and-takedown process under the DMCA) is commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. Copyright holders have the right to defend their intellectual property, but have a track record of being so zealous as to discourage legitimate fair use. This system has chilling effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. Algorithms do not have the capability to judge fair use, resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet. This last is simply extortion.
It's time major corporations release their stranglehold on what is deemed fair use. Criticisms and sampling are not piracy. Today's world is vastly different then when this law was enacted. The squashing of thoughts and ideas by major corporations needs to stop. The internet is a free place not open to regulation
In essance the outdated laws are bull shit
Build a Death Star Now!
I myself have been vexed because of this nonsense. Despite the fact that there are hundreds if not thousands of videos of similar content, the ones I uploaded to Youtube were "illegal." I have since been banned from Youtube and forced to create a no doubt also illegal second account just to be able to favorite videos.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I've seen a lot of my favorite YouTube channels get attacked by copyright claimants for no reason for too long. I've seen online critics be bullied, attacked and harassed by copyright claimants solely because of their review. I've seen a case when it appeared a claimant impersonated a law firm to threaten a YouTube into taking down their content as a response to a negative review. I've seen a claimant repeatedly claim and take down a single video three times over the course of five months. I've seen a video about the Green M&M character get claimed and monetized by World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (the WWE). I've seen videos with no copyright material at all get claimed and taken down. I've seen videos get claimed by people who don't even own the material used. I've seen a number of YouTube users lose money that is their income stream because of these claims and strikes. There is actually a claimant called "Ad Rev for a 3rd Party" on YouTube claiming a number of videos with content they never owned.
The DMCA is outdated. It was meant to be used for the Internet available to the public in 1998. It's 2016, almost 20 years later, and the Internet has changed significantly. Something needs to change, and it needs to change now. We will not stay silent about this issue anymore.
Mark Fishbach (Markiplier), Sean McLaughlin (Jacksepticeye), Doug Walker (the Nostalgia Critic), Chris Stuckmann, Screen Junkies, Cinemasins, Alex of "I Hate Everything," Adam Johnston of "YourMovieSucksDOTorg," Jonathan Rozanski (The Mysterious Mr. Enter), Jon Bailey (Epic Voice Guy), Brad Jones (the Cinema Snob), Joe Vargas (Angry Joe), Jim Sterling; this is just a handful of people who have been affected by these issues in the past and many of them are dealing with it right now.
Right now, there is nothing that will stop people or companies from falsely claiming and wrongfully taking down videos that fall under fair use. Something needs to be done. The DMCA needs to be updated. It has been, is currently and will always be abused by claimants until something is done.
It's time to move forward and fix the DMCA. Stop allowing companies or individuals from silencing free speech on the Internet. Freedom of Speech is the first right given to all American citizens. Help the people who use fair use be allowed to use it. Fair use is real and part of copyright law and it is not being respected in the slightest. I've heard companies claim that there is no such thing as fair use. That is outrageously incorrect and disrespectful to the people who are, under law, safe to use material under fair use.
We've been asking one question and it's now your chance to answer it and fix the problem so that we never have ask it again. So I will ask you this question and I encourage you to answer:
Where's the Fair Use?
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet.
Krimson Rogue, a book/movie reviewer and my favorite youtuber, has been harassed multiple times via this unfair and outdated system. One of the videos affected didn't even have any footage from the movie he was reviewing. The video was of him just standing in a room talking, but it was marked down because of the thumbnail, as ridiculous as that sounds.
None of the content Rogue uses infringes on true copyright, yet he has suffered many times for the hobby he loves. The attackers, meanwhile, suffer no consequences, but instead reap the rewards of his hard work, stealing the money the videos make while the footage is under the takedown process.
The DMCA needs to take steps to put a stop to this sort of abuse.
As someone who has been using the Internet for a very long time, DMCA takedowns have nearly always hampered the growth of communities and ideas. Please stop the unlawful DMCA takedowns and consider their impacts on free speech. Thank You.
Blow on your microphone. That noise it just made? If anyone else blew on their microphone, filed copyright, and is on a search algorithm, there's a good chance that small accidental noise will get any content you made taken down, even if it involved countless hours of work.
-JD
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporation, who often don't even own the copyright to the content, and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
A large amount of takedown notices are completely bogus and origination from shell and scam companies, purely for the sake of stealing money from content creators or harassing people with different views.
Also, I like watching videos that fall under fair use but keep getting dropped because some guy doesn't understand how copyright works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of copyright holders and too commonly used to censor my cat videos. I want free stuff. You're not the boss of me. I'm a robot. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This policy is ridiculous. At work, we had someone put a copyright claim on a video that we made in house with music we composed in house! All they had to do was click a few buttons and they took over the rights to our video! This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. Videos that simply feature a person talking without any copyright footage are being removed and flagged to the point of harassment. This kind of damage can not be undone. Content creators on sites like Youtube are losing revenue for every copyright strike that they face, which can be detrimental to their financial stability and survival.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws and those who do not hold copyright should not be allowed to enforce those copyright laws onto others. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
DMCA'S are being abused right now and we need help!, DMCA'S are being abused by so many people and companies it's ABSURD and we need to put an end to this (examples of people who used DMCA'S against people releasing content that is fair use : MR. Derek Savage, blue rocket productions, sega, merlin AND THE LIST GOES ON) some sites handle DMCA'S right but some like youtube just don't make the cut. youtube uses automated systems for everything and very rarely do real administrators step in to clear the situation. DMCA'S are a system that is being abused more and more and we need to put some laws in place to make DMCA'S a better system
The reason the copy right system is flawed is because there doesn't seem to be any consequences for the companies/people that file these "complaints" there doesn't seem to be any reason of them stoppng from claiming a video simply based on if they don't like what the content creator has said (For example in the case of IHE and Derek Savage, where Derek illegally filing a complain based on the fact IHE did a negative review.) The number of times this has happened to multiple channels and multiple companies is simply disgusting, the people that file these complaints have nothing to worry about, where as the channels are getting multiple complaints where you only allow them to combat three at a time is the upmost of stupidity, there should be a third party that if the video's content creator would like to fight the claim the third party would look at the claim, and if the claim falls within fair use (which it almost always does) the person/company that filed a complaint should be punished with the same severity as you show your channels (which you are meant to be protecting!), possibly using the same three strike system for the complainant, after three strikes remove their ability to file complaints for even a month or so to at least get the point across that you're fair use system is to help the content creators of YouTube and not the corporations which right now it seems that Youtube is doing.
My personal experiences with DMCA have been awful. DMCA takedown notices are not used to uphold the law, but to censor free media, to harass small businesses and to hide criticism. My personal experience has been practically that. I've had my content that I've worked hard on creating get taken down because of these claims when the person claiming it did not own any of my content, the content I claimed was within fair use, and when the content they are claiming simply did not exist in my video.
Free speech is Important, and I won't let them take that away from us.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and its notice-and-takedown process is rife with abuse. At least once a week I see some content creator that I enjoy has been subjected to a false copyright claim. This usually costs them their video or the income from it, and sometimes their entire channel from just one multi-video claim. All of these creators (like John Bain, Jim Sterling and Doug Walker) are professionals in their field and make their livelihood from their videos, and as such they are scrupulous with staying within the bounds of fair-use. This has not stopped companies from issuing takedown notices for videos that they didn't like or wanted to censor. This abuse of the law needs to stop and new safeguards need to be implemented to protect content creators and hold those making false claims responsible.
I would also like to say that I am a musician with a record contract, which is the primary type of person that DMCA was made to protect. It has had absolutely no positive effect on my life. My songs are hosted on hundreds of sites without my permission. But you don't see me issuing takedown notices. I do not pursue it because I know that there is no point to "protecting my copyright" when the internet is involved I could issue thousands of takedowns and two thousand re-uploads would be in place by the next morning. If someone wants to listen to my song without paying for it, there is NOTHING anyone can do about it. However i just hope he or she likes it enough to come see a show or buy a shirt. DMCA has done absolutely nothing to stop piracy as far as I'm aware. DMCA has only hurt those trying to make something creative.
The rest of this message is written by Fight for the Future and hosted on "takedownabuse.org." I include this in my comment because they did fine research and I believe they are more Informed than I on the subject.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Where's The Fair Use- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. THIS SYSTEM HAS HAD DIRE EFFECTS ON POLITICAL EXPRESSION, CREATIVITY, AND COMMERCIAL INNOVATION ON THE INTERNET. THE DMCA NEEDS NEW SAFEGUARDS TO PROTECT AGAINST ABUSE AND COMPANIES THAT INFRINGE ON USERS' FREE SPEECH AND TO BE HELD RESPONSIBLE.
The system is little better than the old cliche of a mobster walking into a flower shop and asking for protection money "just in case", or any other scam that relies on pressure and fear to force money out of people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8 This link explains a lot more<--------------
Please take steps towards freedom of expression in the new digital age!
Thank you for this study.
It was long needed.
I'm sure that the response has been massive and overwhelmingly stating that reform is needed, as currently DMCA claims from large companies are abusive automated and destructive to free speech on the internet.
The strength of DMCA's abuse can be felt on every single large website that exists.
I'm hoping this study prompts more concrete action in the near future. The internet's original content should not be owned by a few large corporations that intimidate internet services into implementing rules that squelch free speech, expression, critisizm, and art from all those that don't fall under their umbrellas of ownership.
Many content creators are taken down or are under attack by companies because they don't want criticism. They abuse copyright law to screw over all the content creators who make use of fair use.
Correct the wrong.
It won't have any positive affects on anything and it shouldn't exist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
I've personally witnessed false DMCA takedown claims used to censor content for corporate gain: http://www.wired.com/2011/12/universal-megaupload-video/
Stop the corporate congress before it starts. "We the people", not "we the incorporated algorithms".
stop bogus DMCA takedowns and protect free speech
- That was the automatic one. Personally, I want people to be able to derive new content from existing works, which absolutely do not take away from, but instead add to the original. Let's take a song for example. A parody version or a remix might bring people to the original, making it available to many more.
Hi. I am Flames I used to do YouTube videos however I got a copyright strike on one of my videos which was a remix of a Disney song. It does not seem fair as I just wanted to create a song mix. Also, my let's play video got a copyright strike too. Please do something about this. As I used to upload daily but I am not uploading videos as much because of the copyright issue. Thanks - Flamaes
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice and take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice and take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works. I have personally been affected and know of multiple others affected by DMCA take-downs and have hundreds of others I personally know supporting this cause.
In my opinion, the First Amendment trumps corporate interest.
I humbly ask you to please read this letter through to the very end.
The intended purpose of the fair use law is to protect independant creators on the internet, protecting their right to comment, parody, review and in other ways express their opinions on copyrighted material without needing to refrain from use of such material. Sadly companies are abusing this system in order to make money. They do this by for example taking down videos that abide entierly by the law of fair use, to censor criticism and in some cases even just claming the original creator's monentization *during the period when they are most likely to profit the most, cutting of a large portion of the creator's income!*
What is even more unforgivable is that companies have been known to employ methods such as using shell-companies in order to shield themselves or using them as threats to bully the content creators into submission! Sometimes they don't even own the content being issued, or in the worst case scenario are even claming videos that feature *no copyrighted material what so ever!* Some companies even try to justify their actions by saying that "the law varies around the world" with no regards to the fact that this system follows U.S LAW!
The biggest out of many gargantuan problems in this whole matter is that there are no penalties what so ever for a company issuing a false copyright claim and that they get away with huge profits from claming independant creators monetization. The internet is a haven of free speech and many of these companies are threatening this safe haven and actively harming free speech through their actions. If nothing is done about this a new generation of social development and sharing of information will wither and fade!
**
I really enjoy watching comedy, parody, and reviews using footage from other film or cartoon. Please don't take them down. They are not the full movie. Sorry if my grammar is weird.
People on YouTube can have their channels deleted, suspended or have their videos demonetized, even if they are not using any clips of copyrighted material in their videos. Recent cases show that people can have their YouTube channels deleted, suspended or have their videos demonetized just for showing their face.
Critics who make money off of YouTube's monetization (such as I Hate Everything, TheMysteriousMrEnter, The Nostalgia Critic) are under attack from production companies who submit false DMCA takedowns in hope to have their freedom of speech silenced. Some have their videos demonitized or removed for clips of copyrighted material that can fall under fair use.
Some methods of preventing videos that fall under fair use from being taken down include:
1) placing money made from monetization into separate accounts, meaning if the copyright claim is true, the money goes to the production companies, but if it is false, the money goes to the channel owner.
2) having a production company being penalized for false copyright claims.
#Where'sTheFairUse
#WTFU
Please protect freedom of speech.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, commentary, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. For starters, ACTUAL CONSEQUENCES for fraudulent claims would deter this. Part of the reason companies do this so much is because there's no backlash on them for doing it. They can claim whatever they want, leech money off of the content creator, and as long as they don't take it to a court room (where they know they'll lose the case), they can sit pretty. Speaking as someone who has seen the inside of YouTube and the "#WTFU" hashtag, that's not true. ALL of it should be reviewed. Even something as simple as a cursory glance at the video's content would help stop the abuse. Not only that, but under this process of hands-off ID of so-called "infringement", people who don't even own the content can claim it in order to make a quick dollar, completely without consequence since these people never see the inside of a court room. There should be some penalty for them. Someone doesn't get to rob a bank and then walk away scot-free just because they promise not to do it again, do they? That's what these companies and leeches are doing: they are robbing people of their intellectual property (the content itself, not the content WITHIN the content), stealing money that these creators have been told is theirs to make, and the worst they get is a slap on the wrist.
This law was written in 1998, for a completely different internet. Since then, it has not evolved at all. It needs to. The DMCA isn't being used to protect content creators, it's being exploited to impede, harass, and even ruin those creators. This law is being used to stifle free speech, not uphold it. It's being used by companies who believe they create the law (last time I checked, that was Congress's job) to THREATEN content creators. Shell companies are being formed JUST to send more claims on behalf of companies whose claims were already proven false.
Look around YouTube and you'll find more than enough proof of these accusations, from Channel Awesome to IHateEverything to TheMysteriousMrEnter to YourMovieSucksDotOrg. It's happening. It is not going to go away. Companies have proven that they are incapable of regulating themselves and their use of this law. YOU need to step in, Washington. YOU need to be the guy who speaks softly and carries the big stick, because the most that We the people can do directly is yell about it.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), although originally implemented to protect content creators against theft, has ironically become a tool used against content creators. Current execution of the DMCA does not allow for some of the nuances allowed within Copyright law, specifically what falls under fair use. Because of this, creators can be attacked with impunity, due to their work being transformative, either through commentary, criticism, or parody of an original piece. The speed and frequency in which a creator can be attacked, couple with the lack of recourse that they have, has produced and environment where a creator risks not only censorship of their work, but loss of livelihood.
The DMCA needs to be updated. It should not be used as a form of censorship, and creators need an avenue of recourse for wrongful censorship.
Signed by me.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
It is really huge risk give green to this nonsense and allow people and companies be taken as a hostages on the ground of false accusation. Exactly this is what happened in Czech Republic when few 'smart' guys (even lawyers!) falsely accused sub-contractor companies from owning them money, then taken unique original machine parts supplied by Audi, BMW and other big brands and extort them. In the view of the big losses they mainly paid big money. Don't allow anything similar!
That is the case. Some of my favorite bloggers and cinema critics like @badcomedian kuzuameduza and akr815 was abused without reason on their YouTube accounts for their sketches reviews and parodies. So I want to ask you, what's wrong?
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Stop being facist and deal with free speech I've gotten tweets and videos pulled down because of false claims of copyright infringement. Stop abusing the law, we don't get to abuse it, so neither do you.
People are fighting against content that they don't even own. Even people talking on camera with no copyright footage or audio have been attacked. Some companies even believe that they have created this law, DMCA is being used without taking into account the fair use, it is being used as a threat for creators, critics and users of the media, and even one single content has been taking down several times even though it was cleared before.
This affects me not as a user, but as an espectator. I do not want to see my favourite channels on Youtube been taken down for unfair reasons.
New Sh*t has come to light.
There have to be consequences to improper use of legal actions.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible!
The DMCA needs to be fixed. Content creators and the content that they make are being taken down through abuse of the system and it has been this way for years. Most of these creators make a living off the content that they create and taking away some of their content or even taking down their channel can be a serious threat to their lively and since it's so easy for trolls and copyright holders to abuse the system, their lives are threatened every day. Even in cases where the creator is not making a living off the content the content that he/she is making, to take down a video or channel just because that creator said or made a video that someone didn't like goes against our right to free speech.
More often than not the videos and channels that have been taken down acted within the laws of the DMCA yet all it takes for someone to abuse the system is file a false claim and that video or channel could be taken down for days, months, or even worse permanently. This has to stop so I implore you please fix the DMCA and save fair use.
I don't want to have to feel like I have to be afraid to make YouTube videos.
I'm not going to be read in the center of this madness, but i need to say something. Some people's entire livelihoods are made from YouTube. People who I like to watch are targeted for those that don't share the same views. Mr. Mysterious Enter has had multiple attacks from Hasbro, a company he supports, and Fox News, who wants nothing wrong said about their shows. And Nostalgia Critic, the Channel Awesome channel pays for the livelihoods of multiple people, and whatever happens to them... They may not survive without it. Then there's TheBibleReloaded. Who are treated poorly because they're atheists. They read the Bible to all in a way we can understand and review Christian movies and shows. They got a review of one of these shows flagged as SPAM. no explanation, just flagged the video, and YouTube took it down without even looking. That's censorship of a minority group. As less than 10℅ of the American people don't believe in God, while around 60℅ believe that God is the most important thing in their lives. Separation of church and state, huh?
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses and self-employed individuals. This kind of damage can not be undone.
Everyone:
This is where the power of the Government is needed to stop this unlawful, automated violation of free expression!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. Some find my work overly Vaginal. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Videos that have no copy righted material, but instead have their own content have been removed. Those who create educational videos are being taken down. Please allow people, present and future, have a fair use in video, music, and any other form of entertainment. Please don't let those who abuse this practice get off without consequences, while those who are being fair lose money, lose respect, and could face criminal charges for doing nothing wrong. Please stop this.
Please stop abuse of DMCA takedowns. They are destroying creativity and end up having effects similar to censorship, but in the name of overly broad copyright rather than political suppression. The companies that operate social media platforms don't have the resources to defend fair use in millions of instances, and the result is a de facto nullification of the principle.
The DMCA allows companies to censor and steal content creator's ad revenue with false claims just because they can. That's illegal because it's stealing yet is being allowed by the DMCA. Crime shouldn't be enabled and content creators shouldn't have their entire portfolio of work constantly threatened by greedy corporate businesses. Please change this broken system!!
Too many translyrics and translations of foreign songs are being deleted automatically because the animation they are uploaded with comes from TV content. The loss of these song translations comes with the loss of understanding of opening songs and insert songs in TV shows, and other songs that are made with animated media. To avoid losing these, automatic takedowns should not be allowed purely based on the animation, but only when the sound that the animation goes with matches as well.
Creating translyrics than are singable takes a significant amound of effort and requires a great deal of creativity. According to Rockleetist (Rachel Robichaud), "to fix [the awkwardness otherwise present in the melody of a direct translation], the song must be ‘rewritten’, but carefully done so that it doesn’t it stray from the original meaning of the song." [1] Based on this , the inclusion of background animation should be acceptable under fair use as necessary to further describe the song.
[1]http://rockleetist.tumblr.com/post/35397699635/rockleetist-important-usage-faqs
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyri
ght Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The abuse of the DMCA needs to stop. Companies using shell comapnies to take down content needs to be felt with and brought to an end. The use of the DMCA to silence voices of those who would speak negatively about something or someone, despite it being within fairuse needs to end. It also needs to punished when those who seek to do so without taking fairuse into account. Fix this. End the abuse and bring this law into the current times.
I've personally delt with fraudulent activity due to false copyright claims. People who have no affiliation with the content im creating claiming that they own the rights to music or video that they have no legitimate claim over. Royalty free content being claimed by people who didn't even know it existed. They steal revenue and than move on to the next person. This NEEDS to change. You're affecting peoples livlihoods, You're affecting peoples LIVES!
The DMCA also needs to get rid of the DRM anti-circumvention laws. We need to be allowed to use our media, any way we want.
DCMA abuse needs to stop now, thanks much for opening this for comment, joe.
Not every site is taking credit . For things we like we tell we don't own them .
I am a person that makes youtube content and while I may not be of any use to this whole thing I have words to say. I've watched countless hours of youtube content since 2010 and I can say over the last year i've noticed many youtubers including Channel awesome and I Hate Everything get screwed over by the copyright claim system. The paragraphs above this state exactly what needs to be fixed about this. If it weren't for Doug Walker of Channel awesome this would've gone unnoticed. That is all I have to say about this.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use and similar laws in the USA and other jurisdictions. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Restrict unaccountable automated takedowns, or implement penalties for submitting multiple fraudulent or inaccurate takedown claims, whether by hand or by automation. Penalties could include fines or the suspension of authority to send takedown notices. Better yet, consider a notice-and-notice system, like Canada has.
The notice-and-takedown process under the (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
We need good copywrite laws to ensure that the internet can be a place for free speech and the sharing of ideas. The current DMCA system is a direct threat to the continued free ecosystem that is the internet. Large companies have habitually abused the DMCA system to put down perfectly legal and acceptable criticism as it hurts business. This is a blatant abuse of free speech. Companies also abuse fair use, because there is no legal or monetary repercussions for them doing so. A revision is more then needed, it is required in order to keep a free and open internet where completely kosher opinions can be shared without oppression from those that are negatively affected by such opinions. I am in no way for piracy or stealing of content but the system that has been put in place to protect the intellectual property of companies is now being used by companies to suppress free speech and any fair use that negatively affects them.
This system need a little of human touch to work well...ANd is invasive in the creators works.
This creates a threatening monopoly which is illegal and must be fixed immediately. Hollywood and their lobbyists must not be allowed to stifle creativity because internet creators do not match their ideals. Creativity belongs to all, not one. Bring the DMCA into the twenty-first century.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Stop the madness
Too many companies and users abuse thee DMCA takedown process! The system needs to be refined so online services like YouTube and online entertainers can thrive without haphazard threats to their livelihood.
I agree with the petition in question. From what I have heard, while the DMCA may have meant well at the time, but it has been exploited for far too long by those whom have never even heard of fair use; like a toy.
In fact, they have not known that many of the users they have taken down had not intention of making profit to begin. Also, even if the Youtube users successfully defended their intentions of Fair Use, the abusers of the DMCA just kept on beating the dead horse anyway.
If the many trolls and modern-day Scrooges made us STFU over allegedly stealing their proprietary content, why couldn't we tell them to STFU over false accusations of copyright infringement which has been displayed maliciously countless times. So, let's just pray that we emerge victorious from this legal crusade. If not, those whom exploited the DMCA to get what they want while desecrating the opposition too much have bitten off more they can chew.
Balance is desperately needed in the DMCA notice and takedown system.
One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the process or fail to adhere to any fair use review.
Automated takedowns inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works, and need to be looked into.
Thank you,
In addition, I believe there needs to be a system in place so that individuals who create their own content can stop it from being stolen and posted to websites. People like SoFlo Antonio will steal content off of YouTube, post it on Facebook, and credit false sources with the content to avoid any punishment. This hurts Individual content creators as it is another way that people can steal their livelihood.
This is ridiculous!
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I think that the YouTube copyright system is broken, and its caused many videos to go down the drain. Its geting to the point where feedback and reviews are all the sudden shutdown by the strikes. Almost all the time, peoples videos will get taken down for no reason or if there is a reason, sometimes that reason in question does not make any scene. so many small channels on YouTube try there hardest to make content for all of use and they deserve to be respected. Last time I checked, Youtube is, YOUR tube not, THERE tube.
I have dealt with copyright violations of my work -- my artwork, my writing -- and I am glad that the DMCA exists. But even when it is egregious, real judgments by human beings has been part of the process. This is time-consuming; it can be horrifying to see something of mine remain accessible during the review process, and yes, sometimes lawyers have had to be brought into the mess. So I really do get that DMCA is valuable.
However, no computer algorithm can make reasonable judgment of whether copyrights are actually being violated in more than the letter (and not additionally in the spirit) of the law. Wholesale abuse of the law is wrong, and particularly in a politically-charged era.
I care about copyright intensely, and I want to see it enforced. But gaming the system is wrong, and if usages are fair use, then that use absolutely needs to be just as protected as the rights of copyright holders themselves. And no computer should be ordering takedowns wholesale without oversight.
Nigga, I want my freedom and stuff! Stop copyrighting my favourite youtubers. Yea. Peace!
Make no mistake, this issue is not something that just effects the USA, Many of your companies and websites work worldwide, aiding free speech, and acting as jobs for many many people.
If you truly support free speech, if you truly want to see the growth of the internet across the world, you must stop the rampant abuse, the crushing of criticism.
Like it or not, Youtube has a monopoly on general purpose videos online outside of Asia, As long as this remains, it is in everyone's best interest for Youtube to remain free, and able to function without risk of genuine criticism and fair use being destroyed.
TLDR; Fair Use should be fair.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The DMCA take down effects small creators and big ones. People file claims on content they don't even own, people simply talking on camera without any copyright footage are taken down. Large companies use them as threats. Some channels are hit multiple times before they can even fight the claims. If an individual simply dislikes a video, even they can make a false claim.
Of course there are people who post videos that are not fair use. The DMCA is also needed to protect creators who have their content blatantly stolen. But it should not be abused by companies or individuals to take down videos that ARE fair use.
I love YouTube, it is a place of open speech and wonderful talent. I feel that if the issue of copyright claims and the DMCA take down process are not properly and seriously addressed. It will result in the downfall of Youtube, that people will find it harder and harder to post anything at all. I worry for the Youtubers that I love to watch every day. When will this archaic law be used against them? For many, many people Youtube is much more than just a website with silly videos. It is a job, people make a living off of their videos. Creators put a lot of work into the videos they post. When the DMCA take down process is wrongly used it effects people's lively hoods. It even takes away their income and gives it to the companies that make FALSE claims! Just remember that many of these Youtubers have thousands if not MILLIONS of followers. Their followers are loyal to the creators not the companies.
Fair use needs to be fair use and it should not be abused by both content creators or the DMCA take down process.
First and foremost, this message is sent through ( www.takedownabuse.org ) and is mostly composed of the message I found there. I do realise this situation is rather...ironic ( me basically talking about protecting freedom of speech and creativity from obsolete regulations and irresponsible / sometimes even malicious copyright holders WITH someones else words, work and ideas ), nevertheless I sincerely believe DMCA should be changed to prevent further abuse. My feedback is heavily relying on the aforementioned site's message because what it's saying is (in my opinion), true and I'm fairly sure I couldn't put it into words any better myself.
Companies can abuse the takedown system to silence any form criticism and do this with little to no risk involved. People receiving takedowns are not likely to officially appeal them and take them to the Court, as they are might be alone, not backed up by any group or organization or haven't the funds to do so. In some cases, even after human review, content that was ( admittedly ) falsely taken down was not restored in time or at all. Given how there was nobody to reach out to or to hold responsible, the creator of said content could do nothing to prevent further abuse. Also, this is another way of copyright holders eliminating competition. Knowingly targeting those fairly critisising them, they may create the illusion of their product being better than their competitor's. Even then, the matter of "Shell Companies" ( not real or largely insignificant companies sending takedowns themselves to protect their larger counterparts ) should definitely looked into, otherwise it will continue to be an issue.
The policies of the DMCA need to be revised in order to accommodate for the modern use of the internet. As companies abuse the DMCA, content creators who make a living off of the internet have their content taken down by these companies under false copyright claims. This in turn causes them to lose the profit they have made from their own content, making it difficult for them to support themselves and the people who work for them.
Video making became a great hobby of mine, and led to me getting the job as a video game tester that I have today. It changed my life. But, I stopped being able to do it seriously long ago when I could no longer make money off of ad revenue for what I was making, even though I knew for a fact that the creators of the copyrighted works I was using loved what I was making. There was no reason to claim my videos, but I had to stop because I could not support myself with me ever-dwindling earnings, and ever increasing number of copyright strikes.
Plz don't do this it is time to change and up greade the past two future thar are so many people that live on most of theas websites and require the support and opinions from people And by taking away this ability you're basically asking us to lose contact with one another and example of this would be a friend that lives on a different continent and he/ she only has Facebook to contact his or her friend on the other side of the world how are they supposed to contact one another if you take this ability away. try to think of how many people Will hate you because you took this away I think it's time to change the past so it will fit with the present and future it's time to make a change.
Stop bogus DMCA takedowns! This is ridiculous!
Free speech is allowed!
The DMCA is being misused and abused to harass and destroy content creators on the internet. The DMCA is not only outdated, as it was signed into law before the internet of today, but it is failing at it's job to protect copyright holders and content creators. The DMCA is not a tool to silence critics, but tens of thousands of people are being flagged despite not violating any laws. Where's the Fair Use?
The digital millennium copyrights act was a good idea for it's era. Now though, the internet has changed showed so much evolution in the past 20 years that it is barely comprehensible. The False dmca claim offers parasites of the system's flaws around the site known as "youtube" are being used to blatantly break the law and make ill gotten profits from short term gain. People are violating the constitution, censoring free speech, and basically bullying other competition in it's anti-capitalistic loop-holes and open to abuse policies. I think that the major problem lies in the lack of protection being given to people's jobs that are affected by everything from critics like digital homicide's false claims against video game reviews, taking down legitimate criticisms for short gain profits, or large motion pictures studios like universal, warner brothers, and various other companies when their movies don't get high ratings from critics like Doug walker, I hate everything's in search for the worst, and many others. I don't believe this is an issue that can wait much longer for a solution. Parasites of capitalism, blatantly and fervently gaming the system are getting away with illegal means of monetary gain. the government should protect it's tax paying citizens from crimes like these, for this is what they are CRIMES, not only against our families, well being, and employment; these are crimes against the very ideas on what this nation was founded and how it's markets are run.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use, as well as legitimate Open Source and Free Software projects. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Copyright laws have gone too far.
WE FIGHT
The DMCA is outdated legislation that stifles creativity and in its current use and abuse violates the First Amendment and stifles commerce.
It needs to be revisited, restructured and updated now to reflect the current realities of the internet.
Corporations have gotten overly heay-handed in their ability to protect supposedly copywritten material!!!
Please update or repeal the DMCA as it has been used to violate the people's right to free speech, and has completely destroyed the concept of fair use. Content creators on the internet have had their lively hoods constantly threatened by the DMCA as companies have used it to silence criticism or even directly steal revenue from creators that have made no violations to copyright or any other law.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged -- or preferably banned -- as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I believe that artist should be able to draw their favorite character off of a game or a show. This copyright stuff is becoming ridiculous and annoying, though I do believe to credit the person who origanlly created it. This needs to stop now.
The DMCA is outdated and the use of false takedowns is being used to stifle free speech.
The DMCA takedowns are now used as a form of harassment and content creators do not have the protections necessary into the 21st Century.
There needs to be reform to protect people from large corporations that seek to intimidate and censor individuals.
The DMCA is currently against freedom of the press an free speech. The issue I have is that the act was passed 2+ years before I was born and hasn't been updated since then. Since that time numerous websites have been created that allow anyone the ability to share their opinions on what they are passionate about, but the DMCA act was not updated to reflect that. In return companies have taken advantage of a outdated set of rules that fail to protect a new generation of entertainers that relies on the Internet for their revenue. That is why I want to see the DMCA updated or abolished and rewritten.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted work. At least make them pay a human.
Videos are being attacked on YouTube, and not even by the people who own the rights necessarily, although many companies are at fault there too.
The system is being abused by both companies, and individuals with no real consequences for the one who issued the DMCA take down order.
It's an imbalanced system against the curators.
A lot of times people's creative works can be taken down simply because a company wants to have the most viewed content over a well known youtuber.
Even my own videos have been hit with a few DMCA's and I'm fairly careful about how I do my videos to avoid any problem with the DMCA. (Admittedly, my reviews are cleared, but I can't feel like some games are too "hot" to review because it'll get flagged for copyright infringement even though I'd simply be reviewing a product, which is protected under fair use.)
DMCA is an outdated system that does not take into account today's internet. Corporations abuse DMCA to take down content they don't even own. It can be used as a blatant attack on free speech and silence criticism. There needs to be a paradigm shift for Copyright laws to account for modern times.
The abuse of the DMCA is gradually destroying the freedom of speech.
The DMCA takedown system is a heavily flawed system that leaves huge room for abuse from large corporations and unrelated individuals in a foul mood.
The system allows anybody to request a takedown of content for the most menial of reasons. Such include music coming from a television commercial somehwere in the background or a trickster simply claiming rights on whats rightfully not theirs and moreover labeled as fair use. It's like being penalized because a photo you made shows a billboard planted somewhere in the city.
The system is outdated and unsuited for modern society which lives and breathes around the internet.
Certain criteria are even entirely undefined. Video content of computer games for example is a grey area. The content of said video's is original gameplay footage recorded by the player, yet we have seen video game publishers silence said content even though it's not theirs. Nobody really even knows what to do in a situation like this because it's undefined.
There needs to be a new system in place that protects the people from DMCA abuse. Things like automated takedowns especially should not continue to exist. A machine cannot reasonably determine what is moral and lawful and what isn't.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I believe that the DMCA takedowns have become detrimental to anyone and everyone who wishes to create and publish their own content online. This effectively can become a scare tactic to anyone thinking or currently are planning to put any content, not just videos, online.
Please just watch this video!
This law needs to be changed and set in fairness to the people.
Like all laws this one needs to change for it does not apply to the modern day. I have seen videos who give the proper credit and citation to they're video's be unjustly taken down. There was one guy who had written permission from the band who's song is an opening theme in said guys video's and it still got taken down.
It is every Americans (scratch that, EVERYBODY'S) right to the freedom of speech in all its forms even they have the permission and/or give proper credit. The Internet is one of bases of new paths to new jobs and something that can help people get a foot hold in the real world. The thought that this potential is hindered by Big Money in them abusing the law and the common folk is sickening.
I love video games, movies and all forms of media and I don't want to completely trust big shot reviewers but rather the people who love doing what they do. I trust them more than I trust a company that try's to falsify reviews. We need a new law to protect consumers from bad produces, because even big timers need to be put in they're place if a product is below par and they need to be called out for it.
Do your job and protect the common fold, protect the rights of the many.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
It's shite man, everything i like gets taken the fuck down. Like a gay at a christian rally
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgement to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Most of my favorite channels on YouTube have been the subject of strikes without warning or recourse. This leads to a loss of income for creators while it does not lead to any ill effects for the striker party. The system is easy to abuse and represents an opportunity for organized crime, which it is what I called a group of people or company which strikes creators unlawfully to make a profit. Revoke or remade the DMCA!
BTW, the DMCA sucks. These companies have too much power.
A content creator is entitled to use materials for transformative purposes. Only if someone is wrongfully using fair use as a defense do they have to have their content removed, but those that abide the current laws should not be equally punished.
I've lost two youtube channels over ridiculous copyright strikes filed under the flawed DMCA process. Fair-use violated by companies claiming ownership over media/audio clips that absolutely do NOT have the rights over. There needs to be change and accountable.
Look I have all that stuff above pre put my honest opinion is that with all the other stuff government has dominion over whether it agrees on it or not we should get something and I say social media because it helps us with every other activity and the big corporate businesses trying to shut this down don't realize how much it will hurt business of social media is gone
Tired of posting all of my own creations in short films only to have the video blocked in some countries or not being able to make a little extra income only because very small portions of a song are recognized that I used in the video. We're talking less than 5% -10% on some of these songs; it's pretty ridiculous! I'd like to see Youtube make some changes to make it more fair and reasonable for film makers and developers a fair shake on income for all their hard work; even if it means paying both the developer and the song writers. Song writers should not be able to take all income based on a very small portion of their work featured in someone else's work.
More so, such an attitude kills the most basic human need. Need to create. Abusement of such a system to get a bigger piece for yourself or harass other person is beyond any moral limits and should be punished with the law. It is not about the copyright, it is about greed and anger.
Additional protections are desperately needed to help the Internet be a service that works for everyone equally.
Thanks for your consideration,
Thomas Woestman
There's not much else to say on the matter. There are countless accounts of people stealing public resources and taking down videos that had these public resources in them, claiming them as theirs, or companies taking down videos that even mentioned their products, all using computer algorithms and third party softwares, making it so that either the companies and thieves profited from the video only, or nobody did, which can have a major impact on people who live off of this. So please, take it down please. Thanks
I have seen multiple instances of both automated and manual take-downs of obvious fair use situations (parody, teaching, quoting) on video websites. One of the most egregious is ABBA's takedown of the Wake County SPCA's use of "Take A Chance On Me" to educate people about their animal shelter and pet adoption. This was eventually corrected, but such draconian interference with fair use and free speech must be stopped.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
In my own case, I have had videos taken down where someone claimed credit for a recording of street noise that I had legally acquired. However, since the process was too difficult and long for me to walk through, I elected to remove my video rather than deal with the broken and difficult system.
This is being abused on youtube and the rest of the internet, let's fix this and get copyright back on track.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corrupt and fascist corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This corrupt and fascist system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and corrupt and fascist companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. We need to JAIL the executives responsible for infringing on users' free speech.
Corrupt and fascist companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This repressive process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet. JAIL the corrupt and fascist corporate sensors!
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corrupt and fascist corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims. It can only be paid for by JAIL time for the perpetrators.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing over-reaching copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, corrupt and fascist companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech and the executives responsible must be JAILED!
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages and JAIL for corrupt and fascist companies whose executives abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
All of the censoring I have seen around YouTube has all been completely unfair to the people who create them. I don't know much about law and copyright, but I do know where fair use is allowed. I've seen many channels that run reviews get flagged for their videos, especially when it doesn't paint a good picture for the film or game that they are reviewing. You aren't able to do this when you see people write a review, so why should it be allowed when people make a video of it.
They all put in the correct information needed to say that they don't own it, that this certain company does, and they don't even show the whole movie, like some channels do that don't get taken down. This is all completely unfair to everyone.
"Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works."
As a swedish citizen I cannot belive there aren't penalties for abusing a legal system, but protecting companies rather than people seem to be the norm in the USA.
There needs to be a complete revision of the DMCA take down laws. Currently , massive amounts of legitimate content created under "Fair Use" is being flagged and removed by automated Corporate controlled 'bots, or just as means of trolls harassing people they don't like. Until there is a system where corporations and people who falsely flag other people's protected content are severely fined, with the fines going to reimburse the falsely flagged content creators, the DMCA takedown process should be suspended. Guilty until proven innocent, with content hosting services such as YouTube either not resolving or taking months to resolve false flags does not appear to be a workable system.
In short, let's avoid this madness. Not necessary. Unless you like mayhem, which I doubt.
It’s almost impossible to protect your content from algorithms or bad actors. If the wrong song is playing in the background of your video, whether intentionally or by mistake, you are vulnerable to having your video taken down. If you quote a news article to comment on it on your blog, your post could disappear.
The thing is, many of the uses of copyrighted content that get shot down by these bullies are 100% legal. Congress intended for things like commentary, remixing, and parody to be protected under fair use, but the robots that are doing the take downs can’t understand these nuances of the law. And because there are no repercussions for illegitimate take downs, companies have no reason to try to fix their systems.
Copyright law in the United States is a broken policy.
And look I've seen this used against people I look up to and inspire me to do better things with my life and I just don't want it happening ever again.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright abusers who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
In the current system, all a copyright holder has to do is create multiple companies whose sole purpose is to take down videos that are protected under fair use, such as reviews of movies, so they can make money from the creators of the video or shut it down completely. The current system must change if freedom of speech and truly fair use is to be upheld
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act was created in 1998, it was created for an internet that is completely different today, this act is the major law regulating free speech on the internet, but it is a fossil, it was created to ensure that intellectual property could not be misused on the internet and protect the copyright holders, however it is so out of date today that it is doing far more harm the good now, it needs to be updated or rewritten altogether.
it allows major companies to engage in anticompetitive practices such as stifling criticism or taking down reviews of company products that the company finds unfavorable, let random people to discriminate against anyone they do not like by getting those people's videos taken down, people have used the DMCA to steal , and it could even be used to to censor free speech, in fact it has been. A specific example of this sort of thing is Jim Sterling.
Jim Sterling is a video game reviewer who played a video game, did not like it, and posted a video of it on youtube explaining why he did not like it with no monetary gain for him whatsoever. This falls under fair use, which was put in place as part of the DMCA to protect free speech such as journalism and parody. However the developer of the game (Digital homicide studios) did not like this and abused the DMCA takedown system to censor his review. Jim Sterling soon after got into arguments with Digital homicide studios over the legality of this. That still seems mostly harmless until last week when it was revealed that these events have now culminated in Digital homicide studios filing suit against Jim Sterling for ten million (10,000,000) dollars. So to recap: a person put a short video on youtube about why he did not like the game, and because he had footage of that game on the video Digital homicide had an excuse to take that down, and when he contested this with Digital homicide (because there is barely any method in place to fight a copyright takedown) he ended up being sued for ten million dollars, does anything sound wrong here?
The list can go on and on, major companies now act like they believe they create the law for the internet, not the government, doing whatever they please. Some people claim monetized videos to steal money from content creators. It is a ridiculous state right now and something needs to be done to protect content on the internet from abuse by companies, by entire industries, even by ordinary random people so easily.
I hope that this will help fix the broken state of fair use on the internet today.
Sincerely, Tom Smith
Now here is the standard message explaining this problem:
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act was created in 1998, it was created for an internet that is completely different today,
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright scammers who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
In all actuality this is a far more complex issue than any law maker has been willing to address, and is a considerably fragile problem with many people's passions, and even lives in the balance. This will not be fixed unless precautions are made to help all content makers, and make it where the fair use laws can't be used as a tool to harm or as a threat.
There is no reason for content creators should have to worry about being bullied by big money corporations, if you love you tube or even just content creators. Then its about time we fix fair use.
Russia. St.Petersburg . I support.
To put it as quickly as possible, YouTube creators, some people who have been working on the website for decades, have absolutely zero job security due to the unlawful use of the copyright system. Most of these creators such as TeamFourStar, ChannelAwesome and YMS are completely within Fair Use yet they are constantly bombarded with companies abusing the DMCA's outdated structure.
THIS NEEDS TO STOP, and I hope you take my entry as consideration of ending this false copyright claims era. Thank you.
The fun thing is, that USA is most proup of its freedom of speech and even allowing to try someone to abuse it sound ridiculous to me. In my opinion protecting thingsthat are important for your citizens is not a bad thing, isn't it?
You need to rewrite this law. Sadly, as your government attempts to make American law the law of the world (that requires a separate rant), far too many people globally are caught in this outdated and abused system.
I hope you take the views of all seriously as you really need to fix this, or change your constitution to start "We the corporations..." as you really are not for the people any longer.
I, myself am not a content creator but I am a man who has witnessed many things, such as John Enters dealings with Viacom and his channel getting removed for two weeks, Continuously being censored by Valleyarm/Blue Rocket Studios so that his video will not be open to the public and that they will steal ad revenue on his video, and I have seen the immense passion of putting Fair Use Laws into effect, from Nostalgia Critic, John Enter, I Hate Everything, YMS, and many others.
The Fair Use Laws are being abused and they will not take effect into thinking if it breaks fair use laws, they will send multiple companies to send copyright strikes on the same videos, and it is heavily biased on giving companies the upper hand so that they are able to keep abusing the system that is beyond broken.
Freedom of speech is vital to the struggle against fascist regimes be it imperialist amerika or Mexico!
In addition to all this I have had two videos taken down for no reason recently.. The rule should be if you are not making money off it you should be free to use it for fan works or to help them gain recognition... I see nothing wrong with free advertising.
It is absurd that so called "robots" do the work of deciding if something infringes copyright laws. It is one of the activities which require a type of thinking typical to a human mind. I worked as a website miderator for 3 years, for an adds website where people bought stuff. And one of the job tasks was to detect internet fraud. It is a similar task to that of identifying copyright infringements. But the website owners never even thought of replacing us employees with informatic programs. Why do you think that is?
Just take a look around YouTube. The problem is very real and are punishing innocent people most of the time. It's getting very out of hand and lots of people are affecting others who has done no harm but has worked hard for their platform over petty things or just out of thoughtlessness. On more the more despicable side, it sometimes just to make an easy buck. It is doing more damage than good because instead of being used as a tool to protect people and to level things out, it's being used to harass, bully and steal from people (usually innocent). From what I have learned in the past months, this was mostly used by others to do harm most of the time. The internet is a part of a lot of people's lives now and YouTube is the biggest video site, so this even indirectly affects everyone. This can grow into something terrible if not stopped. I can see content creators and potential content creators losing hope in such a website or place(internet) and demotivated to even bother uploading. I can imagine with now this notorious stink and reputation made huge now of YouTube in the future just discouraging being creative and free with what the person could do with it, because they have to worry about a system that is so against them. They aren't protected and their work can be non-existent in a flash. It's like taking all your years of education and rewards, stripping them away, and telling you to create the same exact thing or something just as hard all over again. It's pretty amazing but for a lot of YouTubers this is their real life job. I'd be frustrated too. It isn't the best written comment or reason but I hope this had you really consider the issue. Thank you for reading and I wish for a good change to fix the unfairness of it all.
To many copyright holders abuse this to supress and disallow criticism. (Egenda mostly) file horrid, unorthodox, and fraudulent clams. This environment drives away possible creators from posibly making a living on their passion.
We need to ensure that "fair use" provisions are applied prior to taking down content and potentially stripping users of their right to free speech.
Fair use is incredibly important for creativity, innovation, and free speech, and needs to be protected just as much as the copyright. Please amend the DCMA to protect a good balance between the two, rather than allowing corporate copyrights to stifle fair use.
Government, you suck. Stop It.
For a couple of years now this has been a problem unadressed by the proper authorities. More recently now, it has escalated to a point where it's no longer a singular event, but a means to exploit and harass creators. The past few months I have seen several outcries of said creators, to notice if not change this problem.....until now unanswered.
I truly hope that now, that this time the people in charge will listen and help them. It would just go to show that is important to them aswell that we all can have proper and decent dealings with each other.
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Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The DMCA provides an important toolkit for the protection of intellectual property. However, as currently written, the act also includes opportunities for abuse and exploitation.
The current notice-and-takedown policy removes content immediately upon any accusation of copyright infringement, without requiring verification of the claim. This allows unscrupulous users and corporations to block criticism and competition for a period of time while the claim is disputed. It also means that automated systems, such as YouTube's Content ID, take down material without any human oversight. It is possible for a YouTube channel to lose many privileges and features, or even be taken down completely, without its creator ever interacting with a real person.
If there are the means to allow an automated system then there needs to be punishment for a false claim and to protect the proper use.
SAVE FAIR USE
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. The apparent abuse of this process has gotten to the point where content that hardly violates copyright becomes subject of notice-and-takedown.
This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
It is not easy for a computer algorithm to pick up whether something is fair use or not so a lot of false positive results are given back. Since there is no punishment for flagging content incorrectly, these algorithms flag more than they should because the mindset behind it is very precautious.
I accidentally sent the last one without any other comment but here we go.
Look the DMCA law needs to be fixed heavily. Companies and other people have been abusing this system and causing a lot of strike for content creators who have been following the terms of Fair Use. People who don't even use copyrighted material are even being affected.
The people who abuse the system neglect Fair Use, taking down reviews, discussions, basically anything negative or critical about the product they own. They even take down reviews or critiques that speak highly of them! Not only that, but other third parties abuse the system for things, they don't even own.
Its gotten so out of hand, and it needs to stop. Please, get this fixed before more problems insue!
I haven't personally been affected by automated and unlawful takedowns, but as someone who loves the content that can be made based around criticism and critique, I've seen several intelligent, well-meaning people being harassed and needing to jump through far too many hoops in order to get their content published fairly online. Content creators such as Channel Awesome, Digibro, TheMysteriousMisterEnter, and countless other creative channels have been bullied by the automated system. They've had their videos fraudulently claimed by third parties and important ad revenue stolen, taking upwards of several weeks to fight back against a nameless, faceless system that can be easily exploited, just to have other claims pop up on the same video in only a few days' time. I can only imagine how frustrating this can be for these people whose aim is merely to educate, inform, or simply entertain in their spare time—let alone those who depend on these videos for their livelihood.
This is a problem that needs to be fixed; let's please start changing to suit the world we live in. Thank you for your time.
Companies and trolls who freeboot other content creators or host the stolen content ( sites like facebook ) should be held accountable for theft and not crediting the origination of content that the company or troll stole from the creator.
In the past I have noticed that companies and individuals have been using the flawed DMCA law to take down and monetise the videos and creative content of other, less powerful individuals. As someone who uses YouTube quite frequently, I am no stranger to false DMCA takedowns. Everywhere I turn, someone on that website has had a video removed for unclear reasons or even has had their channel completely taken down without a single word of warning.
I am tired of seeing individuals suffer because someone didn't like a review of a movie or a game. I'm sick of people who have no experience dealing with law take down videos because the creator said something they didn't like. I no longer want to see companies designed to "protect" their creators privatise and steal money from videos just because they can. I hate seeing large corporations use robots and computer programmes to scan videos and take down those that have less than ten seconds of music or clips from a movie because they think its right.
I've noticed this has been going on for a while now, and no one has the power to do anything about it. DMCA takedowns were designed to protect the little people, but instead they are being used against them. I have no experience in this area of law and even I know stuff like this is wrong. If you don't believe me, you don't have to search YouTube for long to find evidence that supports what I have to say.
Something needs to be done. Not later, not next week, not in a few years...
Something needs to be done NOW.
Our freedom of speech as human beings depends on it.
Stop rampant take down abuse!
In fact, I am a little known victim myself, I can name five videos off the top of my head that have been blocked worldwide and all of them are internet reviews with footage used under the mantra of Fair Use.
This law currently causes more harm than good. Please help create a law that is better balanced. Thank you.
I have seen many videos on YouTube being taken down when there was no copyright infringement present. Some artists lose their work when it is in their right to display it publically. Our free speech is being locked up tight by people who often don't have the actually authority. Don't let companies continue taking advantage of this kind of power; especially if they don't even have it.
Many companies are using, or allowing, the DMCA to be used incorrectly. Copyrights are important to protect but they way the system is set up right now allows for copyright holder to abuse their power. They will block/takedown videos they do not infringe on copyright and there is not much a creator (of new content) can do about it. The copyright holders are not held responsible for any mistakes they make and can, on some websites, even get reworded for harassing content creators.
They way DMCA is used right now allows for websites to ignore their own rules when it comes to protecting their users. Companies and other they use copyright claim systems are not held responsible for any incorrect claims. There is very little a content creature/commenter/normal website visitors can do to protect themselves. At the very least a new system needs to be put in place that holds copyright claimers responsible for their actions. Something that would make them think about harassing someone on loose ideas of what falls under copyright and stops them from attacking something that clearly is not copyrighted.
The DMCA is being heavily abused by copyright holders to punish content creators, despite the work of said content creators clearly falling under fair use. They're stealing money from these creators with zero repercussions and it's not okay.
The DMCA is necessary, that is for sure. But as it currently is, it's far too easy for the big players to abuse and crush new and innovative projects. A change is needed.
I'm in for that :
And judging by views (and revenue generated) the proportion is easily over half.
We need to stop these false takedowns, or at least provide a good incentive to make them stop on their own.
Protect content creators, please. This can't go on much longer.
As someone who knows many talented YouTube creators and personally knows the thought and effort that goes into making these transformative works, whether using assets under Fair Use or no assets *at all*, these takedowns interfere with their creative process, their access to their audiences, and in the cases where their work is also their livelihood, their access to the money they need to live and work. Ridiculous amounts of automation are creating an environment where creators need to walk on eggshells whenever referencing an existing copyrighted work, and even THEN, it's not enough to prevent getting taken down, and the appeal process always puts them in a place of disadvantage against their often-wrongful accusers, with no penalty to those doing the reckless accusing.
Enough of this mess. It's time to take a hard look at the future of Fair Use in this age of the Internet. We're done dealing with this, and it's obvious nothing is being done. Make it so we never have to be this outraged over things remaining stagnant. Make some progress. CHANGE SOMETHING.
""
The algorithms suck and also remixing is a basic function of the human mind. The intellectual property mafia is going to put humanity back into the dark ages - look at all the books that have effectively vanished since they never made it to public domain after the original law passed in 20th century. The regime has failed the entirety of human civilization and it's your job to mitigate this catastrophic mess.
Also true:
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible, dammit.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet, dammit.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review, dammit.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims, dammit.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone, dammit.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech, dammit.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works, dammit.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders. This is commonly used to siphon advertisement revenue that is protected under fair use for reviews of video games on Youtube, among many other examples. This system has had dire effects on video game journalism, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. There should be more things, such as actual review of each and every claim, by human eyes.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone, And for some it is already too late.
The primary impact on my daily life is the removal of whole categories of video game reviews. Honest, and un-sponsored reviews are becoming a thing of the past. (Lord of the Rings: Shadow of Mordor as a recent example) People have to sign up for protection rackets to be able to make reviews for games, they can NOT say anything negative about the products. (Nintendo, EA) So the free speech must be resigned or reviewers must run the increasing risk of getting "knocked off" Youtube.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, such as for example permission from the copyright holders to use the material, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I preface that the DMCA needs to be brought in to the 21st century and remodeled. The act was instated in 1998 and entertainment has radically changed since allowing for more personalized forms of entertainment and media. There needs to be radical readjustment to the current act in order to ensure the safeguard of freedom of speech of individual content, and recognize a process in which companies have a right to take a valid claim. During this process, I strongly believe no content removal or monetary action is taken against the individual until the claim is recognized as valid.
This is an outdated act and it is important that this is resolved for both individual freedom of speech and company intellectual property protection.
Fair use is awesome because it allows commentary on anything and everything we have online. Protect free speech! Also, let stuff go back into public domain.
Even if they are found to be false there are no consequences for the people making these false accusations. Content creators are getting harassed with constant copyright claims, even when their content is just them sitting in front of a camera and talking.
So yah fix this bull before it gets anyworse people are being robbed.
DMCA is being used to stifle free speech and steal revenue from Fair Use creators. DMCA as it exists now is stifling and hurting content creators, not protecting them.
--Please Consider Fair Use In the Future for Youtube and other Content Creator Sites.
The DMCA stifles free speech and fair use, largely due to lack of negative ramifications for false invocation of the DMCA. On a daily basis, content creators on places like Twitter and YouTube are having their content pulled due to false DMCA complaints.
In some cases, their original content contains use of other peoples' copyrighted material, but which would very clearly fall under fair use (for instance, providing criticism).
And in many cases, the original content being pulled contains no copyrighted material whatsoever, but is simply undesirable to some party who chooses to invoke the DMCA to take it down.
The DMCA is too broad, and too empowering for copyright holders at the expense of the free speech rights of US citizens.
I really really hate all my favorite youtube artists' videos being taken down, especially when I realize that the censoring criteria are so stupid. In the past, the ABC song and MY LITTLE PONY episodes have been out of reach, but not videos about creepypastas or pillow talk. I'm all for not showing, for example, sexual content or brutal murder, but this has gone very far beyond that, and sometimes doesn't even remove those most basic things. The system is endlessly flawed. However, most of the fault is with "copyright." I can't count how many times I can't access an episode of one of my favorite shows because apparently the internet hates you being a fan of things you can't watch live. I mean, you miss one episode of something and you can't reach it so you have no idea what's going on!! And let's say it, we all know that these things aren't original, they're just the fruits of someone being thoughtful so that we can all watch the things we love. WE KNOW they didn't MAKE Gravity Falls, so what's the point of taking it down, and what's the harm in making sure we can see it??
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30% of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
The most affected site is YouTube, isn´t safe upload videos there anymore, the claim are ridiculous, companies are abusing the DMCA, several times illegally, censoring people. This needs to stop.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is frequently abused to censor speech that is protected under fair use, without any consequence to those who abuse the system.
This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Lets stop abuse!
Only responsible use of the notice-and-takedown process should be allowed - and enforced. Please make sure safeguards are in place!
Nobody fucks with the Jesus
Hey.
i agree.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to take down content that is protected under fair use. This system has had significant effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance could be to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works—instead, something like an automated ranking system could be used to prioritize potential violations for human review.
We want to create freely
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of those asserting a corporate copyright and too commonly used to censor content, curtail artistic expression and intimidate content makers, often when the material
is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs replacement or the introduction of appropriate safeguards to protect against abuse. In addition the individuals responsible with companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held personally accountable.
Companies are using computer algorithms to issue automated takedowns without human judgement in the process. As the removal of content is a binary all or nothing decision this process is vulnerable to, and has produced, significant errors. Particularly it does not allow for judgements to be made about similar but substantially different works, or fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited those claiming corporate copyright and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech is censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos are taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone. The developer of a flawed algorithm is as culpable as someone negligently sending out a takedown notice.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Require penalties for illegitimate take downs of media content. Stop the bullying.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I don't personally upload videos onto youtube myself, but every week I watch as people struggle with takedowns and lost revenue that they need in order to eat. Companies have over stepped their bounds and are censoring and controlling what should be an open medium for all people. Many a time i have heard that people can't sing or play a clip to illustrate their point because large and unfair companies will use dirty and underhanded tactics to take their videos down, or siphon their revenue from the video, or will harass them until they have complied with their demands. This isn't just a breach of their rights, this is a breach of peoples constitutional right to say what they want and have it protected. I don't know if anyone will actually read this or if will be a statistic, but if you do, please do something about this, fix the DMCA, or draft a new, better bill, just do something please.
Roll back the absolute power of copyright-troll lawyers with sensible restrictions on DMCA take-downs. And fine those that abuse the law.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
Impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Too many people have been affected by abuse of this system, some cases are still ongoing.
Jim Sterling, Themysteriousmrenter, Channel Awesome, Anime America, Lost Pause, The Anime Man, Your Movie Sucks, I Hate Everything, Drwolf, Joshscorcher, TeamFourStar, CinemaSnob, Potatobombkyle, Lego Productions, CinemaSins, AlternateHistoryHub, Jontron, BadComedian, Sargon of Akkad, Chris Stuckman, Bobsheaux, Sheeleシェーレ, BrainScratch Commentaries, NFKRZ, Pyrocynical, The Gaming Czar, Games Repainted, AdoseofBuckley, Totalbiscuit, Matthias, ToddintheShadows, Angry Joe, ElectricDragon505, CentralDerp, Krimson Rogue, EyeOfSOl, Dragon Mage, CreepyMcPasta, those are just a few of the people affected. We need this to change NOW.
This has affected me by taking down my internet and videos. Mostly Viacom and Fox. They TREAT US!!! Please fix it.
Not only that, But I would also like to mention that not only do are these strikes wrong and really unfounded, they harm both themselves and the content creator. Take, for example, Jim Sterling had an horrific fallout between him and the game developer Immanent Uprising. If you go to his channel he gives you the full story of the event on his home page, just search Jim Sterling. Please look into this, I understand that copyright must be protected, but it's no longer being protected, its being harmed by the laws in place. I implore you to look into this serious issue and help us make a positive change that will benefit everyone.
Thank You,
Nathan Casebolt
Content creators are treated terribly unfair even though they hav the law on their side. Please make a Fair Use system good again and punish those who misuse it as they are. Let us have our great content creators in peace. (sorry if my English wasn't fully understandable, English is only a second language that I'm not very good at)
https://youtu.be/NoIL5qUI1p8?t=166
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
We need to stop this, or courts, DMCA companies, and trolling dicks might take over and remove every single video ever. Even the tinyest of videos.
The notice-and-takedown process under the (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse, and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study by Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged, as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The Internet has changed everything about our society. It's time to admit that remix culture is here to stay and allow social and cultural commentary it's place in the digital age - without undue process around copyright infringement.
The DMCA takedown system is too easily exploitable and can be abused by large corporations to censor criticism or take away the advertising revenue for the content creators.
Aside from this bias, the fears of action from these large corporations have caused small companies to specialize in harassing people in YouTube's pathetic attempt to implement DMCA laws. The same company can just repeatedly spam content claims, whether or not they actually own the content, with no legal recourse for the people being attacked.
There needs to be a consideration for international attacks on domestic content creators, because it's insulting the amount of small company get away with this kind of harassment simply because to sue them would require going to that country to sue them.
There needs to be a legal protection for producing reviews of content. The internet has created so much of this, and it is its own modern form of entertainment. Without this, people and companies can feel free to harass and destroy people who are not even using the content in question. Making reviews by just taking to the camera in a car can be claimed and taken down, with no way for the people receiving this take down to sue or otherwise properly.
With all that, Lenz v. Universal Music Corp. has set new precedent that needs to be reflected in the law.
I am also tired as an atheist seeing the DCMA cudgel being used by theists as a way of silencing dissent. The DMCA has been used way too often as a sword instead of the shield it was intended to be.
Please stop the madness.
Its not fair that a system used to keep youtube safe is being used to harm youtubers.
Many creators I enjoy watching for personal entertainment have had their content removed unfairly because they were using footage in a way that falls within fair use, such as doing a review. This has led to lost wages and viewership. Many of these take down notices were submitted invalidly by people who have no claim to the content claimed, and yet they suffer no consequences for their actions while the creators have to deal with the repercussions.
This system is being abused by larger companies as well, generally to silence criticism. I've seen reviews of movies that used no actual footage from said film anywhere within the review. Jim Sterling has had videos taken down and has even been subject to a law suit for his reviews of video games, despite it all falling under fair use. These individuals are taking advantage of a dated system which needs to be updated.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet.
This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgement.
Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review.
DMCA abuse affects many content creators who follow the Fair Use policy throughout the internet. A large amount of these afflicted use sites such as YouTube and Twitter as mediums to share their thoughts and create entertaining content whilst making a living off of it.
Abuse of the DMCA system to either take down articles and videos that are protected by the Fair Use policy, or to attack specific individuals who may have a counteractive opinion that a company does not want on the Internet, (for fear of losing credibility or their audience) is down right despicable and the fact that many innocent people have had their livelihoods destroyed because of this abuse of a dated protection system is a giant red flag calling for said system to be updated for modern Internet usage.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Help us Govvy-wan, you're our only hope.
Thank you.
I have noticed over the past few months that more and more of the content providers I follow have been being hit with DMCA copyright claims and takedown notices on videos that very definitely fall under fair use. On multiple occasions, these providers have stepped forward and told stories of how copyright claims have been laid against them by companies who don't even own the copyrighted material they claim the video is infringing on. They are then often unable to do anything, since under the current system they have to file a counter-claim explaining their own case, and then wait up to 30 days for a response from the company. Far too often, the company will wait out the 30 days, with the copyright claim removing all monetization from the content provider's video or even their entire channel during that time.
During the period in which the copyright claim is in effect, these companies will also often gain all the monetization from those videos, as if the video belonged to them. They have to prove nothing in order to take this money, and even if they don't renew the claim by the time the 30 days are up, they can keep all the money they gained. This represents a severe problem with the DMCA system as it stands. These companies are able to make a claim and unfairly profit from other people's work and, even if they can't prove they were in the right to do so, they can still keep the money they earned.
BECAUSE THERE IS NO (OR IS NEGLIGIBLE) CONSEQUENCE FOR ANYONE TO HAVE A POSTING TAKEN DOWN, ALLEGING COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT, IT PRIMARILY SERVES ONLY AS A TOOL USED TO ELIMINATE COMPETITION AND/OR REMOVE A CONFLICTING OPINION. WERE A PROTOCOL ESTABLISHED ADVISING ALL "TAKE DOWNS" WILL BE INVESTIGATED AND THOSE FOUND TO BE FRAUDULENT WOULD HAVE SIGNIFICANT FINES, POSSIBLE CRIMINAL CHARGES WITH JAIL, AND BANISHMENT FROM THE WEB, THERE WOULD BE AN INSTANT CHANGE. OF COURSE, THERE WOULD BE LAWSUITS CONCERNING ONE'S RIGHT TO LIE OR BE VAGUE...
there needs to be changes in the systems right now!
"Automated" means without thought, without balance, without human participation.
Enabling a piece of software to automatically destroy the work of a human being is stupid, obscene, and just simply wrong!
Do NOT allow it to continue.
Not even going to use the silly comment template, but rather provide a real-life example, illustrating that programmers are not computer gods, and algorithmic content censorship is unreliable and cause more harm to legitimate content creators, rather than help copyright-holders.
I work in the distance learning department of an university, as part of our department's job, we recorded a web seminar, where we had a bunch of smartly dressed people at desks discussing academic subjects rather tediously on our end, and we had to connect them to a few remote participants. My co-worker went on to upload the recording to YouTube, naturally, and within about a minute the recorded seminar was tagged for EXPLICIT CONTENT and censored on YouTube. While this is not necessarily an example of DMCA abuse, it is a result and example of the automated system at work that was spawned by DMCA in the first place.
We shouldn't be harassed for giving a negative review of a product.
I have had videos taken down simply because I was playing a game - "let's play" style video game commentaries should be as much Free Use as using personal sports footage to comment on how to play sports.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I'm a young creator that is trying to make his way on the interntet and in the past month I have been flat-out terrified by how DMCA has been used to oppress, attack, bully and destroy creators just like me. I have seen large companines exploit a system and attack innocent creators, Ive seen small companies make money by pretty much stealing from someone who obviously doesnt have the legal strength to stop, creators who's only product in their creation is themsleves being attacked with copyright strikes, companies attacking small creators in the name of larger individuals without their knowledge and consent and all of this is just terrifying to kid who just wants to share his art it seems like i'll just be attacked and ruined just because a random company has nothing better to do and is vaguely aware that my platform exists. In school I was taught that America was a place of oppurtunity and expression and that their laws were created to protect those who were subject to them as well as encourage others to join but what I have seen recently suggests otherwise. So please re-form this system so that the little guy has an equal chance to be great as anyone elseon this platform.
Hello, the DMCA has forced entertainers, specifically Youtube video creators who are providing a legitimate service, to waste thousands or even millions of hours handling false DMCA claims from companies that don't even own the license they are claiming they have and even other fellow entertainers.
They can do this because there are no real penalties for DMCA requests. Companies with money can just send out DMCA requests for pittance while the Youtube creators can do nothing to defend themselves.
Tihe notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
This is one of the biggest holes in free speech on the Internet, how you have not fixed this yet is beyond me. So many people have been able to literally money from genuine, legal content creators, silence people simply for not agreeing with them or expressing a contrasting opinion or ruin people's livelihoods and it needs to stop!
Personal Note: I would like to add that the intent of copyright is to protect the artists and allow them to financially benefit for a reasonable time from their work if in the consuming public's eye that work has value.
I'M IN!
DMCA is one of the most terrible things I have had to deal with. As a small YouTube channel trying to make quality content, copyright is important to me. I recently released a video that was 100% fair use. I painstakingly made sure every picture, every video, and every song was fair use. And yet, because of copyright laws being the way they are and the flagrant abuse of this system, I cannot make money on one of the most important videos I've made. The other terrible thing about DMCA, is the abuse and censorship that companies use it for. Companies target people who have negative opinions about their product, when critics in papers or on television still get a paycheck. The system is unclear and broken. DMCA needs to be changed and updated in favor of the smaller companies and individuals, rather than the giant corporations. This is not to say that we should be lax on piracy or dismiss copyright all together, but we need a beer system than an outdated act that was put into place well before our modern social media! Please revise and change this completely unfair, unjust, and unamerican system!
What's this all about? They can't undermine free speech. That's puts our rights in danger. Putting false information or glitches is bad. The Internet is a very important thing to all user and needs to stay protected, not weakened. This proposal is not the way to go and it needs to be stopped. Copyrights should never be violated. These takedowns are unacceptable.
Fucking capitalists,you do not give people the freedom of expression and restrict people in their statements , you fucking faggots , your regime falls , For the glory of the communism
This problem has been pretty annoying,the entertainment sector on youtube.Please take care of it.
Come on guys! Be reasonable!!!
This law is obsolete, it has to adapt to the modern era.
Furthermore, such abuses can be seen as more than just a violation of First Amendment rights; they are, for all intents, a violation of the Fifth Amendment, as they are essentially declaring guilt and then forcing proof of innocence. Such copyright holders also need to face possible wrongful accusation charges for unjustly forcing takedowns from people that are not in the wrong.
As somebody who loves creative work, this upsets me greatly.
Even NASA's own videos are taken down by Google's automated system because it has become so horrifically active and inaccurate. Current AI are not capable of discriminating between good content and bad. While the current system allows for individuals to gain their rights back, it often too little too late, as has often been the case for NASA livestreams. A human being needs to be the ultimate decider in whether a video infringes or not, and a penalty system put in place to deter rights abuse. Especially considering not every poster uses the same rights system, or demands the same copyrights, a blanket system for identifying copyright violations that places the onus on the owning individual to prove themselves only punishes rightful owners who depend on continuous access to their content for their livelihoods. The change here needs to place the priority on identifying whether a violation has taken place, rather than punishing any and every theoretical violation.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is severely flawed. Because intermediaries are required to remove content without question in order to benefit from safe harbour provisions, the effect is to give all corporations unlimited power to censor speech of any kind, anywhere on the internet.
Because there is no effective penalty for misuse of the process - even when the takedown is blatantly fraudulent - this power can be, and has been, used freely to censor legitimate speech, even political speech - and to sabotage rival businesses. Furthermore, major creative companies have created automated notice-and-takedown and even automated lawsuit-issuing systems, subject to no meaningful human review.
(In several famous instances, for examples, bands have had THEIR OWN music censored and shutdown on their own marketing channels... because their publisher ran automated takedown systems without their permission. In such situations the DMCA miserably fails to provide any form of effective redress.)
The net effect has been to do serious damage to the speech and livelihoods of innocents.
This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. It has also endangered security worldwide, as the ill-judged 'anti-circumvention' provisions are frequently invoked to prevent research into product security.
Worse, because the 'anti-circumvention' penalties are so savage, companies whose business has *nothing whatsoever* to do with copyright have included 'rights management' systems in their products, just to make it illegal to reverse-engineer them. The unintended - but sadly predictable - consequences of this have included car manufacturers becoming able to prevent garages from using any but the original manufacturer's parts, and printer companies have become able to shut down producers of compatible inks. Effectively, the DMCA has turned entire industries into government-backed monopolies.
The DMCA urgently needs safeguards which protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech - or their businesses - need to be held responsible, with real, meaningful, accessible and severe penalties forabuse.
The anti-circumvention provisions urgently need to be narrowed so as to make circumvention illegal ONLY WHEN it is in pursuit of an already-illegal goal. Even then, it needs to be a civil - not criminal - offence. The current law endangers routine, legitimate security researchers.
This is for our entertainment, entertainment for the people
The notice-and-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Over the years on Internet I have seen so many injustices it's flabergasting it's allowed to happen. Most of my experience comes from youtube however. On youtube false copyright strikes happen all the time. They are often used as bullying tactics or a way to make revenue off of people's hard work. Even if these people are caught they suffer no consequences for there actions even though what they are doing is illegal. These illegal activities have been going on for to long now and it's about time something is done about them.
DMCA is important and should not be eliminated - but it must be handled properly for everyone involved.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone
My favorite youtuber I Hate Everythings channel got taken down for 24 hours and I'm sure it would've Been permanent if he didn't have so many supporters...The worst part is they didn't even tell him why they did it. He's also at least gotten two other copyright strikes for no reason and it's just so fucking disgusting!
I heard about this merlin dude that he was abusing the system...check out drama alert on youtube to check out more about this guy.
When people gets copyright strikes for being criticism on a movie there's gotta be something wrong. I love YouTube and how creative you can be with it and i want to start my own channel, but to be honest....I'm too afraid to make one.
Where's the fair use?
Bots shouldn't decide when to abridge our free speech rights.
Corporations are a blight on humankind!
As a small scale YouTube video maker, DMCA takedowns are a terrifying thing. Fair Use is an integral part of the new internet, 18 years of change has not been accounted for, and an update is required to protect ALL content creators, not just those with massive amounts of money.
DMCA takedowns are stifling free speech, with strikes against creators with little to no reasoning behind them, just because a company does not like what they hear on a piece of content, or simply to harass content creators like me.
Words of another, Reddit user /u/evilnight, echoed by me:
"When the DMCA went up, no one knew how online copyright would play out. It was a great first try, and safe harbor really saved the day for the service providers.
Problem is, we missed the mark a bit, and now a system is in place that can be easily abused by bad faith actors. Correcting this places an undue burden of expense on the service providers, many of whom do not yet make much profit themselves. They cannot afford to have a human team review tens of thousands of automated DMCA requests each day. Many providers report a bogus DMCA claim rate of more than one in four.
This system has also failed the online content creators, who far too often see their works (and in some cases, entire livelihoods) unfairly censored by the blind knee-jerk application of a DMCA takedown to anything they share online. The DMCA was supposed to protect these people, not be used to silence them.
How do we move forward? In truth it is fairly simple.
Focus on who gets the revenue, rather than blindly and immediately taking down content. The takedown, itself, is the problem.
Due to the viral nature of a work, taking it down in the first hours or days of its life can deprive the content creator of the lion's share of the views and profits. One can't simply 'restart' a viral process because the events leading to viral activity are chaotic and unpredictable in most cases. In other words, most content gets one and only one shot at fame. An ill timed takedown issued by a bad faith actor or poorly written copyright watchdog software can cause an irreparable loss of viewership.
We need to allow more time for the handling of these requests all the way through to dispute resolution, and we need to protect the views/revenue of the disputed work while that happens. I suggest putting the revenue generated into escrow the instant a claim is registered, with the amount to be given to the appropriate copyright holder after the dispute is resolved.
The media remains accessible during this dispute process. It is only taken offline if ALL parties in the dispute agree up front, and failing that, only at the request of the winning party after the dispute is settled.
But what about wholesale piracy? Not legitimate content that might fall under fair use, but stolen works? The solution has been automated already. Computer programs run on the provider's servers take down known copyrighted media by matching digital fingerprints of audio and video. These systems work well now and will improve greatly in the future. Requiring some sort of 'minimum good faith effort' to block wholesale piracy using these methods might be a worthy addition to the DMCA, if the costs can be born by the service providers.
There must also exist some kind of system to punish those who willfully misrepresent DMCA requests. Due to the legal costs involved and relative lack of wealth of most content creators, this activity is rarely prosecuted despite being part of the original DMCA. We need better enforcement. Perhaps something along the lines of how telemarketers and spammers are dealt with would be appropriate here.
I strongly believe the best way forward, for copyright law in general, is an expansion of fair use doctrine. Much of the legitimate material out there being flagged as violating rights is in fact aimed at reporting, critique, education, or is involved in some way with 'remix culture'. The world has changed, our culture has moved from a slow to publish 'read only' model to a real-time on-demand 'read write remix' model.
Fair use should be expanded on to reflect this evolution. These activities enhance creative works and should be supported. It could also be possible to set up some kind of revenue-sharing model, where derivative works contribute some part of their revenue back to the owner of the parent work.
Please consider these factors when deciding how to set policy."
Good day, diligent U.S. Copyright Office employee! I was brought here by YouTuber know as the Nostalgia Critic whom I do not care for but I do care about the companies abusing the law. What follows is a pre-written complaint you may have seen already. Anywhos, have a good one!
CoThe notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium pyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse that infringes on users’ free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and automated takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
It's time for the DMCA to change.
Listen up, buddy. How much money are companies ACTUALLY losing from people using clips of movies in reviews, or showing gameplay footage while talking about what they liked or didn't like about a game? My guess is not much, Misters and Misses Multi-Million-Dollar Corporations.
If anything, reviews and Let's Plays often lead to MORE sales of the covered product, because the viewers have more of an idea what to expect and know whether or not they want to invest their money into them. You know what loses fans and money? Blocking videos that show their product and/or speak negatively about it. That's simply childish, and they should know better.
Just let us say what we want to say about your games/movies/tv shows/et cetera, leave the videos where they are, and lower your Copyright Strike Trigger Finger, and we won't have an issue. Okay. bud?
This video explains ALL the issues with fair use on the internet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI&ab_channel=ChannelAwesome
I have seen videos that were completely originally made by the poster get taken down by this process even though no copyrighted (by any corporation) was used in it.
I am a Hungarian citizen and a user of a site based in the USA called YouTube. I use it to watch reviews, critiques and other fair use works to determine the quality of a product, to see it through the eyes of a professional person. I use this site for other things as well, but this comment is about DMCA and Fair-use. I have noticed that many companies have started to abuse this, to some extent outdated, law so I decided to write to you in order to change this. The following paragraphs of this comment will be a template that I presume you will see multiple times but I agree with it on all points. I hope that this comment and many others will change the state of things.
Free speech is a right that should be upheld, and protected for everyone to speak their voice.
Time to grow up and evaluate some things regards of the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) . Digital Millennium Copyright Act is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Clearly the DMCA is being abused on Internet and mostly on YouTube. You could upload a video on Youtube that is you playing a game with commentary with YOUR voice and you could get a copyright right strike for just playing the game.
The claims that these companies can randomly put on your video makes content creators lose any money being earned from those videos. A claim can take months to fight as well. If the company wants to it can just take as long as it wants to reply and even then after replying they can still prolong the process by rejecting it or very simply pushing it aside all while the content creators lose money. You also can't fight more than two claims at a time which slows your progress on dealing with more bogus claims making content creators lose the money they live on.
If you mange to clear the video of a copyright claim, the company can just reinstate the claim with no penalty from the first claim and they can continue to do this until the content creator gives up and removes the video, or gets to many strikes on their channel which results in it getting taken down.
If their channel gets taken down they lose all of the income their making from the channel with some content creators rely on to survive. The content creators then have to fight to get their channel back, which is almost impossible because unless your a popular content creator, you don't have many voices to help you fight.
In some cases I've watched content creators be threatened, harassed, and suppressed by some of these companies. Companies will threaten to have your channel taken down or make claims on more of your videos. I remember this one content creator be harassed for six months by the same company, taking his videos down, striking his channel and even causing it to shut down. He was forced to start anew and lost thousands of dollars in this battle even though not a single one of his videos violated fair use in the slightest. In another case, a company used the DMCA to take down any videos revealing a scam that he was selling and would threaten the content creators who exposed him that he would remove their channel. He continued to suppress freedom of speech until the people who manged to hear about his scam got together and basically forced YouTube to remove him and contacted the sight he had the scam on to get it removed. In the final case I'll bring up involves several content creators who do the same thing; they all review movies. Well the creators of the movies came after them, taking down their videos, and threatening their channel. Some that did have movie footage in that they talked over and sometimes changed the noises in them. So the content creators who used the footage just removed the footage and carried on their marry way. Well, at least until the claims and strikes continued on videos with no footage from the film in them. One video a content creator got a strike on was of him sitting in his car after he had seen a movie and he talked about what he liked and didn't like about the movie with no footage in the video. He then received a claim of the video, that clearly in no way shape or form violated fair use.
I also think that it is important to mention that there are no penalties for companies that wrongly do this. Even when proven that they are abusing the law they get away with it every time to continue to do this. I hope that my comment has enlightened you of with clear abuse that is taking place on the internet using DMCA and hope that is will have an effect in changing the DMCA for the better.
This bashing of the internet must end.
In this day and age where many people are finding ways to make a living off the internet only to wake up one morning to find that someone is intentionally threatening their lively hood. In a broken and biased system where people are being flagged even for their own original work and some even threatened with physical harm by company officials the system needs to be fixed. There needs to be actual communication between server monitors and all parties involved in any attempted claim, notice, etc. The only way to avoid abuse is to actively monitor what's going on. Especially in the case of YouTube an American based and hosted website which must adhere to American laws such as Free Speech and Fair Use and the abuse of these laws are direct attacks against entitled rights.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet again including original work by the actual uploader.
I don't really have much to say right now, so I'll keep it brief. Many creators on YouTube right now are being attacked. Paranoid companies and YouTubers are destroying others just for their own self-benefit. There was even a time where someone's video was taken down by someone who didn't even own it (I don't remember the name). As of now, it seems like YouTube is favoring TV shows instead of actual YouTubers. Is that the reason YouTube was made? To show what can easily be seen elsewhere and throw what makes YouTube what it is away? I think not.
People like Nostalgia Critic and MysteriousMrEnter are being falsely accused for BS reasons. Save YouTube. It's the only thing that makes me and countless others happy. There are many people that want to create their own channel one day, but that'll be impossible if YouTube keeps acting like this.
I will add my own thoughts to the well-written efforts below. The US copyright system is broken across the board - orphaned works with no method of changing their status, extended expiration dates well beyond what is reasonable, and now large corporations and trolls who prey upon users who have little or no recourse when their websites go dark. All we're asking for is a system which allows people to have some chance over the corporations who swing at everything without any thought to whether they're taking out a whole library because one page in one book may - MAY - have something that triggers a search filter somewhere. If the Sonys and RIAAs have a red phone to YouTube, then the person who is being accused should have one, too.
#WTFU
That shits wack yo.
Keep you're filthy hands of my internet
This is bullshit.
I've been on YouTube since 2007. I've seen the DMCA destroy fair use on the internet. The DMCA has been used to shoot down videos clearly in fair use like movie reviews and general discussion. Videos are being taken down by random entities who claim to own videos and content that they have no relation to. This is extremely important to someone like me who looks to YouTube as a possibility for a career and for those who are already in that spot like Markiplier, Doug Walker (The Nostalgia Critic), Angry Joe, and tons more. This is killing free speech and I don't want to see more content creators being subjugated to loss in revenue and in some cases, their entire career's work.
Doug Walker posted a video about this site and he sums up how terrible working with this system is (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8&feature=youtu.be).
Please, update this law so no one can abuse this system. So that people making a living from YouTube can feel safe about their livelihood. DMCA needs to change.
I'm a creative professional. I've lost potential revenue myself from piracy (people downloading torrents of my music, instead of buying it), so I definitely recognize the need for good copyright law.
But seriously. Automated DMCA takedowns are essentially a computer virus that targets free speech.
There's enough abuse of the legal system already; it's far too easy to turn parts of our Democracy into an Oligarchy by throwing money at lawyers as-is. We should be encouraging creators, encouraging our values; not giving them away to whoever has the most money.
These DMCA takedowns aren't necessarily helping the people they're supposed to help, and they're absolutely stifling people they shouldn't even be interacting with.
I implore you; take a serious look at the way the law is being used. I can ask for no more.
Thank you for your time.
~Jonathan "Killstring" Herzberger; semi-successful content creator.
And on a more personal note, why on earth did the Copyright Office decide to open up public comments for such a narrow window of time, and without properly announcing the fact? It is as if someone in the Copyright Office decided that they could get away with pretending that no one cared about this matter by preventing anyone from knowing they were given a chance to comment about it.
DMCA is hurting many content creators by letting companies issue false copyright claims and get no punishment for that. It needs to stop.
There have been lots of issues because of these as videos discussing the subject matter can be taken down even if there isn't any kind of images, videos or music that can be considered copyright content. Companies unrelated to the videos can harass video publishers just for dedicating time to talk about a certain company or even make reviews about products. Even after the it is proved that the content falls under fair use, the companies can strike again, giving those video publishers no kind of shield to protect their own content from such actions. Even worse, companies can get lucrative benefits from what isn't their content but fan made creations. Companies have taken upon themselves to even use fanmade creations as part of their property when striking videos for copyright claims despite the fact that they don't own any fanmade material.
There has to be something done to prevent more videos out there to be taken down for false copyright accusations since the same company can keep flagging the same video even after it has been proven to fall under fair use. Even worse, since the companies know it falls under fair use, they don't prefer to sue since they wouldn't win the lawsuit and prefer to use this method to cause terror against the rightful owners of the content.
Additionally, it should not be permissible for a corporation to keep any profits they made from ad revenue on a video they flagged as in violation of their copyrights if that video is later found to be protected by fair use. This is currently the case, as there are no repercussions for a corporation that falsely flags a video as in violation of their copyrighted material. This loophole creates an incentive for copyright holders to violate the law of fair use.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I don't want any of my favorite you tubers to get copyright strikes because I want to be able to watch their videos.
America has always been the forerunner and model for the rest of the world, especially the EU (in this case in form of the "Information Society Directive"). This means it's not only a problem of the US alone but rather a global one and we really have to start thinking in much bigger contexts!
The Notice and Takedown procedure under the DMCA hasn't been a help at all. It doesn't actually discourage IP piracy and when it is used, it is used to the detriment of content creators on the internet. Anything can and has been taken down for the most trivial reasons. Creators have had their own works taken down, even when protected under Fair Use. Companies have devolved into auto-reporting media even when the content they're claiming it under is only incidental. Some companies employ Dummy or Shell corporations in order to insulate themselves from bad or fraudulent claims. The reporting process has been used to stifle anything from criticism or negative press to competition. There have even been threats by people or organizations to make claims as a form of personal attack or cases where a creator's content was taken down and the person reporting it benefited financially as they left the video up so as to continue monetizing it for their own benefit. I can understand the need to protect content creators from piracy, but the only ones really benefiting from this are large groups who can afford to have watchdog groups patrol the internet for even the most incidental case of intellectual property being used. This system does not work as it is and needs to be revisited to work for the environment of the now, lest creativity in this new market become the plaything of the few.
I FULLY SUPPORT, AGREE AND UNDERSTAND THE BELOW MESSAGE:
GET RID OF DMCA!
Actually, the whole of the IP protection system needs to be updated. As it stands now, a system that was created to protect creators and promote renewal of culture is being used to protect financial gains of publishing companies. Youtube has been the place where I have noticed this the most, but it is hardly limited to this website or even to the internet.
Although this comment should be limited to the DMCA, the same logic also applies to huge companies that stifle innovation by destroying young startups with costly IP lawsuits that they do not even need to win. This needs to change end this needs to change quickly. Penalties must be put in place that deter the launch of fraudulent lawsuits and protect small companies. One obvious measure is that the price of defending yourself from a case judged to be fraudlent by the jury should be supported entirely by the plaignant who abused IP law.
Much more must be done, of course. And a balance must be struck by knwledgeable people studied both in the inner workings of law, the reality of new technologies, and the necessities of companies to protcet themselves from intellectual theft.
As of today, this balance has been lost. It is time we got it back.
I am fully aware that the following is a copy-paste, but it is still my personal views.
At minimum, a site user/poster should be given the opportunity to disagree PRIOR to a takedown, which would then NOT proceed without human review; further a second disagreement following the human review should be offered (with appropriate legal warnings) where the user/poster may elect a legal fight and decision PRIOR to the content being removed, subject to their own liability.
The comment below is the standard form letter, so let me take a moment and explain something that really hurts me personally.
A Youtube Account I created a while back hosts some pretty...er... non-mainstream videos. A group of my friends and I would regularly play games at LAN parties, and sometimes when we were feeling especially playful, we'd record these sessions (we were doing Twitch TV stuff long before Twitch TV was relevant). Anyway - I made several videos where we used our actual playtime shenanigans as background voice-drops for the time we were having. I had no idea how important these videos would be for us in the future, until one of my friends died from Cancer earlier this year. To my dismay, one of my videos wasn't actually taken down, but a few years ago the audio was summarily muted by YouTube and I was forever robbed of memories that I can't restore anywhere else. Why? Because I used a 15 second clip of song by War. Guys, this kind of overreach is baloney. It hurt me on a personal level, and robbed a valuable archive of personal information that while I realize now should have been better backed up, still infuriates me because I know there are others out there that are experiencing the same thing.
Back to your regularly scheduled form letter. Thanks for reading. Hopefully.
People are being affected that should never be, Fair Use is abused... from reviewers who have the right to criticize to people just talking about something in a car with NO copyrighted anything but still are being attacked by false copyright claims. Little people suffer the most because they have NO way of standing up against big businesses when they wrongfully attack said little people when anyone could positively say that their work and videos are under fair use, companies don't care but people who make their lives around the kind of fair use videos they make are actually ending up homeless because they lost their channel to a false copyright claim. There is no prosecution for those that attack falsely and yet there is punishment for those who were in the right but falsely were attacked meaning they have no way of defending themselves... sure the DMCA worked well IN THE PAST, but with this new age of lifestyles and media sharing, it is nothing more than a fossil system that is being abused so that big companies can continue to fill their pockets with the money that someone LEGALLY made and should have been protected by fair use.
stop bogus DMCA takedowns and protect free speech!
TL;DR-TELL YOUTUBE TO GET SOME FUCKING STAFF AND QUIT RELY ON SHITTY BOTS
This system needs an update. Fast.
Thank you sincerely for your time and consideration.
DMCA affects every corner of the internet, even for those in the UK. It is being abused and stifle creative minds and freedom or speech.
The notice-and-takedown process under the DMCA is far too easily abused and must be revised to be more fair to content creators while still allowing copyright holders to enforce their copyright.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act needs immediate reform, as the current method is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and all too often used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The use of computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations is full of error and does not allow for fair use exceptions. It is also being abused to blackmail critics or out and out deprive critical voices of revenue in attempts to intimidate or drive them off the internet.
Please end this nonsensical, obnoxious copyright crusade. Freedom of information and expression is vital to a thriving cerebral individual, and the free flow of information on the Internet enriches all our lives.
The DMCA has been abused frequently in recent years. people sending takedown notices to reviewers, to silence criticism. to people who create parodies. to people who should be protected under fair use. companies use DMCA to take down content from these creators. not only this there are constantly people taking advantages of systems such as you tubes to earn money from other peoples content be submitting false copy-right claims. fair use is ignored and needs to be re-enforced.
Companies are issuing automated takedowns whenever they detect their content being used, even though much of this content is being used in the context of review, satire, and/or education (according to fair use). This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I first learned about this abuse after watching Doug Walker (the "Nostalgia Critic") explain fair use and how it was being all but ignored on YouTube. I was skeptical at first, but then I read a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors that nearly 30% of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review. Not to mention that on YouTube there is no penalty for unjustified takedowns. If a company decides to notice-and-takedown, there is no negative repercussions if the action was really to silence criticism of the original content. Also, some videos (such as one of Brad Jones's "Midnight Screenings") were targeted for a notice-and-takedown, despite not containing any copyright content. The video is just him talking about a movie he had just seen. It is becoming apparent that copyright notice-and-takedowns are being used to silence critics and limit creativity by outside groups.
I believe the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are indeed important for making an open and participatory Internet possible. Piracy is a serious crime, and companies need to be able to go after those sharing content without permission or payment. However, the notice-and-takedown procedures have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims. It shocked me to learn that if a strike is issued and a YouTube content creator loses their monetization privilege, the money that he or she makes automatically goes to whoever issued the strike. It is not held by YouTube or placed a temporary holding account. Companies and individuals can outright steal a content creator's profits, especially because that money is not returned to the content creator even if the strike is removed or found to be issued falsely. All of these policies are being justified by the DMCA's copyright "protections".
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone. What was originally a shield for protecting intellectual property, is now being used as a sword to censor and strike down criticism and free speech.
That means that Traxadel is in.
I follow people online who have built their whole livelihood around making videos. When someone issues a takedown for fraudulent reasons, that's money being taken from those people. These entertainers are operating as best they can, but when companies issue takedowns for things they legally can't (protected under fair use), that's affecting and harming the lives of these people. They need better protection from this misuse of DMCA power.
This is a serious problem!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had adverse effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Commentators for created content are being taken down, even though they are well within fair use. Even those who use no copyrighted footage or media, where they are merely talking about a movie are being attacked and harassed with DMCA takedown notices.
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As an additional personal note, I would like to say how this has stifled creativity, free thought, and general criticism within the online medium. It is now easier than ever for people to be able to share their thoughts, concerns, and passions, not only with their close friends, but with the whole country (In addition to the whole world.)
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Please reform the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to punish copyright holders who use bogus take-downs. Thank you!
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Notice and takedown process for DCMA heavily favors the complainant. Level the playing ground and give the defendant a fair chance.
More and more, media companies and video game publishers are disregarding fair use. Reviews and parodies are consistently being taken down simply because the owners don't like it, for whatever reason. I understand that this is done by trigger happy 3rd parties that are hired by these companies to handle it for them, but it's still a form of censorship.
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Fair use is being completely ignored, and the DMCA is being used as a way for censorship, which can go completely unpunished. Please, stop this, and make sure censorship is not promoted, and free use is encouraged.
These copyright restrictions are harming most of the creative minds on the Internet. This is a problem that has to be stopped as soon as possible, for a lot make their salery off of there content on the Internet. This not only harms the creators, but also the viewers who come to enjoy some entertainment. Please for the love of all things creative in this world, stop copyright abuse.
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
It's just bull shit.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Hope this finds the right people involved!
HERE'S THE THING: We live in a capitalist nation where the only hope for everyone not born into a wealthy family to escape economic hell is to strike out on their own. But the way the DMCA is bullying and abusing the system and American citizens is making that impossible. It's disgusting. We're supposed to be protected, but we're taking all the abuse, day in day out. This needs to stop. There need to be consequences for abuse of the system and it needs to be on them, not us.
Also, intellectual property is a violation of free speech
TL;DR - niggas gotta miss me with that bogus copyright stuff, ya dig?
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. Am I the only one that cares about the rules? Assclowns.This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged, perhaps eliminated entirely, as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. That in and of itself is not a problem. But, this process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review.
I am no expert on copyright law, but I can see when a system is extremely broken. The DMCA is abused on a daily basis even though the courts have decided that Fair Use -must- be considered when issuing a takedown request. This law desperately needs to either be rewritten to punish those that abuse it, or needs to be done away with entirely for a more efficient system.
The following is a pre-written response to the issues with copyright takedowns. However, I have read and agreed with it in its entirety and thoroughly agree. Please address this issue, as it has very important consequence as we move forward as an internet- and technology-based society.
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A number of laws are already in place that make it difficult, if not nearly impossible for the average middle class american to legally start up a small business. This law is one more example of laws that make life easier for existing, large businesses while possibly stomping out the few chances an average middle-class american family would have at starting their own business with their limited time, limited resources, and limited knowledge of their rights. Please help put the burden of proof back on those who have the resources to defend themselves. Thank you for your time, and explanation of how this occurs is offered below:
The notice and takedown procedure of DMCA is broken as fuck and frequently used to silence critics and lawful free use. There have to be stiff penalty's added to curb the massive flow of false reports so that they stop and the owners of automated take down systems invest in much more robust vetting instead of seeing innocent takedowns as acceptable collateral.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Youtube users have had videos taken down over and over again for supposed copyright claims that weren't even true. Somehow the system has gotten so bad that not only are copyright claims allowed for invalid reasons and reasons that are not piracy and do not cost anyone money, but the claims themselves are not verified and literally anyone is able to censor content. It's become one of the most abused laws in this country's history. The law itself includes several protections for fair use and other non-commercial uses, but corporations completely ignore all of them. These problems are not to be settled in court - that is not the original purpose of the DMCA. The DMCA shall not be enforced, by the government, or by a third party like Youtube, if it is not a reasonable, valid request under the law. We must not simply ignore the parts of laws that protect consumers simply because they do not have the time or money to go to court. They shouldn't have to do so in the first place and this needs to be fixed years ago. But at the very least, fix it now.
In it's simplest form, the notice-and-takedown process follows a "guilty until unable to be proven innocent" format. Using robots, both for the takedown and for the follow-up mediation process to evaluate merits, makes it nearly impossible to present compelling evidence to restore content. Content should remain available until it is proven, not by a robot but through an actual and transparent human review process, to be willfully infringing on the copyright holders' content.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA desperately needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
Additionally, the problem is that there is a horrible lacking of punishment for false notices or notices filed by proxy. Not just in the lack of consideration of fair use.
As a up-and-coming youtuber, i fear the day i get bigger traffic and my videos start to become the target of wrongful DMCA takedowns, and what may be years of work go in to the darkness never to be viewed again. "fair use" is no longer a word to us, but a fight. a fight where the odds are always stacked against us. but we keep it up for the fact that we know we are in the right, and with this, we hope to tip odds just a bit in our favor. stop the wrongful clams, save free speech.
I couldn't have said it better myself, so here:
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Just stop, please.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when issuing takedown notices. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One possible step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The United States constitution makes it clear that freedom of speech is important. Laws like the DMCA, while not being used directly by the government to inhibit free speech are being used by copyright holders to do the same thing.
As a content creator I feel I have a personal responsibility to let you know the current system is not encouraging free expression.
Wrongful takedowns is just as bad as reposting unlicensed content!
I am a composer, audio engineer/producer, performer, and professor. I am a professional content creator, whose work does not involve remixing, appropriation of the copyrighted work of others, or other potential infringement of copyright. And yet even in my own case, I have received takedown notices or had my work taken down automatically because some bot somewhere calculated that it was someone else's work. Getting a takedown reversed is a time-consuming, labor-intensive process—often the costs involved (in both time and money) are more than I am able to pay. As someone whose livelihood depends in some part on strong copyright legislation, I am not often on the side of anti-copyright organizations, but the current system for DMCA takedowns is broken, inefficient, and wrong. Thus, I find myself in agreement with the rest of the statement below:
Censorship at its basic level is a violation of human rights. The born given right to express yourself freely without discrimination is natural.
We as a human species are at the point in human civilization where the level of power attained by governments to fight FOR the people not against, Is astounding.
The general response follows. But take this as a warning of the future. You deprive a civilization of what it wants. It will rebel and will be uncontrollable. This has happened numerous times in human history. And it can and will happen again.
Our copyright laws are too strict. They no longer fit in today's modern digital world. Online content should not be removed for violating copyright laws if the poster is not doing it with the intention of making a profit.
I would also like to add that some takedowns have been levied spitefully at certain individual creators; others have been submitted by bodies that don't own the disputed material. Even people who merely discuss material without actually using any footage - just sitting in front of a camera - have been victimized. Others have abused it to point of insinuating that they create the law. Sometimes fair use isn't even considered. Sometimes parties looking to submit the copyright claim use shell companies to shield themselves. Other parties will even sometimes use takedowns as threats. Other content is hit several times even after being officially cleared. Some content creators have suffered loss of revenue and harassment.
I believe this needs to change.
The DMCA is abused to attack competing forms of media on the Internet. It's anti-American and restricts the freedom of not only other Americans, but the rest of the citizens of the world. We demand fairness and equality on the Internet, for all forms of media, especially in the realm of critique which the DMCA takedown process has sadly muffled through its unrestricted and unbalanced nature. If you truly wish to make America great again, then you will make the future dominant form of media free and open so that others can speak freely without threats from aging corporations desperately trying to silence the voices that could eclipse them. If you do not agree with me, than you must agree that the truth is always heard. Somewhere, sometime, the rest of the world will embrace this future, for it is inevitable. Why not spearhead this great cultural revolution, in both the media and communication, and lead the world forward?
The length of time on a copyright is also far too long. The lifetime of the creator plus seventy years is just preventing new works based on popular topics from being created. Statistically, a book makes most of its profits in the first 20 years of life. Let's shorten copyright to about 35 years in length. This is more far to future creators wanting to use that work and the original creators of the work.
An example of this can be seen where other copyright holders enact a takedown notice for content that doesn't even belong to them.
As a content creator who wants to make a living off their own work, nothing is more demoralizing than when a company decides they just own my video. Even if I know I did nothing wrong there's nothing I can do. Frankly, its bullshit.
People are unhappy, I'm unhappy. The DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) is stumbling over its own coat tails.
Me and pretty much everyone I know is feeling livid about the abuses forcing undeniably fair use content off of YouTube and leaving obvious abusers of the intent of the law not only unpunished but untouchable in the eyes of the law (at least within the average person's capacity to respond).
This is a fire lighting up the community fiercely, and if nothing is done swiftly, it can cause some serious snaps that could have ripples far larger than just YouTube maybe seeing a competitor.
Because being subtle here would be lost, let me be blunt... people are wound up tight and need their entertainment, getting in the way of that (which is what they feel the DMCA is doing) is probably one of the surest ways to see random outbreaks of rage. This is something you, and the country, will not want catching fire.
I employ you and people like you who are in a position to make a difference here... act fast, act within the interest of the masses, and listen carefully. People's patience can only go so far, and we're running out of time. You may be the last chance we have to calm this brewing storm.
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What is greatest about the internet and YouTube? People who do bad things have nowhere to hide. Cops abusing their power, politicians cheating their constituents, countries attacking their neighbors. One person with a phone can break important stories. And the present way of doing things means important stories can be suppressed. Time to look at the way things are done in the world of now, and protect the content and newsmakers from being abused by power.
The DMCA is just one of the most overly-abused pieces of law in this day and age. Charlatans and cowards can make use of the DMCA to take down any content they don't like at virtually any time. This should not stand.
I think that of the video producer is not earning profit from a copyright claim then their video should be able to stay online. If the video producer wishes to keep the video unmobetized than YouTube should not run ads on it.
The notice-andstop bogus DMCA takedowns and protect free speech!-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Dear Government Bureaucrat,
The DMCA is an important tool for content creators to take down copyright infringing material. However, it has also been used to harass and bully content creators, which ultimately results in the censorship of speech.
Your job is to serve the people, and that is why we pay taxes to pay your salary. The DMCA should NOT be used to censor speech, and Fair Use is the bedrock of a free and open internet.
Do whats right, protect fair use and make us Americans proud.
From Alex
What would not be done in public or print ought not to be done on the internet--or is electronic censorship for power, profit and protection of fear (not truth) the new America.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. The near complete lack of recourse for regular misuse of this system is a major problem with the current law. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
America thrives on free speech.
The biggest thing that can be done to help rectify the flaws within the DMCA system is to put stricter guidelines on the companies themselves, rather than the consumers. The fact that every single company that is allowed to issue these claims has a completely different set of guidelines is about 70% of the problem. If you don't tell these people what to do, they are always going to go for the most selfish action because there is no reason for them not to. The entire point of Youtube was so that people could make content without having to deal with a million guidelines. So by taking that power away from the average person, it's effectively being proven that the very person the site was made for is no longer important.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take- downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
It's been taken to such a level that it has become less about whether something is fair use or not, but more as a lever for more powerful parties against smaller groups who are acting in accordance with the law. Some are even using them to profit off other people's work. It just doesn't make sense. Please do something about it.
It's very simple: The «Disaster Millennium Copyright Cr*p» is totally broken. The only way to fix a condemned building is by demolishing it and then building another new one. What about including another penalty of, in example, a few of thousands of bucks against bogus takedown requests?
It's simple. People with more power should not be given even greater power over those who have little. A YouTube channel making pennies in comparison to a media giant ought to have some line of defense against predatory practices by that giant. Not the opposite.
It's simply unfair that gigantic corporations are free to abuse their power in such a gross and overbearing manner. Content creators are increasingly unable to compete and this needs to stop.
The fact that people or companies can falsely claim something as copyright without any punishment is unjust and wrong. And they do it all the time. It affects the livelihoods of some many individuals who now work on the Internet as their career.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
Our nonprofit has TWO paid staff and 14 VOLUNTEER directors. We are being harrassed by a copyright troll for a mistaken use of a carved pumpkin image which we immediately took down but are still being pursued for damages by a huge corporation. This has taken so much time and put so much stress on a tiny organization doing unique and worldclass mission work.
Maybe we should dump IT. We did fine before all this "conveniences" that are now used to spy on us, and create big trouble.
The notice-and-takedown process under the (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Criminal penalties for abuse of dmca takedown requests, especially by corporations. Now.
Here is an example of Youtube's takedown system being abused to censor critique...
'TotalBiscuit and "The Day One: Garry's Incident Incident"'
Popular Youtube critic John Bain (primarily known as "TotalBiscuit") uploaded a video to Youtube called "WTF is... - Day One: Garry's Incident", part of a series he produces wherein TotalBiscuit gives the viewer his first impressions on newly released videogame titles and levels any criticisms he may have at the game in question.
In this case the game was as the title would suggest, "Day One: Garry's Incident". TB criticized the game heavily in his video for it's performance issues, dull and broken gameplay and threadbare narrative. Weeks after the video went to air the developer of the title, Wild Games Studios issued a copyright strike via Youtube's takedown system. The CEO of Wild Games Studios, Stephane Woods posted the following comment on the Steam forums: "We protected our copyright because Total Biscuit has no right to make advertising revenues with our licence.". In light of the video being taken down TotalBiscuit uploaded another video titled, "This video is no longer available: The Day One Garry's Incident Incident". In this video TB makes the claim that Woods is lying and supports this by explaining how he first gets permission from the developer to make a video beforehand.
To elaborate, TotalBiscuit approached the developer via email introducing who he was and what he did and requested a review code for the express purpose of creating a video. TB states that he makes it abundantly clear that he intends to monetize the video and provides links to several of his videos to give the developer an idea of the exact nature of the content. In less than 24 hours Woods replied to the email providing a Steam key with which to play the game and requested that the video be provided with a link to the Steam store page which was placed in the description of the original video.
TotalBiscuit then goes on to counter the claim made by Woods that he "has no right to make advertising revenues with our licence" by listing other monetized videos on Day One: Garry's Incident that are still available to watch and implies that the underlying reason behind the takedown was because the video was highly critical of the game and was the most viewed. TotalBiscuit's third counter argument to the legitimacy of the copyright strike was that Stephane Woods himself publicly gave permission to make Youtube videos on the game, using a quote made by Woods himself on the Steam forums, "Sure! You can make a Youtube of our game!". This quote was in response to a comment that requested permission to make videos on the game.
TotalBiscuit then made the argument that the developer made several attempts to control the press, he informs the viewer that Woods himself pledged at least $10,000 to the game's Kickstarter fund, had bogus reviews planted on Metacritc praising the game, attempted to bribe users to vote for the game on Steam Greenlight by offering Steam keys to users who proved they voted for the game and deleted comment threads on the Steam forum that were critical of the title.
TB concluded his counter argument stating that the copyright strike wasn't a necessary action taken by the developer to protect their copyright but rather a malicious attempt at censoring free speech and highlighted the ease with which this was done.
I'm not perfect, but I'm a loving and intelligent human being. I've written a book entitled, The Dawn of Intelligence, and I give it away. We need to allow freedom of expression and freedom of speech on the internet.
^This. Amen.
As someone who's experienced threat of termination of my Youtube channel in the past, I want to know what is going on with copyright laws these days. Please, let's fix this problem that countless others are having greater issues with.
I know the rest of this is boilerplate, but it's exactly how I feel:
There's a lot of good examples of overreach if you look at Jim Sterling's channel, but yeah, the takedowns are excessive and unfair.
My thoughts:
I can't exactly think of anything to really say other than PLEASE UPDATE this law. I mean it has been several years and yet it hasn't been updated. I haven't really experienced anyone getting attacked. But I have heard about it. And...well...We don't know who will get attacked next.
Some Companies are even saying that they "Create the Law" Even though they don't and it's the US government or any government really, that creates the law. The DMCA is currently being used to block our freedom of speech on the internet as well as inflicting harm on creators on the internet.
People who are just talking on camera without Copyright music, pictures or anything are getting taken down for absolutely no reason.
DMCA's are also being used WITHOUT mentioning Fair use. And also using DMCA's to threaten people and file claims on content that they don't EVEN OWN and the person they are filing the claim on does.
So, please. Whoever is in the courts, Obama, anyone from the government. PLEASE. We beg of you, Do something to fix the DMCA. Update it so that there is a penalty for false DMCA take downs. Take a look at the NEW internet and fix it. This isn't the 1990's anymore.
This is 2016. The world is different. So please. Fix the Internet Copyright law. Fix...DMCA.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
DMCA is outdated in its scope, as the environment such a law impacts upon undergoes transformative changes, so too must the details of the law to prevent it becoming antiquated. DMCA has failed to do this and has indeed become antiquated, putting the rights of Internet users second to those who willingly abuse DMCA to forego those rights.
Automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The process (notice/takedown) under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
This system has had silencing effects on political expression, has destroyed creativity, and unfairly throttled commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA should be scrapped; new safeguards are needed to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are not individuals. Companies are not humans.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error, is heavily abused, and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions. The result is the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate and legal speech as well as creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of at best questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
The DMCA notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and other copyright trolls who seek to shut down free speech, creativity, legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As online media spaces have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be eliminated as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
We demand freedom from both the tyranny of the majority and the tyranny of the minority. A free and open internet is our best method of maintaining this basic freedom. The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
DMCA is an important part of our country's efforts to encourage innovation, and prevent "copy-paste" ideas, but in its current form it allows for large companies (or, honestly any copyright holders) to silence critics and control markets or audiences.
This is an issue that demands our attention should we want new, quality content to be produced- content that is open to criticism.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) should be examined to see if deep pocketed interests are abusing this act to the detriment of small businesses, artists and other creative sorts.
I own and operate a recording studio and am a content creator myself, so I understand the importance of copyright protections. However, I feel that in recent years, copyright law has been twisted to the exclusive benefit of large corporate copyright holders who have the infrastructure and large legal teams necessary to bully content platforms and small creators alike.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is being used as a tool of corporate copyright holders to limit speech online.
It has been routinely used to censor content that is clearly protected under the fair use doctrine. This inappropriate deletion is limiting political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet.
The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies instead of reviewing comments are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for all conceivable copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is prone to error and does not allow for possible fair use exceptions. The results is the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
A recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors demonstrated nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have solely benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This damage can not be undone or fully repaired.
Copyright holders must be more responsibility for fair use exceptions when enforcing copyright laws. Sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public forums. The companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held legally and financially liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech!
We need balance in the notice and takedown system.
Part of that balance would be to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. Automated takedowns must be actively discouraged as they limit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
For more information, specifically for Youtube, and specific channels to target, just copy and paste the links and watch GradeAUnderA's videos about the situations. Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjXNvLDkDTA and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF2tCY281Rk
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was never intended to be used as a way for moneyed interests to censor and bully fair users who cannot afford lawyers. Yet that is exactly the practical effect of the notice-and-takedown system. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
""
I implore law makers to put an effort in forming proper copyright protection that also secured the right to fair use. Furthermore, corporations and businesses have used DMCAs to take down legitimate pieces of work and critique. This dimishes freedom of speech and of the press.
Whichever decision is made will have lasting effects and I dearly hope that you do what is best for content creators and users of the web.
I constant receive DMCA takedown notices from competing businesses on etsy. Theyre abusing the dmca to remove their competition.
Below is the copy-paste that Takedown Abuse supplies. I pretty much agree with all of this. Let me also add emphasis that automatic takedowns are absolutely being abused and need to be addressed.
Thank you. -- Andrea
The notice-and-takedown, process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While most of this post has been prepared by campaign organisers, I have been concerbed for some time that copyright law has been abused in such a way as to interfere with liberties which should be universal. I have been easily persuaded to support this campaign.
Put an end to what amounts to extortion by endless litigation!
Similar to the robo-signed documents of the mortgage crisis, the computer generated takedowns of internet content throws allows companies to "protect their content" at the expense of legitimate victims that are collateral damage. This needs to be reversed such that there are no false positives and maybe a few missed violations instead. That is aligned with our constitutional right of innocent until proven guilty.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for
Open-source IS the only way to go. Trademarked and copy written material is getting more vapid as time goes on. True innovation takes place in an environment of openness and cooperation. New jobs, new industries, new products, new services; these require freedom. Strict control of information is the antithesis of our basic foundation. The only people that Digital Rights Management hurts are the paying customers.
Please read the following:
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. I believe this system has had negative effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I also believe the copyright industry has done a great deal of damage to our society and culture.
One significant indicator is, the huge increase in takedowns in the past several years -- and many/most are NOT illegal use! Please fix this.
We understand and agree with fair-use! But this corporate-robot takedown system is way way over the line!
There should be consequences for false claims.
Also, I don't believe in IP.
https://github.com/Cyphernode/InternetCitizenBillOfRights/blob/master/Internet%20Citizen%20Bill%20of%20Rights.md
I've grown up on the Internet, and I've seen the damage that unchecked DMCA takedowns have effected content creators on the Internet. As it stands now, since sending a takedown has absolutely no repreicussions regardless of its validity or even if it makes sense, it has created a culture of take down now, ask questions never.
Not only can DMCA be used to take down content that should be protected by Fair Use, it can also be used for more nefarious purposes. DMCA has and will be used to stifle Free Speech, by people who disagree or just don't like what someone is saying. Free loaders and leeches have used DMCA to hijack the monetization of content creators using Youtube's misguided automated takedown process to steal the revenue of hard working creators. If that's not irony, I don't know what is, people using a law created to protect content creators from people like them to do just that.
From here on is the prepared statement provided by takedownabuse.org:
Nihilists! ..Fuck me. I mean, say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos.
As someone who creates, and has been unjustly censored I feel this is a serious issue.
DMCA takedown notices have, generally, very little oversight from what I've noticed. Small clips of music, video, etc - that are normally covered under fair use, are commonly seen as targets on Youtube especially. This law does make it easy to abuse.
I think we need some kind of copyright protection, that's very important. Just, how it's handled needs to be addressed. Instead of favoring just the content provider, some kind of addition of penalty for abusing their privileges is something we need. I think some of this could be handled by Youtube (and other systems), but there needs to be something explicit for 'crying wolf.' I've seen people with videos banned/taken down or some other penalty when there was nothing even that was a violation even there. It's a big issue, and does impact free speech since it's not uncommon to see takedown notices on contentious free-speech-related areas. E.g. discussions about guns, SJW, politics, etc. I've seen examples each of these where the DCMA was used to censor/stop discussion.
-- Much of the below is automatically given with this form, the above contents are my amendment to the information below. I still very much agree with this 'boiler plate text', but if anyone is reading this, they likely read a lot of these. --
Personally, I feel I am under attack. I'm a satirist. My ability to use sardonic wit to point out hypocrisy and injustice will be stifled. My voice will be silenced. This is not the America I was promised as a child. This is not the America I want for mine. When the government becomes so much more concerned with corporate interests and profits that it takes the voice away from middle class white women, what's next? Put out our eyes so we can't see corporate greed influencing all levels of government? Cut off our tongues and chop off our hands so we can't make our displeasure known? That is the opposite of what America is supposed to be.
Ещё раз о "Добросовестном использовании" и инициативе Дага Уокера.
Есть основа оговариваемых в данной теме правоотношений — закон и тот факт, что все равны перед законом. Если кто-то имеет преференции вопреки закону — то, вполне очевидно, что это нарушение закона и злоупотребление им. Чего не должно существовать. Но существует. Спасибо любимому капитализму и имущественному неравенству.
Есть несколько краеугольных камней данных правоотношений.
А) Закон.
1. Существует закон об авторском праве. Этим законом (ваш капитан очевидность) защищаются авторы интеллектуальной собственности, обладатели прав на неё и, о ужас, не только они.
2. Согласно закону запрещено преступное использование интеллектуальной собственности третьими лицами. То есть копирование и распространение объектов ИС, целиком или большими частями, ради распространения и копирования ИС. Получается ли в процессе этого всего приобрести доход или нет - дело десятое. Главное, что злоумышленником берётся чужая собственность и используется по тому же назначению, по какому бы она использовалась и законным владельцем. Таким образом происходит нарушение и подмена права. Другими словами, субъект А создаёт что-то, что потом субъект Б распространяет без ведома или желания субъекта А, получая вместо него доходы или (и) лишая его доходов.
3. Однако, кошмар какой, этом же законом не просто разрешено, а фактически предустановлено в качестве РАВНОЦЕННОГО авторскому праву, ДОБРОСОВЕСТНОЕ использование третьими лицами чужой интеллектуальной собственности. То есть использование объектов ИС не в том ключе и с той же целью, что и владелец авторского права (подмена), а с целью и в ключе, имеющими абсолютно иную правовую природу. Критика, новостной репортаж, комментирование, образовательные материалы и т. д. и т. п.
Таким образом, все вопли людей, которые в своей массе фактически даже авторами не являются о том, что это «незаконно» - могут идти лесом. Их «защитники» - туда же. Добросовестное использование — это ЗАКОННОЕ действие, предусмотренное (ваш К.О.) ЗАКОНОМ и защищаемое ЗАКОНОМ. Соответственно, те лица, которые пытаются совестить людей, ЗАКОННО пользующихся ИС, попрекать за желание получать за ЗАКОННУЮ деятельность доход, и нести ещё какую-то смежную чушь — могут отправляться туда же, куда были отправлены товарищи выше. В демократическом правовом государстве ВСЕ РАВНЫ ПЕРЕД ЗАКОНОМ И СУДОМ. Не должно тут быть избранных каст и преференций. Но по мнению ютуба это нормально, когда богатые короли помыкают бедным быдлом.
Б) Ютуб.
1. Ютуб предоставляет площадку для размещения контента.
2. Создатели контента — размещают свои видео на ютубе.
3. Люди смотрят не «ютуб». Они смотрят контент созданный людьми и размещённый на ютубе.
Соответственно, Ютуб да, предоставляет площадку, но деньги ему приносят те самые «злобные и мерзкие» создатели контента. Без творцов у ютуба денег нет. Налицо абсолютно очевидное правоотношение, которое должно быть ясно и прозрачно любому человеку, у которого есть мозги. Это ВЗАИМОВЫГОДНОЕ партнёрство. Оно так и называется, когда ты заключаешь с ютубом контракт, включая монетизацию — ПАРТНЁРСТВО.
Со стенаниями про «благородный» ютуб (ага, он же денег не берёт), который «бескорыстно» раскручивает людей (да-да, именно он и раскручивает, а не упорный труд и вложения в собственную раскрутку), и даже «милостиво» позволяет зарабатывать деньги (забирая 50% и более дохода) — это в детский сад или к детскому психиатру.
Ютуб КОРМИТСЯ создателями контента, так же, как, например, арендодатель кормится арендаторами. Причём ситуация гораздо круче, на самом деле, поскольку арендная плата фиксирована и не завязана на доход арендатора.
С воплями о том, что обзоры, мол, это не «оригинальный контент» - туда же, в лес. Да рецензии завязаны на критикуемый объект, как и любая критика. Но это тоже самое, что заявлять, что полиция — это не оригинальный контент, кормится на преступниках и преступлениях и должна откатывать процент криминалу, за своё существование. Степень отмороженного кретинизма этого утверждения может каждый оценить сам в меру своего интеллекта.
Я чё-та пока не видел в фильмах критики на самих себя. Чтобы, например, Нил Бломкамп в титрах сам себя расхваливал или расписывал, какую хрень он наснимал. Не слышал от него научных справок, логических рассуждений, по поводу сюжетных ходов, и образовательных выкладок, о том, что должно быть вместо того, что у него.
Так что да обзоры — это уникальный контент, что бы там табунам скалозубых скакунов не казалось.
Цирк про то, что мол, гадкие «создатели контента» борются за то, чтобы им бы разрешили монетизацию, а не за право пользоваться Fair Use (ШТААА??!!) — это или полнейшая юридическая безграмотность, или терминальная фаза шизофрении. Возможность получать доход от ЗАКОННОЙ деятельности — это НЕОТДЕЛИМАЯ часть общего ПРАВА, законом защищаемого. Когда пользователь борется за возможность монетизации, он ОДНОВРЕМЕННО борется за своё защищаемое законом право. Ибо одно неотделимо от другого.
В) Видео Дага Уокера. Оно как раз и посвящено несправедливости реально существующего положения дел. Создатели контента (сцуки такие) не «требуют того, чего у них никогда не было» (бл*, что за бред), а требуют того, что у них УЖЕ ДОЛЖНО БЫЛО БЫ БЫТЬ. Уважение и соблюдение целого комплекса предусмотренных ЗАКОНОМ ПРАВ.
Пока же, в настоящее время, ютубом соблюдаются права и ЗЛОУПОТРЕБЛЕНИЯ только одной категории лиц. Той, которая НЕ ЯВЛЯЕТСЯ партнёром и не приносит ютубу дохода, или является, но, в общей сумме, приносит минимальный процент от общего дохода. При этом интересы лиц, пользующихся правом ДОБРОСОВЕСТНОГО пользования почти никак не защищены. Ну, ладно, у них есть право на аппеляцию… не к беспристрастному надзорному органу, а к ТОМУ САМОМУ лицу, которое первоначально и НАЕЗЖАЕТ на защищаемое законом право. При этом наказаний за ЗЛОУПОТРЕБЛЕНИЯ у «наезжателей» в принципе нет ВООБЩЕ. То есть, «мистер непонятно какая уоттакуот вселенная», может наехать на Баженова только лишь по той причине, что у него «бомбит пукан» от критики, нарушая законные права Баженова, но апеллируя почему-то к защите авторских прав, а не уязвлённого самолюбия. И ничего ему за это не будет. Хотя ДОЛЖНО БЫТЬ.
Получается что ютуб кусает руку, которая его кормит (местами, в особо запущенных случаях ещё и гадя на эту руку и подтираясь ею).
Почему так происходит? Да потому что у кого деньги, у того и преференции. Потому что тот, у кого есть бабло, более страшен чем тот, за кем стоит правда. Корпорация, имеющая бюджет в миллиарды долларов, может позволить себе нанять дорогостоящего адвоката и вести дорогостоящие дела. А стандартный создатель контента на ютубе — не может. В итоге буржуи рулят. А так не должно быть.
Даг Уокер поднял компанию с целью устранить несправедливость и обеспечить соблюдение обозначенных законом прав. Не только для себя, но и для всех вообще. Противится, высмеивать это может только правонарушитель или дурак.
Причём очень удивительно, что эта деятельность, которая подняла достаточно большие волны на западе, проходит у нас в форме «ну, ладно, ок».
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is being abused by corporate copyright holders to censor the content of free speech that is protected under fair use. Content provider robots prowl the Web to ferret out any mention of their alleged intellectual property, especially if derogatory, and with no good means for their victims to seek redress.
We can't allow copyright holders to bully the public using the DMCA as a shield and sword to infringe on creative uses of content. Life is not about making corporations invulnerable to criticism. The Internet belongs to everybody and anybody should be able to talk about anything. We have libel laws to handle transgressors.
The auto-generated takedown messages intimidate, harass, and unjustly persecute individuals and must be reined in. Robots should not be telling us what we must do. That isn't what they were supposed to be for. So please tell the owners of these bullying takedown robots to immediately cease and desist.
This unfair abuse has got to stop. Our world has become too "Orwellian" as it is and we cannot afford to make it even worse.
The swindlers are leading this egregious take down. Don't they ever feel their belly is full? Their childhood must have starved them of nurturing, empathy, and compassion. Express compassion now to lift yourself from the pit you've dug so deeply to hide in. Don't be afraid...you're loveable!!
Too many content creators that should be getting paid for their work aaren't and too many that shouldn't are. Something is wrong with the current system and it needs to change.
Constant take down notices are falsely claimed against many content creators with no repercussion for the ones who filed the claim. Some claims are taking down videos are even if their is no copyrighted material anywhere in the video. Its even worse when videos are cleared yet are claimed multiple times after its cleared. Some companies have even used claims to threaten users to take back their counter claim.
Your action will speak loud and clear about whether or not you're on the side of right or wrong. Trusting that your position will be the correct one. Thank you!
The automation of takedown notices, particularly as implemented by major hosting sites, is error-prone and works to reward large entities instead of small content-creators. Individuals and small companies need stronger protections against accusations--either entirely false, or which are not allowing legal fair use--from large entities. In a country where innocence is supposed to be presumed, takedown notices force content creators to prove that they are not infringing, rather than placing the burden on the accuser. Even worse, false notices can often cripple a creator's ability to earn crucial revenue during the first period of a new release, forever limiting the creator's ability to profit from his or her work.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is fundamentally flawed from its inception in the presumption that Existing Copyright Laws were insufficient. As a result of this presumption the DMCA was contrived in such a way as to put the burden of proof on the accused and further require immediate take downs, solely on the basis of a claim being made. Cease and desist orders existed previously and did the job in a fair manner, the DMCA only changed the protection of peoples right to be more exclusive and immediate to those making claims of infringement, regardless of legitimacy. The DMCA should be repealled as it violates the rights of people in that it impedes Freedom of Speech and Favors expedience of correction and accusations being upheld. It is a failing of the government that these Acts get created ignoring our constitutional amendments and the bill of rights.
I agree with the following letter of petition that fair use must be protected from biased corporate challenges.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Giving big companies control over what is and isn't allowed on the internet is the first step towards giving them global control over the way we think. And that is terrible.
I personally have experienced this and when I contested it, it was rejected. The ironic part is that the person who issued the DMCA takedown notice did not actually own the content that I allegedly infringed. Please put an end to this so content creators like myself can continue to make (legal) content.
It is enough!!!!
Below is a statement written by someone else. Since I agree wholeheartedly with it and could not write something better myself I'm going to attach it to my own thoughts. Which are simply that this rampant abuse of copyright laws by corporations clearly results in the exact opposite of what the laws claim to be there for.
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It's very upsetting to see this kind of abuse of the system to "protect" themselves from critics and other totally fair uses.
As director of a public library I have received these bogus letters. We offer the public open access WIFI 24/7. We also offer, when open, unfiltered internet access. Our community has many people who are unable to afford home internet access or access to content. We are a critical link in people s access to information and these take down letters add stress to a library that is under stress from many issues.
Often these take down notices are for materials such as movies that are so obscure that no one in our community would even find them. They often don't even appear in the IMDB. These letters are a DMCA version of toner pirates and other scam artists.
Takedown requests based on computer algorithms should not be allowed. Only takedown requests based on complete human review of the material should be permitted. This is essential to preserve fair use.
Many, many content creators that I have followed for years have been having their monetization taken away from their own original creations that are cleared under fair use provisions of current copyright law, and there is no redress for them. Their livelihood is being taken away from these illegal actions, and there is no means for remediation for them. And that is if there content is not outright removed and them facing penalties for following the rules. Something must change to level the playing field, and those that abuse the system must be held accountable for their actions.
I personally just want to see a end to abuse where it should have already been stomped out a long time ago . People getting claimed and their revenue taken even tho there's NOTHING even REMOTELY claimable and even bigger insult when a entire video is claimed for the smallest infraction or even no infraction at all without a clear response.
The notice-and-takedown process under the DMCA is being used to bully innocent people, suppress legitimate commentary, and undermine the entire intent of copyright protection. Large companies are using poorly designed and implemented automated systems that fail to discriminate fair use and result in censorship. The rest of us are the victims of a process that is, essentially, organized repression and theft, and that process is being enabled by the U.S. government. It is time to take back the Internet for those of us who aren't wealthy and privileged. Companies who fail to police their takedown process must be subject to statutory damages that rapidly escalate based on repeated behavior. This is the only way that they will spend the time and money to make their automated processes fair. Please, the entire purpose of copyright has been twisted for the benefit of a few. It is time to take action to balance the rights of all of us against the money of large corporations.
When a system is so focused on the punition that it bans stuff that would pass on tv with no issue, or bans their own stuff automatically, you know there's an issue. Most content creators I follow, french or american or from anywhere else have been taken down at least once, despite the fact that their videos do absolutely no harm to anyone, in fact, it gives visibility to the things it talks about, it informs the public of someone's attempt at screwing people over with uncreative content.
If people want to watch a movie, they're going to watch it no matter what; streaming and downloading websites exists, it's not by punishing actual creators on youtube or other user content websites that you'll do the industry any good.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
On a personal note, while I've never been heavily affected by in any damaging way, I also don't make any sort of living doing this stuff. Worst case scenario for me, I have to re-edit a video. But for people who do make a living off this stuff, and who follow the law, but are being hassled by others by abusing an automated system... well. It's perfectly fair for an individual to want to protect their property. But in cases of abuse or overzealous accusations, there should be repercussions.
Thank you for your time,
Matt Stratman
There needs to be accountability in the the system with notice and review before taking content down.. Corporations should no be able automatically generate take downs without a review process.
#WTFU #WheresTheFairUse
http://channelawesome.com/save-fair-use-now/
I have personally suffer from this unfair system. A review of the movie Revenant where I use some footage of the movie to make my points and arguments, was claimed by Fox. When I dispute it, they keeped claiming that it wasn't fair use. Only when I made an appeal did Fox dropped their claim. For a more than a month I could make money from my original work, just because some people don't respect the Fair Use law.
A youtuber I follow, named I Hate Everything received a copyright strike on a video he had done, where he criticised a horrible movie. The movie's director didn't took that video very well, and use this broken system to take down the video and hold that Youtubers channel hostage. Since the channel was (and still is) his job, this guy couldn't work as he used to, until the strike was remove, because 30 days passed.
There needs to be a penalty for false claims and people who constantly violate the Fair Use law.
There is a huge issue with the DMCA, one specific example of how it effects me and my community is that music performed by our church choir, recorded, and posted to youtube under our legal license (which we pay handsomely for) are constantly being claimed by one group or another as having the right to put ads on our videos and monetize them, despite the works not being there own, merely that they performed the same work and claimed that ours is a copy of theirs... This is classical music, the fact the BSO, or NY Phil performed it doesn't mean we are copying them, and they should not be able to monetize our work nor claim copyright against it. Thanks!
If one examines the statute, it would be apparent that §512(i) requires (not suggests) that safe harbors only be made available to services that do not interfere with, and take steps to implement, technical measures to address infringement. These technical measures must be defined and approved by the community. Affordable, sophisticated and accessible detection tech helps smaller rightsholders AND developers, because it decreases the burden of processing takedown requests and also lessens the burden of proof of eligibility, which otherwise would entail litigation. We need best practices and standards for this technology, as well as safeguards against abuses of automation. This is achievable by the process mandated in §512—a multilateral approach to design and implementation of detection technology.
We could do that AND protect fair use, which creators and corporate rightsholders also enjoy (especially the motion picture and television industries) and mandate minimum viable data standards when a rightsholder submits content for inclusion in a detection tech's hash database. We can take steps to standardize notification in a way that will not allow for incomplete or incorrect information, because, to be eligible for automated takedown, a rightsholder needs to provide minimum data to match the known information associated with the file. If a takedown is properly noticed, the source file rights enumerated AND the notice goes uncontested, information about the takedown can be merged with information about the source file, thereby reducing the volume of takedowns sent.
Best practices for dispute resolution must also be developed, and there is no reason why this is not achievable.
Lastly, there is a fresh court ruling that compels rightsholders to consider fair use before issuing a takedown. So it is disingenuous to claim that there is an erosion of this bedrock right. The best way to ensure that fair use is properly recognized is to implement the above, and set a threshold value for automated takedowns at the entirety of a work.
I have seen many YouTube video makers who have lost their livelihoods because of takedowns, which causes their content to suffer because YouTube is the only platform that they have access to. Many people I know who want to be content creators are basically afraid to even publish a single video, let alone create an entire channel, because of copyright holders issuing false takedown claims. That isn't the internet I want to use, where my creativity is stifled because of what music or footage I put in my video. This practice needs to end. Now.
There have been many cases where innocent content creators on platforms like YouTube have had their content taken down, all because a company may do as they please without a penalty for false copyright claims and a proper investigation. This system is extremely unfair and outdated. Please, fix it!
notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased inavor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Seeing the work of the others who do video game videos and review movies help me deside on what to watch and buy, usually to see how good or bad the product is. This helps the consumer who has a new way to find out If its worth do dish out the movie for a game or movie rather then the companys say "Our product is good, read the press we brought to see how good it is".
Long ago the written word would threaten someone speaking.
That was proven to be untrue.
Radio was going to threaten writing.
Once again untrue.
TV killed the radio star, VCR supposedly threatened television, Mr Rogers stood up for VCRs.
Every new technology scares the establishment due to their inability to adapt. Now that we're in a digital age, the DCMA is antiquated yet only being less than 20 years old.
In terms of this new age, 20 may as well be 200.
Content creators I adore are threatened by each and every take down. Their livelihoods are threatened. This culture of fear, thanks to the bully tactics of the DCMA takedowns, stifles the creativity of future content producers.
This needs to stop, the system needs to be updated or discarded.
Because of this, people who just talk about media (i.e. movies, video games, etc.) are being effected whether or not they even include audio or footage from said media. The system is broken and must be fixed now.
For a long time, I've enjoyed watching reviews of film, movie, and books on YouTube and other such media platforms. I'm currently a senior in high school, taking multiple high-level essay-writing/ literature courses, and these reviews have helped me formulate my own opinions of media and figure out how to describe these opinions in essays, reports and such.
Time and time again I have seen reviewers and other users of Fair Use media be harassed and bullied through the DMCA by film companies, large corporations, and unhappy viewers without probable cause. Most of the time the videos being taken down through the DMCA don't violate any of its guidelines- sometimes not even using copyrighted clips at all.
The DMCA, wonderfully outdated writing and all, has turned into a platform for individuals to steal money away from the very content-creators the law was made to protect. Things need to be fixed. As it stands, this law, which was created for the internet of 1998, is blatantly unconstitutional. It either needs to be re-written or deleted completely. The internet has become the most-used platform for accessing entertainment, information, and connecting with others. It is now the biggest place of exchange for money, and America, as the main creators and regulators of it, need to be the first to change around it. As the pioneers of the future, we need to pioneer our laws to support the future.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the
Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech
and creative expression on the Internet.
The DMCA has caused countless troubles for me, a person that strives to respect copyright laws as best I can. Media that I have purchased and downloaded becomes forever lost/unusable when I upgrade/change my computer. Also, content that I know is not infringing on any copyrights gets taken down by automated bots. DMCA is being abused, and is broken, only benefiting a narrow group of copyright holders who abuse DMCA with impunity.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Please protect and defend our right to free speech and freedom of expression.
We're seeing creators get their videos and other content taken down for no reason. That has to stop.
Tweets, videos, and posts are getting targeted by overzealous copyright algorithms in the millions every day. A bunch of bad actors, mostly corporate copyright holders, are finding ways to use the DMCA to take down content without review. They do it to silence their critics, cut off competitors, control art and culture, or fleece people for money. This is an abuse of the DMCA that doesn't have to exist.
The notice-and-takedown process as it currently stands puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are critical for the survival of small businesses. That kind of damage can’t be undone.
The way the law is currently enforced, there are no incentives for companies to be more careful. Free expression is too important for bullies to be able to make false takedown claims with impunity. By making sure there are consequences for false takedowns, we can fix the problem.
Companies that take down people’s online content for no reason should be liable for statutory damages. Sites like YouTube and Facebook that host content are today’s public spaces, and we need a system that protects the free speech of people in virtual spaces just as much as we need it in the physical world.
Congress intended that things like commentary, remixing, and parody would be protected under fair use, but the robots that are doing the take downs can’t understand these nuances of the law. And because there are no repercussions for illegitimate take downs, companies have no reason to try to fix their systems.
The DMCA is being abused by bad actors. It is time to stop that.
Youtube have these stupid robots that take down videos or force the content maker to give part of their ad profits to the person who owns the "footage" in reviews and videogame playthroughs. This is, quite frankly, bullshit. Reviews are fair use, dammit, so please help the people who help you by telling you that a movie/game/other product is bad or good to help you see if it's something you want to spend your money on. Also, one of these reviews got taken down for having 7 seconds of some shitty pop song (for comedic purposes). WTF is that shit? Also, you guys should make a packet for foreign companies who think they can take down anything they want on American hosting websites (especially Nintendo, and I mean their Japanese branch not Nintendo of America). Oh whatever, the premade message that came with this knows what is talking about better than I am. Go read that shit.
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Please act now before its too late.
The internet is a public utility. The first amendment protects it. Hands off the internet!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly (ab)used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
As a DJ I have had content automatically removed from the internet that was legal under fair use of the copyright act. It is infuriating to have a machine censor you for uploading a mix on the internet. Copyright law is fundamentally broken and take down aduses are a large part of that.
Hi. Let’s see if we can do a better job to avoid unwarranted takedowns. Thanks.
The abuse of this system is hurting creator and viewer alike. Fair Use is one of the most important aspects of the internet nowadays, and this abuse will end up damaging this medium beyond repair. To impede us to have our own takes on these properties, to make comments, parodies, re-imaginings, just anything that adds originality to an already existing thing is not only disrespectful, it's downright dictatorial. We need Fair Use to express ourselves, countless of us actually need it to make a living, and that is being torn from us with no notices or warning. It's trying to take away an extremely important right which makes up a huge part of our lives, and it's doing it so in such a sneaky and suspicious way because it's aware of how wrong it is.
Truly, I'm don't have a huge understanding of all details of this process, but literally anyone can see just how twisted, corrupt and plain wrong it all is. So I will end with this comment with the default response.
We need the internet to live up to it's open and free interpretation. These are the digital version of patent trolls, and should be prosectued.
The dmca is a chthonian law with very little understanding of the internet. It forces websites to takedown user submitted content that should be legal. Parodies, reviews, rants all sorts of content are forced to be removed with no human review. The concept is good but the execution is horrendous.
The DMCA should not exist. Corporations have been pushing for stricter and longer Copyright terms, in a world of increasing communication speed, and increasing pace of cultural evolution. In fact, faced with such circumstances, Copyright terms and restrictions should be DECREASING.
A world where a song becomes famous in a week and wanes in a year is NOT the same world we once had, where a song slowly spread around the world, becoming famous in a decade and waning in popularity a decade or three later. In TODAY's world, a song is already old, and many people have new ideas, ready to expand on that original within weeks, not decades. Additionally, each creative work has global competition now, with many others capable of creating similar works in reduced timescales. As such, Copyright terms should be reducing, not increasing. The reasons are both to reward more available innovation less, and to stiffle more readily available competition less.
I'm a full-time YouTuber, and as much as I appreciate the attempts YouTube has made to indemnify itself against possible legal battles over copyright issues with it's platform, YouTube's current system for handling copyright matters emerging from and around the DMCA merely shifts copyright abuses from one party to the other. Whereas a few years ago large media houses were seeing their intellectual property stolen, used, and abused by people who were mainly just ignorant of the harm they were causing to these parties by reproducing their intellectual properties outside of revenue stream, it is today the independent artists and original content creators who the, once victim, media-houses daily abuse their rights in the name of 'DMCA.'
The system YouTube devised to address those earlier abuses, still in use today, first automates the process of content-matching. A media-holder submits a copy of their music or video to YouTube and thereafter, a computer will automatically check all new uploads to see if they contain that submitted material. As an aside, by my personal estimates the automated matching accuracy of YouTube's system is about 10%-15%, mis-matching content a majority of the time.
Once a match has been found it then presumes the guilt of the submitting party and delivers all property rights to the supposed owner of the matched-content. At each step of the process whereby a submitting content creator can contend and appeal an erroneous claim, the media house/claimant is always favored. The creator must submit evidence, facts, and arguments to justify their use or (more often) prove that the entity claiming the property does not actually hold the rights to it; and meanwhile the claimant need only click a single button to disagree -- which when clicked results in immediate seizure and transfer of all property rights from the submitting party to the claiming party. Sony Media, Warner Brothers, Universal Music Group, and a million less-known, "YouTube Verified" media license holders need only raise their hand and say "It's mine," and the presumption is: "I guess so, then."
And they DO NOT own these properties a majority of the time. Because it is as simple as clicking a button to claim a property or to reject a disputed claim filed on their behalf by YouTube's error-prone system -- these corporate entities have by and large systematized the process. And the systematization they use is: 1.) Receive claim dispute. 2.) Click "Reject." 3.) Go to lunch. This is not an exaggeration. In fact, only recently has case law finally held these media houses to task for making a practice of instantly rejecting anything that comes to them; At last requiring them to show that they, at some point, actually considered the validity of a dispute before issuing a "DMCA Takedown." However, this only applies to DMCA takedowns. And there is neither case law, nor anything in the DMCA that requires them to have reviewed facts when using YouTube's systems to reject a dispute to their ownership as claimed through automation.
The problem here is not just YouTube or these corporations who protect their own rights with ferocity and zeal, but feel no pain when trampling all over everyone else's... The problem is that the current incarnation of the DMCA allows, and even encourages this. We find that concepts like Fair Use and Parody are so vaguely defined and unsubstantiated in the law that there is no real-world applicable set of conditions that either party in a dispute can truly stand on with confidence. And without definitions, YouTube and similar platforms are left to create systems that forego truly attempting to protect anyone's intellectual property rights, in favor of simply indemnifying themselves against, or more truthfully, sating the demands of large, rich entities whose money, power, and legal departments present a hypothetical threat.
Original content creators and artists are injured by this new status quo not only monetarily where the right to monetize their own work is seized from them without merit or evidence of abuse, but they are again injured (as are we all) when as a whole, expression itself is stifled.
Professionals in this industry know that there is no such thing as a safe piece of music to use on YouTube. Whether it's your own original composure, something you hold a written-consent of use on, works released under Creative Commons Licenses, songs you have paid and licensed for use, or even a protected work in the public domain: all of these we have seen claimed, without regard. I have personally made use of a recording by the United States Military Band - all performances of which are public domain because they play in service of all American citizens - and nonetheless had that video claimed by either a careless or unscrupulous CD-house that once published and sold an album containing the song, and then sent that album to YouTube's systems, along with thousands of others when they claimed "their properties" in bulk.
I will add that I have seen no evidence that these systems self-correct. If I used that sane recording today, even though that CD-house was forced to admit they did not hold a copyright on that music, I would fully expect it to be claimed again by YouTube's automated system and on behalf of the same media house who has already agreed they don't own it.
Under these practices, the marketplace of ideas is constrained. Freedom of expression - while guaranteed on paper - is a premise which must be fought for at each and every turning. And thus it is made moot. The creative industries, independent artists, and future generations all learn to walk on eggshells and dance around unfair practices, and something very important is lost. All are not silenced, but all become quieter.
I recommend that the committee reviewing the DMCA include in their considerations new protections that require license claims (including those automated) to be substantiated and supported before intellectual property rights can be seized, transferred, or in any way inhibited by a mediating third-party.
When I upload my work to a site like YouTube, it is mine. I made it. I own. I hold the copyright. If someone wishes to disagree, let them bring proof. Let them bring a rational argument. Let them stand and deliver. But DO NOT let them have a magic button that instantly makes my work theirs.
Thank you for your time.
-Roninpawn
I HAVE READ AND AGREE WITH THE FOLLOWING:
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free e speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
It is crucial that Lord Action's famous observation be remembered and honored through action: "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
The term Fair Use has been getting abused in the worst way possible the wrong people getting slapped with coly right strikes and getting their monitization taken away and it's wrong while there's "reaction" channels that just take whole videos and put 45 seconds of commentary over it and call it a day and the big youtubers are suffering from this blatent theivery and it needs to stop also some channels are getting taken down just because they reviewd some shitty movie about a 6 foot cat suit ir shitty cgi movie or whatever and the company got mad and started harassing these people it needs to stop
#WTFU #ProtectYouTubers
I stand for many things and freedom of speech is at the top. Stop taking away our rights! The more you take the more we'll stand together!
As someone who watches YouTube for the bulk of their video media consumption the rampant abuse of the DMCA has been a major Frustration for many of the channels I frequent. This is especially problematic for channels devoted to reviewing movies and games who are often targeted for releasing negative opinions. Many of these content creators simple one person productions who don't have the resources to legally defend themselves and recover loss of revenue due to these abusive DMCA claims.
These laws need to be changed to punish organizations which would abuse DMCA to silence critics and limit freedom of speech.
There are numerous specific examples of this under the #WTFU (Where's the Fair Use?) hashtag on Twitter: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23WTFU&src=typd
DMCA has been abused. It's made to silence critics and creative people who otherwise would've fairly made use of content to speak their mind or to make something new and innovative. It's gotten so bad that some outright quit sharing their thoughts/ideas across to countless people and overall making everyone less wise/informed than they could've been.
DMCA abuse literally makes people stupid, making everyone worse off overall.
As a content creator on YouTube I have had videos that I've worked hard on taken down for the simple fact someone does not like the message or how I critic someone's work. It's very simple for someone to claim you infringed on their IP and the way YouTube is set up they will take your vid down without checking if it's based in fact and YouTube takes its time to fix it while you lose money. Then you have people who black mail us by getting three vids taken down which will close down your account. These people will ask for sums of money to take down the strike. When you make a living off YouTube you sometimes have to pay it or risk not paying rent cause YouTube does not care. God forbid you are a new Creator cause YouTube sometimes forgets you and you are banned for life because of it.
But the worst of the worst is the companies who stick a vid so they can take the ad revenue and it's almost always someone who does not own anything in the vid and it becomes a quick buck off your hard work. For a new youtuber they can't get help with this fast or get no help at all. As for a veteran youtuber this is lost income and someone is making money on their work while they get fat . The income that is STOLEN will not be giving back when or if YouTube gives back the vid. The fake owner will keep the stolen money and no one is punished (wash rinse repeat). If I steal ur bank account card for a day and take some of your money let's see if I pay that back or not.
What's it going to take? A law suit to make a example of someone so these people might think twice? Let me know who has the time and money.
Save Fair Use
Well, I for one am tired of getting my videos with copyright notifications when other people have the same sort of music/content (I know; I've asked around a few times). Either penalize everyone for it, or (and this is the better choice) don't penalize anyone at all. And that's just for starters, but long story short, all this (and I mean ALL of this) just has to stop and be changed for the better.
YouTube is such garbage with their stupid copyright crap.
Automatic content takedowns as allowed under the DMCA are stifling both creative and political expression, making it far too easy for companies to censor messages they dislike and causing artists an undue burden through the loss of revenue from and exposure for their works, especially when automated or algorithmic processes are used to identify potential infringements that amount to frivolous claims of copyright violations. This law is highly problematic, and the pattern of abuse, intentional or otherwise, demands immediate review and action by authorities.
Last time I checked, all U.S. citizens are entitled to due process. This is no way that an arbitrary, unmonitored algorithm (robot) can fulfill that right. While I have no doubt that copyright infringement does occur on the Internet, this is not the way to address the problem. It's arbitrary, lazy, unfair and must be stopped.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
to whom it may concern (which should be everyone,)
""
My personal note: Where's the "Fair Use"? Where's the free speech? Where's the freedom of expression? Are we Americans or are we minions under the ball-and-chain of Stalin and Lenin?
This egreedious misuse of automated editing of internet postings is unconscionable. It violates our right to freely express ourselves. Any removals need to be reviewed by a adult without an agenda of political or homophobic or religious bias.
I am an aspiring content creator, but a long-time viewer of others' work. For my part as a viewer, these false DMCA takedowns are a mere annoyance. But as a fan of these people, I often hear of the absurd lengths they must go to in order to simply get their case heard by YouTube, who, if not the primary offender, is the most notable. And I empathize with them, because their stories are all ludicrous.
To hear about all these cases in which videos which fit within Fair Use, including some which contained literally no copyrighted material, makes me at the very least reluctant to become a content creator myself. The DMCA, in its current iteration, allows for copyright holders to essentially bully people with no repercussions.
I would never claim that copyright holders are not allowed to protect their own interests. But, to return to my earlier example, I have seen several videos get taken down which contained no footage from a given movie, simply people talking about the movie. That is far-and-away not within the limits of copyright protection. And there have been others which do contain copyrighted material, but which nonetheless fall within Fair Use.
Thank you for your time.
ya'll need to git gud.
Please read the below comment. It expresses very well how I, and many others feel about average internet users are taken advantage of by companies abusing the DMCA.
ps: a lot of youtubers have to join a network in order to protect themselves and their contents (even if the content doesn't use copyrighted content at all) and that gives the viewer the feeling that all this works like a mafia : they need to be protected to exist.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Discouragement of FALSE DMCA claims needs to be enhanced and enforced to reduce the abuse, harassment, lost income and other grievances associated with these instances. Human oversight and interaction are paramount in resolving these claims once they occur. Furthermore, I would suggest a systems to regulate who can flag content such as, a vetted sign up process for legitimate copyright holders to first apply then receive authority to begin flagging content.
I also just heard the people are busy imposing wireless water meters on my street and area. I totally object to wireless water meters.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Don't continue to be on the wrong side of history.
Please- let us update the law for the modern age. When credit is given where it is due, and content is being used for fair use purposes, let the reign of terror end. Let us no longer have to hear many content creators make a reference that they need to cut short due to the possibility of a copyright strike. Let us no longer have to go through a full court hearing to determine fair usage, which is a waste of the time, money, and effort of the state. Let the law match the day.
Either youtubers or blogs, I've seen many friends getting their accounts/pages down just because some company mentioned that their "content" had been used without concern, having any permission or they are making money without retrieving money for it EVEN WHEN IT'S NOT THE CASE. Some YT channels that went through this are TheJWittz, Markaplier, The Game Theorists and a small one that got shot down because of this called Gus'n'Seb.
From many gamers, critics to just Internet jokes by small channels copyright holders can come to any video, say they don't like it because it "endangers" their products and ¡boom! you're done, no more money for your creativity or just no more of your videos in general no matter how fair your content was. And before thinking that maybe they are really stealing all the contents of some movies, comics, songs, games or series, or they are abusing of the creator's creativity, they don't, many people just take small frames or schemes to do references depending on the material they're doing and for games that's the whole point of streaming video games, do what you want in them.
If we don't stop this, soon no comments or simple jokes about a movie, a song or a star, no matter how unharmed, cruel, realistic or cheerful it was, won't be accepted and will get you banned instead of taking it as feedback or appreciating the recommendations and congrats you give them.
I think that YouTube, as a community, needs more freedom to do what we like and what help us to survive without having the fear of losing this voice that was so hard to rise, a voice to tell the companies and corps what the people really want sometimes.
If you have the time, there are a couple of people on Youtube who have also gone over with great detail what has been going on with Copyright abuse on sites like Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-O7WANBW_Y
It’s almost impossible to protect your content from algorithms or bad actors like these. If the wrong song is playing in the background of your video by mistake, you are vulnerable to having your video taken down. If you quote a news article to comment on it on your blog, your post could disappear. This is part of how DCMA is being abused.
There have been way too many times Fair Use has been wrongly abused, and content creators all over being treated like absolute shit. We need to do something to stop this NOW.
It should never be easy to take away the work of an individual. End this practice immediately
The system we currently have is easily abusable. At the moment serious content creators are being inhibited by companies with dissenting opinion this needs to stop if we are to have internet freedom. The way the current system has generally been used and abused is that a large company will take down a review of one of their games movies TV shows exedra because of a negative comment in the video not only does this prevent people who generally care about getting an idea of what the content is like before they purchase it but it also prevents General criticism from reaching those who need it the most. If the system is not fixed what this will lead to is abused by companies who are releasing subpar products and preventing others from warning you about the quality of their goods.
Techdirt summed it up nicely:
RIAA: How Dare The Internet Use The DMCA That We Wrote To Build Useful Services!
from the calm-down,-sparky dept
As we've mentioned, today is the day that comments are due to the Copyright Office on the effectiveness (or not) of Section 512 of the DMCA, better known as the "notice and takedown" safe harbor provisions. We'll be posting the details of our own filing at some point (possibly not until Monday as we're still finalizing a few things), but some of the other filings are starting to filter out, including a fairly astounding 97-page document from a bunch of legacy music industry organizations (about half of which is the actual filing, with the rest being appendices), including the RIAA, ASCAP, AFM, NMPA, SoundExchange and more. It's basically every organization that represents the way the industry used to work -- and the document reads like an angry polemic against the internet. It would have been much shorter, if they just wrote "our business used to be much better when we had more control and less competition -- and we never bothered to adapt, so fuck Google and all those internet companies -- and let's change the DMCA to punish them and magically bring back the good old days."
Also, the filing seems to leave out the fairly important point that it was these groups that basically wrote the DMCA that they're now whining about. Actually, let's get even more specific. The comment here was co-written by lawyer Steve Metalitz -- who has a way of showing up whenever some legacy industry is pushing to make copyright laws much, much worse. Metalitz's own bio emphasizes the fact that, as a lobbyist, he was "instrumental in the drafting" of the DMCA:
So it seems rather... rich, for the legacy music industry to hire Metalitz, who proudly states that he was "instrumental in the drafting" of the DMCA while lobbying on behalf of these same groups, to now write a jeremiad about how totally awful the DMCA is for these same groups. But that's what's happened. The document literally mentions Google or YouTube more than once per page. But it starts right in with the industry's concerns, which might be summarized as "why hasn't Google stopped the evil piracy!?!?"
The Music Community’s list of frustrations with the DMCA is long. A broken “notice-and-takedown” system. Toothless repeat infringer policies. Active services mischaracterized as passive intermediaries. Incentives for services to embrace willful blindness instead of preventing known and widespread infringement. The words “representative list” read out of the statute.
Basically, Metalitz uses the document as a chance to list off how he's sad that the courts have basically ruled against copyright holders trying to chip away at the safe harbors at pretty much every turn:
Courts have also given little meaning to key provisions for content owners in the DMCA bargain. Examples include “red flag” knowledge, repeat infringer policies and representative lists. The result: safe harbor status for services that choose to stick their heads in the sand rather than do their fair share, forcing content owners to divert valuable resources from away creating content to sending minimally effective take down notices, or for content owners with limited resources, to actually refrain from sending takedown notices at all. Content owners, especially those with limited resources, simply cannot take on the entire digital universe alone.
At its worst, the DMCA safe harbors have become a business plan for profiting off of stolen content; at best, the system is a de facto government subsidy enriching some digital services at the expense of creators. This almost 20 year-old, 20th Century law should be updated.
Astoundingly, this comment claims that the results in the YouTube and Veoh lawsuits prove how broken the DMCA is and how much it favors internet companies. Remember, Veoh was a YouTube competitor that won its lawsuit that had been filed by Universal Music... but went out of business due to the legal costs of defending itself under the DMCA. And Metalitz and the RIAA are bitching about the fact that Veoh won... as if that was the travesty in the case, rather than the fact that the recording industry was able to shut down a perfectly legal web service that many people found useful.
The comment goes on to whine that even as more music is available to the public these days, revenue is down for some of those who signed on to the comment (the comment is careful not to mention that ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and SoundExchange revenue keeps going up... but... those inconvenient details must be ignored). What the filing also ignores, of course, is that these very same players fought tooth and nail against any of the innovative services that helped make this revolution in music accessibility possible. They basically now want to tax all the innovative companies who experimented and found the models that work and make consumers better off, while they themselves did none of that and actively sought to block nearly every new innovation. Talk about entitlement.
The comment also ignores the basic fact that if so much more music is being consumed today, that seems to suggest that the law must be working in some manner, seeing as the purpose of copyright law is to incentivize the creation of new works so that the public can benefit. By their own words, that seems to be happening.
Despite music being more popular than ever today, U.S. music industry revenues have been virtually flat since 2010 and are down nearly 50% since the DMCA was enacted in 1998. This has led to what we call the “value grab”, creating market distortions that lead to bizarre statistics like vinyl records generating more revenue for the industry in 2015 than the billions of on-demand ad-supported music streams on YouTube and similar services.
Except, of course, that comparison between vinyl and YouTube is total bullshit. As we were just discussing a week ago, the industry is comparing apples and oranges, using the gross "retail value" on vinyl (ignoring discounts and all the money that goes to everyone in the distribution chain) and only counting the net "wholesale value" on free streams (and ignoring the upsell opportunities or other revenue that comes from ad-supported streams).
The summary so far: we wrote the DMCA, but now we're going to whine about it. The public is benefiting like never before from new music -- so we're going to ignore that the purpose of copyright law appears to be met. We're not making as much money as we used to (ignoring that some of us are making much more than we used to)... but we see big internet companies making lots of money, so we're going to ignore that it's probably because they innovated and built services the public wanted while we sued our own biggest fans.
Compelling!
And, of course, the comment pushes for a "notice and staydown" regime:
Copyright owners should not be required to engage in the endless game of sending repeat takedown notices to protect their works, simply because another or the same infringement of the initially noticed work appears at a marginally different URL than the first time. The current standard of “URL by URL” takedown does not make sense in a world where there is an infinite supply of URLs. As described in the response to Question 15, technologies exist to identify content that is reposted on a digital service after it is removed, services of all sizes have implemented them, and they should be deployed as a standard industry practice.
Again, this ignores the basic fact that copyright is context dependent. And you can't put a total block on content, because you don't actually know if the content is actually infringing each time. Hell, remember in the Viacom case against YouTube (which the comment whines about), Viacom had to admit that the evil pirate uploaders to a bunch of the videos... were actually Viacom employees trying to market Viacom content. This is why we don't do full on content blocks, because just because the content is up, doesn't mean that it's infringing.
Even more ridiculous, while at one point noting that almost no one files counternotices, so that means that DMCA takedowns are almost all legit (despite a recent study debunking this point), it later whines that there are too many false counternotices:
In our experience, the counter-notification process results in too many false-positive counter-notices. For example, IFPI received counter-notices on 653 infringements, based on a sample of 98,753 infringements noticed to YouTube. After reviewing these counter-notices, it appeared that over 80% of the counter-notices had no good faith basis for claiming “mistake or misidentification,” the only valid statutory grounds for a counter-notification. Yet, based on this sample, the association representing the rights holders would be required to institute over 500 lawsuits in order to enforce their rights. This is an unmanageable burden. These statistics further demonstrate that the deck is unfairly stacked against rights holders.
Filing 500 lawsuits would be an "unmanageable burden?" Funny, the RIAA was able to go after at least 30,000 individuals. And, really, this paragraph acts as if filing a lawsuit is the only possible remedy in such a situation. It's not.
Also, trying to make sure that they're as evil and against the public and fans as much as possible, the comment actually decides to whine about the ruling in the dancing baby case, saying that it's some horrible burden to have to consider fair use before sending a takedown, even though they just need a subject good faith belief, rather than an objective one:
We take this opportunity to highlight one case in particular, Lenz v. Universal Music Corp. In that case, contrary to Congressional intent and the weight of authority concerning who has the burden of claiming and proving fair use, the court held that a copyright holder must subjectively consider fair use before submitting a DMCA notice. This unique decision, and the fanfare that has followed it, is quite remarkable considering that other courts have expressly rejected that view, and that the Supreme Court has routinely held that the burden of proof for a fair use defense rests on the accused infringer.
They also whine that the newly amended version of that ruling took out the random dicta that an automated takedown system could meet the standard.
Believe it or not, that's just a sampling of all the ridiculousness in the comment. It's simply not a reality-based document. One hopes that the Copyright Office might actually recognize that, though that seems unlikely.
he notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
All of this has gotten bloated and doing more harm than good! Also all this smart stuff:
Leave the net alone, and me too!
The above is a pre-written message that explains a lot of the core problems with the current DMCA takedown system. It has effected a large majority of the people on the internet to day and it needs to be fixed. I agree 100% with everything written above.
Let's make copyright work for everyone!
The current state of DMCA takedown requests has created a tangible danger to free speech on the internet. Users of content sharing websites such as youtube.com are being forced to avoid uploading content which should, by all rights, be covered under fair use. It has created a fairly serious chilling effect, and must be remedied.
Requests should be subject to more review to determine if they are indeed copyright infringement or rather a case of fair use being falsely labeled as such.
I am just a viewer of content, but it is obvious that the consequences of these outdated DMCA laws are detrimental to the growth of the next great media outlet. Youtubers that are trying to make a living or just make something people would enjoy are pushed to the edge when this outdated system is abused by those who could know that they are exploiting it.
This needs to end. The walls in front of digital age need to crumble.
This is strongly biased towards the 1% and the wealthy at the expense of everyone else. Copyright laws must be less strict and fewer years as well. It only helps the wealthy as it is.
It is time to bring balance back in our political system. Balance is not much favored currently, but balance and fair use are exactly what is needed, certainly with regards to copyright!
The copyright act is all outdated and must be changes
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
As a heavy Youtube user i have seen DMCA fail small channels and large channels in general for a range of different reasons. This doesn't only affect my experience in what can be deemed an illegal way but also can reduce revenue of the channel itself which is often their only income. Too many large companies, but also some smaller, use DMCA as a way to silence critics or to help thier own videos be more popular which is anti competitive and conflicts with freedom of speech. This system allows these companies to get away with removing other peoples content with no consequences for malicious use and this is what really needs to be resolved!
//
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Corporate abuse of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is rampant all over the internet. Everything from stealing money from Content Creators (individuals who generate content like music, articles, and videos on the internet) well within the parameters of Fair Use (such as critique or for the sake of education) or free speech, to having content deleted for even mentioning something merely resembling a copyrighted product, major corporations are doing this all and more in the name of stifling competition, free speech, and to steal money.
There isn't an ounce of accountability or consequence for those abusing the DMCA unlawfully. Money stolen from Content Creators through the use of a DMCA claim is NEVER returned to them, even after the claim is proven to be false, and corporations who make false claims suffer no repercussions for their deception. As a result, there are even "companies" who have nothing to do with the copyrighted material in question and simply throw claims out at creators seemingly at random to steal the money rightfully owed to the Content Creator, and then disappear because there is no recourse against them whatsoever.
The DMCA is utterly broken, and it is being used to abuse honest content creators all over the internet in blatant violation of Fair Use law. This MUST change. Free speech and Fair Use law MUST be respected, and entities that act in direct violation of it MUST be held accountable.
I am a voter in Texas.
It is a weakness of humanity that so many greedy entities possess the illusion of power. Power has and will always belong to.the people who innovate, create, and act. The corporate arm seeks to hold their true competition (everyday people, like you, like me) under the tide and drown us in legislation and shoddy practices. For what reason, are the lives of living and breathing people being smitten: End Profit - The Gain Gang. How long do we let ourselves be herded by algorhythmic shepards of greed and injustice?!
I've been getting tired of these false copyright claims and takedowns that have been pestering youtube video makers. I can name at least 5 people that were false copyright claim victims. Those people are: TheMysteriousMrEnter, I HATE EVERYTHING, YourMovieSucks, Jim Sterling, Animat, and Grade A Under A.
The last name I mentioned, Grade A Under A, has made a video called ''Everything thats wrong with youtube'' which explains the abuse of the copyright system on youtube, and how he was affected by it. His video, which is in two parts, pretty much explains a lot of how copyright has been misused and abused on youtube.
Content makers are suffering for no reason. Every week, they have to deal with false copyright strikes. I just can't stand this, I just want to watch videos from my favorite content creators. Where is the fair use?
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. For real bruh. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The DMCA is currently being used by non-copyright holders to take down content that they do not own, either to promote their own beliefs or gather revenue that they do not own. Although I am a consumer, not a creator, many of the creators that I enjoy have had their content taken maliciously taken down by DMCA abuse, and some of their content has yet to return.
The abuse is so bad, in fact, that even non-copyrighted material, that nobody but the creator can claim ownership over, can still get flagged. It's a outdated, flawed system that should have been updated years ago, yet still prevails today.
Private people who have no affiliation with the company they are imitating in their claim, can still ruin the livelihood of entertainers, by stifling their income when it generates the most. The system favours the claims over the receivers of the copyright strikes, when in reality, it should be the opposite. Innocent until proven guilty, not the other way.
The DMCA needs to go.
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I've seen many good videos taken down for seemingly no good reason. The people doing this are bullies and they can't be allowed to run rampant.
As an artist I appreciate the intent of Copyright. Without it anything I made that became even remotely accessible and relevant would stand the risk of simply being taken and therefore unmarketable. Recently however it worries me to see the way corporations make a mockery of the system and like most business in North America, it becomes a game of who can afford the bigger legal team. That's not what this system was designed for and frankly the rules set up right now do not protect the common people and entrepreneurs that make up so much of the new ideas and spirit of the America we know and love. To make matters worse places of innovation and creative commons like Youtube (I swear there's new ideas in there sometimes) are more or less a circus of copyright violation and Google is pretty much hands off for fear of legal action. The long and short is that the creators of Youtube are routinely robbed and burdened by misclaims which harm them financially. Its a shame that none of them have the money or time to fight the system but Im hoping there's something you can do.
I just think that talent and creativity is being held back because of this abuse of this "law". Just let the people be free.
Copyright needs to change and we need you to lead.
For a really good in depth analysis of what is wrong with the law, please watch Nostalgia Critics video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI). I know that it is a little long, but he does a really good job of providing several examples of abuse, harassment, and outright STEALING of ad revenue. I am not making that up - content owners can just file a claim on a video to monetize it, and even if the claim turns up false, they still keep all the money that was made in that time.
Just look at what has happened to people like Nostalgia Critic. For his Event Horizon video, he lost revenue on it despite the fact that it's fair use.
Another example is a youtuber called I Hate Everything. He made a negative review of a movie called Cool Cat Saves the Kids, and the director of that film was given the tools to harass him and threaten him. Derek Savage (the director of the film) did not need to show any proof at all that what IHE was doing was illegal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzXSQ5f08sA). The video URL that I have provided should tell you enough.
Another youtuber to be hit by this is YourMovieSucks, who makes reviews of movies. He has had to deal with multiple claims from a company called Egeda, a third party that files claims for other people. The problem is that if he gets 3 strikes on his account, the account goes down for good.
Another example is a user called The Mysterious Mr Enter, who also makes reviews. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw). In the link that I have provided, you can see how a company was able to file "copyright" claims against him, and take his ad revenue from the video MULTIPLE times. All they had to do was have one of their subsidiaries file another claim, and they could take his money.
All in all, this is simply unacceptable that the law allows this. Please make it so that fraudulent claims are punished, and that people who now rely on youtube for a living don't have to feel threatened.
PS Also, harsh penalties for copyright holders who abuse the DMCA, and ever harsher penalties for non-copyright holders who use the DMCA system to profit on properties that are not their own, is something that needs to be done and fast.
That stuff was pre-written, here's my piece : I'm tired of hindering what I can create to avoid getting struck with a DMCA claim.
They are taking down videos with false piracy claims, altough I live on a third world country I do pay for my stuff and I do pay for services like crunchy roll and netflix.
I am aware that one does not have the rights to put the entire movie on youtube and that's fair. Yet one can still find full movies on Youtube and people that sends false links to "virus sites" on the internet. None of that is being taken down, only people that use clips of those shows to put an opinion.
Worse yet, videos about people that only talk about said movie with no clips at all are being taken down.
I tough America was the land of freedom but clearly I was wrong when even saying that I didn't liked a movie online get's my videos banned, is not like we are stealing from the multi million dolar industry of hollywood or that your system is going down. By god, we are trying to give out our opinion here. Nothing less nothing more.
So, if you truly belive on freedom of speech then help us out here please.
Thank you for your time
This country should make laws for the better of it's citizens, not corporations.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
This system has hobbled political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA must have new safeguards to protect against abuse from companies infringing on free speech - They need to be held responsible!
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30% of takedown notices are of questionable validity and strongly benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures they've developed have DISPROPORTIONATELY benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and EXTRACT MONEY FROM INNOCENT VICTIMS!
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating such balance is to impose statutory damages for companies abusing the DMCA takedown process, especially those which fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they INHIBIT FREE SPEECH and fair use of copyrighted works.
I have had strikes on my channel simply given by some kid at my school, YouTube should always check videos before allowing the strike to go through
Hello.
By default, the means I'm using to send this comment gives a long tirade about the problem with DMCA abuse. If this comment is going to be read, which I honestly do not believe it will be, I want it to be my words and from my own experiences.
This is not a simple fix.
Where many of these comments are coming from, are disgruntled audience members from YouTube channels which have been unfairly attacked under a improper system in place because of the DMCA. 99.99% of these comments will be of people who think that saying "Please fix this! This is wrong!" Will solve the problem. It will not.
At best, it will cause the intended parties to reevaluate the DMCA. At worst, these comments will be disregarded. Frankly speaking, it's understandable why. You have the site I'm using, which is turning this forum into a spambot's playground, used by people who fully do not understand the situation.
With that understanding, here is my message: I want the DMCA to exist, but I want it updated to modern times. The internet is fluid; ever changing and ever growing. The DMCA is not, as any good act should be. However, it does not reflect the best interest of the content creators of the internet, or the mass audiences that consume their content. To that end, the DMCA must be amended.
Remixes, Fan Art, Reaction Videos and those where people record themselves playing Video Games, and much more, these are all grey area subjects. There is a conversation to be had about at what point does this content stop being owned by their original maker, and begin to be owned by the one transforming it. I invite you, who ever might be reading this, to have this conversation.
Thank you for your time.
William C. Bishop, Electrical Engineering Discipline.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. et. Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. Computer programs do a broad search and are unable to make judgements about fair use exceptions. Significant errors occur resulting in censorship of legal and creative expression.
The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech. According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
The DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for an open, participatory Internet possible. Unfortunately, it disproportionately benefites corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims. Basically, the regulation is a censorship program and do significant damage to small businesses. There needs to be a short time period for the corporation to respond and not drag the matter on for weeks or months.
Automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works. Corporations should not have the right to censor the internet.
Though the below is boilerplate, it is correct and written far better than I could write it. Though I will add this small bit of my personal statements here at the top. The DMCA is the most abused and worst written law on the Federal level in the history of this country that I am aware of. It has been used as a bludgeon by corporations against the public and it's competition since almost day one of it's being implemented, and with no oversight or repercussions for improper use. Even the primitive scripts they use to claim things are violations and 'report' them for takedowns are an embarrassment to any skilled programmer due to their blatant lack of quality. It's true the industry refuses to show us the code, but we can still reverse engineer a lot of it just from reviewing it's actions, and I can already tell you it is a very primitive partial string matcher. Something that a 6th grader would learn how to write in his second week of computer class. The fact that they are staking legal actions on such an inappropriate tool is blatantly irresponsible and deplorable. I'm sure you've been hearing plenty about the abuses heaped upon the public by the altar of that travesty the DMCA, and I won't bore you with any more of my own, but sufficient to say, if you won't abolish it, you at least need to drastically alter it before the foundations of copyright are completely destroyed.
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According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
I mean, how the hell can a robot correctly judge an opinion based artwork with nothing but number inputs? They can't, and what's worse is anyone can pretty much use the bots as attack dogs with no proof to back up there claim. Terrible in every way YouTube and everyone who has taken advantage of this terrible system for their own advantage. Put the YOU back in YouTube.
Public Use should trump corporate profits.
Thank you.
The current laws and systems in place, designed to protect copyrighted content, is outdated and extremely vulnerable to abuse. Companies are using the system in their favor to threaten, harass, and essentially blackmail creators on many different platforms into turning over rights to content that they worked hard on just because of flimsy copyright claims that should easily fall under fair use. Many creators don't have the means to fight these claims and as a result can loose revenue, can have their brand value lowered, and even have entire networks taken down which for an ever growing number of people is their main source of income.
The system is extremely simple to abuse because there is no penalty for false claims, that abuse can be quite profitable for the abuser. For example on YouTube all a company has to do is say that a video contains their intellectual property. They don't have to substantiate that claim in any way before any revenue that that video is generating begins to go to them, rather than the creator that spent time and effort to create it. The creator then has the option to dispute the claim, but this is a slow process thanks to the system being bogged down by so many people needing their cases reviewed. And until the issue is resolved all revenue continues to go to the company that filed the claim. If the issue is resolved in the content creators favor, they get to retake over the generation of the revenue, but only after the largest money making time frame is long over. The company the filed still gets to keep everything that they collected while the claim was being processed.
And if a content creator gets so many strikes on their channel, again with or without legal reason, then they could be subject to having their entire channel removed. However, there is no similar penalty for is a company files to many disputed copyright claims. And even if their way, many larger companies operate through shell companies to protect them. And it takes a lot longer for a content creator to rebuild a brand that they have put time and money into than for a company to set up a new shell company to continue filing claims through.
We understand why these laws exist. Just as it's not fair for a small creator to have their revenue stolen, it's not fair for large companies who hold the copy rights to their own intellectual property to have their money stolen by torenters. But the system needs to be fixed to work for all parties, not just the ones with the money. There needs to be some kind of penalty to companies who continuously abuse the system and laws put in place to protect them.
I am complete agreement with the following comments. While copyright protection is key to protecting the rights of the creator, there already is the legal right to limited use--a sentence or two, etc. called "fair use."
Content creators have a right to protect their products. But overreacting and broad censorship is stifling to speech and has a chilling effect on creativity and political speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I really don't like the DMCA, and haven't for years. The notice-and-takedown process just doesn't work. It presumes guilt instead of innocence, and the high cost of compliance often forces the innocent "offending" party to censor themselves rather than fight.
Furthermore, the DMCA doesn't give a safe enough harbor for true expression. I've seen critiques of large corporations torn down due to violating their brand, and I've personally had to scuttle one and a half key proposed microsites due to that problem.
Lastly, culture happens through mashing up different pieces of existing media. This is inevitable and desireable. The fact that only "approved" entities can riff on our shared cultural heritage (like Star Wars) leads to a world where only large corporations are allowed to make those new pieces of culture. And that is worrisome indeed.
Please reform the DMCA to allow humans to speak freely.
I have many friends who use Youtube as a means for income. My husband and I are trying to get a Youtube channel together to be able to share convention panels, reviews, etc. for people who are unable to attend. These copyright strikes have hurt many friends of mine when it comes to their videos and it is unfair that companies are trying to make money off these people and stop their freedom of speech. Please consider making the changes as this is a new time and more and more people are looking to the internet for their entertainment. Let those who make videos and want to share them with the world be able to do so.
I'd happily see the DMCA takedowns stopped.
I have personally experienced having video taken down that was clearly protected by fair use provisions in copyright law and was not subject to human review. This is both infuriating and a violation of my rights. My own case did not have political or health and safety implications, but some cases certainly do. The public good must be weighed against the profits of a few individuals, and removing allegedly infringing content without review protects only a privileged few.
This must pass
Furthermore there are no real consequences for a faulty claim in which it is even more biased to corporate copyright holders and middlemen who issue takedowns in their name. This encourages copyright holders to continue with their automated takedowns on a large scale causing big problems for people who are subjected to this.
These Dmca take downs affect all kind of people, including those who make a living off of fair use. In the present, we see this system being abused. A large example are youtubers being taken down by large companies without a chance to fairly plead their case. The system should AT LEAST check the claim instead of automatically shutting the video down. Fair use is a big part of our internet, please don't take that away.
Corporations are allowed a seize monetization of content on the internet without any human review. This content can be in violation of copyright, but it can also be covered under fair use. In some cases, the content being seized will contain no copyrighted material whatsoever. This content, once claimed in a "guilty until proven innocent" fashion, diverts the revenue of content creators into the hands of companies who have no right to it. This hurts small creators and needs to be prevented. Worst of all, these false copyright claims are a power not checked in any regard. Companies can offer take down notices and seize monetization on content with no repercussions if the content is found to be lawful. The income lost through illegal seizure of monetization is not returned. An act which attempts to protect content creators and their work has become a tool used to harm them.
The DMCA is an archaic law trying to control the internet, a system which has evolved several times over since the its creation. The principle, to protect a creator's work from illegal use, is a noble one. It is such a nobel cause that it deserves the best control that legislation can offer. That is why the DMCA must be rethought.
Fair-use is vital to the growth of our culture, economy, and content creators. It must be protected at all costs. I implore you to strike down the DMCA and replace it with a system which is more fair and current.
Please prevent further takedown programs that are a breach of free expression.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Not only is DMCA allowing YouTube to take down my content, but it is allowing them to take down other people's videos for BS reasons, and the content creators took it to court, it would be deemed fair use. DMCA is just an inconvenience to the whole YouTube community and should be stopped.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
We need to keep America strong and keep our freedoms in place, so that we can rebuild. This is not America's way,
Please take the time to carefully consider both sides of this debate; majority rules, minority rights.
I understand the need for copyright, but don't want it to be used to censor speech.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet (as in the cases of parodies, reviews, etc.).
Where's the fair use?
On a more personal note, I love watching YouTube. I'm a big fan of gamers such as Markiplier and Jacksepticeye, and I'm a big fan of CinemaSins, The Nostalgia Critic, and many other reviewers. I was actually quite shocked to hear about all the trouble that these, and other content creators, have been having in regards to their content. Ironically, I don't think the companies fighting these people realize what they are doing. Not only are the alienating a massive portion of the population by treating these people in this way, but they are essentially attempting to block their own profits. There are hundreds of movies and video games I'd never even heard of that I learned about by watching these creators and their videos. Because of hearing about them, I ended up buying a lot of the products that these YouTube creators were showcasing.
I admit, these reviews can cause a loss of revenue as well. When a YouTube reviewer whose opinion I trust tells me how a game or movie is not worth my money, and goes to the trouble of showing me the ways in which it is not worth my money, then I generally won't buy the movie or video game they are show-casing. But it's hardly the fault of these creators if the gaming companies and movie companies are making bad products, and it's the trust they establish with me by telling me that some games and movies suck that leads me to trust their judgement when they tell me that other games and movies are worth buying.
Ultimately, not only does it seem to me that the major corporations are missing a prime opportunity, but they are also committing the very fraud they claim is being committed against them. In the cases when they make a claim, many times, the people who are claimed against have the money they would normally make from their own content given to the company who made the claim until the matter is resolved. While the YouTube creators follow the laws that have been set down, the corporations are able to play fast and loose with the laws, and make money off of the people who they make claims against, all without any sort of over-sight.
I'm not saying I know what the perfect solution is. Obviously, people should not be allowed to simply pass-off what is made by these corporations as their own work, and I understand that was the original intent of this law. However, the law is now being used to exploit an entirely different set of creators who have not broken the laws that have been set down already. I do know that the ultimate result needs to account for the creators who make content on YouTube and the rest of the internet, and needs to protect the rights of Hollywood and game creators as well. Bottom line; Hollywood and gaming corporations can't just push these people around because they are bigger and have more money. Not only do the creators of YouTube have every bit as much right to make their own content, but since they have not broken the laws that are set in place, the government should be ruling in their favor, not against them. But then, government seems to side with the bigger money a lot these days. In any case, that's my two sense. I'll bet you've got a lot more comments then just mine to go through today as well. Listen to these comments. We aren't a small majority of mal-contents, we are the people who allow you the power you have. It's worth remembering that you only hold as much power as we the people grant you, and should we feel our best interests aren't being met, we have the power to remove you from power. And there's a heck of a lot more of us then there are of you.
It's strange that a US national law could have such a profoundly negative effect on an international resource, and it's not a good feeling.
How about innocent until Proven Guilty???
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. It keeps reviewers from posting critiques. It keeps legitimate social commentary and criticism from being heard.
The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet. In practical experience, the percentage I have encountered is closer to 50 percent.
Companies and individuals are using this act that was made to protect copyright holders from abuse to abuse and attack content creators using copyrighted content legally. Tons of YouTube creators are relentlessly harassed by people who simply disagree with their opinions, which is not freedom of speech, and not what this country stands for. So that's why I am taking charge and trying to make a difference in this small community called the Internet, to make the connected web a better and more free place. I'm in.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to suppress content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. Moreover, the automated process costs large copyright owners almost nothing, whereas fighting a takedown notice costs significant time and effort for the hosting provider and the content creator. In addition, statutory damages should also apply to entities accruing more than a small percentage of false positives, as measured by restored content after human review.
Note that such rules and technical measures already apply to mass email, as all providers have a feedback loop which automatically shuts out senders who's emails are regarded as spam or unwanted by too many receivers. A similar feedback loop could exist for DMCA takedown notices, where if an entity sends too many bogus ones, their notices are flagged as no longer valid and/or no longer falling under DMCA and hence require no action on the part of the receiver.
Come on. You guys wouldnt like it if someone did this to you.
Please, help protect the fair use, and help protect the content creators online. It is 2016, we need the protection for ALL of our content.
Copyright law allows for fair use, parody as well as art and fan art. Stop corporate abuses.
I am greatly concerned about the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) because it is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. According to a recent study, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I am a creative person, and I have also studied copy write laws for years, it makes me sick how the system is abused by people in all creative fields (no, I have never been a recipient of this personally, but I know those who have been). One of the worst examples for me was what happened to Robin Thicke, T.I., and Pharell. That was a joke, they never hid that they were influenced by Marvin Gaye, in fact that acknowledged it from the get-go when it came to "Blurred Lines" and the Gaye family used it to emotionally manipulate people, "Blurred Lines" has no melodic resemblance to the Marvi Gaye song in question, and copywrites do not cover "grooves", yet they won... What a joke! I wish this was an exception, but people and companies alike regularly do this to people on Social Media who have no money or power to fight back and it stifles the creative process, and inhibits people from sharing often on baseless grounds because of threats from certain entities or individuals.
That is why I am writing you.
I am an active user of the Internet, that enjoys its content everyday. But because of current system of DMCA, I am not able to access and use all content that I'd like to. In fact, many videos on YouTube are taken down by copyright owners just because those videos are being a concurrent to big corporations. Current DMCA system is not fair and is being harmful on those, who create great content, but are disliked by copyright holders.
The DMCA is being abused by people and corporations who don't even own the IP to the content they strike. The main problem is that there are no repercussions for spamming DMCA takedowns for a pinch of an innocent content creator's revenue. There needs to be some penalty for falsely using this system, or corrupt individuals/corporations will continue to exploit others.
We scare because we care
Its illegal in terms of fair use fix it.
I support flexible, informed copyleft licensing options for human creativity.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I believe that a human being must inspect all content in question to ensure that a takedown request is warranted. Robots and algorithms can't properly discern what is fair use and what isn't and should never be relied on for such uses.
NO!
From a personal standpoint, I have been a victim of these false claims and this abuse. I used to run a youtube movie review channel called "Perfect10Reviews". While I don't run it anymore, I would personally estimate that I only made about half of the money that I should have off of it because of these false claims. This was in the era when youtube paid in a minimum of $100 increments through Google. When my account's ability to monetize was taken down, I was actually at the $95 mark. I personally don't make much money, and that $95, however little of an amount that may seem, could have helped quite a bit. But not only were my videos consistently taken down, blocked, or had their monetization removed, eventually my whole channel lost its ability to monetize (despite crediting the original content in the end credits AND completely falling under fair use guidelines). This abuse is absolutely ridiculous, and it needs to end as soon as possible.
So please, stop the petty copyright violations.
Hello,
I'm very concerned that the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright h LPolders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for even remotely possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
My own two cents: Imagine being censored and silenced for saying you blew your nose "on a Kleenex" instead of "on tissue paper". That is what this boils down to: free speech, fair public criticism of authority and indeed, _language itself_ depend on a commons of words, ideas and shared culture that implicitly acknowledges Fair Use. The DMCA as enforced--its results, not its intent--never acts as if Fair Use exists. It operates on the assumption that everyone on the Internet is guilty until proven _more guilty_, and innocence is never an option.
And the fact that we have non-human entities (corporations) acting as if they're people, using algorithms and robot accounts that do not act human, to relentlessly stalk and harass real people in the name of this abuse of authority? That fact would make any sane, rational real human person _question_ the legitimacy of the results of the DMCA. Is it really about preventing IP theft, or about inflicting a surveillance state upon law-abiding citizens who are afraid to speak their minds?
I am writing to ask you to enforce penalties for the misuse of the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Right now this law is biased against free speech, in favor of corporate copyright holders. I respect the need for copyright laws, but as it stands, it is being commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This has dire effects on political expression, creativity, innovation and our Constitutional rights. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies now use computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process makes significant errors and does not allow for judgment about possible fair use exceptions, resulting in censorship of vast amounts of legitimate and legal speech and expression on the Internet.
A recent study by Berkeley and Columbia law professors found nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for an open, participatory Internet, but the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
This trolling in all areas of law is so detrimental to our economy and I urge your office to be very active in reducing this abuse of copyright laws! We need your leadership to protect average Americans and small businesses from extortionists!
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. Companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Thank you for your time!
While the DMCA takedown procedure is valuable for copyright holders, both corporate and individual, to prevent the theft of their work, the current regime of automated matching and takedowns is absolutely unfair. The use of automated content matching tools regularly violates the principle of fair use, preventing individuals from excerpting copyrighted material for the purposes of review and criticism. In order to protect free speech, we have allowances in copyright by which copyrighted material can be used in the contexts of journalism, criticism, and commentary, but the way that DMCA takedowns are currently enforced violates that right to use copyrighted material as part of protected speech.
Also here's an example by content creator mr enter, in my opinion the worst suffer about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw
I dont like to obey to interests of rich people
Please, save the people that make the internet something worth while and update that fossil of a law to something that will stop the harassment on content creators.
Free speech for all is a right guaranteed to us. This free speech includes being able to use other people's work for specific purposes, including parody and education. Bogus, frivolous take down notices and unequal treatment based on revenue generation harms everyone. Put a stop to this and protect both the American people and copyright holders.
For years I've seen countless content providers on Youtube and other social sites struggle against the oppressive and outdated DMCA . As an artist myself, copyright protection is incredibly important, but the draconian practice of automatic takedowns partnered with actions taken without investigating both sides of the claim has to come to an end.
The above comments, though provided by Fight for the Future, explain in detail my complaints with the DMCA, along with the complaints of countless others who seek to safeguard the internet as a haven for free speech and expression. I sincerely hope that a middle ground can be reached where all parties can freely create and share their own works in a way that matches the current online landscape of today's many platforms available, as well as those created for years to come.
Technology continues to rapidly advance, and the internet has been the greatest example of that. The Digital Millennium Copyright is distinctly old when observed against all that has changed between then and now. When it was written, we were used to initiating a connection to the internet with monstrous noises (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsNaR6FRuO0 Duration: 0:27). Viewing detailed media such as a photo could take many seconds or even minutes.
Nowadays we have former science fiction in everyone's pockets. Smartphones that let us communicate anytime, anywhere, in many ways. Most people have some sort of computer now. We're always connected to the internet, without any wires or strange rituals, at great speeds allowing us to watch videos at great resolutions and high frame-rates.
Internet culture is completely different now from what it was two decades ago. The means of creating and sharing media have become easier, but the stagnant DMCA was not prepared for this and creates conflict in ways inconsistent with modern culture. We can distinguish between attempting to benefit off of someone else's hard efforts, and insignificant copying of a work that does not challenge the original. The ease of creation today is simple enough a child can create derivatives of works in a few clicks, commonly to enhance enjoyment of a work rather than compete for commercial success (http://imgur.com/NbFVCCQ).
The difference between attempting to benefit from someone else's work and not was supposed to be protected under Fair Use. However the DMCA takes a "guilty until proven innocent" approach, requiring that a derivative be immediately taken down before inspection. Fair Use does not mean anything until you take it to court.
What musician ever became skilled at their craft while never performing the works of those who inspired them? A person gets into a particular craft because existing works have raised their interest in that area. When creating, they will use elements that they find interesting, which is in some way or another derived from elements they have previously observed from other creators. The starting point for developing a skill is imitation.
Under current law, imitation is quickly punishable, both halting creative individuals and wasting time invested in creation. This inhibits the arts directly by limiting what can exist, and indirectly by discouraging people from trying. A person can have a highly entertaining idea, but may be unable to share it because current law ignores their intentions and effects.
The DMCA was introduced to protect the commercial interests of copyright holders. Plenty of DMCA takedown notices are against sites that reproduce works in their entirety, however even in these cases there is a contrast between the theory-on-paper and what's actually in the interest of the copyright holders. A creator creates to provide an experience, which works best when you can make a living doing that. The numbers are looked at with a thought of "imagine if every view was a purchase". Reality doesn't work top-down like that, you start with a smaller base of paying customers, and need more exposure to gain more customers. People viewing a work before paying may yet become future paying customers, there is no reverse of that, there is no negative revenue in that process.
The other side of DMCA takedown notices are against people who are not competing against the commercial success of the original work. At simplest, they may take video from one source, music from a different source, and put them together with otherwise little effort. However that derivative is never going to take the place of the original. It's a process that is easily done, it may contribute additional entertainment, it may draw more exposure to the originals it was derived from, yet it is still lined up to be unquestioningly punished.
The "purpose" of both copyright law and the DMCA are being ignored and are razing any derivatives, rather than focusing on protecting copyright holders in scenarios that actually challenge potential profit or integrity of a product.
Youtube is fucking up with copyright
you've seen the default message from others already, so here's something different. US-based companies control a significant portion of the internet, and DMCA abuse affects the rest of the world too.
The more you stifle thought, the slower mankind moves into the future. C'mon, guys.
Unfair!
Free speech is very important. It needs to protected at all cost! Helps keep everything fair!
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore ing in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The original intent of the internet was to freely spread humanity's knowledge amongst itself. To create a connection b/t the disparate masses with speed and clarity never before seen. This is what will propel humanity forward. We are on the cusp of a great change. But siloing off knowledge is hamstringing this growth. Allow the free flow of information and humanity's rightful place in the evolutionary process!
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
our individual expression is over regulated, as corporate expression is omnipresent. this needs to change.
#MakeYouTubeGreatAgain
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is plagued by significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet. The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have been
hijacked by corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Now you're done reading. Congratulations.
I further find it upsetting that a content creator's livelihood is affected by larger corporate companies who are following a broken law and unfairly either stripping or completely taking their revenue.
When does freedom of speech stop being free?
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
"Nazism begets Piracy, and Piracy begets yet more Crime, et al repeats."
You cannot "fight crime" (pretend or otherwise) with Nazist Totalitarian Fascism and expect things to work to peoples' better, and not rather for things to get Far worse along the way instead yea that would object against the human will for just freedom.
"To stand against in the way of just Progress is to be crushed 'neath its booted heel."
Glory to the Truth, amen. >_<)'7
- the rest.
Content on Youtube is meant to entertain, inform, make a serious point, and encourage everyone to have an open mind. This abuse is ridiculous and needs to come to a stop. Everyones free rights are being shoved aside and that is inequality. Please make sure everyone starts getting their free rights on youtube.
Thank You
Glenn Miller
The creators of tomorrow, should not be impeded by the corperations of today!
""
IMO
This has affected some friends and users I know, many of which get wrongful strikes against them for just using short clips to either highlight or review a movie, even though it is fair use.
A majority of internet users and content creators are in agreement that the DMCA has affected the internet very negatively and needs to change. It is an outdated act that has been abused by many to take advantage of YouTubers and other content creators alike, stealing their hard earned revenue even though their videos fall in the realm of fair use. Not to mention it has been used to restrict free speech, most notably in the case of director Derek Savage and the copyright claims he filed on videos with negative reviews of his film "Cool Cat Saves the Kids." Videos that don't even contain copyright footage are unjustly being taken down. However, with the current state of the DMCA it is nearly impossible to change any of this. We need to change this now before further damage is done.
As a professional musician I rely on the freedom to communicate ideas through digital media. When that ceases, I cease, and there are millions like me. To allow Goliath corporations to pick and choose which ideas are "acceptable" would be to prioritize their enterprises above those of hard working independent citizens like myself. America should lead the rest of the world by being an unshakeable bastion of free speech, thought, and art. If we allow the censorship of any single idea, we make way for the censorship of every idea. I do not want to live in a place that would brazenly do so. I want to continue to feel fortunate to live in the Unites States where above all ideas are free. I do not want to see another instance of my "leaders" putting their financial interests above the constitution. Make the right choice.
The notice-and-takedown process of the DMCA is routinely abused by corporate copyright holders and trolls with no real penalty for filing a false complaint. This often results in legitimate sites, channels, and content providers being removed in a guilty until proven innocent scenario or in people being banned from places like youtube for supposed violations that are clearly allowed.
Penalty provisions for misuse or abuse of the notice and takedown provisions must be added.
I understand that the DMCA is under review. Although I agree that the basic concept of copyright is important for the protection of authors, artists, etc., the use of ill-conceived robot programs to take down legitimate usage is outrageous. "Fair use" has always been part of the legal protections for copyright holders. This exception is critical for the integrity of the entire system, so that educational material may include small quotations, critical reviews can identify the particular issue under discussion, parodies are possible, free-speech is properly protected and for many other situations. Minor infringements are suitably dealt with by direct contact between alleged owner and alleged infringer. Robot programs that use brute-force analyses are entirely unsuitable and risk much more than anything they prevent. Robotic identification might be appropriate to call someone's attention to a contentious situation, but the automatic taking down of web content is (as I've said above) simply outrageous!!! Thank you.
I also agree with the following statements.
The notice-and-take-down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
After the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) chose to rename their communications network the Internet it was announced that this would become an innovative way to ADVANCE humanity by making communication of large amounts of information quickly accessible to millions of people. The recent actions - taken mostly at the behest of, and predominately for the benefit of very large corporations - described above DO NOT represent the best interests of humanity as a whole. These sorts of actions historically have led to disastrous outcomes again and again and again. It would seem that the role of the US Copyright Office is to protect the lawful rights of people - NOT so-called 'persons,' which has been judicially re-defined to include corporations Please learn the lessons of history so that humans will not be doomed to repeat its mistakes.
Stop the bogus Take-downs and Protect living, breathing, human individuals' First Amendment right to Freedom of Speech. Thank you very much for your swift redress of this matter.
The biggest legal problems I as an immigrated Innovator & Inventor have with U.S. Copyright Office and NSA/FBI unwarranted bulk surveillance of immigrants to the USA and minorities’ foreign communications are multi-fold:
Your opportunistic, religious conservative and ‘uber’ fascist U.S. republican American elites put far too much violent militaristic emphasis on the rights of your mega “too big to jail” private oligopoly Corporations of corrupted racist Billionaire CEOs than on human rights, than on privacy and civilian property rights of the whole global population, international inventors and international small businesses.
International communities, whom copyrights & intellectual property laws the whole U.S Intelligence & U.S. globally operating private Corporations infringe with your unwarranted, secret but not-s secretive alliances to surveill regular global population.
While your rich religious U.S American political cartels and your fraudulent Corporations certainly exclude themselves from such privacy & property rights infringements.
Such U.S arrogance to deny other people, other businesses and other nations the equivalent rights to privacy and property rights are not just signs of American disregard of others on the planet, but makes you, the whole USA, the callous religious nuclear Nazi empire the GOP already promise to install, with support of their equally climate change and diversity-denying allies: the religious fanatic Oil-producing Islamist and other similar fanatic religious corporate cartels.
In short: You cognitively deranged religious fanatic megalomaniac US American world empire wanna-be Assholes can NOT protect your fascist corporations rights, while you DENY the rest of this word the same equivalent rights! Go fuck yourselves!
And so fort. I’ll happily see you, the USA, in International Courts soon.
Best Regards,
Anthony & Erika Endres
Projectheureka LLC.,
It is perfectly reasonable for content to be taken down as an infringement of copyright laws. However, it is unreasonable for them to be taken down for no purpose.
In addition to this, please refer to this video, one I'm sure you've seen before. WHERE'S THE FAIR USE? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
It's just so clearly unfair for people's work to be pulled down with the most specious of reasons! There needs to be some burden of proof placed upon the complaintants in these cases.
Please stop the bogus DMCA takedowns and protect free speech, everywhere in the world.
"In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world
founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere
in the world.
The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic
understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its
inhabitants—everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a
world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough
fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression
against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of
world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very
antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to
create with the crash of a bomb."
—Franklin D. Roosevelt, excerpted from the State of the Union Address to
he Congress, January 6, 1941
FAIR USE IS FAIR USE
It seems like the common guy on the street is always at a disadvantage when going up against big corps.
The DMCA is no different.
We should be allowed to have fair use and have our rights.
You guys suck fuck you free speech for all if i want to say nigger i can
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review, but in the experiences of many who have appealed copyright strikes and takedowns, there is little chance of ever talking to a single human in the process.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims, a practice that has only gotten worse in recent years.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. Honest reviews and critiques of art and creativity, vital to the constant improvement of media and the arts, are censored by companies who are unable to take criticism. This kind of damage can not be undone, and is made worse due to the apparent lack or disconnect from human oversight.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged or removed altogether as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is heavily biased towards corporate copyright holders and is abused frequently to detriment fair use in critical content.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
There are no consequences for bad takedown requests. If you submit hundreds of bad requests, there should be a penalty.
The blatant unlawful abuse of the current system is a large problem with the internet of today. Creators are bombarded with false claims from people that may not even own the intellectual property they are accusing the creator of using. Even using something completely within fair use has no effect on weather or not it gets claimed.
The DMCA was for an older internet, it needs to change.
I am a content viewer, never uploaded any content of my own but have seen many of my favorite producers be silenced when they had every right to have their content on the internet. Fair use is the law and it needs to be obyed. WTFU. Thank you.
Until abusers of copyright DMCAs get some punishment, creative works will cautiously slow at best, and stagnate at worst. I'd argue that the DMCA needs a revamp entirely, especially from companies that hold patents solely to sue others that would deviate from it (Which should be covered from fair use.)
______________________
Let every public servant, elected, appointed or hired, ask every day "who am I fighting for"
Too many companies are using the DMCA to take down any video that uses their content at all, as if Fair Use didn't exist. Some have even flat out told me that they will continue to take down any video that uses any of their content without their permission. The DMCA as it exists makes it far too easy for the 1st Amendment to be violated.
I have seen peoples videos disappear for no good reason, and some are unable to fully monetise their content due to false Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) claims. The notice-and-takedown process under the DMCA is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Stock comment removed, certainly you've seen it enough.
Requiring human review of all the things caught by algorithms is a Herculean task and demanding that all copyright holders and corporations do that would be met with huge protests on their part.
So perhaps in order to fix the problem, that should be a last resort punishment taken against those who over zealously protect their properties to the extent that they infringe on the rights of others. Companies or their legal representatives or whoever is issuing the take down notices could be flagged as problematic and told that because of their abuse they no longer had the right to issue automatic take downs on anything until they go through a probationary period where everything has to be reviewed by a human being. This along with a requirement that they pay damages and issue statements officially retracting their accusations and acknowledging them as incorrect would probably do a lot to fix the problem.
I believe in true democracy and freedom of speech otherwise it just becomes a dictatorship. Remember that governments should with us and not iinspite of us. That's where current governments are going wrong. Stop listening to the people and you will lose our confidence our vote and our obedience
I am so tired of bots and teams automatically taking down legitimate work or when companies try to use this tool as a means to stifle speech online. Be it verbal, text or video form. This crap needs to change.
The form letter is included bellow, but I wanted to add my 2 cents.
I believe in independent voices being free to post original content. This content should be respected as a potentially important cultural and economic contribution. I feel that as part of that contribution more care should be taken with what is automatically taken down. Beyond carelessness/ lack of due process, I think it's important to point out my own concerns about bad actors who are trying to twist our systems of government and law to censor content both creative and political.
I'm very glad you've decided to accept public feedback on this. Good luck keeping the internet free and open. It just might save the world in the end.
Now for the fancy speak:
In my opinion it is a very flawed system.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is absurd and is open to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of free speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory, and most importantly- fair internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims in a way similar to patent trolls that fleece small business of their hard earned profit that can be better spent elsewhere.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important right we have as Americans at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage is irreversible.
To balance this in a more equitiable manner, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech, such as fines and punitive damages.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as much as possible as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Yes I read this and agree with it and it is much more eloquent then anything that I could say on this matter given it is full of legalisms.
WORK TO BE DONE; SOCIAL JUSTICE IN GREAT DANGER!
(I). Restore JUSTICE -fix “ROBBER-ISM” first; NOT benefit “MURDER-FRAUD-CRIME-INJUSTICE NETWORKS” propaganda to help/benefit themselves; victimize others = destroying freedom, fairness, democracy; continuing, on-going; expanding; penetrating civic non-profit, women, minorities, churches, nonsense studies, proposals, block grants, think tanks; unjust practices, manipulation, influence; legislation; hidden agenda; false/ misleading excuses; divert resources for private gains; inc. private-public partnership, development, housing, school, transportation, abandonment of properties, roads
(II). WORK TO BE DONE; SOCIAL JUSTICE IN GREAT DANGER!
Too much rhetoric, false, misleading, unjust manipulation! Meaningless! Restore JUSTICE -fix “ROBBER-ISM” first; NOT to benefit “MURDER-FRAUD-CRIME-INJUSTICE NETWORKS” operation.
The most urgent serious problems here and overseas: ROBBERISM”= “MURDER- FRAUD- CRIME- INJUSTICE NETWORKS” operation = bad guy propaganda to help/benefit/self-promotion among themselves; victimize others = destroying freedom, fairness, democracy, capitalism; continuing, on-going; expanding; penetrating every segment of our lives, including civic non-profit, women, minorities, churches, nonsense studies, proposals, block grants, “think tanks”, etc.
OPPOSE PUBLIC FINANCE MATCHING SMALL DONORS FUND - falsely named "Fair Election Act", “Government by the People”… whatever. It is simply “Government by Bad Guys”.
OPPOSE: U.S. Supreme Court decisions on Citizen-United, and on Mcclucheon on election campaign; Koch Brothers Dark money; super PAC strategies; BAILOUTS; corporate welfares; non-sense grants.
Promote democracy, fair election, quality, competition, people input (policies, issues, officials, judges); televise public hearings, citizen/candidate forum/debate; maintain, disseminate meaningful accurate information, records, capability, reasoning, good sense of justice, public interest, endurance. Objective screening by meaningful rigorous examinations, evaluations for quality, capability, endurance and public interest.
UNJUST killing: not just gun shooting; false imprisonment, rehab, medication, injection, accidents, brutality, freezing, hungry…
Many people are misdiagnosed, hospitalized/ imprisoned as mentally ill, etc.; political prisoners; dissenters; victimized/abused – resources/properties/benefits (private, public; vet, Medicare, ssa, …).
Living wage=min. for survival in justice; but never enough in injustice: unlawful traffic tickets, fines, legal fees, other problems.
Agencies, doj, fbi,cia, nsa, dhhs,dot, …etc. local-federal have no accountability! Lots of problems: waste, abuse, official misconduct.
Urge @WhiteHouse, Congres, officials local-federal to investigate suppression/concealment of public comments/complaints; e.g., on federal solidarity CMU, DOJ, policing, correction facilities
PREVENT hidden agenda; not to divert taxpayers’ resources to benefit "BAD GUYS"; more law/caucus/task force and/or shuffling do not make government/contractors/churches etc. work better.
Urge to re-open/investigate/prosecute “MURDER- FRAUD- CRIME- INJUSTICE NETWORKS” operation; seizure, destruction; obstruction, tampering; denial of LIVES/resources/ rights/freedom/reputation; access/use of communication; phone, fax, media; equipment, facilities; computers, internet, social media; work, documents, files, petition/action sites, voters guides, websites, e.g., DNet (by League of Women Voters, Congress.org); Congress.org, Vote-Md, Project Vote Smart, media, links... ..more.
(III). WORK TO BE DONE; SOCIAL JUSTICE IN GREAT DANGER!
PROMOTE FAIRNESS, FREEDOM, JUSTICE, PEACE, HUMANITY, PRODUCTIVITY, WELL-BEING OF GENERAL PUBLIC.
RESOLVE SOCIO- POLITICAL ISSUES, BALANCING BUDGET. OPPOSE SO CALLED "FAIR ELECTION ACT" PUBLIC FINANCE MATCHING SMALL DONORS FUND- DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD, RESOUCES BENEFIT "BAD GUYS" AS USUAL. TASKS: TOP PRIORITIES: Society in vicious cycles as in need of revolution, we MUST act:
(1). Prosecute, eliminate “MURDER- fraud- crime- injustice networks”= cruel tyranny= robbery machine = ROBBER- ISM; destroying essences of democracy, capitalism; continuing, on-going; relaying, penetrating every segment of our lives (inc. civic non- profit organizations); expanding here domestically to overseas- foreign countries; with threat, coercion, victimization, deprivation, discrimination; unjust practices, manipulation, influence; bad legislative bills; unjust hidden agenda with false/ misleading excuses (inc. private- public partnership, economic development, housing, school construction, transportation, abandonment of properties, maintenance of “paper roads”, nonsense grants, programs; …, whatever) to benefit/ facilitate “MURDER-fraud- crime- injustice networks” (inc. officials, judges, developers, lawyers, employees, etc.); expand further unjust operation; endless unlawful- immoral acts; rob/destruct resources (rights, land, properties, home, buildings, assets, accounts, income, pension, documents, evidences; public, private; business, civic, political); frivolous litigation, levies, foreclosures, garnishment, guardianship, power of attorney; improper processing of complaints, procedures, proceedings, docketing, bookkeeping, accounting; cause vicious cycles: socio- political- election-media- budget- legislative- system problems; civil-human rights backwards; people-slave. Examples of problems are provided below: **
(2). Restore: principle, fairness, cost-effectiveness, accountability, reliability, capability; fair election, justice, peace (including civic, non-profit organizations), “check and balance”; Restore: TRUE essence of democracy, fair election process; easy access to government, files, records, transcripts; not unjustly manipulated, influenced, misled by wrong person, information, or “official misconduct- government gang- fraud- crime- injustice networks” = serious causes of socio- political – election –media- budget- legislative problems, which destroy people, families, society, peace, justice, democracy. Based on merits, justification; NO double standards, improper processing of complaints, procedures, proceedings; falsification, false records, tampering of evidence, data; harassment, intimidation (complainant, witnesses); false charges, citation, bond, imprisonment; disparities and improper treatments, etc.; abuse of laws, power, authorities. (3). Promote democracy, fair election, quality, competition, people input (policies, issues, officials, judges); televise public hearings, citizen/candidate forum/debate; maintain, disseminate meaningful accurate information, records, capability, reasoning, good sense of justice, public interest, endurance. Objective screening by meaningful rigorous examinations, evaluations for quality, capability, endurance and public interest.
* To capture extended serious problems of “MURDER-fraud- crime- injustice networks” with official misconduct- government gang, please incorporate the following: (A). complaints/ cases: administrative and judicial levels; (B) frequent testimonies before government bodies, official, legislators, law enforcement, committees, public hearings; local – federal; (C) spin-off complaints, improper processing of complaints, procedures, proceedings, accounting, bookkeeping, docketing, etc.; (D) Candidate statements, see Webs and archives. Urge to re-open and investigate Congress.org, DNet (by League of Women Voters), links, etc.; (E) complaints and reports to police, law enforcement, consumer affairs, other authorities/agencies against
“fraud- crime- injustice networks”; (F). Numerous TV programs on social issues (Dr. Lih Young: producer, host, speaker).
(G). Frequent recommendations/petitions to officials, agencies, law enforcement, local - federal; as individuals or with civic organizations. ** EXAMPLES OF PROBLEMS - “MURDER- FRAUD- CRIME- INJUSTICE NETWORKS”- with official misconduct, government gang- endless unlawful immoral acts:
(A): OPM, IRS, DHHS, SSA, DOJ, FBI, DOD, USDA, DOC, USCIS (US citizens/ neutralization services), custom services, various agencies, law enforcement; 3 branches, local – federal- global; National Park Service (Prettyman?), Library of Congress (Neil Gladd); many financial/brokerage/ accounting/ bill-payment processing/ collection institutions/agencies; insurance, car related businesses, utilities…, more; dealers Lakeforest Oldsmobile; phone/utilities/cable, judges, legal/court personnel, detective/ process server/ impersonators, with phony names, or would not provide names even in the court cases (Complainant could not get access to court files; could not even make copies); Leslie Gradet, Tamera Jones, William D Roessler; Offices of Treasury, Comptroller, Attorney Gneral: Joel Jacob/Jacobson, Gail Malle-Davis, Sylvia J. Brokos, Mary Hawse, Linda Tanton, Gerald Langbaum, John Barry, Pamela Porter, Leo F. Partridge, Mark Vulcan, Jamis Riley, James Britt, Audrey Thomas, Jeanne Lippy, Jesse Rosenburger, Ralph Lepson; transcribers Margaret Bauer, Senators: Walter Baker, Barbara Hoffman, Thomas Middleton, Trooper: Marty Sealey, Vincent Mass, State Election Board Ross Goldstein; Maryland DOEd Susan Page, Barbara Smith(?), SSA employees and supervisors (especially in Rockville, Md), and Bullivant (?, probably in N. J.; or other states). Lobbysts/ municipal attorneys/lawyers/affiliates, Paul Glasgow, David Venable, Joseph Stoltz, Jr., Barry Gordon, Stephen Perouka, David Steinberg, Wolpoff & Abramson, Richard D. Mirsky, Poppleton, Garrett & Polott, P.C., accountant Hilda K. Matijevic; Marc Sliffman (Silver Spring, Wheaton area), Samuel White and his law firm and lawyers Shawn Bartley, Daniel Pesachowitz, Laura Jolly (phony person, named as "substitute trustee", but can never be found or contacted even through official agencies); many court personnel and judges (District Court – Court of Special Appeals). Court Auditor Robert Romero. State, county health services organizations/ agencies, Department of Health and Human Services, Montgomery County Crisis Center, Jean Burgess (white, female), Marsha Aaron; Department of Aging; Adult Protective Services, Sherry Davis, Suzanne Lord (?), Odick Esq., Bonnie Klem, etc.; Suburban Hospital, physicians, emergency staff; social worker Jody Crecensi (?), case manager Patricia Grafferty (?), Robert Rothstein, M. D. (?), Tipp Woodward; Manor- Care in Potomac Maryland: Cheryl Paulson (?, administrator) and nurses, etc.; forensic services, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: Jolie Smith; numerous psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, etc.: Potomac Ridge Steven Israel, Collin, Gabriel (?); social worker Tracy Lewit; Springfield Hospital Center: forensic services, Kevin Knight, Dr. Valadez (refused to give full name, despite repeated requests); Carla Craville, Francoise Reynolds, Roxanne Heyman, Amy True; Judges James Sasfield, Gary Crawford, Cheryl McCally, etc., prosecutors/government attorneys, e.g., John McCarthy, Nunylny (?), Peter Mitchell (Montgomery County Office of Human Rights); District Court Commission (Rockville, Md) M. Dickerson; Court Personnel T.M. (only initials, no full name available); many judges, clerk of the courts (Jeffrey Ward, Loretta Knight, Bettie Skelton, Molly Rhul, etc.), other court personnel, various counties, states; local – federal; law enforcement, FBI; police e.g., in Rockville, Md. Sgt. Cowell (first name not available), C.P. Sadleson; officer Davis (MCPD); Denis Lewis (Baltimore County); sheriff: R. Lewis (Female,
White, Montgomery Countym Md.), K. Naff (white, male, Montgomery County, Md); fire and rescues (abuse, even no fire; conspiracy).
(B): The problems are interrelated horizontally and vertically, among all issues, local- global. Clerks of the Circuit Court (Montgomery County, Md.) Loretta Knight, Bettie Skelton, Molly Rhul; District Court Clerk Jeffrey Ward, Administrative Judge Cornelius Vaughey, Sheriff Elliot Tolbert, etc. government attorney John McCarthy, Kristen Bender, court personnel, attorneys (public, private), law enforcement (FBI, sheriff, police, fire/rescue, etc., contractors) are part of the “:fraud- crime- networks: with spying, surveillance, harassment, unlawful search, stealing, robbery, injuries; false arrest, imprisonment, citation, trespass, testimony; withholding witnesses; destroy information, documents, evidence, etc.
( C). False/ unjust/ frivolous levies, liens, garnishment, guardianship, power of attorneys, foreclosure, tenant-hold-over- eviction, etc. Thousands of cases are pending in the court systems for years or even decades; believed to be filed by “fraud- crime- networks” to victimize people; without due process, proper services, proceedings; cause homelessness, poverty; not because of the problems of homeowners/citizens, but because of unjust judicial/court/legal personnel, court auditor Robert Romero as part of “official misconduct- government gang- fraud- crime- injustice networks”. Judges (unjust, irresponsible, judicially disabled) include Warren Donohue, John Debelius, Durk Thumpson, Ann Harrington, Louise Scrivener, Lawrence De Beard, Eric Johnson, James McKenna; District Judge Gary Everngam, Judge Gary Crawford; court personnel/ sheriff, attorneys, affiliated law firms; Sheriffs Earnest Turner, R. Lewis, K. Naff, etc.
(E). Problems of privatization, irresponsibility, disabilities of government attorneys and judicial/legal/court personnel are very serious, expanding, local- nationwide- global; exporting injustice overseas; Rockville city, Montgomery County, Maryland state; New Jersey Monmouth County, Judge Robert McLeod (private attorney), Judge Patricia Bueno Cleary, Prosecutor (private attorney) Patrick Healy, police David D’Arcy.
(F) Other people committed, conspired with police and fraud- crime- networks: Private attorneys: Robert McCarthy (Bethesda, Md.), Olivia Cammack (Silver Spring, Md.), David Slacker (Bethesda Md.); Ria Rochvarg (assigned as legal assistance provider to certain counties by Md. Department of Health and Mental Highgiene, but she went around the state for various abuses with Sherry Davis, Police Davis, etc. attorneys (public and private), Timonthy Adelman, Esq., (?) and law firms Adelman, Sheff and Smith(?, in Annapolis, Md), Robert McCarthy, Suburban Hospital, etc. Landlord/ landladies e.g., Jiewen Tan (Rockville, Md.) and Chia Yao (Gaithersburg, Md.) had been unjustly influenced/ conspired.
(G). MURDER-FRAUD- CRIME- INJUSTICE NETWORKS inc. Montgomery County Council, Md, Nancy Floreen, Roger Berliner, Valerie Ervin; Sonya E. Healy, Esq. Legal counsel/Chief of staff (any relation to Patrick Healy, esq. in New Jersey??), Jackie Steward, council hearing coordinators/substitute; Md General Assembly, Jamie Raskin; U. S. Congress, Senate, legal staff; American U, administrative staff, security guard, students (4801 Massachusetts Ave., NW, DC); Catholic U; US Institute of Peace, conference organizers/ speakers.
(IV). See more files below:
AFFIDAVIT– Lih Y. Young, Ph.D., Complainant
FOR CONGRESSIONAL TRIBUNAL, NO FEAR INSTITUTE, 5/14/2008
Email: Lyoung2k@yahoo.com; Mailing address: P. O. Box 10286, Rockville, MD 20849
(1121 Pipestem Pl. Rockville/Potomac, MD 20854 , to reclaim, supposedly still homeowner.).
I like to SUPPORT NOFEAR legislative bills to help correct discrimination, torture mechanism and related “system problems”. Please work diligently to resolve social issues to safeguard equality, freedom, Constitutional rights,the essence of democracy, fair election and legislative processes. An effective way is to work on the problems I have identified, testified or produced in my TV programs. Complaints/Cases filed: since late 1970’s, as a Ph.D. economist, GS-12 and GS-13 in U.S. DHHS NCHSR Extramural research monitoring studies, grants and contracts with most projects and quality compared with other employees; one reviewer commended “the best research in years”. When detailed to Intramural potentially to be its director, I was very unjustly treated by incompetent but violent Rosanna Coffey and new agency director John Marshall with falsification and adverse actions. I applied other positions just to be rated “over-qualified” but not hired, even when jobs were re-classified and announced. Complainant independently found a GS-12 “program analyst” with OFA in DHHS, experienced also serious problems, and was terminated. Numerous “FORMAL complaints”, each with numerous complained issues were all filed timely, based on protective classes, e.g., race, color, national origin, reprisal, official misconduct, spin-off complaints (with improper processing of complaints, procedures and proceedings), and violations of rules, laws and constitutional rights; e.g., adverse actions, constructive discharge, denial of sick leaves and annual leaves; suspension; employer’s tampering, falsification of employment contract, annual and sick leave data; providing false data or no data for research, false records, testimonies, affidavits, denial of hearings). Most complaints and complained issues were unjustly manipulated and dismissed. I won a decade-long litigation against NCHSR high up to US Supreme Court (which cost a fortune), and an employer’s promise for reinstatement from very early on. But now decades later, there has been no proper resolution, remedies, reimbursement of legal costs, or reinstatement. Complainant and families have been continually being victimized. Identified problems were complained or filed with authorities or law enforcement on frauds, crimes, official misconduct, conspiracies, cover-up; depriving rights and resources (public, private); legal/judicial/court personnel, related occupations), EEOC, MSPB, DOJ, FBI, IRS, SSA, OPM, Comptroller Offices, Treasury Department, law enforcement (police, sheriff, security guard); other agencies, collection agencies, (public, private); financial institutions, businesses, communication, utilities; administrative and judicial levels, local- federal; improper accounting, bookkeeping, pleadings, docketing entries, trials, hearings; destruction or tampering of official records, computer data, files; candidate information, candidate’s issue statements on websites, e.g., DNet, Congress.org, Project Vote Smart, internet, communication, utilities, etc. Identified serious “official misconduct- government gang- fraud- crime- injustice networks operation= cruel tyranny= robbery machines= “super classes of crimes, parasites, welfares”= “Vaughey-Ward Social Epidemic”, “Ken Starr Syndrome” even before “Patriot Act”; causing poverty, homelessness, and serious social problems;
continuing, on-going; expanding here to overseas, penetrating every segment of our lives (inc. non-profit civic organizations, public access channels); with threats, coercion, retaliation; endless unjust unlawful, immoral acts, practices, schemes, manipulation, influence; falsification, deceit; false records, liens, levies, garnishment, foreclosure, eviction, peace-order, racial profiling, false charges, citations (traffic, municipal); hostage/ransom disguised by false contempt of orders, bond/bail; vandalism; deprivation, destruction or damage of properties, homes, vehicles, computers, files; spying, stalking, surveillance; abuse, waste; death threats, hate crimes, abduction, kidnap, assaults; burglary, car-theft, identity thefts, murders or attempts; injuries (personal, physical, traffic, substance); deprivation of rights (Constitutional, litigation, jury, fair trials hearings), resources (public, private; assets, reputation, credit rating; personal, civic, business, political, salaries, social program benefits (SSA, Medicare, etc.), pensions, health cares, etc.); obstruction/damage of activities, productivities, media information, TV programs production, airing etc.; destroy individuals, families, businesses, society, democracy, justice and peace.
Qualification and community services: candidate for US Congress, 2008; for US Senate, 2006; for public offices since 1994, local- federal. Reformer, advocate, activist; producer, host, speaker of numerous TV programs on social issues (e.g., Citizen Times, Freedom Times (both studio series); other programs on equality, freedom, judiciaries, federal agencies, working class, taxation, humanity, democracy, conscience, global affairs, Around Capital, etc.); profiled in Marquis” “Who’s Who in America”, and “Who’s Who in Business and Finance”; endorsed by a large women coalition for US Presidential appointee; participated in White House Conference of Small Business. Spouse: Kan, Ph.D. Columbia U; two children: Albert, Ph.D. MIT; double majors in Physics & math in 3 years; Janice, MA, MIT; two children skipped altogether 5 years, inc. college. I testified frequently before government bodies, officials, legislators, public hearings, law enforcement, 3 branches, local- federal, on a wide variety of issues; worked to restore accountability, fairness, justice, peace, moral and ethical values. Urged to base on merits (objective measures, not rhetoric recommendation), priority, principle, justice, cost-effectiveness, social needs and to promote true freedom, democracy. Served in Executive Committees, steering committees, lobbyists, volunteers: diverse civic organizations; local- national; ACLU, NAACP, NWPC, LWV, Common Cause, Public Citizen, NOW, etc. # # #
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150302_ly_nofear_cong_affidavit_0805143r_Fontsize8
Date: April 5, 2015
TO: Ford’s theatre, Washington, DC (www.fords.org)
18th Annual symposium of the Abraham Lincoln Institute
FROM: LIH YOUNG, Ph. D.
P. O. Box 10286, Rockville, MD 20849
Email address: lyly2kj@gmail.com
(NOTE: Previous email account lyoung2k@yahoo.com has been unjustly obstructed, closed and/or denied access by “MURDER-FRAUD-CRIME-INJUSTICE NETWORKS”, like other social media, internet, computer, as complained.)
SUBJECT: COMPLAINT; unlawful, unequal discriminatory acts; unjust practices;
related “Murder-Fraud- Crime- Injustice Networks” operation
COMPLAINT AGAINST:
Ford’s theatre
18th Annual symposium of the Abraham Lincoln Institute (Free event, 3/21/2015, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm);
Registration desk,
Ticket/sale office
Moderator: Female, white complexion, greyish bushy hair (time: 4:00 – 4:30 pm)
COMPLAINT- GENERAL COMPLAINED ISSUES:
Please incorporate other complaints, testimonies, public hearings; before government bodies, law enforcement, local- federal. For more COMPLAINED ISSUES, PROBLEMS, FACTS. E.g., See attachments.
"MURDER- FRAUD- CRIME- INJUSTICE- NETWORKS- OPERATION"= "robbery machine"= "super-class of tyranny-parasites-welfare" (private- public sectors, three branches, local- federal- global, including law enforcement, agencies, institutions, educational, churches, non-profit, think tanks); CONTINUING, ON-GOING, EXPANDING, INFILTRATING, RELAYING; WITH THREATS, COERSION; unjust/unlawful/ unconstitutional acts; conspiracies, committed, involved, covered-up, suppressed unlawful acts, schemes, scams, spying, obstruction, manipulation, monitoring, influence to benefit themselves at the expanse of complainants/general public; victimization, discrimination, injuries, defamation; deprivation of rights (constitution, legal/litigation, due process, speech, affiliation/ association, possession, living places, etc.), resources (private, public), freedom of all forms; denied/ obstruct complainant/citizens to speak, complain, communicate; abuse/misuse of
authorities; laws, personnel, resources, contractors; ignore/failure to resolve problems; unjust legislation, appropriation, public debt; social- political- media- election- legislation- appropriation- system problems; destroy individuals, families, children, communities, society, justice, peace; unjust/abuse of laws, authorities; abduction, guardianship, power of attorney, attempts to deprive the rights of wife and families, properties, benefits (life insurances, health insurances, pension), assets, vehicles, homes, etc.
One of my major concerned: regarding how the information presenters obtained from the records, archives, friends or families; how the records have been verified; whether those information is true or false; whether falsely created, tampered; as often by “MURDER-FRAUD-CRIME-INJUSTICE NETWORKS” operation; while silenced peopled down, as the moderator did.
Such unequal treatment is sure unpleasant, unequal and discriminatory. Worse, it simply silence people down; avoid finding about the “truth”. And thus warrant a thorough investigation.
SPECIFIC ISSUES - INCIDENCES:
ON 3/21/2015, Complaint arrived at the Ford’s Theatre around 9:00 am for the Lincoln symposium; inquired the registration desk (a female) about the admission/ticket for the whole event/all sessions for the day. Complainant was directed to get ticket at the ticket office, a short distance away. A male there gave me several tickets for separate sessions for different segments of time.
The complainant went to the line for the symposium, but was not allowed to get in.. I was told to wait until 10:25 am; quite a long time to wait.
Complainant waited. But soon found some other people were allowed to get in. Complainant wanted to get in, but was then told to get the ticket from the registration desk where I was denied ticket before.
That female asked me to sign-in with personal information. They did not seem to ask other people; did not ask me before. Ticket office did not ask before.
Besides, I was asked to put the FIRST NAME in large print in the center of a badge label, and put it on the cloth I was wearing.
Then complainant was given a WHOLE DAY ticket; and asked to return all the tickets I had had for separate sessions.
Later that afternoon on 4:00 pm – 4:30 pm there was a session “Speakers Panel”, featuring the presenters responding to questions from the audience. The moderator knew me on the line to ask question, but cut off the questioning right in front of me. The time was about 4:24 pm.
Even after the presentation of the book award and remark, the WHOLE symposium adjourned on around 4:27 pm, ahead of scheduled time
Attachments
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ly_fords-theatre_lincoln-symposium_complaint1_1504051
1
June 17, 2010
CALL TO ACTION
CALL FOR INVESTIGATION
COMPLAINT:
Social justice in great danger; unjust arrest, detention, medication, torture, injury.
COMPLAINANT:
Lih Ying Young, Ph. D.
Mailing address: P.O. Box 10286, Rockville, MD 20849
Registered address: 11221 Pipestem Pl. Rockville, MD 20854
(Reclaiming homeownership; home was robbed away by “MURDER- fraud- c rime- injustice network”. For more detail, see other complaints.)
COMPLAINED ISSUES – PROBLEMS AND FACTS:
Actually now I am still recuperating from the harm that I have suffered from false arrests, detention; forced hospitalization and medication and various unjust practices, deprivation, victimization by “MURDER- FRAUD- CRIME- INJUSTIC NETWORKS”, e.g., false foreclosures, guardianship, evictions, etc. For more detail, see various complaints at administrative and judicial levels. Hopefully, based on the complained issues and problems I had identified, testified or presented to the officials, city hall, presented in candidate statements, or .the problems raised in the TV programs (concerning domestic and global affairs) produced by the complainant (Lih Young Ph.. D.) Further the media was unjustly influenced by them, including public access channels, e.g., Montgomery Community Television (Montgomery County, Maryland) and Fairfax Public Access (Fairfax, Virginia). Staff or Directors of the Boards of the public access channels have used variety of unjust methods, false excuses and unjust statements to obstruct complainant from production and airing of TV programs; deny complainant memberships and other opportunities; damage complainant’s reputation by false advertisement and other adverse actions, e.g., suspension for two years, and further two years of probation; threat of arrests if enter the building, etc., while MCT and FPA staff and board directors violate the laws, regulations and even their own rules.
Despite I have been mentally and physically strong and healthy; successfully raised my families; actively participated in civic activities; resided in the same location for decades; and have run for public offices since 1994, including U. S. Congress, U. S. Senate and Maryland State-wide Comptroller, Maryland state senate, Rockville city Mayor/ Council. I have successfully attained my educational goal of Ph. D. in economics. My two children with two years early graduation from high schools; son, double majors in math and physics in three years; champions in state-wide mathematics (N.J. and Md); both children, graduates of MIT; one Ph. D., one MA.
November 3, 2010, I was falsely arrested by Rockville City Police, because I wanted to register to vote, but was denied. Rockville city police and related “Murder- fraud- crime- injustice networks” had denied complainant to testify, enter public places even before we were evicted; now denied the complainant to vote, or even just to give registration form to fill. They had removed complainant’s name from voter list; as they have unlawfully robbed our home, rights, properties, assets, accounts, cars, etc; with threat, coercion, harassment, intimidation, death threat, burglary, fraudulent sales of cars, theft, identity theft, injuries, victimization, retaliation; false guardianship, power of attorney, false arrests, forced medication, injury, etc. (see separate complaint with subject on: health services, “MURDER- fraud- crime- injustice networks”); evicted us from our own home (with homeownership for decades, see separate complaint with subject on false foreclosure and related fraud- crime- injustice networks); and later evicted us from two renting places with brutality and unjust practices; without faults on our parts. Their patterns of unjust practices, conspiracies, false excuses, statements, documents, etc., are continuing, on-going, penetrating every segment of our lives; expanding here to overseas; very cruel, tyrannical; lack of ethical immoral values; denial or deprivation of people’s income, social program benefits (disabilities retirement, SSI, Widow’s); cause financial hardship; foreclosure or false foreclosure, bribery to homeowners’ lawyers (with foreclosure proceeds by the court auditors- private attorneys, e.g., Robert Romero); false eviction, exile; denied complainant to choose where to live; to have freedom of speech; to testify before government bodies; to affiliate with organizations; to participate in civic and community activities; to ruin complainant’s identification, citizenship and social security status; denied voting and democratic process; deprive of all rights and protection under the U.S. Constitution, laws and regulations (state and local). It is like under dictatorship in foreign country, causing exiles, refugees, disasters and suffering, while refusing them to vote or elect their leadership. It is like labeling immigrants illegal or undocumented while depriving their status and denying their opportunities. destroy individuals, families, society, democracy, justice, peace; create ROBBER- ISM while destroy essences of capitalism; cause serious socio- political- media- budget- legislative- judicial problems; local- federal- overseas, 3 branches; public and private sectors.
Since 11/3/2009 arrest, I was continually handcuffed, detained and later with forced medication for nearly six month till April 21, 2010; in MCDC (Montgomery County Detention Center in both Seven Lock Road and Clarksburg) and in SFHC. On 11/3/2009, I was falsely charged with not obeying police’s order to leave, with disorder and noise. It was false and unjustified Even in that class of crime if convicted at all, the maximum penalty is 60 days or $500. But District Commissioner M. Dickerson (female, white complexion) imposed an outrageous bond of $5,000; and other unjust rulings. After biased, prejudiced decision and conspiracies among Judges Cheryl McCally, Gary Crawford, court personnel and related “fraud- crime- injustice networks”, complainant was continued to be handcuffed and detained. Judge Gary Crawford also handled TWO previous unjust eviction cases against complainant and family; in one case he was presided with Judge Gary Everngam, i.e., two judges in the same court room for the same case(s); another case involved that fraud- crime- networks who conspired to have landlady using various unjust schemes, to brutalize and injure complainant and family; and the court and their divisions refused to take pleading or complaint/ counter-claim from the complainant. For a long time, court personnel have shown to be biased, prejudiced and unjustly manipulated the court cases, with serious improper processing of complaint, processing and proceeding, docketing and bookkeeping.
On January 5, 2010 (i.e., 63 days after arrest), the prosecutor Nunlny and Judge James Sasfield conspired to continue to detain the complainant with false excuse of cold weather. Although eventually they dropped the charge on January 12, 2010, i.e., after 70 days of imprisonment - more than maximum of penalty 60 days, the complainant was not released; and was not free to go. Complainant was handcuffed and then transported back to SFHC for further detention with their conspiracies to have FORCED MEDICATION and thus torture and injury on complainant. Complainant STRONGLY OPPOSED.
For the first three months since I was detained, I was still physically healthy and strong, without medication; without problems physically. I actively participated in various activities. SFHC had planned to released me on January 5, 2010, as SFHC anticipated that it had been 63 days of detention, i.e., beyond maximum penalty of 60 days). But SFHC and related fraud- crime- networks designed a secret attempt to FORCED
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MEDICATION and injury against complainant. Judge James Sasfield and prosecutor Nunlny (?) refused to release complainant, even on January 12, 2010 (70 days of detention); and placed me under “fraud- crime- injustice networks” for unjust arbitrary disposal and conspiracies among unethical health professional in SFHC and related “murder- fraud- crime- injustice networks; including forensic services; Jolie Smith (DHMH), Kevin Knight (SFHC); psychologists, Francoise Reynolds and Carla Carvell; psychiatrists (Dr. Valadez who refused to give full name), social workers, clinical review panels, Office of Administrative Hearing, judicial/ court personnel, etc.), Md.DHMH (Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygine), and legal assistance provider Ria Rochvarg, who involved in false guardianship, power of attorney, and “MURDER- fraud- crime- injustice networks” as complained previously. Such REPEATED false arrests with false excuses (i.e., disorder, noise, disobey orders), unjust detention in MCDC and hospital or mental facilities with forced medication are patterns of unjust practices with serious false excuses, cruelty, unlawful and tyrannical acts against innocent citizens. Such fraud- crime- injustice networks should be thoroughly investigated, prosecuted and punished.
Thus complainant was continued to be detained and forced to be medicated with adverse impacts on my health, brain, tongue and other physically capabilities. As a result, I was like a mental retarded. There were false diagnoses with forced unjust harmful medication in Springfield Hospital Center (SFHC) Sykesville, MD. The forced medication harm complainant mentally and physically; damage brain, speech and other physical capabilities. Such unjust immoral and unlawful injuries are extremely forms of TORETURE. This torture and cruelty are against humanity and justice system. It could be worse. I could be dead. There had been one young cheerful detainee dead in about a month since I had been detained in the same unit of SFHC there. It sounds scary.
Despite I mentioned the adverse impact, professional at SFHC refused to stop the medication except for a short one- week; then continue the medication, except the dosages were reduced slightly, but the adverse impact continued. This is an abuse, waste and counter- productive by the health services workers, professional (especially psychologists, psychiatrists, forensics services, and other workers) and judicial court personnel, as part of “murder- fraud- crime- injustice networks” operation, unjust manipulation and influence. Often, health care facilities are not for health care. It is basically a prison complex to detain and torture good citizens who might be falsely arrested at the wrong time in the wronging place; and those who oppose “official wrongdoing, conspiracies, corruption, etc.” Thus unethical workers chosen to work there against those “anti-conspiracies” and “fighting corruption”. Health facilities gain profits tremendously- by charging to patients and receiving support from public fund and corruptive officials.
For more detail of unjust practices, etc., see complaints filed with the courts, SFHC, DHMH, and Official of Civil Rights, Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Unfortunately, these agencies do not work properly and have failed to resolve problems. “Other agencies” are usually related to “MURDER- fraud- crime- injustice networks” (public, private, 3 branches, local- federal, law enforcement, police, sheriff, fire and rescue). They are interrelated, and should be investigated and prosecuted thoroughly. # # # #
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1009113_Media- Murder-fraud-crime-injustice networks
COMPLAINED AGAINST MURDER-FRAUD- CRIME- INJUSTICE NETWORKS”
(continuing expanding; based on recent incidences -):
Montgomery County Government
Montgomery County Council, especially
Nancy Floreen
Roger Berliner
Valerie Ervin
Sonya E. Healy, Esq. Legal counsel/Chief of staff
(Check relation to Patrick Healy, esq. in New Jersey)
Jackie Steward
Public hearing coordinators/ substitute
Susan Kennedy, TV televise coordinator, controlling microphone
Montgomery County Police Department
Rockville City Police Department
Sgt. Cowell,
Sadleton,
More….
Maryland General Assembly
Jamie Raskin,
Montgomery County Delegation, especially
U. S. Congress, Senate and House of Representatives,
Legal Staff, especially Sen. Durbin Office,
Unjust/ misleading legislative bills, despite being opposed strongly.
Complainants tried to communicate with officials/ staffs, but were obstructed, ignored.
American University, Washington, D. C., especially
Staff/ students, administrative offices (4801 Massachusetts Ave., N. W.)
Catholic University of America, Washington, D. C.
Security guard
Student
United States Institute of Peace
Conference/symposium organizers/ speakers
OMPLAINT- GENERAL COMPLAINED ISSUES:
Please incorporate other complaints, testimonies, public hearings before government bodies, law enforcement, local- federal; for more COMPLAINED ISSUES, PROBLEMS, FACTS.
"MURDER- FRAUD- CRIME- INJUSTICE- NETWORKS- OPERATION"= "robbery machine"= "super-class of tyranny-parasites-welfare" (private- public sectors, three branches, local- federal- global, including law enforcement, agencies, institutions, educational, non-profit organizations); CONTINUING, ON-GOING, EXPANDING, INFILTRATING, RELAYING; WITH THREATS, COERSION, UNLAWFUL/ UNCONSTITUTION, conspiracies, committed, involved, covered-up, suppressed unjust/unlawful/unjust acts, schemes, scams, manipulation,
monitoring, influence to benefit themselves at the expanse of complainants/general public; victimization, discrimination, injuries, defamation; deprivation of rights (constitution, legal/litigation, due process, speech, affiliation/ association, possession, living places, etc.), resources (private, public), freedom of all forms; denied/ obstruct complainant/citizens to speak, complain, communicate; abuse/misuse of authorities., laws, personnel, resources, contractors; ignore/failure to resolve problems; unjust legislation, appropriation, public debt; social- political- media- election- legislation- appropriation- system problems; destroy individuals, families, children, communities, society, justice, peace; Unjust/abuse of laws, authorities; abduction, guardianship, power of attorney, attempts to deprive the rights of wife and families, properties, benefits (life insurances, health insurances, pension), assets, vehicles, homes, etc.
Government agencies did not resolve complained issues against the fraud- crime- injustice networks which deprive, destroy, damage our assets(home, properties, reputation, cars, documents, belongings etc.; injure damage bodily, physically, mentally; endless unjust practices, e.g., false foreclosure, evictions,(from home that we owned and renting places with no fault of our own, no default payment); causing poverty, homelessness; obstruct, destruct activities, liberty, freedom (individual, family, business, civic, political, community services; freedom of speech, communication, association, etc.).
MEDIA and MURDER- FRAUD- CRIME- INJUSTICE NETWORKS including public access channels, e.g., MCT/ Access Montgomery (Montgomery Community Television, Montgomery Co. Md.) and FPA (Fairfax Public Access, Fairfax Co., Va.): continuing on-going, repetitive, “relay methods” unjust patterns, practices; threat, coercion, censoring, spying, surveillance; obstruction of activities, projects; deprivation of Constitutional rights, laws, regulations (local, state, federal) and MCT or FPA public access own rules; BOD management, staff and volunteers: biased, prejudiced, conspired, committed endless unlawful, immoral acts; or change their arbitrary rules to victimize good members/ citizens/complainant, advocate or political candidate; serious obstruction/ destruction/ deprivation on TV production and/or Radio Production, training, certification, use of facilities, equipment, membership, etc.; uses false information, create false excuses and implicit unjust penalties against the complainant; disregarded complaints/grievances and requests; create FALSE information, maintain FALSE record; complainant was excluded from events, and HOMETOWN Video or film festival. Regarding the candidate taping and airing for upcoming election for MCT/ Access Montgomery: (a). We have not be informed; (b).On or about 8/3/2010, I have tried several times and did contact by phone to several staff in MCT/ Access Montgomery (Montgomery Community Television), including the following, but we still have not received any response to have an opportunity for candidate taping, Executive Director, Merlyn Reineke; Larry Merewitz Whom Reineke told me is responsi ble for the candidate taping; 301-424-1730x311; G. Gadarawsji (?), 301-424-1730x349. No email address of officials, Members of the Board of Directors and staff, except web-tech contact, web@mct-tv.org. On 8/23/2010, Dr. Lih Young sent email to web@mct-tv.org regarding the problems, and asked him/her to send my email to: officials, Members of the Board of Directors, and staff, and ask each of them to respond. But the Lih Young still has not received any response. # # #
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1503021_110529_ly_officials_council_media_MurderFraudCrimeInjusticeNetowrk_size8
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Date: September 28, 2008
COMPLAINT/ GRIEVANCE PART 3 (dated 9/28/2008) with
REQUEST FOR THOROUGH INVESTIGATION, OPEN HEARING
REQUEST FOR ELECTRONIC VIDEO RECORDING/TAPING
To be incorporated with:
Complaint/grievance PARTS 1 and 2 (previously the words “Par 1” and “Part 2”had been omitted, not been assigned);
Part 1 being the Complaints/grievance dated March 26. 2008 delivered/ presented at the end of March 26, 2008 FPA Board of Directors (BOD) meeting (totally 20 pages; main text 16 pages, plus Table 1, 4 pages; previously omit words “Part 1”; addressed to each of All FPA BOD members and Executive Director. Chairwoman Georgia Graves reluctantly accepted the complaint on behalf of the FPA. Complainant asked her to give a copy to each of the BOD member and Executive Director.
Part 2 being the Complaints/grievance: dated August 13, 2008 (one page); delivered together with Complaint/Grievance Part 1 to each of BOD members who were present at the August 27, 2008 FPA BOD meeting; additional copies for Jim Housel (VP of BOD for Internal Affairs); one copy when he arrived late, one copy left with equipment room, and one copy by certified mail.
TO: FPA (Fairfax Public Access),
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Chairman, Georgia Graves
VP Jim Housel, Director of the Internal Affairs
Each of All members of the Board
Executive Director Chuck Pena
Address: 2929 Eskridge Rd. (Suite S), Fairfax, VA 22031
Phone: 571-749-1100,
email: askfpa@faca.org
Complainant: Lih Y. Young, Ph. D.
Member, Producer, FPA
1121 Pipestem Pl. Potomac/Rockville, MD 20854
(To reclaim, supposedly still homeowners)
Mailing address: P. O. BOX 10286, Rockville, MD 20849
Email address: lyoung2k@yahoo.com
COMPLAINED AGAINST:
(Some may be unjustly misled, misguided, influenced):
Fairfax Public Access (FPA)
Board of Directors;
especially Georgia Graves, Chairman
Jim Housel, VP, Director for Internal Affaires
Bob Giarrusso, Director of Membership
Management/ Administration
Training Department
Radio Production Class
Instructor David McAlary
AND
Related “OFFICIAL MISCONDUCT- GOVERNMENT GANG- FRAUD- CRIME- INJUSTICE NETWORKS” operation; unjust practices, schemes, endless unlawful immoral acts, frauds and crimes.
REMEDIES:
1. See Complaint/grievance PARTS 1 and 2; especially Part 1 Remedies I to XIII.
2. It should be closely examined that ALL Episodes of FREEDOM TIMES have actually be aired and aired TIMELY AND REPEATEDLY.
3. Disqualified the complained officers or staff from the FPA BOD, management or even members.
4. Prosecute/eliminate unlawful, immoral acts opposite to FPA missions, consumer protection, U.S. Constitution, laws, rules.
COMPLAINED ISSUES (divided into General and Specific Issues):
(I). Incorporate with complained issues raised previously:
(1). Complaint/Grievance Parts 1 and 2, Sections on General and Specific issues; More issues on TV production, Radio Production, use of facilities or equipment, management and membership, etc. are provided in separate sections.
(2). Additional complained issues raised:
(A) To the FPA Board of Directors and FPA members at the 9/16/2007 Annual Meeting,; especially concerning discriminatory and abuse against complainant’s use the facilities, member previledges, and Hometown festival participation, etc.
(B) Separate issues and facts to the Executive Director Chuck Pena,
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(C) Separate issues and facts discussed in 3/15/2008 meeting with:
(a). Jim Housel, FPA Board of Director VP of Internal Affairs
(b). Chuck Pena, FPA Executive Director
(D) FPA staff (Management, equipment, training, membership, etc.).
(II). GENERAL COMPLAINED ISSUES
(1). See Complaint/ Grievance Parts 1 and 2. Specific issues presented in separate section below applies to general issues; interrelated; TV production, Radio production, use of facilities, management or communication, etc. More issues on TV production, Radio Production, use of facilities or equipment, management and membership, etc. are provided in separate sections.
(2). Continuing on-going, repetitive, “relay methods” unjust patterns, practices with threat, coercion, censoring, spying, surveillance, obstruction of activities, press, or projects, deprivation of Constitutional rights, laws, regulations (local, state, federal) and PUBLIC ACCESS CHANNELS e.g., FPA own rules; endless unlawful, immoral acts; including membership etc.
(3). Some FPA BOD management, staff and volunteers are biased, prejudiced against good citizen, advocate or good candidate like complainant; and do favors for bad citizens or “official misconduct- government gang- fraud- crime- injustice networks”.
(4). FPA uses false excuses or without justification to deprive of complainants’ rights, equal protection and justice under the U. S. Constitution, state laws, rules and regulation.
(5). Some FPA management, staff and volunteers even violate its own rules.
(6). Some FPA management, staff and volunteers use falsification, false excuses, maintenance of different member lists for unjust practices; as to deprive the member’s rights, airing of the TV programs produced by the complainants; or even denied memberships and privileges, or failed to notify or allow the complainants to participate certain events.
(7). FPA has unjustly manipulated to fail to allow complainant for events, parties, e.g., Hometown Video Festival, competition/ contests, etc.
(8). FPA has obstructed complainants for activities, use of FPA facilities; TV production of “FREEDOM TIMES” and Radio production ‘LIBERTY EXPRESS WITH DR. LIH YOUNG” as submitted.
(9). FPA has damaged complainants’ reputation, resources, credit; and potential career.
(10). FPA uses false information, create false excuses and implicit unjust penalties against the complainant.
(11). FPA has not taken proper actions or resolution, including procedures, investigation, or hearings, despite complainant has repetitively complained for various problems, and those issues presented previous
(A). at the FPA 2007 ANNUAL BOARD MEETING (9/18/2007).
(B). in Complaint/ Grievance Part 1 and 2.
(C). Communication or meetings (orally, over the phone, emails, regular mails etc.) with BOD members, especially BOD Chairman Georgia Graves, Jim Housel, Bob Giarrusso
(D). Communication or meetings (orally, over the phone, emails, regular mails etc.) with Executive Director Chuck Pena
(E). FPA membership, staff
(F) FPA volunteers.
(12). FPA maintained different membership list; implicitly denied the complainant’s membership, rights, participation of activities, events, e.g., Hometown Video Festival, etc. unfair use of facilities or equipment without justification.
FPA works to benefit and facilitate “official misconduct -government gang- fraud- crime- injustice networks” operation at the expense of public interest, social needs, justice, peace and democracy; cause serious “socio-political-media-election-budget problems”.
(13). FPA unjust manipulation and arbitrary procedures against complainant Lih Young. FPA arbitrary, unjust practices, unlawful acts against complainant, violate U. S. constitution, laws, rules and regulations, including FPA own policies and missions; obstruct complainant’s activities, membership, rights, privileges; tampering complainant’s TV programs, airing; failed to air complainant’s TV programs, or failed to present complainant’s TV programs in proper manner; use of facilities, edit facilities, equipment; wiretapping, bugging; internet, computer bugs, etc.
(14). FPA conspired with “official misconduct- government gang- fraud- crime- injustice networks”; implicit denial to allow to produce TV program; failed to air or display properly complainant’s programs; obstruct or failed to provide proper equipment for production; conspiracies to obstruct complainant’s training, equipment uses or certification.
(15). Unjust manipulation, influence, obstruction of the production of Freedom Times and other programs as well as the adverse impacts on FPA missions, democracy and the society
(III). SPECIFIC COMPLAINED ISSUES:
(1). There have been abundant unjust practices, manipulation and influences at the FPA against the complainant. ). FPA has practiced unjust schemes, and violated its own rules in denying complainant’s rights.
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(2). FPA have disregarded complaints/grievances and requests previously delivered i.e., Parts 1 and 2. Part 1 delivered on 3/26/2008 and 8/27/2008, Part 2 delivered on 8/27/2008.
(3). FPA has been violated complainant’s rights as a member, despite complainant has paid all fees on time, and maintain good standing at all times, since joined FPA.
(4). FPA has practiced discrimination, abuse, unjust practices, and violated FPA’s own rules in denying complainant’s requests, even put in writing in detail.
(A). to speak:
(a). at the BOD meetings
(b). at the Annual Meetings.
(B). to put in the meeting agenda for complainant to speak
(a). at the BOD meetings
(b). at the Annual Meetings.
(5). On the even of FPA BOD meeting, FPA BOD chairwomen Georgia Graves repetitively abused her power, violated FPA rules, and wanted to stop complainant’s right to speak at the BOD meeting, by simply saying she wanted to speak with the complainant in private, which complainant disagreed..
(6). On 3/26/2008, complainant thought the opportunity to speak at the Board after a meeting
For complainant to speak at the BOD meeting, or put in speaking agenda, FPA has discriminated and repeatedly violated its own rules or common sense, and even changed its own rules, procedures or requirement; including the requirement that the complainant to meet with Executive Director Chuck Pena and Jim Housel, the VP of BOD for Internal Affairs before complainant can speak at the BOD.
(7). The meeting scheduled to meet with Executive Director Chuck and Jim Housel, the VP of BOD for Internal Affairs was repeated rescheduled, sometimes against common sense, and eventually we met and discussed problems on Saturday 3/15/2008.
(8). 3/15/2008 meeting with Executive Director Chuck Pena and Jim Housel VP of BOD for Internal Affairs biased, unjustly and unfairly conducted although it should help them to understand some of the complained issues.
(9). On 3/15/2008, the meeting with Executive Director Chuck Pena and Jim Housel VP of BOD only discussed part of the complained issues. Jim Housel left the meeting first. He asked the complainant to put in writing for the BOD. Complainant did and delivered to the BOD on 3/26/2008.
(10). On 3/26, 2008, complainant thought FPA had put in the BOD agenda allowing complainant to speak before the BOD. But through the whole meeting, no one speak up or suggest the complainant can speak before they motioned to adjourn, Complainant raised to object the meeting procedures. Complainant said that the Executive Director Chuck Pena had said I can speak at the BOD after complainant meet with the Jim Housel, the VP of the BOD for Internal Affairs, which complainant did.
(11). Complainant asked to FPA BOD to listen just a short moment, not even a fraction of the requested 30 minutes, and that complainant liked to delivered complaint/ grievance (Part 1), and explained the problems especially related to the Radio Production Class, its test and grading system for them to comprehend the problems at the FPA and related problems.
(12). At the end of BOD meeting on 3/26/2008, FPA BOD chairwoman Georgia Graves, conspired with other BOD members, especially two female ones, denied complainant to speak, or even refused to accept complaints/grievance. Although they eventually reluctantly accepted the complaint/grievance, and would review the complaint before a meeting with the complainant was to be made.
(13). But nothing happened on the part of FPA regarding the BOD review of complaint/grievance. Every time, the complainant requested a speaking agenda, FPA abuse its power to deny, with a unjust reason for meeting, when they have failed to review the complaint for such a long time.
(14). Actually, FPA BOD and Executive Director not only deny complainant to speak, they have actually TOTALLY disregarded complaint and requests.
(15). FPA create FALSE information, maintain FALSE record.
(16). FPA Executive Director Chuck Pena stated that BOD chairwoman Georgia Graves had not had the complaint.
(17). FPA has failed to send the rules and procedures regarding the complaint and speaking agenda, despite complainant’s repeated requested, orally in person, over the phone and email.
(18). On 3/26/2008, Chairwoman and two female BoD members denied complainant to speak or even just deliver the complaint/grievance at the BOD meetings by IMPROPERLY CITING “certain procedures to follow,” despite complainant had followed every rules.
(19). FPA staff and BOD violated the rules, and denied equal treatment and complainant’s rights.
(20). Besides, FPA BOD and Executive Director have failed to provided the FPA procedures governing the processing of complaint/ grievance and speaking agenda, despite complainant’s repeated requests.
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(21). FPA has been using arbitrary schemes to deny complainant’s request to speak at the BOD meetings, since the REPETITIVE requests were made since before December 2007 and in writing.
(22). FPA BOD Chairwoman Georgia Graves has been ABUSE OF HER POWER, deny complainant’s rights to file grievance, to speak at the BOD meeting, etc.
(23). On 3/26/2008, FPA BOD Chairwoman Georgia Graves said to the complainant: “If you do not like it here (FPA), go find somewhere else that you find more comfortable with.”
(24). On the complaint/grievance, there have been lack of fair treatment, investigation, and no investigative report available on complained issues.
(25). But occasionally, there were some FALSE RECORD popping up. Complainant disagree with those, and asked staff or Executive Director Chuck Pena for correction.
(26). FPA not only has failed to correct problems, Staff the BOD have even create false information and maintain false records, forded documents, e.g., emails, etc.
(27). Regarding live show, TV or Radio, complainant requested repeatedly according to instructed procedures and certification or class requirement.
(28). The possibility of the LIVE show for FREEDOM TIMES as requested by the producer some time ago appeared to be UNJUSTLY influenced and appeared to go down the drain; by different unjust reasons. At the time of last annual meeting September 18, 2007, Programming Department Jamie Plesko told the complaint to submitted three more episodes. But when complainant did three more, and another three more, nothing happened. The live show was still denied. Then complainant was told to submit a different application form, which FPA staff did not agree, and Jamie Plesko finally took it back. At time, Steve Russel was there, I asked Plesko to have him to clarify, but Steve ussel and Jamie Plesko seemed to be in dilemma to do things fairly for complainant.
(29). FPA has failed to grant the producer Lih Young for LIVE SHOWS, as requested repetitively:
(A) TV program or
(B). RADIO programs as requested.
(30). Jamie Plesko refused to give updated air schedules. It seemed that there have been no airing or adequate airing since at least September 2007, at least not on regularly scheduled air slots, e.g., first Wednesday (3 pm), Thirsday (10 am) and Fourth Wednesday and Thursday;
(31). The reliability, availability, equity of the production and airing of TV program should be examined. Jamie Plesko of Programming Department at FPA said she would no longer make the airing schedules available, when the producer requested. In the previous list, it appears that the FPA has already cut down if not totally cut off the airing of the TV program “FREEDOM TIMES”. In the previous schedules, there appeared also to have some inconsistency with respect to airing schedules, TRT, etc. This happens for other Episodes too, although for Episode #14, the problems seem to be plenty
(32). FPA had failed not to air WEEKLY, AS THIS SERIES SUPPOSED TO BE for “FREEDOM TIMES”. Although eventually it seemed to air weekly, but the airing might not be TIMELY according to the submission.
(33). The request for prime time air schedule has also be ignored. FPA has been using “seniority” and “newcomers’ priorities” inconsistently or contradictorily against complainant, and to deny the member privileges of this producer.
(34). FPA has exclude the complainant in its proper lists.
FPA has placed the complainant in its “black list”, not allowed equal treatment as other members.
(35). With FALSE ACCOUNTING, unjust practices and manipulation, FPA has placed complainant in “non-members category” for a long time. Occasionally, some unjust “behind payment” or “delaying payment popping up. Despite complaint at the last annual meeting, September 18, 2007, FPA did not make correction. Complainant was repeatedly asked to pay fees or annual dues, despite complainant had done so and objected. Eventually, FPA staff Jay agreed that Complainant has paid all dues since first joined FPA. FPA did not act in good faith. It took complainant extra effort to oppose FPA’s wrongdoing.
(36). There appeared to be unjust practices and schemes against complainant. FPA has maintained improper member lists. Complainant was mailed sometimes repeatedly with the same content, e.g., rescheduling of meeting, or fundraising; but not related to concerned issues.
(37). Complainant was excluded in FPA member lists, when regarding to other purposes, e.g., HOMETOWN Video or film festival.
(38). FPA has hurt the freedom of speech, equal opportunities, democracy, justice and peace. Complainant has been excluded from participation in HOMETOWN video festival, media exposure. FPA has obstructed complainant’s career opportunity. Society has been obstructed from true reporting and true essence of democracy.
(39). It is false statement that the article by Executive Chuck Pena in FPA newsletter (December 2007) stated that mailed regarding HOMETOWN video or film festival or survey has been sent to every member of FPA. Complainant has not received one. Complainant discovered this much later.
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(40). FPA excluded this complainant from participating important events e.g., HOMETOWN VEDIO/FILMING FESTIVALS, etc.
(41). FPA has maintained arbitrary improper, irregular and inconsistent payment methods, accounting records, and demands for duplicate payments or with improper behind payments to damage the reputation and progress of the producer.
(42). Complainant has been harassed, intimidated in FPA, because arbitrary restriction on the use of facilities, including editing and dubbing, and obstruction and destruction of the progress against this producer. Such unjust practices are parts of “fraud- crime- injustice networks” operation, conspiracies, cover-up, suppression, influence, manipulation and monitoring. These should be thoroughly investigated. Equipment in edit/dub facilities and in Control room may be bugged.
(43). The instructor of “Basic Edit Class” Francine Davis would like to help the use of CG. Francine Davis said she did not show up, because she had long meetings with FPA Training Director Meena Gupta, etc.
(44). For Freedom Times Episode #5, FPA data base IMPROPERLY noted with “NO RECORDING”, instead of “AVAILABLE” as for other episodes. Jamie Plesko of FPA Programming department could not explain, except that it was done by Equipment department. Producer asked Equipment department, including Lisa Clark, could not explain either, except that it was done by Programming department. The “NO RECORDING” was later changed to “available”, but still no one would tell me reasons or what have happened, and whether tapes have been AIRED AND MAINTAINED CORRECTLY at FPA. Actually, the sequences of the listing in the data base for Episodes 5 and 6 have been changed too. There have been serious problems including irregularity, inconsistency, different sets of membership listing, implicit denial of member privilege, participation of events (including those at FPA or HOMETOWN VIDEOS/FILMS FESTIVALS), accounting, booking, fee collections, etc. All problems are related and should be investigated thoroughly, not just Episode #5 and not just FPA staff or crew members. It might be UNJUSTLY MANIPULATED, INFLUENCED, OBSTRUCTED, DESTRUCTED OR “MISSING”, especially considering that some tapes had been mislabeled etc., including those tapes which had been submitted already. Such problems thus affect the FPA airing. It also affects the progress, the achievement and reputation of the producer. Further and more importantly, it has appeared that FPA staff , and members (including volunteers as crew member or non-crew members for the production of “FREEDOM TIMES” to have been spying, surveillance; stealing and destroying the tapes; CENSORING, conspired, concealed and covered-up unlawful acts, frauds and crimes, and cause serious social problems, including those issues presented by the producer in the TV programs. Such problems have adverse impacts on the producer, on the FPA mission and the society, democracy, justice, peace and serious “socio-political- media- election- budget problems” in vicious cycles; the adverse impacts include short term of harassment, intimation, humiliation, damages in reputation, and resources. The damages of short- term, long- term and perpetual are very great, and turn our society up side down.
(45). The “OPEN MAIL BOXES” are different from “LOCKERS”. The OPEN MAIL BOXES are pigeon cells, which have NO locks and NO SECURITY at all. The producer of FREEDOM TIMES Lih Young were not aware of such mail boxes and lockers, and had never been given any mail box or locker . Later the producer was given one which is on the top shelf, very hard for the producer to reach, or even to see. The producer has indicated to a few FPA staff to change to another mail box, but it still has not been changed yet as of 02/18/08. The producer Lih Young asked the staff not to put something important such as master tapes in the OPEN mail box which provide NO SECURITY.
(46). SIX master tapes DVC-pro for Episodes #30, #31, #34, #39, #40, #41 were still missing as of 03/20/08, besides those with problems or questions. Producer provided for all episodes DVC-pro, DVD and VHS for production. Except recently, none DVD and VHS have been produced, except #30 and #31 with master tape DVC-pro still missing. Attempts to use FPA edit or dub facilities for the episodes with missing Master (e.g., #30, #31) tapes or problems in control room facilities (e.g., #59, #60, it was found that the FPA facilities have caused serious sound and images problems.
(47). FPA Programming Department Jamie Plesko would not given FULL airing schedule, when the producer of FREEDOM TIMES requested.
(48). Serious problems occurred on 12/26/2007 during taping in the control room, and later in the editing and dubbing facilities at FPA. For instance, according to the crew members, during the taping the FIRST show Episode #59 on 12/26/2007, DVCpro tape stopped (probably 7+ minutes) before the REAL end of the show; and VHS stopped recording half way through the show. For the taping of the SECOND show Episode #60 on that same evening, DVD and VHS started (probably 30+ seconds) late. While dubbing DVD disc in the FPA dubbing facilities, it appeared to have serious problems, e.g., irregularity in sound and images, as well as speed. At times, it went like “FAST FORWARD”, while it should not be. During such UNWANTED FAST FORWARD, the sound or voices or images did not appear right or no sound and image at all. Other serious problems appeared when viewing other tapes. The FPA facilities appeared to have been UNJUSTLY wired, bugged, unjustly programmed, controlled or damaged by someone or likely to be very remotely controlled or monitored from outside the control room or editing or dubbing booths. One IMPORTANT consideration is that FPA should seriously examine a scenarios that the equipment might be OUTDATED, discontinued or defective items, which are not purchased at the fair market values and need unnecessarily tremendous repair costs at the expense of the FPA, its members, volunteers and taxpayers.
(49). It has been an awful hostile environment against the complainant. Some staff and volunteers have been acting strange and hostile lately, and would not really talk or explained what had happened, or discussed the missing tapes.
(50). Note that on Episode #5, #6 and #7 staff production, it had been found the irregularity, glitches, shift, or jump cut in sound and video images. Later, the problems exist, especially #5. Lisa Clarke said that she could NOT fix Episode 5, because it was used an OLD USED TAPE. Producer paid all the costs for the tapes as NEW TAPES. Copyright was assigned to “LY 2006” for staff production.
(51). Unjust spying and surveillance, and unjust treatment of using facilities remain major concerns.
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(52). Sometimes the studio facilities were not in proper orders, like CG or Camera. Sometimes the batteries for microphone were so weak that could not function well, despite producer reminded the equipment staff (e.g., Maryam Shah) to provide good ones. Thus affect the production.
(53). Major concerns regarding training, instruction, certification, equal opportunities, freedom of speech true media reporting are essence of democracy, fair election processes and good society. But FPA has work against its mission, and destroy not just complainant, but our democracy and society. Problems has amply stated in Complaint/Grievance Parts 1 and 2, especially in Part 1, Sections (IV) SPECIFIC COMPLAINED ISSUES: PROBLEMS AND ADVERSE EFFECTS – RADIO PRODUCTION, CLASS, TRAINING, MANAGEMENT AT FPA.
Also major concerned are management, membership, communication, as stated in complaint/grievance Part 1, Section (V). SPECIFIC COMPLAINED ISSUES –MANAGEMENT, MEMBERSHIP, COMMUNICATION, etc.:
(1). FPA use relay, postponement, biased, prejudiced methods against complainant.
(2). FPA unfair methods, practices, conspiracies to benefit, facilitate and cover-up “official misconduct- government gang- fraud- crime- injustice networks” operation, unjust practices, manipulation and influences.
(3). FPA has obstructed complainant to speak at the annual meeting, or even attend the annual meetings. The meetings date or locations are not available to the complainant.
(4). FPA has not maintained correct accounting and bookkeeping, including membership information.
(5). FPA maintains different member lists, exclude complainant privileges, and deprive of complainant’s rights and potentials, e.g., FPA events, Hometown Video Festival.
(6). FPA fails to process and resolve complained issues properly.
(7). FPA failed to provide information, despite requests repetitively.
(8). FPA failed to “FORWARD” emails which FPA claimed to have sent, but complainant did not received. Complainant received a letter informing that the complainant is not legible to vote, and another letter asking donation. None are on resolving the concerned issues. Recently, complainant received “TWO” letters containing the same information; basically relating the cancellation, rescheduling of the meetings, or improper delegation of jobs to other or the instructor.
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(IV). SPECIFIC ISSUES- UNJUST BAD-FAITH MANAGEMENT, PRACTICES, FALSE RECORDS, COMMUNICATION, FORGERIES, SECRECY. CONFLICT OF INTEREST, DISHONESTY, ETC.
Besides those stated above, the following deserve serious attention:
(1). Instead of taking complaint/grievance seriously, FPA designed unjust practices, schemes to deny and obstruct against complainant:
(2). e.g., Request for speaking agenda at the BOD meeting requested last year regarding FPA missions and complained issues, since December 2007, but still be ignored, denied and disregarded.
(3). Complainant requested to speak at the BOD meeting. But the BOD changed secretly its meeting location and agenda. Even if it is a closed door session, the location and topics should be known, and can still be in FPA building as in August 2008.
(4). No one in FPA can inform the complainant the location regarding BOD December 2007 meeting.
(5). The meeting minutes of December 2007 BOD meeting have not been posted, even now.
(6). BOD meeting of 3/26/2008, in which BOD denied complainant to speak, was not posted either.
(7). On 8/27/2008, Chairwoman Georgia Graves still deny to put complainant in speaking agenda, so did Jim Housel and Bob Giarrusso with unjust reason, such as the request is only made a few minutes. The request had been made since last December in year 2007. Even written complaint Part 1 was delivered in March 26, 2007, and part 2 dated and delivered August 13, 2008 first by email.
(8). At the time of request last year, there is no requirement to speak with some BOD VP for Internal Affairs Jim Housel first, but it all changed after my request.
(9). When the appointment was approaching, Chuck Pena would call to cancel and need to reschedule. Even when the complainant had arrived ahead of time to wait, just to know the meeting had been cancelled for some unknown reason that the complainant had to call first.
(10). After the requirement meeting with VP, then there is an unjust bad-faith requirement to meet with BOD Chairwoman Georgia Graves; again hard to schedule one.
(11). On 3/26/2008, Georgia Graves reluctantly agreed to review the complaint first, then scheduled a meeting. Unfortunately, she did not for good-faith meeting. When complainant requested to speak at a BOD meeting again, then Georgia wanted to obstruct or denied complainant’s request at the BOD, she wanted a meeting first against, with a date months away.
(12). When complainant asked, via Executive Director Chuck Pena, if the BOD Chairwoman Georgia Graves had:
(A). Reviewed complainant’s complaint
(B). Gave a copy of complaint to each member of the BOD?
The answer are “NO”.
(13). Even worse, the complainant was told that FPA, especially the Chairwoman Georgia Graves did not have the complaint.
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(14). To avoid the meaningless bad-faith scheduling of meeting, the complainant would not have desired to speak any unnecessary meeting unless that the requirement.
(15). Complainant again asked to provide procedures, rules, or requirement, but FPA provided nothing.
(16). There had been other members speaking at the BOD meeting, but not this complainant.
(17). Other speakers need not prepared detailed issues, but this complainant was treated differently, with all kinds of false excuses, obstruction, denials of rights.
(18). On 8/27/2008, Bob Giarrusso denied complainant to speak right there in that BOD meeting. Again, in bad-faith, he wanted to obstruct my right to speak at the BOD meeting. He said he would like to arrange a private meeting with complainant, the complainant opposed the bad-faith meeting. This complainant asked him and the BOD to review and respond to the complained issues POINT BY POINT. So far, the complainant has not received any response.
(19). Another female member of BOD (thin, darker complexion) wanted the complainant to re-write a request to speak at the BOD meeting, without mentioning previous requests. Complainant opposed.
(20). That female BOD member (thin, darker complexion) said she would put my name with another member in his presentation of issues. This complainant answered that his issues can be only part of my complained issues. But my complained involved a lot more, as stated in my written complainant delivered to the Board repeatedly since March 26, 2008. This complainant asked the BOD to review and response POINT BY POINT.
(21). It appeared that FPA management has ignored my complaint, with all kinds of unjust practices, obstruction, destruction with false records, communication, emails; forgeries of document, emails, etc.:
(A. Occasionally, FPA Executive Director would rush to type up something, when he saw me that in the FPA. He gave me a printed copy. I asked him to send it out by email. He said he would. But I did not receive many his mails he said he had sent.
(B). One of the email that FPA Executive Director Chuck Pena said that he had sent me (dated 6/12/2008) consist of one and half line, with 4+ typos or wrong spelling. It did not mention the date and time of the BOD meeting that Georgia Graves and Jim Housel have agreed to meet you outside of a Board meeting. There is no indication of time, date, location of the BOD to meet etc
(C). In his letter/email of 5/27/2008, FPA Executive Director Chuck Pena stated “we are sending to you, as a follow up to our prior metting (sic) the attachyed (sic) report. I am still waiting for your written compliant (sic) (if you still desire to send it), which I informed you, Georgia does not have.”
(a). It consists of less than two lines, with several typos or misspelling.
(b). It informed the complainant that “I (Chuck) am still waiting for your written complaint (if you still desire to send it), which I inform you, Georgia does not have.” Note that, two months after the delivery the complaint in person to the BOD, now BOD Chairwoman said she “does not have.”
(c). The “report” is on plain papers (two and a third page):
(i). No heading, subject line, date, etc.
(ii). No name of person or author who wrote it,
(iii). No person whom this report sent to
(iv). No subject matters
(v). Wrong date of meeting
(vi). The report was given to the complainant on 5/27/208, regarding a meeting two and a months ago (3/15/2008).
(vii). The “report was prepared two- month after complaint’s written complaint delivered to the BOD on 3/26/2008.
(viii). The “report” was of poor quality, reflecting bias, prejudice, irresponsibility; with misleading or false information.
(D). A recent email (dated 8/27/2008) FPA Executive Director Chuck Pena said he had sent me appeared again, phony with complainant’s email content forged:
(a). the complainant had not received through email.
(b). The email is in response to complainant’s email, basically denied or ignored
Complaints and requests, as well as complainant’s rights to speak at the BOD meeting.
(c). FPA email forged the complainant’s email, changed several areas, e.g., subject line, the persons the complainant had addressed to, deleted some important words that complainant had wanted FPA to discuss the complaint POINT BY POINT, etc.
(d). It appears that FPA involved, conspired with, covered-up the wrongdoing, fraud and crime, while suppressed the truth and defamed and obstructed complainant, while destroyed democracy and society. I asked for FBI investigation regarding “official misconduct- fraud- crime- injustice networks” operation, unjust practices, manipulation and influence, and follow-up allowing complainant’s feedback. Chuck said he would not.
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Respectively,
___________________________________
Lih Young
Kan Young
1121 Pipestem Pl. Rockville/Potomac, 20854
(TO RECLAIM AS HOMEOWNERS)
Mailing address:
P. O. Box 10286, Rockville, MD 20849
Email address: Lyoung2k@yahoo.com; Phone: 215-872-6545
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AFFIDAVIT
I, Lih Young, certify under penalty of law that the information contained herein is true and correct to the best of my knowledge, information and belief. And I am competent to testify.
________________________________________
Signature Date
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I, Lih Young, certify that on this 28th day of September, 2008, (the day for FPA Annual Meeting 2008), I caused to be delivered in person or by first class mail, postage prepaid, the foregoing documents to the following:
FPA (Fairfax Public Access),
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Chairman, Georgia Graves
VP Jim Housel, Director of the Internal Affairs
Each and All members of the Board
Executive Director Chuck Pena
2929 Eskridge Rd. (Suite S),
Fairfax, VA 22031
Phone: 571-749-1100,
email: askfpa@faca.org
___________________________
Lih Young
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6/14/2010 (minor revision of 7/15/2009)
CALL TO ACTION CALL FOR INVESTIGATION COMPLAINT: (Regarding statements of complained issues: Similar version in hand-writing was submitted on 7/13/209 as in “Waiting room intake form” to Crisis Center, Montgomery County, Maryland (1301 Piccard Road, Rockville, Maryland). But they would not do anything to correct problems or solve problems as before. Lih Young visited Crisis Center to complain many times.) COMPLAINANT: Lih Ying Young, Ph. D. (Mailing address: P. O. Box 10286, Rockville, MD 20849; Registered address: 1121 Pipestem Pl. Rockville/ Potomac, Maryland 20854; reclaiming homeownership, because of false foreclosure, eviction by “official misconduct- government gang- fraud- crime- injustice networks): COMPLAINED AGAINST the following; based on recent incidences, especially regarding false guardianship, termination of Kan Young’s life and false detention and imprisonment of Lih Young for two months with forced medication or injection which adversely affect her health, speech, social activities, etc., and related problems; against “official misconduct- government gang- fraud- crime- injustice networks”: Department of Aging, Department of Health and Human Services (401 Hungerford Dr., Rockville, MD 20850, Adult Protective Services, 240-777-3000); especially Elizabeth Boehner (Director); Sherry Davis (public guardianship program, 240-777-3573); Suzanne Lord, Peggy Odick, esq.; Bonnie Klim (Investigation Unit), others. Robert McCarthy (4404 East-West Hwy, suite 201, Bethesda MD 20814); Ria Rochvarg Esq., (Legal Assistance Provider, Maryland Department of Health and Human Hygiene; P. O. Box 1907, Ellicot City, Maryland 21401-1907); Suburban Hospital (8600 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda, Maryland); Jody Crescenzi (social worker); Patricia Grafferty (Patricia Graggerty? Case Manager), Robert Rothstein, M.D.; other Emergency staff, physicians and staff. Manor Care Nursing and Rehabilitation Center (Potomac, Maryland); Cheryl Paulson (Administrator); other nurses, staff. Bethesda Health and Rehabilitation Center, (Bethesda, Maryland); Puran P. Mathur (?, physician, 2401 Research Blvd. #350, Rockville, MD 20850, 301-330-6985); Tip Woodward, physician (being pressured?, 5530 Euscunsin (?) Ave. #550, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, 302-656-3316). Adelman Sheff and Smith, LLC (180 Admiral Chchrane Drive, suite 370, Annapolis, Maryland 21401, 410-224-3000); attornays for Suburban Hospital, Inc. especially Timonthy B. Adelman. Police, sheriff, fire and rescue (Rockville city and Montgomery County, Maryland), especially Officer Davis (check: any relation with Sherry Davis (Montgomery County Department of Aging?); Cowell (Sgt. Detective, wore plain clothes), Officer Sadelson C.P. and _________ (name not yet identified), more. COMPLAINED ISSUES - PROBLEMS: Complained issues against government agencies and related MURDER-fraud- crime- injustice networks: abuse of power, laws and regulations. Unjust false guardianship attempts to deprive the rights of wife and families, properties and death benefits from life insurances. Husband Kan Hua Young was MURDERED, his life was injured, damaged and terminated by order of the state and their phony guardian, Department of Aging, Adult Protective Services, especially Sherry Davis and related “official misconduct- government gang- fraud- crime- injustice networks”, unjust practices, manipulation and influence; chronically; continuing, on –going with threat, coercion; violation of Constitutional rights, government rules, regulation; crimes against humanity. Government agencies did not resolve complained issues against the fraud- crime- injustice networks which deprive, destroy, damage our assets(home, properties, reputation, cars, documents, belongings etc.; injure damage bodily, physically, mentally; endless unjust practices, e.g., false foreclosure, evictions,(from home that we owned and renting places with no fault of our own, no default payment); causing poverty, homelessness.; obstruct, destruct activities, liberty, freedom (individual, family, business, civic, political, community services; freedom of speech, communication, association, etc.). Department of Aging, Department of Health and Human Services not only did not help, but instead working as part of “fraud- crime- injustice networks””, mastermind “phony guardianship”, kidnap Kan Hua Young to Manor Care, where Kan Young was injured by having no food, inadequate food, poison food, unsafe food and other unsafe equipment and bed. Complaints have filed with Manor Carein writing, in person or orally, but were not resolved, instead complainant was retaliated. Kan Young was made un-conscience and sent back to Suburban Hospital. Phony guardian, Department of Aging, especially Adult Protective Services Sherry Davis and Manor Care; denied the wife Lih Young to visit her husband in Manor-Care. Instead, they called police (including Officer Davis, ID--------- full name not given) on 3/27/2009 to drag the wife out with force to break bones, chock neck and pressure chest, pulled the hair and send to Shady Grove Hospital with 4-point restraints imprisonment. Police Officer knew the complainant, but wrote petition for mental evaluation with the name Jane Doe. (Police are assigned to Wheaton District, but they came to Manor Care- Potomac which is in different district.) Again on 4/3/2009, abuse of police and Fire and Rescue (there were no fire, and no rescue necessary). They sent complainant to Suburban Hospital, more than two shots to complainant which made complainant Lih Young un-conscience; and later transported to Potomac Ridge Behavioral Health Center. Basically hospital and health center are used as prison complex to detain innocent citizens for victimization, retaliation; abuses, forced medication which adversely affected complainant’s health, activities and social relationship. Obviously, they attempted to silencing people down; and can not do all kinds of activities, including visiting husband in their facilities. Kan Hua Young was improperly treated in Suburban Hospital also with or attempts of poison food and procedures (even unlawful, without physician’s approval), causing vomiting, complications, e.g., pneumonia, swelling in hands, foot and body, wide variation of sugar level, as might be 83 – 280+, etc. The court papers appears to be conspiracy among other parties. They are not only total strangers, but practically has not
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shown up or show any care or concerns about patient Kan Young’s health, except Dr. Tip Woodward, who appeared to be under pressure by others who are serious “official misconduct- government gang- fraud- crime- injustice networks” operation, unjust practices, manipulation and influences. The Circuit Court hearing for permanent guardianship set for June 25, 2009 was removed from the docket. The hearing was cancelled. The wife Lih Young received no court papers, and appeared in the Circuit Court on 6/25/2009. No one from other parties appeared. In between those time, the wife Lih Young visited Adult Protective Services, Department of aging, Department of Health and Human Services, and asked to see supervisor and complete files that they have concerning Kan Young and the family, but was denied except to give 3 pages of papers, and they called security guard to escort Lih Young out.
Later, Lih Young went to Circuit Court to see the file, which consist of false statement, bypass all family members, relatives, friends and other community members as guardians. They made of no mention that Lih Young has been with Kan Young in his care and stay in hospital or rehabilitation; and had been a devoted wife and mother. They also ignored that Lih Young complained against their abuse, neglect, and various kinds of wrongdoings and harms bodily, physically, financially, and hurt our reputation. They spread false rumors against the wife and family and Kan Young’s. The staff in Manor Care even said that Lih Young is not the wife, as if they were. Who paid them? Are they prostitutes? Their filing of court paper also appear defective services, and lack of due process. The wife Lih Young asked the Suburban Hospital for thorough investigation, medical examination, and autopsy, including the problems concerning especially the un-conscience and adverse effect bodily as well as ‘fraud- crime- injustice- networks” operation. The wife also contacted Bonnie Klem of Department of Aging, Investigation Unit, and complained over the phone a couple of time, and left messages to ask for thorough investigation, medical examination and autopsy, etc., and the wife would like to have an investigative report. But complainant has not received any response. On 7/13/2009 the wife also reported to police, asked for a thorough investigation about incidences and related MURDER- “fraud- crime- injustice networks” operation. # # #
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6/14/2010 (excerpt from 11/30/2009 version)
CALL TO ACTION
CALL FOR INVESTIGATION COMPLAINT: FALSE FORECLOSURE and related MURDER- fraude- crime- injustice networks”. Lih Young complained to Crisis Center on incidences and evictions. COMPLAINANT: Lih Ying Young, Ph. D. (Mailing address: P. O. Box 10286, Rockville, MD 20849; Registered address: 1121 Pipestem Pl. Rockville/ Potomac, Maryland 20854; reclaiming homeownership, because of false foreclosure, eviction by “official misconduct- government gang- fraud- crime- injustice networks): COMPLAINED AGAINST the following: See also other complaints, e.g., on health services, false guardianship and related “MURDER-fraud- crime- injustice networks” with endless false excuses, unlawful actions, frauds, crimes, etc., which cause serious socio-political- media- budget-poverty- freedom problems.
Laura Jolly , phony substitute trustee (who can not be found, contacted, or communicated even inquired by law offices or government agencies); Marc Sliffman, Esq. (Georgia Ave., Wheaton/ Silver Spring, Maryland). Samuel White LLC (initially office in Richmond, Va, later office in Alexandria Va.); Samuel White, Esq., Daniel Pesachowitz. Esq., Shawn Bartley, Esq. , etc.
Attorneys hired originally by homeowners, but betrayed homeowners, as bribed by other parties and court auditor Robert Romero: Olivia Cammack, Esq. (offices in Silver Spring, Baltimore, Maryland); David Slacter Esq. (Bethesda, Maryland).
Judges, Clerks of the Courts (former and current), court personnel, sheriff, etc: Circuit Court, District Court, Court system of Maryland, and U.S. Federal courts.
Rockville city mayor/council, clerk office, city attorney office, Paul Glasgow and related law firm David Venable, etc., City police, etc., staff. Other government agencies: DOJ, FBI, OPM, SSA, IRS, Tax court (Federal, state),DOC, US DHHS, USDA financial services; Comptroller’s office, attorney general, etc.; lawyers (government, privates), accountants, landlords/landladies (especially under unjust influences and manipulation),…, and more.
Media: Montgomery Community Television: John Hansmsn, Nancy Poole, Executive Directors, Board of Directors; Marian Merewitz, Larry Merewitz, Cintia Cabib, Laura Cooper, Kimberly Watkins, Bernard Dowell, Dee Willet, etc. Fairfax Public Access; executive director, Board of Directors, especially Georgia Graves, Bob Girrusso, instructor David McArlery, other volunteers, etc.
COMPLAINED ISSUES - PROBLEMS:
Around years 2004, before housing collapsed, the housing market in my home area is good. Houses can be sold in a few days or within a week. Sometimes the purchasing prices were above asking prices. The market value of my home under foreclosure was around $700,000 - $800,000 as the complainant was informed. (The house has recently transacted around or above $850,000, as of 4/21/2010). The balance of my first mortgage at the time of foreclosure was only about $48,000. But the “fraud- crime- injustice networks” foreclosed the home with only $470,000, less than two third (2/3) of market values, and took a long time for them to manipulate. It is grossly unfair.
The Court Auditor Robert Romero (phony, a private attorney) did not give a single penny when the complainant/ homeowners were evicted out and exiled to out of state. Even after the exile, the homeowner was only given about $100,000, a small fraction of net proceed ($470,000).
“Fraud- crime- injustice networks” took years of unjust practices, manipulation; false auction, buyers (names change later), rental, etc., without complainant’s prior knowledge, consent, or due process, etc. They did a lot of harassment, annoyance, unlawful acts, harms and false statements and document against complainant and family.
Even with the foreclosed amount $470,000, it could buy a medium sized home in the Rockville are. But the “fraud- crime- injustice networks” unjustly manipulated to exile the complainant and the family out of the area, or cause homeless in the cold. The “fraud- crime- injustice networks are truly cruel and tyrannical; destroy people, family, society, democracy, fair election and fair market mechanism.
Despite the complainant’s disagreement, and asked the court to give the proceed directly to the complainant and not to give any proceed to the lawyers or via the lawyers Olivia Cammack, esq and David Slacter; both had betrayed homeowners. The court and the court auditor Robert Romero arbitrarily disregarded complainant’s request, and gave the money via David Slacter, who did not explain why such a small amount to complainant.
At the time of retainer agreement, complainant asked lawyers Olivia Cammack and David Slacter to coordinate with civil rights organization, NAACP, ACLU and AARP etc. They agreed, but they failed to do so. At the time of retainer agreement, David Slacter overcharged the amount for the retainer. He refused to make correction about over-charge or fraudulent charge at that time. He said he would return the amount later. This is unjust and fraudulent practices.
Factors causing hardship: deprivation of complainant’s resources, salaries, fringe benefits, banking accounts, cars, etc; denial of social securities disability benefits; disability retirement benefit etc., were unjustly reduced or deprived of a big portion with false unjust vague reasons, e.g., tax deficiency, but has never been itemized or explained with specific justification by government agencies. It has not been provided with installment payment schedules with itemization for specific periods of time. The “fraud- crime- injustice networks” operation is like “ROBBERY MACHINE” forever.
During the hardship, complainant continued to have mortgage paid by family members- complainant’s son, who may even pay double payment under harassment. One of the checks was returned by the “fraud- crime- injustice networks” who marked the check with social security number to identify homeowner, complainant’s spouse. Complainant’s son wrote back for clarification.
Complainant filed motion to vacate order before eviction, but received no response. The “fraud- crime- injustice networks” came with sheriff to evict the complainant, and warned of arrest if homeowners went in the house again. After eviction from own home and exile out of state, complainant’s spouse was injured and hospitalized. But eventually complainant came back to Washington D.C., Rockville and Gaithersburg areas and rented places to live, but were evicted again, without faults on the complainants. There were ample unjust practices, deprivation, manipulation, influence, brutality and injuries by the “fraud- crime- injustice networks against complainants. # # # #
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The copyright laws favour the ones with the money over the ones that have nothing. As a content creator myself, I'm in fear that I'll have my YouTube channel taken down and not be able to get it back because the government refuses to look into these false claims. Some people have gotten their channels back up, but they get deleted right away again because these false claims face no punishment.
The DMCA has good intentions, but has been misused by so many to steal revenue with no compensation. On Youtube, for example, someone can take revenue from a video for up to three months without any liability, even if they have no rights to this video. They get all of the profit from this while the original creator sees nothing. This happens because under the DMCA there are almost no penalties (if any) for false DMCA claims. So all you have to do is claim that you own something online and watch the money fly in.
This needs to change now as it is hurting legitimate creators while simultaneously helping freebooters. All I am asking is that the DMCA needs to have harsh consequences for false claims. Now, with this being said claims which could go either way do need to be considered, but it should be illegal to use the DMCA to steal content, take down reviews, etc. and the power NEEDS to be given to the creators to pursue legal action when the DMCA is misused. A jury can determine the extent to which the DMCA claim was reasonable. Thank you.
The DMCA is a very outdated system and is mostly just used by people (many times with no rights to the content) in order to censor others. We need a better system that actually holds copyright owners accountable as well. One way to do this is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. Also, automated automated copyright systems need to be accounted for under law and have similar penalties (or worse) for abusing since many times, copyright owners use these options to steal money from creators on websites such as YouTube.
What else can I say that Doug Walker has not said in this and many other videos? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
Internet is fermenting creativity and free speech all over the world, giving me, a citizen of a third-world country, access to knowledge and discussions my parents could not have imagined. It allows real free competition, allows for the development of niche markets that would have never been tapped before. And these automated notice-and-takedown processes are a threat to every opportunity the Internet provides the world with. This is not just a US issue, is a Global issue.
the DMCA is a way for corporations to censor, bully and steal from creators who use art in anyway whether they belong to the corporation and are being used in fair use or not using any of their copyrighted material at all. The DMCA has failed the little guy.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Content creators are currently vulnerable to false claims of infringement, and many have had to spend hundreds of hours fighting these back. Copyright laws are meant to protect the creators, not to be used against them! The current system is completely unsuited to the way content is created and managed online and has to change. It is also affecting creators all over the world, not just in the US.
Require immediate reinstatement of content if the content creator disputes the validity of a takedown notice. Allow strong protections for the content creator if the copyright holder continues to pursue illegitimate takedown actions.
I have personally had legal original content that I have created miraculously disappear or blocked for no other reason than it was possibly too politically charged. Last time I checked, this was still a free country.
i'm not the best with words but the copyright system that youtube uses is stupid removing videos because it is exposing youtube and its bullshit copyright system. im just hoping youtube and the internet can go back to the olden days
I might not be a U.S. citizen, but the ubiquity of American platforms, content, content creators, users, etc on the Internet means that the DMCA also affects me and hundreds of millions of non-Americans. Please, realise that the DMCA threatens the livelihood of people throughout not only the United States, but the entire world.
SERIOUSLY IF YOU WANT TO FUCK WITH MY RIGHTS YOU ARE ONE FUCKED UP HUMAN BEING
Please know that I am a content creator my self, both as a photographer and as a writer. While I expect copyright to protect my work from commercial exploitation, I also expect that other artists and people generally, have a fair use right to use my work for noncommercial purposes, including education and incorporation into works that ultimately do more to promote and share my work and the art form than do anything like infringing my rights.
FAIR USE IS VITAL TO AN OPEN AND FREE INTERNET.
I 100% Agree. Companies Stealing Peoples Youtubers Video Is Crazy And There Just Greedy And Stealing There Money. Its Not FAIR.
Thank you for considering my comments.
Fandubs, which is content voiced by the users, fans of a show in this case, in their own language, fall under fair use and are not being recognized because of false copyright claims. Fandubs create a chance for these people to bring their voice talents to the world, but that will never happen if the outdated DMCA stays in place. Something needs to be done for the voice actors of the future!
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Fair use is VITAL for transformative works such as critiques, analyses, and so many other academic practices, and while it's ABSOLUTELY important that people can protect their intellectual properties from wholesale theft and piracy, the tools and methods used for protecting IPs and the livelihoods of creative should NOT be able to be used as a weapon to be levelled at OTHER creative who deal in transformative works such as criticism and reviews.
Bogus DMCAs are all too commonly used by companies and individual to silence online critics and academics (and more besides - comedians, pundits, etc.), by deliberately and unfairly conflating fair use with copyright infringement, and it WORKS, because the automated systems used cannot distinguish between fair use and genuine, wholesale IP theft.
If the current system is unable to protect IPs and IP holders without the risk of being used for bogus takedowns being intrinsically built into said system, then ...there needs to be a new system. One that is built with the modern age of digital media in mind, and an awareness and respect for transformative works and fair use.
It is truly disturbing how all protection seems to be evolving towards large corporate interests. Not only here, but in patent law, the small individual is helpless, and the cost of defending one's self is prohibitive, but not for deep pockets.
This must stop!
dejenme ver a pewdepie gratis xddx xddddd
I believe that the DMCA has done much more harm than good in general. Large studios and small indie developers have used this draconian policy to dictate how public opinion is accessed for many different forms of entertainment. The DMCA is abused and misused all too often. I view the policy a complete failure of government to produce policy which reflects the opinion of the nation.
I am concerned about the effects that the notice-and-takedown process of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) on a range of protected forms of expression and activity, including political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation. The process as it stands seems to be biased in favor of corporate copyright holders, who have the resources to scare individuals into backing down on asserting their legal rights, and too often the process is (mis-)used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
For example, companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and these systems issue automated takedowns. The result is large-scale censorship of legally-protected speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse. Companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. Due to their function as public spaces, sites and companies like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech. As a step toward fairness, copyright holders need to take more responsibility in considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. Automated takedown notices should also be prohibited.
Do it, ñürds.
In short, the DMCA law needs to be rewised (to the benefit of both content creators and copyright holders) to remain relevant in today's rapidly changing copyright envivorment.
This system is broken and needs to just end. Fix this.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to bear more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
BRING COPYRIGHT LAW INTO THE MODERN WORLD.
Most of my favorite youtubers are getting flagged for completely unjustified reasons. they are completely within fair use, but are still forced to deal with copyright everyday. Channel Awesome lost their monetization for three weeks. TheMysteriousMrEnter got one of his videos flagged three times. I Hate Everything got his channel deleted for seventeen hours. and Brad Jones got a copyright strike on one of his videos where he just talked about a movie he saw in the theater, with no footage or music from the movie. every single one of the examples I just listed fall completely within fair use, but are still being taken down.
Youtube, for instance, is an excellent repository of video history.
Just to be clear, I'm keeping the block text for this because it applies, but I follow this issue closely. I'm not signing because my friends signed, I'm signing because I've watched the DMCA throughout its history. Big companies hate fair use, and it's YOUR job to defend it. Help us keep our voices!
Violators of unlawful Copyright Claims should have a penalties for such actions. Using claims to take down reviews, parodies, and other such media that is within Fair Use for the purposes of stifling Free Speech, threatening against valid negative opinions, unlawful claims to content not owned by the person/persons making the claims, and other such actions should be punished. There should be a valid reason for a claim to be made, and having penalties for wrongful claims would help in preventing such cases.
#WTFU #Where'sTheFairUse
I would like to see a DMCA cool down period of at least 7 or 14 days that would enable creators to at least contest the take down rather than hosts feeling like they need to do it immediately. As the law stands now it would be possible to "troll" legitimate content creators with DMCA take downs.
Please take this in deadly seriousness and do the right thing!
Why take down random people
Videos and even their way of making a living?
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright-Act (DMCA) is outrageously biased in favor of EVIL corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. Hollywood will go to any length to make us think there's tons of piracy and illicit content when in fact there's not all that much. It's a big echo chamber. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. Basically, almost every single one is trying to brainwash us citizens and morph us into corporate-loving robots that will vote for candidates which will take away our rights and shred our constitution.
Stop censoring free speech and expression! Bring back fair use.
Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. Fair Use. And did I mention fair use.
DMCA is outdated and in need of a complete overhaul.
This Abuse on the copyright system is terrible. This can be used on pictures and content that doesn't have anything wrong. I don't want this to affect my family and friends and people that don't diverse this.
There should be consequences to robot-abuse.
Below is a well-written response from FFTF, but just to prove i do know a bit about this: DMCA is a ridiculous farce of a proposal clearly written by major content holders with no regard for consumers, content creators or the general public. Such a broad-strokes approach is rife for abuse. If you ever want to pass such a law, it should be written with the assistance of consumer rights representatives, not just multinational conglomerates.
The current notice-and-takedown process is a guilty untill proven innocent system that heavily favors the large corporations. If a calim is made against content on YouTube that is clear fair use, a user's only recourse is to ask that the company recognize it it fair use, and if they do not respond after an entire month (the most common scenario) only then does your video come back. However, all it takes for your video to stay down it the company tells YouTube yes we own copyright on that video (tell not prove) and your only recourse at that point is to spend tens of thousands you dont have to take a multi million dollar corp to court. This process is undeniably broken and needs to be changed.
I enjoy the videos and youtubers that I watch - the ones I have subscribed to have never done anything wrong and are all good, honest people who do not deserve such treatment. The Copyright Office are being unfair, lazy and abusive by targeting the innocent judging solely on titles of videos or just for the sake of using their power instead of doing research - watching the damn video.
As a teacher, my students and I use video as a media to comment and critique the world.
DMCA is constantly abused by people who don't own the copyright.
They use the law to silence their adversaries and opponents.
I really think the problems with false takedowns and copyright strikes has gotten out of control. Several YouTube channels have been taken down, had strikes put on their videos, or have been constantly harassed through false claims from a bogus automated system, aided by companies like Merlin who exist solely to profit off false claims by seizing monetization rights and keeping the money. This all sounds like a small error, a perception even YouTube will push, but the reality is much more serious.
Several people affected by this are not doing YouTube videos just for fun, or as a hobby, or whatever. By making YouTube videos or other internet content, people are genuinely making a living off these websites. This is their jobs and livelihoods that are being talked about, and that's why this should be taken more seriously. Imagine if you worked in an office building, and a random person claimed that the work you did was their work, even if it blatantly wasn't. But your boss was unwilling to even look at the issue, and automatically assumed you were guilty, and transferred your payment for your work to the other person until you decided to object. Then, after an arduous process, your boss finally acquiesced that the work was yours, only to deny you the payment you should have been making, only letting you continue to earn payment. Meanwhile, the other person who had essentially stolen your paycheck gets to keep the money and suffers no consequences whatsoever, and can continue doing this to you or your co-workers as much as they want.
I think this is a very accurate description of the problems people who suffer DMCA takedowns are facing on a daily notice. We need to come up with protections for today's online content, to keep honest content creators abiding by fair use from being harassed, stolen from, or censored by companies and individuals who don't care about the intricacies of fair use and only want to suppress criticism, steal money, or just harass someone, spamming these takedowns as much as possible.
To keep it short and simple, I have a couple points on why the DMCA needs to be modified.
1. Content creators on YouTube are being abused by a system that allows unlimited claims to videos, since Google is afraid of being sued.
2. False claims are rampant as any person, can report a video as many times as they want, without punishment.
This is a destructive and oppressive attack and contemptuous behaviour of democratic society.
It will not work. History shows that.
We are getting copyrighted for no reason we MUST stop this right now youtube. You will become one of those shitty websites that were once famous but now dont like them. YOU MUST STOP THIS MADNESS
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. As a librarian, I am familiar with copyright law and its affect on the dissemination of information and ideas. Over the past few decades, a trend to protect the financial interests of creators over the fair-use rights of the public has created a dangerous imbalance that I believe limits free speech. Copyright law is intended to balance the rights of creators with the rights of the public, but the DMCA notice-and-takedown process is not balanced at all.
To whoever is reading this, if its being read, you are aware of the issues. You are aware the people and corporations with resources are trouncing on those without under a law that is not being upheld in the way it was meant to. This is a classic story, made current by a mixture of copyright law, brute legal force, and the ability of elected officials to act shortsightedly as a result of career stability.
Please make the ethical and moral decision to stop DMCA claims that have no merit and only occur because the companies and people doing it know they can get away with it. Well who's country is this? Stand up for free speech and make these groups accountable for their mistakes, whether intended or not. I don't have a legal argument for you, but I'm sure you are operating with much more information than me. Regardless of that difference, we both know the thing that matters is to protect free speech and the opportunity for everyone to have the same chance at a better life.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Below is a really well written summary of the issue that I agree with. I'd just like to add that it's too easy for people to abuse the takedown system. Making false claims seems to be without consequence.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This is no longer a safety-net for artists and creators but is a club used by corporations to bully content providers.
The roboticization of trolling is an especially worrisome development, and the threat of a lawsuit makes it all but impossible for a content creator to make a decision about the usability of a third-party media.
Please put a harness on these pit-bulls attacking free speech
thank you - Mark Sheffield
I love the Internet. I love the innovation, interactivity, entertainment, and new ways to communicate that the Internet allows.
Abuse of the DMCA hinders innovation. Please make these rich and powerful actors as responsible for their actions online as the rest of us are expected to be.
Companies are using computer algorithms and bots to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Also I would add: I'd like to see bulk mailing of legal threats being outlawed. There are copyright troll firms that use image search bots to bulk mail and harass people without even checking if it's fairuse. Sometimes they don't even sign the letters. Copyright trolling firms like these should be heavily fined, penalties and even disbarments for the law firms working with these trolls.
As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Cause nothing is more fun than making a 45+ min video on youtube which gets copyright ID'd and all income taken for 10 seconds of audio
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair
use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Sad so many videos and points of view are taken down please stop doing this..... Thank you.....
It is an old law. Review it. Change it, and make the law as flexible and fair as the internet it was supposed to police.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act was passed in 1998. It is simply outdated for the internet of today.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. DMCA takedowns are used by companies to remove videos with negative reviews about their products. This kind of damage can not be undone.
WE OWN OUR CONTENT.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to take more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must at least be discouraged, and preferably prohibited, as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
This means a lot to me and so many other people.
It's happened to friends of mine - NOTHING wrong with their videos, they just get taken down.
I know this may seem like the work of a spambot due to the fact that you've been receiving the same message/comment/statement numerous times during the last few hours, but please trust me when I say that the #WTFU campaign is something that thousands of people from around the world have been taking part in to try and put an end to the content claim issues that have plagued YouTube and its users for several years now. We hope you all take our views into consideration so this whole issue can get sorted out.
The notice-and-take down process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I dont belive that this is fair i want an end to this
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had drastic effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. Such effects unfortunately have not been for the better. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2755628).
The entertainment media is changing and there's no stopping it. Televisions are being sold to be "smart" and allow connection to the internet and many people are turning to it rather than cable for their dose of what ever they wish. Even better, people are learning how to make a living off of making videos on the internet. Be it a game playing series, a movie review series, having fun with friends with a camera, or even making an original series, allowing one to express his or her imagination and creativity to others. However, that being said and just like in the past, big companies don't like this change and are doing everything they can to stop it.
Back in 1998, when the internet was no where near the size that it was today, when things like YouTube and Twitter were just pipe dreams off in the horizon, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was passed. However, the DMCA is old now and does not account for today's internet. The internet has changed dramatically in the 18 years since the DMCA was passed and it's never been updated. It's never been updated to take into account of today's ever expanding internet and has now become a fossil. What was once used to protect people on the internet that make fair content is now being used by big companies to harass or even destroy content creators.
As a video content creator myself, I post my parody videos on YouTube, where everyone else does as well. People like Jim Sterling, Doug Walker, Joe Vargas, and Alex (IHateEverything) make reviews, commentary, and criticism videos; alerting people of either bad videos or video games, or great movies or amazing video games. These people have found a way to make a living on making entertaining and informative content under Fair Use's Criticism side. However, big companies disagree and send out copyright claims, hurting their channels and stifling not only their creativity but any funds earned honestly by this video.
Companies and people are abusing the DMCA as a way to silence people or even threaten them. Just last month, Jim Sterling, a critic on YouTube, is being sued by Digital Homicide for ten million dollars. Digital Homicide has threatened and retaliated Sterling several times in the past and are suing him under the grounds of "libel per se" or lies and slander. This couldn't be farther from the truth as Sterling criticized the video fairly and was met with this retaliation. Another case of this is a content creator named Brad Jones, who has a series called Midnight Screenings. This series has Brad Jones and an alternating person sit in a car after watching a midnight screening of a movie and they just talk about it. There is no footage of the movie at all and a company claimed that it was violating copyright, which is completely false, it falls under Fair Use's Criticism. Another channel named Team Four Star has been hit with multiple channel take downs because of their parody series, which is completely in Fair Use. Even worse, DMCA's are being sent through Shell Companies, which exist to send out DMCA take downs and to shield the companies that send the take downs. Not only that, but companies like Blue Rocket Productions or the previously mentioned Digital Homicide are threatening people who even speak about their game or movie negatively with either video take downs or lawsuits.
YouTube has a way for creators to claim that their video is within Fair Use and is legal. It's a LONG process that normally doesn't see anything for more than thirty days, which when you're talking about someone's living it can cause a lot to go wrong. The YouTube creators can only fight three claims at a time while big companies can file as many as they wish, the worst case scenario would bring down the video or the channel itself. Not only that, but the same claims can be filed again, even if the channel defended itself and won. Even false claims are being filed out just to stop videos from being released and monetized. During this thirty day period where the channel is fighting for the right to make a living, the company or person who filed this DMCA take down gets all of the revenue that the video receives. It's not held onto, it's just gone forever and the companies profit.
As a content creator on YouTube, I feel unsafe every time I put up a parody video or original content. I feel vulnerable when I hear stories of people being taken down or their channel vanishing because of DMCA take downs. The situation is horrible and it's just getting worse. The DMCA needs to be updated to account for today's internet. Everyone is at risk the way it is now and that shouldn't be that way. We're witnessing a cultural shift that was last seen by our grandparents and our great grandparents when televisions and radios were just coming to be the norm. The last time something like this happened to the entertainment world was in the 1950s. The internet through internet enabled devices are becoming the norm and it's continuing to do so as more and more people abandon cable and satellite to watch entertaining content. The industry that has such a hard time accepting new things in the past; like television, VHS tapes, DVDs, digital video recorders, and today's internet, need to understand that their reign of exorbitant prices and anti competitive practices can't go on. The DMCA needs to change. Content creators need to feel safe again. I need to feel safe again when I post parodies and original content. My name is Daniel and I have one question: Where is the Fair Use?
A serious defect in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) procedures is that a significant proportion of takedown notices falsely identify infringement (current estimates are about 30%). The causes of false identification vary, sometimes it is due to negligence (misidentification, failure to have a human review automated processes, etc.), sometimes due to failure to recognize what is clearly "fair use", sometimes the cause is malicious or fraud. There is no penalty for making a false accusation.
The quality and truthfulness of takedown notices would be greatly enhanced by incorporating a penalty for false accusation. There are various forms the penalty could take: payment of a statutory penalty to the recipient of the wrongful notice, disqualifying the sender from generating further notices, perhaps in serious or egregious cases voiding of the sender's copyright.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. They should be required to cite more rigorous "proof" when issuing a DMCA notice, especially when such notices ate automated. Also, as sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose significant statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. These damages should make it very expensive to 'troll' others using the DMCA system. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that
wtfu we have the right for free speech
Review is absolutely necessary.
Please note specifically the "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts " part of Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the Constitution. Letting bogus claims slide specifically hinders rather than promotes. Please address this problem, in the short term by penalizing at least the most egregious misuse of the DMCA, and going forward by enacting saner regulations in the first place.
We The People are the primary stakeholder here. The publishing industry is not.
Canned message follows:
I can personally attest to the abuse of such algorithms against parodies and other works that are explicitly protected by fair use law.
People's lives have been ruined, lets stop that
There must be consequences for false claims.
Listen up
The DCMA is proven crap. Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
anal
I run a rather small YouTube channel, and I had a copyright strike from a much larger channel that didn't even own the rights to the content in my video. The system needs to change.
Dear Copyright Office,
My name is Nicholas Winn, i'm a professional photographer, open source advocate and senior computer systems engineer.
In the past, i've had to deal with fraudulent DMCA take down requests to my web host from companies claiming copyright to my photographs and individuals claiming to own the rights to open source software i've republished. At no time before my web hosting company disabled my account was the claims verified. Because so, any company or person with a vendetta against me could take my site off line pending a time consuming process on my end, dealing with the web host to convince them the claims are fraudulent. The burden of proof should lay solely with the claimant and human verification should be required before steps are taken.
The system is broken under its current model. Please re-write the law so it would behoove claimants to make legitimate claims only and include stiff penalties for claimants making fraudulent claims, especially multiple times.
Thank you for your time.
Nicholas Winn
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
Copyrights allow content creators to control and profit from their work. That some have decided to abuse the system by removal of anything and everything they claim to be theirs without consequences must stop.
Yes, it is hard to stop the millions of small instances of copyright infringement. For most of us this would mean having to focus on the big instances and take a measured response. Those who may have infringed would be given fair notice and the opportunity to cease and desist, or to make their case.
Please make is too expensive to employ mindless software to blanket delete any and all items which may be caught up in their net. Require copyright holders to issue cease and desist notices and implement a fair and impartial system to mediate disputes.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Many content creators on YouTube are getting demolished due to unfair power that companies have while the creator barely has any power! Take IHE vs. Derek Savage, Derek Savage harassed IHE even though he wasn't going outside the boundaries of the Fair Use Law, then when he didn't take down the video Derek Savage created a FAKE legal team and threatened with shutting down his channel! The DMCA regulations need to be fixed, and FAST!
I'm for fair use, because noone can constrain my favourite bloggers creativity and noone can ban someone's video because of different opinion. I feel a little bit uncomfortable, when I have to tell this in year 2016...
This law was made in 1998, the internet was different back then. Laws came and went over those years. But this was stayed untouched. So ldts finally change it before it is time to make a special courthouse for internet copyright trouble! It is time to change, not next year, but now!
I've had two channels taken down, I have been harassed, I have been threatened, I have videos taken down even when I follow fair use law. I have even been taken down for content that was entirely my own creation. I have lost all of my revenue from companies and groups that don't even own the content they say belongs to them and are taking the revenue for themselves.
Please update the copyright law to protect free speech and protect the copyright laws from unfair DMCA takedowns.
Fix this shit.
As a Youtuber, I've seen many channels taken down for either no apparent reason or for claims from people who do not own the copyrighted content. Because of this, I have become far too weary in making videos, lest my own channel (Which admittedly, has very little support) be taken down by some internet troll who thinks it's funny to steal/vandalize someone else's livelihood.
There would be many interesting cases that I could call on, if it weren't for the fact that people have most likely already used them hundreds of times already. And many people have most likely linked videos and channels so I'm going to get to the point.
Youtube has an "Guilty until proven innocent" stand point on videos, which I understand, as they have to protect themselves from another lawsuit like the Viacom one. This is understandable, but the way they go about it is unacceptable as it puts people with fair use works and even people with original content at risk.
Firstly, copyright holders and claimants MUST have proof of infringement before being able to take down videos. Some sort of side by side comparison in front of a human must take place before the video can be taken down.
The next thing that should be considered is having more human members at Youtube so that more manpower goes into maintaining creators so that there may be more take downs of infringing content.
While I do agree with the guilty until proven innocent point of view, I believe that people with larger fanbases should have their videos immediately reviewed as to avoid people siphoning off of bigger creator's work.
As for penalties, it should be a two way street. If people who get claims and strikes get punished, so do people and companies who make false claims. As for channel punishments, there should be a less harsh penalty system for first time abusers, and slowly getting harsher for repeat offenders.
This is all I can think of for right now. If you can find any way to make things easier for all of us content creators, we would all be grateful.
~Cyclonic Flame
#WTFU
Its not fair for youtube content creators to be abused this way
It would seem, despite the Constitution, more and more the right of free speech, free thought is being impinged upon by some high-minded do gooders. We must fight this infringement...we must remain ever vigilant because this precious right can disappear without safeguards.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse, and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
My Opinion:
This is just another step to infringing on our constitutional rights. Rights that those in positions of power continually attempt to take away from us bit by bit.
This DMCA law is asinine and unjust. There are some who get videos taken down for simply saying the same words as a song, with absolutely no form of musical composition. How is this free speech? It's not. These people are not selling a song and making an absurd amount of profit off it. Many are not even making money from YouTube when they post a rare video like this including words that are in the same order as a song. Many of them only earn profit from YouTube that amounts to a few nickels a month. I guess soon doing a cover song from a band or artist will soon be illegal with the path these copyright laws are taking.
This is stepping all over our rights, and the right of anyone who post a video to an online forum across the globe. It should be everyone's right to access this public online space to entertaining videos without having to be fearful of having a slight semblance to ANYTHING copyrighted. Worst of all the powers at hand want to create a space in which anyone can claim copyright infringement and have a video taken down with the burden of proof being on the creator of the video. Anyone who doesn't see how ridiculous this is, is the kind of person that is helping lead the world (our country specifically) down the path to self destruction in which all of our personal freedoms will be gone.
I know creators who have had people put strikes on their videos for no reason, and I know that people will use that copyright claim system to spite people they don't like. YouTube creator MatPat of Game Theory had a video taken down and his channel use limited because he had a stock image in a video for THREE SECONDS! 3 seconds, and somebody filed a claim and got the video removed. That is beyond absurd. And creator JWittz, who had a video taken down with no explanation. We need to fix this system so that people can't just use it to harass people they don't like.
Using the Internet, YouTube, Facebook, and other internet media, is free speech, and the current news media for many Americans. Please protect free speech on the Internet. Thank you.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The DMCA is a prime example of overreach by big business. It demeans the users, it's ineffective and it needs to be stricken from the record. The wealth of articles about DMCA abuses speaks volumes. Please kill the DMCA now.
I work for a startup which catalogs Japanese media, kind of like IMDB. We have had DMCA notices sent to our service providers instead of to us, and because they want to keep their safe harbor they comply, disabling our servers and destroying our business.
We were unable to operate for nearly 5 days recently due to a bogus takedown notice, and there was nothing we could do to punish the malicious sender.
The DMCA has (3 times now, actually) nearly destroyed our completely-legitimate business, and I'm certain we're not alone.
The DMCA needs better safeguards for the target of a takedown notice, as well as a punishment for those who abuse it.
Knowing that this is happening is saddening. Their are people that make their living off reviewing people's items that they sell HONESTLY and see that be taken away could hurt. Not only does it give you a sense of what you are getting before spending hard earned money but it is also a source of entertainment if you will. I have seen many cases where people tell YouTubers "You literally saved my life!" Putting this act in place would harm the United States. We won't be able to know if a certain brand is doing negative things because their is not a person to tell us other than CNN or Fox, who only cover stories that will bring them revenue.
With all that being said, please reconsider the act because you are making life better for a lot of people by keeping things the way that they already are.
We need something other than a bot making these requests/judgements.
Please refer to this video for a more in depth explanation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I heard I would get candy.
The current political and corporate censorship under the guise of the DMCA is going to far and is stifling free speech for the citizens of this country. If we make the creation of common cultural reference points a matter of profit for corporate interests, we end up destroying the very culture we live in. Additionally under he guise of the DMCA, needed, healthy voices of dissent to abuses of power are unfairly being shut down.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
This process also assumes guilt on the part of the defendant and provides little recourse to those targeted by these takedowns.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to require proper proof of infringement from the plaintiffs and impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
~Kyle Titzer
Fix this NOW
DMCA notices are being used illegitimately to harm legitimate content creators and inhibiting the distribution of copyrighted content by the rightful owners of said content. There is currently no repercussions to wrongfully submitting a DMCA notice and it has a real and measurable effect on the revenue of independent businesses.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I'm a professor who teaches Information Technology Ethics (both undergraduate and graduate). One of the topics we cover is the balance between intellectual property and Fair Use - and the various misuses of the DMCA.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. Thisw system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Copyright has been taken from something to protect creators, to something that is now hurting them. Companies, and creators are abusing their right to fair use by silencing those who even think about using their content weather for parody or review. YouTube is especial being hurt as just an example of a few creators that have been hurt are Jim Sterling
Themysteriousmrenter
Channel Awesome
Anime America
Lost Pause
The Anime Man
Your Movie Sucks
I Hate Everything
Drwolf
Joshscorcher
TeamFourStar
CinemaSnob
Potatobombkyle Lego Productions
CinemaSins
AlternateHistoryHub
Jontron
BadComedian
Sargon of Akkad
Chris Stuckman
Bobsheaux
Sheeleシェーレ
BrainScratch Commentaries
NFKRZ
Pyrocynical
The Gaming Czar
Games Repainted
AdoseofBuckley
Totalbiscuit
Matthias
ToddintheShadows
Angry Joe
ElectricDragon505
CentralDerp
Krimson Rogue
EyeOfSOl
Dragon Mage
CreepyMcPasta
and these are guys who have a wider audience, so they get hurt they can make a video then go back up, after several infuriating weeks without getting paid however. But also there are the guys who are lesser known who are being hurt. And who's going to step in to help someone with one hundred or fewer subscribers? The answer needs to be the government. The government need to take a stand to help the people. The people who enjoy making videos, who make a living off of YouTube. With copyright being abused left and right it's finally time to take a stand and to say no more. So that creators no longer have to live in fear. So that no one loses income all just for false copyright claims. We need a just system, a system for the people, by the people. A system to give us the rights we deserve. No one needs to get hurt anymore, no one needs to stress over the abuse of copyright.
The DMCA is being abused by corporate elites. I and tens of millions of Americans like me are not going to stand idly by and watch as more and more of our democracy is torn away from us by corporate elites who only represent a tiny fraction of a percent of the electorate...
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legal speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Our longstanding way of life as Americans is being torn away from us by elite corporate power holders on every front... The tide of our government's decision making needs to turn towards protecting democracy and the people of the United States not to continuing to hand unprecedented authoritarian power to a tiny fraction of a percent of the electorate and population that in effects converts our American democracy into a fascist authoritarian dictatorship.
Regards,
Thomas McFarlan
also it sucks
Is this democracy? Should we be controlled by "big business" and robots? NO! Should individual rights, opinions and creativity be suppressed for political - indeed any -reasons? NO
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted
I run a movie related web site and am getting bogus notices all the time! I keep getting lumped in with sites that offer movie downloads for some reason. But all my content is 100% legal! I offer NO downloads. Stop this madness!!!
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Please watch this video by one of my favorite YouTubers on the issue of Fair Use. This has become a problem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I55seO4d1Kw
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on the content creators as people now live off of this medium and have their livelyhood put on the line because of this out-dated system.
Videos on various mediums are being flagged with copyright strikes, or being flagged as abuse, and a lot of these are false claims. This takes the revenue away from the content creator, and even puts their jobs as content creators on the line as their channels can be taken down with a certain number of strikes. This is seen in its entirity on the website, YouTube.
Movie/Game critics are the ones usually affected by this as the people who created the movie see the content harmful to their product, even though the videos only contain some small clips which have been modified from the product, which fall under fair use, as they have undergone a modification.
Also, due to the abuse of the copyright system, there have been companies that have been created simply to abuse this system. They would flag the video and contact the creator, informing them that an individual had informed their company of a certain part of the video which belonged to them and didn't want to appear. In each one of these cases, the content creator has gone to the supposed client, and the client does not know what the content creator is talking about. But even with this proof, people's content are still being flagged and cannot repeal this to the site as the amount of content creators out there is so vast.
It would be in the intrest of everyone to change this law to adapt to the current version of the internet, allowing content creators to feel safe when they make their videos and other content on other social medias.
Thank you for reading, sincerely, a worried individual.
What's been going on is an obvious violation of free speech. It's not just ripped off movies that are receiving false flags, there are countless reviews that are suffering from this as well. They've done nothing wrong here.
Before the form letter (which I have read and agree with) I would just like to say that my stance on the DCMA is that while it had worthy aspirations, it failed utterly by not requiring any form of due diligence when issuing a takedown notice. Persons or companies should not be able to issue hundreds or thousands of fraudulent takedown notices without any repercussions, as this leads to the current situation where notices are sent without any regard given to if the content is a case of fair use. This is an erosion of my rights as a US citizen, and should be addressed ASAP.
Freedom of speech shouldn't be violated in any form. Specially in spaces like Youtube or other social media. Hence I'm here to Save Project Voice Bend!! What they do is great. Don't take their videos down, please!
It's time to rein in these corporate copyright lawyers, and allow human creativity unhampered by inhuman algorithms. All content is derivative - that's natural human culture.
I approve this message.
Thank you.
Please take note! Freedom of speech over perfunctory responses and knee jerk reactions are what is required for a balanced and free society.
#wtfu #makeyoutubegreatagain
Companies no one loves you not even your wifes they have because your rich faggot who sits in bed all day and copyright other faggots cause you got nothing better to do also #bushdid9/11
Estoy en contra de que esta ley se siga aplicando.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Now, I fully agree with the default message, so I'm just going to keep it.
Personal Addendum: Thanks to fair use under the DMCA requiring one to take their case to court in order to plead fair use as a defense, most people who fair use is supposed to protect simply can't afford to do this, as nearly all of them aren't the rich companies they'd be forced to oppose. To allow the claimant and the defendant to stand on equal ground without requiring vast amounts of money to both plead their case before a court of law would be ideal.
(Yes, this is canned, but it hits the mark:)
Unfair censorship is unfair. Original content that is vaguely similar to copyrighted content is taken down so often, and it's not okay.
Please take this issue seriously! The problem is rampant and you are in a position to remedy the situation!
Where is the fair use?
I haven't been affected personally. But I know people who have. Fair use law is being ignored and it is appalling. People are breaking law, people like "daddy Derrick" and there ignorance of the law is not being acknowledged. Something needs to happen. Fair use is a law, we have it for a reason. It is no longer protecting content creators as it should. This needs to be fixed, we can't have the law constantly broken like this. Crime happens daily, but this is one that is happening and isn't even being noticed. Fair use MUST be restored, otherwise our community will die and fail and people will loose everything they worked on!
There is an obvious difference between a social media pirate and a social media artist. We need the law to reflect that difference.
TL;DR: IP owners are abusing the DMCA takedown process. It is a win if they score a hit and costs them nothing if it's a miss.
Let's be clear here. This is about protecting the rights of people using copyrighted content *legally* and still having that content taken down without consequence to those who had it removed.
Without consequences, copyright holders have no incentive to separate fair use cases of the use of these works from actual copyright infringement. So either create the needed consequences, or force the copyright holders to go after those who actually post the content rather than allowing them to force YouTube and other actors to do their bidding for them.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The DMCA is outdated. PLEASE have people who are professionals in digital media review and correct the language of this law. Th idea that a complaint results in IMMEDIATE TAKE-DOWN is being abused. If some one does not like something, it will disappear from the internet with a single false complaint.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders, and in some ways appears deliberately prejudiced against some content creators. It too is commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
END ALL COPYRIGHT!
FCC FYI
Dear Ms. Clyburn, FCC:
The costs of the building of the entire telecommunications infrastructure, including the WWW internet infrastructure, have been paid in full by the taxpayers.
The FCC is a government agency; It was formed to regulate the telecommunications industry, the corporations within that industry, and to respond to corporate abuses on behalf of the Taxpaying public.
So, tell me, Ms. Clyburn, does the FCC in fact work for the telecommunications industry and the corporations in that industry?
The internet is INDEED a PUBLIC UTILITY. You Jackasses.
WE, the Taxpayers, have already PAID IN FULL. Period.
Christina Marlowe
Date: Mon, Nov 24, 2014 at 2:42 PM
Subject: FCC Worker Ms. Clyburn? Dear, You have to make a decision....
To:
Cc: Mignon.Clyburn@fcc.gov
Dear Ms. Clyburn,
I've addressed you in writing before but I did not receive a response. I'll simply try again, but
this time I will use a different approach:
Here I will list a few key specific points
I will use a simplified format so that anyone (even an idiot-child) can understand: ;-)
Ms. Clyburn, you are a paid and ranking employee of the FCC;
The FCC is a taxpayer funded agency whose functions are very specific;
The FCC agency itself was created for specific reasons
And for a specific function:
1. To protect the public, the consumers, from abuse(s);
2. To address citizens' grievances in a meaningful way that produces remedy;
3. To address issues of impudent price-gouging, price-fixing, unfair business practices; unlawful monopolies; etc; et al
So I will ask you again:
Ms. Clyburn, do you in fact work for or on behalf of the corporate entities that comprise the telecommunications industry;
Those such as Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner, et al
If your answer is NO to the above,
Then do you, Ms. Clyburn, in fact work for and on behalf of the taxpayers, those of us who not only pay your salary based on good faith,
but who pay for the entire agency, the FCC, and it's continued existence.
After having spent decades staring at the WRITING ON THE WALL, your answer does not matter.
Now YOU Listen up!!
The costs of the building of the entire telecommunications infrastructure, including the www internet infrastructure, have been paid in full by the taxpayers.
The FCC is a government agency; The duties and obligations of the FCC are to protect citizens from corporate abuses;
By using you and your agency, the FCC, to act on behalf of the public interest; Oversight, regulation compliance, etc.
WE, the Taxpayers, have already PAID IN FULL. Period.
And now YOU TOO, in a very long line of minions gone awry, are GUILTY: Complicit in so many ways.
NOW you have 2 options to choose and you can be one or the other:
1. A Two-bit Street Whore; A Prostitute selling her very own self... to filthy control freaks...for filthy lucre
OR
2. A heroic and dashing figure, hell bent on saving the many innocent people from the monolithic telecommunications monopolies
I fervently hope that 1. you see a difference and 2. you make the right choice.
CM
FCC
2011:
What do you people DO EXACTLY???? And on OUR, the TAXPAYERS', Dime???? Do you people not even realize or understand that these monolithic DEREGULATED MONOPOLIES are literally SCREWING each and every one of us, US, the taxpaying citizens, just as YOU PEOPLE, in the "FCC," turn and LOOK THE OTHER WAY?!?!? Whether it's Cable or Dish, ALL television CORPORATIONS are just one of MANY of the biggest SCAMS around!!! And YOU do NOTHING!!!! I want my money back...ALL OF IT!!!!!!!!
ENOUGH!!!!!!!!
Irately,
Even though I'm in Canada, it still affects us because YouTube, as well as other organizations such as Twitch and Vimeo are. So copyright holders -- or worse the trolls and non-copyright holders -- can continue taking down our stuff, and hurt the other creators that we love.
This needs to stop, protect free speech and stop DMCA takedowns. How could a company claim another persons creation as there's even if it's not and get away with it. How can the government let this go unnoticed. Not right, make it stop
Where is the fair use
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system.
One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Sincerely,
Marianne Gordon
I hate it when my favorite channels get copyright strikes. Sirius, for example got points for nothing wrong, someone in Hero clan reported it wrongly.
The DMCA is heavily abused act which is basically in the power of Hollywood. Content creators on the Internet have gotten illegal false copyright claims from big companies like Warner Bros, Universal Studies, and many more. It needs to be updated to fit modern times, the DMCA was created in for the 1999 Internet and since then the Internet has changed a lot. The DMCA needs to change if we want to protect Fair Use when it is Fair Use.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Some of my favourite Youtubers like Nostalgia Critic, YourMovieSucksDOTorg and I hate Everything are being wrongly noted with copyright strikes because of their negative reviews of generally bad films. But the Copyright strikes are being used as threats and shell companies are striking to protect the original content creator or company, who's film has not been ripped off. Rather, they are using fair use in their reviews. All of them. These reviews should not be taken down for fair use and the copyright system shouldn't be abused. There have even been cases of content being taken down which has no copyrighted content in it! This is why, for the sake of entertainment and content created "Stop bogus DMCA takedowns and protect free speech!
I and friends and colleagues have all been subject to invalid (and sometimes actively fraudulent/malicious) DMCA notices, and in practice there's no way for us to combat them. Even disputing the takedown requires providing full personal information to the person who filed the notice - information they can then use to send a SWAT team to your house. Actual rightsholders, rent-seeking third parties and malicious troublemakers all understand this system and use it to their advantage. The DMCA needs to be revised so it protects rightsholders without hurting everyone else. As a creative credited in nearly a dozen published video games, I don't find the benefits of the current DMCA system outweigh the harm it has inflicted over the last decade.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
Just, STOP.
It's because of the takedown systems and copyright guidelines as they are that internet users fear for their intellectual property being persecuted, creating an unhealthy atmosphere of paranoia and anxiety, as well as infringing on free speech, one of our most essential human rights.
DMCA is against human nature.
My website, a journalistic endeavor looking into miracle cancer claims and documenting the actual outcomes, has been targeted by supporters of quackery, who tried to exert a DMCA copyright claim over their stories. Had I had a different host, my site might well have been shut down reflexively. Abuse of DMCA was a strategy to try to silence me. A lawyer has since advised me on free speech issues and represents my site against such claims, but it should never have to come to that.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily in favor of corporate copyright holders who use the process to censor content, content which is protected under fair use, rather than to protect legitimate copyrighted content. This serves to stifle free expression and creativity on the Internet, often for political means. The DMCA must include safeguards to protect against companies' infringement on users’ free speech .
I want to be able to use content under fair use to create content that I care about without the fear of it being taken down unfairly
My recommendation would be to put the burden of proof on the one asserting the infringement, such that there are real penalties for asserting copyright without actual evidence. Allowing the system to be automated is an invitation to abuse.
False DMCA-claims kill freedom of speech! Are you a free country??!
The lack of any form of punishment for false DMCA claims has allowed individuals/groups to abuse the DMCA for their own gain.
This has primarily been/being used by those individuals to silence negative criticism of their work and, in some cases, steal the money that the victim of the false claim earned.
There needs to be a total overall of DMCA process so that false claims cannot be made in the first place, which will no doubt be a lengthy process, but a punishment system against false claims needs to implemented ASAP to stop the outright theft and suppression of free speech that is occuring at this very moment and will continue to occur until then.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I make videos (YTP's, music videos, etc.) and they're, along with my channel: Is in constant threat of being taken down. I stand against this hell.
I'm a teen who's not only trying to survive high-school, but I'm ALSO trying to survive and battle youtube's DMCA and Content ID, all my hard work that I've spent days-weeks on: Token in a heartbeat. Is just unfair.
People should be judged by PEOPLE, not by MACHINES. "Automatic" detection that does a bad job puts the burden of proof on artists, but it belongs on the accuser of infringement. We cannot create an environment where individuals' rights to publish their intellectual property fall second to the convenience of a process that can as easily be abused as this one. Censorship, even "accidental" censorship, is not part of the American Dream, nor the realities of Liberty we are guaranteed as citizens.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Please dont take down videos for no reason if you did you guys are dumdumb face douchbag dickface assholes
I was also involved in a situation when a video I had permission to republish was taken down because of it's popularity even though I had permission to use it.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, independent entertainment and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Protect Free Speech!
Saludos desde Uruguay :)
Greetings from Uruguay :)
Our entire system of intellectual property law, including the DMCA, is failing to preserve the theoretical benefits of intellectual property rights and is instead, like many forms of law, most effective in assisting large businesses in preserving or co-opting profits. Repeal and simplify all existing intellectual property law, limit the terms of copyright to within the lifetime of individual creators, and forbid large businesses (which are not people and thus do not have a humanlike lifetime) from owning copyrights for longer than 28 years, including to to concretize and legally expand fair use (including putting the burden of proof of rights violations on those making claims of rights violation).
In case you haven't noticed, there is something happening out there. The people are waking up and taking a stand against corporate domination. Regardless of who wins the presidency in November, the people will not be stopped.
This is completely unfair to all youtubers. You should not allow and companies to take down any video they see. Most of the tine these takedowns go against fair use and people are forced to give away information and have money taken away for following fair use by actually having a purpose such as talking about flaws or reactibg to get word out on how they feel and mske things better. This copyright youtube system needs to die and should only be used for completely direct piracy. Otherwise, the company should be forced to pay the content creator all the money they have taken away. This is an unfair process that you must take note in.
Sincerely,
A part of the internet.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The First Amendment to the US Constitution is Not a 'suggestion', nor does it give us any 'rights'. Said rights are pre-existing, naturally occurring rights, due all mankind and were enshrined in the US Constitution to be Protected, from none other than the Federal Government, or those acting on it's behalf;
'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.'
I'm asking for help trying to save Net. Neutrality which is being violated by T-Mobile, Comcast, and the other Companies by interrupting my services to put restrictions on what I do and send and receive. John Fitzpatrick. PO Box 805, Rhinebeck, NY 12582 April 1, 2016
ss under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
You must do something about the copyright problem that is plaguing us. On You tube, some people are making false copyright claims on videos, and they are not being punished for their actions. A guy received a copyright strike for talking about a movie in his car (no clips or audio were shown). There are cases where a troll will impersonate a creator/author in order to get a video taken down. Once they file a fake claim against the video creator, the revenue goes to them. These people are committing fraud, which is illegal. You tube isn't doing anything to punish these scammers.
People should be judged by PEOPLE, not by MACHINES. "Automatic" detection that does a bad job puts the burden of proof on artists, but it belongs on the accuser of infringement. We cannot create an environment where individuals' rights to publish their intellectual property fall second to the convenience of a process that can as easily be abused as this one. Censorship, even "accidental" censorship, is not part of the American Dream, nor the realities of Liberty we are guaranteed as citizens.
//SMD+KMA
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Anyone who initiates a false claim of copyright infringement should be held accountable!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), at this current time, is a total joke, it is being absolutely abused on various media sharing sites. Simply the threat of its use can cause just about anyone's content to be taken down.
It is being used for terrible purposes right now, and it needs to be changed.
Keep freedom of expression on the Internet.
I think DMCA needs to be taken down it has hurt those who make a living off of YouTube especially those who made videos for a series of years.
I am an photographer and have had my work reposted online many times without permission or credit. I have used the takedown process of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) myself. In those cases, I found it very helpful and easy to get the stolen content removed. But being so easy makes it too easy to be abused. Malicious people are able to get content creator's own work taken down with a fraudulent DMCA notice. Large corporations are using automated searches to automatically send DMCA takedown notices of anything that has keywords that might indicate their copyrighted material without any human review to verify infringement and without considering fair use. There must be actual deterrent and enforcement against fraudulent DMCA takedown notices.
Besides, current system let's assholes to be assholes. And who honestly wants that?
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. It's gotten to a point where reviewers of entertainment media like 'Channel Awesome', 'Jim Sterling' and 'I Hate Everything' are taken down for staying within the copyright laws, but because there is no protection for them, they are attacked daily. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. It's ridiculous to think that filing false claims can be done without repercussions, but it becomes even worse when those people can actually make money doing so. 'Grade A Under A's' video reviewing the behavior of 'Tyrone Magnus' was filed by Magnus and he received the money the video made. By the time the situation was sorted out and 'Grade A Under A' got assess to his video (which was filed falsely) he didn't even got the money back. He only got his video and perhaps the money it would make after that. A false claim made money and Tyrone Magnus is not the only one to do so. The truth is that shell compagnies are hired to stike video's, even when they have no claim to it what so ever (the compagnies that hire the shell compagnies), while getting paid for doing so. This is stealing with permission. Some people make a livelyhood of these video's, it's their job. Though some have made enough money to miss out on the money some of their content is making (this still doesn't make it fair of course), however a lot of them don't. They make enough to come by and are being threatened to lose their income because the system is favouring the 'false claims/takedowns'. Because of how things are now, the system is encouraging stealing. These things should not be the norm. Protect free speech!
Legitimate, legal content is being pulled every day. There are no repercussions for these bogus claims. In its current form, the DMCA is anticompetitive and stifling free expression. We need laws that work for everyone, not just Big Content.
This system has been completely disregarding the fair use rights in favor of corporatons with money and shutting creator's channels down; closing their source of income.
I could have written a custom message, but I honestly couldn't describe the situation better myself.
Please fix this I'm begging you. I don't want to see any more bogus takedowns due to reckless behavior of the DMCA
Я хочу чтоб наконец усмирили злоупотребление Jukin Media и Network Wideo.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
#WTFU
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Proposed fix: require that claims of DMCA violations be investigated by humans who understand whether or not the claims are true. This is just good sense.
Please fix the DMCA so there's an incentive to avoid bogus takedowns.
Jim Sterling, I Hate Everything, awesome channel, etc
While I am not a creator of content on Youtube myself, I do enjoy a lot of the content produced on it, and there are many channels that I am personally subscribed to who's content I follow.
Unfortunately, many of these Youtube personalities that I am subscribed to, a few notable examples being the channels Jim Sterling, I Hate Everthing, A Dose of Buckley, and TheMysteriousMrEnter, have been the targets of several unwarranted, blatantly false, and sometimes downright malicious copyright claims from companies or individuals in an attempt to censor, intimidate, and steal revenue from these channels, despite the content the aforementioned channels falling well within the rights of Fair Use stated by the DMCA.
I am getting increasingly sick and tired of seeing the rights of these channels whose content I enjoy, channels who are only trying to make an honest living on Youtube, who pour considerable time, effort, and love into their content for their followers to enjoy, content that is 100% Fair Use, trampled on by arrogant, greedy corporations who think they are above the law by claiming these creators' videos and seizing the ad revenue that these creators need to make a living, and use their power, status, and money in an attempt to intimidate these creators into silence, or by scummy, petulant indie game developers or movie makers who abuse Youtube's copyright system to take down review videos out of maliciousness just because they couldn't handle some negative criticism towards their game or movie, even if the criticism is entirely justified.
I sincerely ask for the people in Washington to call attention to this matter, and to make motions to seriously review and make revisions to the current DMCA, so that it can used to better provide protection to the rights of Youtube content creators, and to provide stiff penalties to those companies and individuals that abuse the system by issuing false claims and takedowns, so that they may think twice before trampling on a content creator's rights.
To add to the above, there have been countless of cases where Youtube channels have been terminated due to strikes generated on videos containing virtually no copyrighted video or audio without any explanation. As it stands, the system is clearly set up in a way that favors corporations and users are given virtually no leverage to defend themselves against ludicrous attacks. I encourage those viewing this campaign to consider the implications of such unfair takedowns and how they are keeping internet communities from evolving and prospering.
And if I may get personal for a moment, as someone who wants to create content for an internet audience to enjoy, I am personally afraid to do so. The constant spamming, threats, and intimidation companies will inflict on Internet creators wards me away from creating work myself. And I know that I am not alone. If this blatant abuse of the DMCA continues, it will no doubt create a stagnant cultural pool on the internet. People look to their favorite reviewers opinions on movies, tv episodes as well as video games for input before watching, playing, buying, ect. But all to often these reviewers are unfairly copyright claimed to keep a bad review from spreading, or to simply steal revenue made of the content.
-jon
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Please bring back proper fair use.
John Rozanski (TheMysteriousMrEnter), Alex from I Hate Everything, Doug Walker and Jim Sterling are all big examples of people who have been hurt by DMCA abuse. DMCA claims are very hard to fight and are heavily weighed in favor of the copyright holder. It's not fair that reviewers who are protected by fair use are being abused because other people tried to make copyrighted content free on YouTube.
Fair use, as you know, means that excerpts of copyrighted material can be used without the need to seek permission from or payment to the copyright holder. This would include being used for parody, criticism, research, teaching and news. The current system that is in place for dealing with copyright claims is not being used fairly. While I myself am not an online creator, it is definitely a career I would like to go into and seeing how the current copyright system can be misused and, in some cases, abused, it can be worrying not only for me, but for other people considering being part of this online community.
One example I would like to bring up is the YouTube channel 'Channel Awesome' which is most well-known for reviews done by the character of the Nostalgia Critic. This channel has had relentless issues involving copyright and studios taking down their reviews, despite everything they do being within fair use and some of the movies being reviewed being given a positive review. At one point Channel Awesome lost monetisation on their videos and were not given an explanation as to why that was. It was only after the actor and reviewer behind the Nostalgia Critic, Doug Walker, made a video addressing this issue that monetisation was put back. While this could have just been good timing, I think you would agree that the channel ought to have been given more of an explanation.
Another reviewer, Brad Jones, who is also part of Channel Awesome as well as his own YouTube channel ‘Stoned Gremlin Productions’ and is best known for his reviewer persona of the Cinema Snob, has also come under fire due to unfair copyright claims, resulting in a strike against his channel. What is hilarious about this incident is that the strike was given as a result of a video which was part of his series called ‘Midnight Screenings’. This is a series where he and some of the people who make up Stoned Gremlin Productions sit in a car after going to see a movie in the cinema and discuss what they have seen. There is no clips or copyrighted material used, it is purely two or three people sitting in a car talking about a film!
The saddest part of all this in my opinion is that unfair copyright strikes can even be inflicted on creators as a way of bullying. One of the best examples of this is from the YouTube channel ‘I Hate Everything’, who not only has had videos removed and is constantly battling unfair copyright strikes, but he also had his channel temporarily deleted for hours without any explanation or warning. One copyright strike came directly from the director of one of the infamously bad movies that he reviewed and the director even attempted to bully an apology out of I Hate Everything in a very unprofessional e-mail. This e-mail included statements claiming that I Hate Everything should “please be a ‘man’ and submit [his] full legal name and address” to “save [the director’s] legal team a few minutes of hunting it down” as well as claiming that if I Hate Everything didn’t issue an apology soon then he would contact the producers from the other films I Hate Everything reviewed and that he would “be receiving numerous legal complaints” as a result. While this example is a lot more extreme than normal, it still explains what online creators have to go through when battling false copyright claims.
False copyright strikes can also be given as a way for companies to steal money from online creators. Channel Awesome had this happen to them several times as well as I Hate Everything. In fact, I Hate Everything had been given another strike on a separate video when a third party company claimed he used a copyrighted song in a certain part of this video. Not only was this untrue but, after direct messaging the artist the song is copyrighted to, the artist confirmed that neither he nor the record label had made the claim. This is a company that does not own the use of the song either but is able to inflict copyright strikes solely as a means of stealing revenue.
The copyright system on YouTube is at a stage where it can be abused by anybody, from other content creators silencing criticism because they were being called out or critiqued, to small scamming companies making money off stealing revenue from online creators. All of these examples are damaging for online creators, especially ones who are still trying to make a name for themselves. There are many more examples of channels on YouTube being attacked for doing nothing wrong as well as channels that are clearly in the wrong but are suffering no consequences. There have been suggestions made by online creators on how to deal with this issue. One being that, instead of the revenue generated by a video being given straight to the person who issued the copyright strike while the case is being investigated, the revenue should be put in a separate account until it is decided who is in the right. It is also an issue that too much of the copyright system on YouTube is automated and there is not enough human involvement, this is an issue that loads of online creators have complained about when dealing with false copyright strikes and is definitely something that should be improved upon. There is also no punishment for anyone who makes a false copyright claim which again adds to the fact that the system is weighted against the creator and is definitely something that should be addressed.
To YouTube’s credit, they are at least attempting to try and sort this issue out. Trending hashtags such as #WTFU (Where’s the Fair Use) created by Doug Walker from Channel Awesome and #MakeYouTubeGreatAgain created by YouTube channel GradeAUnderA (Who also speaks out about this subject) have spread the word on this issue and gained the attention of YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, who claimed on Twitter that YouTube is listening to the criticisms on the copyright system, mentioning Channel Awesome, GradeAUnderA and I Hate Everything in the same tweet. However, it doesn’t help that the copyright system is beyond out of date and needs to be changed. I understand that this is not a problem that can be changed overnight and will take a lot of time but it is something that needs to be done. As the internet is a global community, this affects people around the world, not just in the US. This outdated system needs to be brought into the modern day so online creators can create without fear of false accusation.
I have personally been following people reviewing shows and movies for quite some time. And I know it helped me a to as a writer and a creator to know how to analyze and create better.
But those people also allowed unknown shows and movies, cartoons in general to be known.
Although I understand how copyright has to protect the owner of the used footages, it appears to me that the fact that enormous societies with tons of money attacking people on the internet for just a few footages or even a critic of their creation is something childish.
Behind that, the fact that the creators get punished and refrained in their work by those same companies that can manage to have their own revenues taken away only to be put back in the "system's banks" is even less fair.
Internet was a way to allow people to do what they want in freedom. Yes, there are still some rules to respect that makes common sense, but with this risk and actual situation of having even the internet taken down under an absolutely unfair 'copyright policy' is going against the idea of internet itself.
Fuck dmca
Copyrights and the DMCA have been holding back societal and scientific progress for far too long. We need to work together as a whole. If people hoard certain things to themselves, we can't work off that to make it even better.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders, (naturally, of course) and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. (Uh, just what is reviewing them now??) (Naturally, of course.) (Nazi Germany, anyone? Or perhaps Soviet era Russia?)
People are getting videos taken even with no music or footage by companies making false claims.
We're living in the 21st century, when copyright regulations should have long been changed or even voted nonsense. As a musician I can understand one's notion to make money out of one's creation. But we live in the world where corporations, banks and other enormous machines just can't help not to abuse their power. I believe that American government is still able to make a change in favor of common sense. And I hope the fear doesn't win in the end.
The current version of the DMCA need to be updated to respond to how the internet currently functions today. The current system has made it too easy for people to clam that something is violating copyright when it obviously isn't. This gives too much power to copyright holders and allows them to censor criticism. You must realize that this system is out of date and needs to be rewritten to stop the blatant abuse that we are seeing all over the internet, on places like YouTube. Please take this to heart and revise this law.
FIX THIS. Peoples livelihoods and free speech are at stake. If it would win in court it should win at first. THAT'S THE POINT OF COURT, TO CLEAR UP WHATS RIGHT AND WRONG!!! make it work for youtube and for everyone!
The current copyright system stifles creativity and prevents content creators from receiving proper credit for their work.
A DMCA takedown request is too simple to issue and often are issued without regard to fair use policies. This leads to content creators being unable to use material even in a fair use fashion out of fear that their work will be removed even when it was perfectly legal to make and distribute. One example of this is a professional YouTuber. His or her job is making entertaining or educational videos. Sometimes, however, a video will include a piece of another video, well within fair use, but will be removed anyway because the DMCA system relies on the concept of guilty until proven innocent. A DMCA takedown immediately removes the video and can be disputed later. During the time the video is gone, however, the creator is losing revenue.
A DMCA strike can be severely damaging to a creator's reputation. Again, using the YouTube example, enough copyright strikes will shut down your account and are taken very seriously. These are often against the fair use policy but often don't get overturned, potentially leading to the destruction of someone's livelihood.
The current DMCA system is broken. People who don't even own copyright on things can use the system to attack other people's videos for no reason other than personal vendettas. Not to mention it allows copyright holders to silence any and all criticism even though it falls under fair use.
Between several movie critics, Jim Sterling, TocalBiscuit and others being unfairly targeted by the current system, it's clear that it no longer works as intended and is being abused.
The system needs to change and be made more open and more fair to the public, while putting more onus on those abusing it.
I have seen this far too many times just on facebook alone. In fairness, there MUST be a safety net..as it is set up right now, there is no recourse
Keep in mind, Fair Use should be clearly spelt out for all on all sites that it applies too. Everyone should be able to see the rules, therefore they can adhere to them. Free speech is extremely important along with copyright regulations.
The DMCA hurts content creators, authors, people whom it is supposed to protect, it allows patent trolls who are not authors to harras and steal revenue from authors content. It does more harm than it does good.
There is no penalty for filing a false DMCA, content that does not include copyrighted materials or has fair use. It can even be done by someone who does not have the copyright of the material they're filing against, there is no penalty for doing this and it allows them to steal revenue from the authors.
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( im a dyselixic so forgive my awful spelling please)
as a english based disaled film-maker how am i ment to make a living on in the media indesrty when the law that protects my works can be used to tear my living away form me ive never had a strike thankfully but many film/content makers have had strikes and they have had their lives ruined the DMCA was passed in 1998 and as such it is an old relic of a bill/pollcy and it needs to be updated or changed to meet a 2016 internet not a 1998 becuase rihgt now it has been used not to protect but as a weapon that has awful long lasting effects the victims.
hope things get better with this bill - A.Forbes
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is absolutely biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and abused to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process has massive errors and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The system is being abused. There is no reason for the companies not to take down the content they do not approve of, since there is no repercussion for that kind of action. The content creators struggle with the claim for minimum 30 days, even if it was a false claim. They lose revenue for their work, and in most cases the revenue goes strait to the pocket of the claimant.
Right now on YouTube, DMCA's are being used constantly for unethical, borderline illegal stuff. Companies that have no actual copyright claim over the materiel in videos are being taken down to steal money. Claims are being filled illegally to actually silence critics of movies and shows. Some videos are even getting multiple strikes even after they've been cleared. This is happening a lot. Almost every single big YouTube channel I've seen is getting shit over it. These videos can explain it way better then me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH-8PqS84qA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GoQM_Z-CUc
The DMCA needs be reformed heavily. It allows for unjust, and in some cases illegal, removal of content by big corporations with no penalty to the corporation if and when the claim they made turns out to be false or fall under fair use.
YouTube has 2 ways to punish videos that a company/corporation/studio claims is infringing on copyright. The first is a strike, which removes the video entirely because the company sent a legal request to YouTube asking them to remove it. If a channel on YouTube gets a strike on one of its videos, it can only upload videos 15 minutes and under and it cannot dispute claims for 6 months. If it gets 3 strikes, the channel is removed. It can take up to a month to get a strike removed. The second way YouTube allows the punishing of people without taking fair use into account is copyright claims. Any holder of copyrighted material can add said material to a list of files that YouTube searches for in all videos automatically. The copyright holder can then tell the system how much of that file is allowed to be in a video before the video gets a copyright claim. Claims can also be filed manually. If a dispute is filed against the claim, the claimant has 30 days to respond before the claim is removed. If they respond, then they can remove the claim or reinstate it. If it is reinstated, an appeal can be filed which gives the claimant ANOTHER 30 days to respond. Nobody working at YouTube ever sees a dispute or appeal. Content creators are limited to filing 3 appeals at a time, even though they can receive an unlimited number of claims. Claimants can also turn a claim into a strike during the appeal process, essentially limiting creators to only filing 2 appeals at a time, or else risking the removal of their channel for getting 3 strikes.
If a claim or strike is proved to be false or to fall under fair use, there is no penalty for the claimant. Not only can they mute or remove an entire video for having a small amount of copyrighted material in it, but they can also take the ad revenue from the creator that uploaded the video. This means that they can take a creator's income until that creator disputes the claim. Even if the claim is removed, be it automatically or by being proven to be false, the claimant keeps all the money that they made from that video. This provides companies with an incentive to file false claims, then extend the removal process for the full 60 days while they steal all the revenue from that video, in order to maximize profit. Many creators have reported this happening to them.
Companies can also hire other companies to make claims for them. Many of these companies will not remove a claim no matter how much evidence is provided that the video falls under fair use, and will often turn it into a strike if an appeal is filed.
Things called "multi-channel networks" used to protect channels from copyright claims and strikes in exchange for up to 40% of that channel's revenue. YouTube tried to end that system, but reached a compromise with MCNs. This compromise allowed for fair use protection for a few "managed status" creators. These are creators with a very large number of subscribers and viewers. Companies can still sue a managed status creator, but that creator's MCN will defend him or her with very good lawyers because the MCN can AFFORD good lawyers. This system only gives fair use protection to creators that make a lot of money for themselves and for YouTube. In November, YouTube did decide to protect a few creators personally, but it doesn't cover nearly enough creators.
Channel Awesome reports getting a new claim every other day. Boogie2988 reported video game companies claiming his videos, even though the same companies paid him to make the video in the first place. He also reported getting claimed for just showing PICTURES from games, and being claimed since he started his channel. Team Four Star had their channel taken down due to 4 copyright strikes at once, but they're big enough and have enough friends that it got put back up the next day. They're videos aren't even monetized, so there is no reason that they should have gotten strikes in the first place. CinemaSins has had many of their videos taken down, despite the majority of each video being the voice of the narrator satirically pointing out errors in movies. Many other channels, mainly movie review and gaming channels have expressed problems with the copyright system that many of them have been affected by. Among these are TotalBiscuit, AlphaOmegaSin, Jim Sterling, Mr Sunday Movies, and more. Even copyright lawyer Leonard French made a video with his thoughts on the subject, and he agreed that there are lots of problems.
None of the problems are the fault of the DMCA directly, but it doesn't have anything in place to punish companies for false claims. The law should have some sort of punishment in place for false claims, because even if Google puts something like that in place it still won't apply to sites other than YouTube. On Twitch, even small portions of copyrighted music playing in the background, often over the voice of the livestreamer and other, unrelated footage, can result in that livestream being muted in the archives. A new law needs to be passed to protect content creators from abuse by big companies.
The People need to have the freedom to see ,watch, criticized, and react to vid online without the securitize of copyright material and unfair use when people are trying to have fun on YouTube and its time for the people to get a word in edgewise otherwise there will be a reckoning on a global scale for those new Youtubers afraid of getting their channel getting taken down for unfair reasons!
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and completely ignores the possibility of fair use, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I personally haven't had any takedown notices, but channels on youtube that i watch have had takedowns over reviews, including videos with no copyrighted material, where it's just someone in a car, after they saw a movie at the cinema, no overlay of the film, no music, just them and their car.
Please stop DMCA
The notice-and-takedown under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-takedown process under tital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
STOP THIS BS
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The internet copyritght claim system is currently being abused by companies, because of how easy it is to do so. There are no significant penalties for false/malicious claims of copyrighted material, which often times accuses creators who have used heavily altered, reassessed material. And sometimes, haven't even used the material in question at all, and it's the mentioning of such material the true cause of the claim.
Under this conditions, the content allowed to be posted by internet creators is greatly limited, as they're work can easily be considered illegal, even tho all of it may fall under fair use law. This can, and has, resulted in threats, and stealing.
It's necessary to update the system to prevent companies from stealing the gain of internet creators, or the undeserved deletion of they're work,
especially since the internet currently provides jobs which are greatly damaged by these system flaws.
I have been a victim of this abuse when filming the scene of my husbands accident. While narrating what happened in the background the radio in my vehicle was playing although my comments drowned the radio out, my video was taken down without recourse because the radio was on....the DMCA must stop bogus takedowns and protect free speech~
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged, as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Thank you.
James L. Whittier, Ph.D.
98 Byrd Drive, Apt. E
Steilacoom, Washington
98388-1677
253-582-3682
Just saying.
Quit being a corporate pawn.
Some of my favorite youtubers have had videos taken down unfairly and have lost tons of revenue and motivation to continue making videos. This is unacceptable.
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I have personally assessed the body of text above and, through my own tuition, agree with the cause. I support this appeal as I feel freedom of speech is being violated and little is being done to protect those who are operating within the compounds of "Fair Use" and those who wish to create valid (and legal) critique on a product or products. Too many times have individuals and corporations affronted content creators illegally. I believe that addressing these issues in a higher court is paramount to protecting freedom of expression.
I will also note that I do not condone copyright infringements if they are deemed to be a legitimate breach of intellectual property laws. Nevertheless, the evidence of foul play by corporations and individuals is shown clearly through a myriad of different examples online.
The movement to address this issue has operated under the hashtag of #WTFU (the hashtag's punctuation may vary). It was started by internet critic Douglas Walker after several of false copyright claims that greatly affected his livelihood.
Here is the video discussing the issue : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
I plead with you to combat this and implement laws to aid content creators who's jobs are being threatened by these harmful transactions.
Thank you for your time,
The use of computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet. I also believe it is done indiscriminately to block creative and/or intellectual competition. This law should not be used to protect those who, with malicious intent, would stifle others.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I will not stipulate the many obvious reasons each & every rational citizen of a democratic republic is aware of and instead just say our way of life can't be sustained under censorship much less have any hope for improvement.
This willful and wanton taking down of postings on the internet initiates a negative feedback cycle that spirals down into another "Dark Ages" period as sure as every pebble tossed into a pond causes ripples
It must be stopped and this in no way precludes honest protecting of an artist's creations.
The DMCA laws are being used in clear violation of the rights of the people by companies seeking to abuse and harass it's very own consumers via constant unlawful action. This needs to stop.
The censorship goes beyond that, many times when companies fail to either take down a video, steal ad revenue and/or lock monetization from content creators, they block the video in other countries like my homeland Ecuador, for the past 3 years or so I have been region/country blocked from many videos, under the "violation of copyright" excuse when in reality is a desperate attemp by some company to reduce the viewership of a content creator on a worldwide scale, the only time this makes sense is whenever someone has uploaded movies and or music through YouTube which is indeed piacy, but other than that is unwarranted censorship and an attack on the content creator's viewership, please stop this.
A Philadelphia homeless newspaper, One Step Away, details the problem. https://www.facebook.com/OSAPhilly/photos/a.106199862753619.3655.104442896262649/1142617575778504/?type=3&theater
Please, give me back old, free YouTube.
I believe that persons who abuse the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act should be held accountable in some manner for violating individuals’ rights to free speech. The following form letter perfectly sums up my personal thoughts on this issue.
READ ME.
Please don't do this to us. Please help us to free the internet. We love you guys for keeping us save but you guys must understand the internet will not be free. Sites such as YouTube will have not have any quality contents if you guys continue to take down everything. Don't be a puppet to work under the influence of big cooperation. Think about this for a second. For us, for you and your children's future. Don't let the cooperation lock down the internet. Please
Beyond the above boiler plate stock letter provided (with which I wholly agree), the real issue is that protecting copyright is a difficult and potentially expensive burden of copyright holders who are advantaged by profits from said copyrights. Through the current process, copyright holders have created an environment while allows them to outsource their responsibilities through lobbying for rule promulgation and report automation at the detriment of free speech and fair use.
It is right, fair, and reasonable for copyright holders to bear the burden of proving a copyright violation through a court of law and not via a de facto cease and desist process with no oversight or accountability.
Right so, below this is a preworded statement, and that's all true, but here's my own thoughts in this one little paragraph.The DMCA is being abused o take down videos, that should not be taken down whatsoever, and quite frankly it is ridiculous. Video's that have no media whatsoever sans people's voices have been taken down due to this act. It's allowed for content creator's to be harassed and bullied by big industry, and it just needs to go. This needs an update to bring it into the 21st century. Fair use is a thing, and almost every creator uses it, they shouldn't be penalized for something well within their rights.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
This is true
I´m in.
For example, critics like the Nostalgia Critic, YMS, I Hate Everything, and the MysteriousMr.Enter are allowed by law to do their reviews on television shows and movies. However, copyrights from multiple businesses (Disney, 20th Century, Hasbro, and Cool Cat Productions) halt this legal practice. Sometimes it's just for stealing money, while others like Derek Savage of Cool Cat Productions simply just don't like the review. Then, too much time is taken to address complaints, or put the video back, but not have the artist receive the money. In a world where the 1st Amendment is constantly being abused, it seems like bigger companies want to silence it, which isn't correct. It's bad enough that literally anyone can copy-claim a video.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Dailymotion, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
The DMCA is broken. It can be fixed, but only if we take action now. The internet is a vast space of knowledge and entertainment. I have been affected by the DMCA most when it comes to YouTube. I've been using it for a while now to watch Let's Plays, movie reviews, science discussions, and the news. It's usefulness covers a myriad of interesting videos. That is until they get taken down. I realize that many people upload chunks of other people's work for a profit, stealing revenue from the people who actually put time and effort into what they create, but there are many that get hit with unfair claims. The results can be devastating to people who rely on it as a source of income. Deciding what is and is not fair use is tricky to define, but certainly something can be done about blatant abuse of the claims system as well as protecting fair use.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Daniel
This is freedom of speech. Protect it.
Here's the TLDR; - I acknowledge that there needs to be a mechanism to protect copyright. The current law is too prone to abuse. This must be fixed.
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This cannot be allowed! We have a right to free speech in the comments. DMCA should be allowed to stop this.
My name's Guilherme, I'm 23 years old, I'm from Brazil and I'm afraid of pursuing my passion of youtube content creation because of harassment. I did it for about a year and had to fight back as much as I could with ridiculous claims from the music industry claiming 100% revenue even though their music was only 3% of my video. I'm a gaming youtuber and a lot of games have fantastic soundtracks with copyrighted music. I became paranoid and unable to create good content with some games simply because the first few seconds of a song made me FEAR the video I would put DAYS of work in would be taken down. I have 68 subscribers. I'm not PewDiePie. I'm not Smosh. I'm not the hugest start ever. I DON'T have the tools and means to constantly fight back against this sort of attacks. This needs to be updated and reviewed NOW if we want to stop the harassment of smaller channels and if we want to avoid people who do this for a living, who pay their bills with the money they make out of youtube.
Copyright holders are allowed to send in multiple claims and stifle free speech by strangling content creators on the Internet to death. Take a look at me, my entire YouTube account was banned because of a video that is clearly fair use. The current system assumes people are guilty until proven innocent, and it simply is a massive injustice. There are people who share full, unaltered movies on the Internet, and they are evil people, but I never do that because if someone wanted to watch the original content, they would watch the original content, and not my video with my own voice and editing! This is an outrage that I would hardly impose on my worst enemy.
Some Social Media outlets, especially YouTube, are enabling this illegal behavior by having a 3 strike system and extremely limit how YouTubers could fight against these bogus claims. This is a huge example how companies that host content are also responsible for safeguarding content creators and other individuals who exercise free speech every day. DMCA has also been used to take down reviews of other content by people who should be protected but are being censored by companies that don't like negative feedback.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright claimers. It's being used to censor content that is protected under fair use, to silence policy critics, and to lay claim to public domain material. The damage these algorithm-generated DMCA claims are doing cannot always be undone. We NEED to be protected from these automated rip-off specialists and the lawyers who back them up.
The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. There need to be penalties for anyone in the process who helps automate these offenses against free speech and due process.
Companies are using computer algorithms to issue automated takedowns. This process does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions. This has resulted in censoring vast amounts of protected and fully legal speech and creative expression on the Internet. Automated takedown demands and automated cooperation with such request by internet providers need to be stopped. They're trampling on fair and free Internet usager.
A recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors reported that nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity. Why do such requests not get any human review before they cause damage and stultify free speech?
Corporations acting as copyright claimers on public domain material or censoring criticism of their policies have no place in the U.S. Copyright trolls who try to extract money from innocent victims also need to be stopped.
The notice-and-takedown process has been abused to censor political speech at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos are taken offline when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses.
The damage done by such abuse can not be undone.
Sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces. Companies and individuals that issue takedown notices of content clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for abusing the process and violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed. Please impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to bother with any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I have seen videos that have no copyrighted images or music get taken down by shady ip holders to protect themselves from bad reviews and even transformative works that i go to see the creator of that and not the copywritten material.
THE NOTICE AND TAKEDOWN PROCESS PUTS THE MOST IMPORTANT CONTENT AT RISK! Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
The below comments (written by somebody else, no less) encapsulates my feelings on DMCA. Which undercuts me quite a bit seeing as how I would have liked to make a more personal comment. However, the fact that people can falsely file DMCA claims without any punitive action at all, even a way to mitigate it, is rather saddening.
Thank you for listening.
Francis Lee
This outdated, archaic means of copyright is being abused to take down creators of legitimate content, as well as much use that would fall under the purview of Fair Use. Companies and Trolls are using this as a means of disruption that cost many people many thousands,not including the up and coming content creators, product reviewers, and others that have had their channels defaced by a blind system.
Fix this. Urgently.
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So I could have been lazy and just signed my name to a blanket prepared statement on the DMCA, but as you probably have seen that once at least by now I felt the need to submit a more personal statement.
I will start by stating that I am a consumer of content that typically gets affected by the DMCA through such forums as Youtube, Twitch, Deviant Art, and a few lesser known forums for things like online games. I have not had to fight a copyright claim filed against me, nor have I tried to file a claim against someone else.
That being stated, the laws (or at the very least the implementation of them) are clearly unbalanced in the favor of those who hold a copyright licence to the point where legitimate fair use of their products is under constant attack, especially on Youtube.
I have seen reviews of video games and movies (both positive and negative) be claimed as DCMA violations just for using some footage from the subject being reviewed. This has led many reviewers to not use footage at all (or gamble by using stock footage from trailers... which is a gamble, as sometimes this will get copyright claimed anyway) and this often hurts the quality of the review. A picture, after all, is worth a thousand words.
While the Youtube system is not a full DCMA compliant entity (rather it was made to be a protective shell for the executives and stockholders of the company), it still is powered by the actual laws. If the laws changed to more explicitly allow for fair use of copyrighted material (as is within the copyright laws in general) and penalize corporations that attempt to stifle legitimate criticism of copyrighted work by siting DCMA (say, forcing the holder to pay for damages to the critic/creator and perhaps forfeiture of copyright after too many abuses) the Youtube policies would in turn change as well.
Put simply, the DMCA is used to censor frequently and justify the destruction of completely original content while it is tied up in the courts. If you remove the incentive to produce new content, even entirely original content, because of the risk of going to court, which even costs the innocent a great deal, many will stop producing that content entirely. That is not the original purpose of the DMCA. Any law which stands entirely for the benefit or detriment of one group of people is unjust. That is why we have equal rights, it was not an amendment or addition upon "white rights" to incorporate African Americans, but rather the writing of equal rights. Let's give equal rights to the content creation industry. Let the little guys have the same chance holywood does instead of giving the top dogs the ability to crush us by abusing this act. I do not think those who blatantly disregard copyright should go free, rather I think the burden of proof should be on the copyright holder; furthermore, it is obvious that any regulation is a mute point anyways, as the vast majority of takedown would never be filled if it weren't for their automated detection in the first place. Finally, if the original intent of the DMCA was to protect copyright, it has obviously failed. I could easily go to ThePirateBay or any torrenting website and download any content i choose right now, and many do make this choice, as the DMCA has allowed these media companies to be so non-competitive that they region-lock and block people from legal means of obtaining their content. Let the copyright holders protect themselves with the help of the government, don't make the government ask for the help of the copyright holders or the accused prove themselves innocent. Thank you for your time.
I've had completely original videos on you tube taken down due to false copyright claims. videos that I create from start to finish, front to back. including all original audio and imagery.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Your system is broken, and you're bad people for continuing to support an archaic law.
Get your shit together.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
I am just beginning this channel and I'm worried that the future of my channel will be claim after claim after claim
As it stand now, the DMCA is used as a tool to harass content creators, stifle criticism, or bypass all notion of fair use.
Many online content creators will receive several DMCA notifications per day on material that is either clearly Fair Use or contains no copywritten material at all. This most often done by automated bots that scan for any use of material and flag it without making considerations as to whether fair use applies (as required per Lenz v. Universal). It is also very common for this to be submitted by either trolls or competitors to force takedowns of new material. Many companies have also used the DMCA to force reviewers to remove negative product reviews, as Digital Homicide Studios did over poor reviews of "The Slaughtering Grounds."
Without actual enforced penalties for false claims, these put a burden on the accused, even if completely innocent of wrongdoing, while the accuser gets away without even so much as a reprimand. Since there is no disincentive to file claims frivolously or dishonestly, such behavior will continue.
The recent response put in by RIAA, et al makes a number of strange claims regarding the current music and video industry. They claim that their profits are plummeting, even as revenue for many of the signatories (including ASCAP, BMI, and SoundExchange) continues to climb. They claim that 500 lawsuits would be an unmanagable burden for a group that filed, settles, or threatened legal action to over 30,000 individuals over the course of only 5 years.
The music industry claimed that the Piano player would kill it.
The music industry claimed that the radio would kill it.
The music industry claimed that the cassette would kill it.
The movie industry claimed Betamax and VHS would kill it.
Now these industries claim the internet will kill them.
Friday, April 1, 2016, 12:38 PM
My name is Colin G. Gallagher, and I am the Chair of the Bitcoin Foundation Education Committee and a member of Advisory Boards for the Lifeboat Foundation
(lifeboat[dot]com/ex/bios[dot]colin[dot]gallagher). Thank you for taking the time to read and consider my comments submitted today.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error (one example being the DMCA takedown on August 6, 2012 by Scripps Local News of NASA's Mars Rover live YouTube channel an hour and ten minutes after Curiosity’s 1.31 a.m. EST landing in Gale Crater - that is to say, a NASA-made public domain video posted on NASA’s official YouTube channel, documenting the landing of a $2.5 billion Mars rover mission paid for with public taxpayer money, was blocked by YouTube because of a copyright claim by a private news service) and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet. What may make this even worse is upcoming possible implementation of the TPP, which would (in its e-commerce chapter) present grave harm to programmers currently utilizing GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or GPL), a widely used free software license which guarantees end users (individuals, organizations, companies) the freedoms to run, study, share (copy), and modify the software. This is due to the proposed language that of Article 14.17, which prohibits any Party from requiring the transfer of, or access to, software source code as a condition for the import, distribution, sale or use of such software, or products containing such software, in the Party’s territory. This commitment applies only to “mass market” software (a term that is not defined), and does not apply to software used for “critical infrastructure” (also not defined). It is entirely possible that if the TPP is passed in the United States of America, then the DMCA takedowns we see happening now would become even more frequent and the problem would become even worse than it already is.
Thank you again for consideration of these comments. I appreciate the time you are putting into the review and incorporation of public input into the process as you consider what to do about this issue.
This crap needs to end. It's gotten really bad as of recent, and it needs to stop before it goes any further. The people that do this are bullies and by letting them get away with this, sites like youtube are just supporting them. Enough is enough. #WTFU
So there's an interesting bit of culture in YouTube video production that has come about. Because YouTube creators know if they put more than 4 seconds of a song or whatnot in their video it'll get taken down, it's now become a norm to use only 4 seconds of a song to make a point. It's used as a joke typically- something dramatic will happen in the video and to enhance the drama some 4 seconds of a sad song will be used before it cuts back to normal and the joke is over.
4 seconds; because creators are scared of their hard work being taken down over some absurd restriction, they've been forced into playing off the restriction as a joke. Similarly, many creators will make jokes about DMCA and copyright takedowns. Livestreamers know that even just poorly singing a song has a chance of getting their content removed, so they'll bring up their fear of their video getting removed.
Obviously there is a purpose to copyright. However at this point in time that purpose is being exploited and abused. DMCA takedowns nowadays aren't simply about protecting a creator's work from being unrightfully copied and 'stolen,' but instead get used as a threat of censorship AGAINST creators. The large bully the small, as small creators get stifled by the risk of being taken down, potentially for no reason at all. DMCA has devolved into a threat, rather than a protection.
That is not right.
One of my friends lost YouTube Channel because of that. And seeing how others are suffering because of it, it has to stop, and it has to stop now.
Please, in the name of change and societal growth, update the rules. Nothing remains the same forever and it's about time the DMCA caught up to the times.
Hello
As a publisher of copywritten material, (photographic) I understand and value the protections granted under the copyright laws in the U.S. However at this point in time, these laws are being perverted for the sake of illegitimate data supression. This is somewhat reminessent of how a larger company is allowed to steal a domain name from a smaller company EG Alembic was forced to surrender the domain name bass.com in spite of the fact that they are the world wide prememinant manfacturer of basses. The goal of a legal system should be to insure 'fair play' amongst a citizenry, especially copyright laws, when the application of these laws become contrary to their intent, civilizations at large suffer.
That is all
JB
I have been growing up learning about human rights for years, and I feel that some basic rights and freedoms are definitely being violated when the DMCA is abused. Many creators who post content on websites such as Youtube rely on it for their income. It's their job, their career. It's how these creators keep themselves fed, how they get their water, how they keep a roof over their heads. As well, it's what they love. Making content is what makes them happy, and oftentimes, it makes many other people happy, millions sometimes. That can be difficult given how horrible and scary today's world appears to have become. Some of the content that is posted on these websites can make a real difference and help a lot of people by bringing awareness to almost anything. It can even help the people who are making these false claims.
A common argument made against people who abuse the act is that by making and posting content about various forms of media, such as a review of a video game, is actually helpful to the company who made it, whether the expressed opinion was positive or not. If a review is positive, then people who watch it are likely going to buy the afformentioned video game. If it's negative, then there are still people who will buy the game to see if it's really as bad as was said in the video, because they just learned that the game exists and are curious, etc. Either way, the game is being promoted in one way or another. However, if the company who created the video game takedown the review, then less people will have seen it and less people will know about the game, meaning that fewer copies would have been sold. In short, the copyright holders are only hurting themselves in what they're doing. It's a common argument, but it's no less valid, I assure you.
Please, ladies and gentlemen of the United States Copyright Office, bring some much needed balance and change to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. It has hurt too many people for too long. As I said before, the content being made by these creators has the potential to make a significant positive difference for countless people, but if the corporations, who can also gain a benefit from this content, keep taking down material that is abiding by the law and doing no real harm, then it's not going to do any good for anyone.
Unrighteous and unlawful takedowns are a hinderence of the socioecononic agency and security of unternet content creators. They hinder the two most flaunted rights of American's: Freedom of Expression and Freedom of comerce
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) as it currently stands, is far too heavily biased in favor of large IP rights holders. Because there is literally no punishment for making false claims under the DMCA, it is easily abused to stifle innovation and censor free speech. This has drastic and troubling implications for personal liberty in this country. It is perfectly understandable that IP rights should be protected by law, but so must the rights of individuals to practice their constitutional right to free speech. When the DMCA is abused as a censorship tool, it does so in direct violation of the first amendment, and it is absolutely unacceptable that there are no repercussions for doing so.
Thank you for your time,
Don
A lot of good people are being hurt by this, please listen.
I am a very avid user of youtube and I aspire to have a somewhat strong following one day making music related videos. Many of my favorite content creators (I Hate Everything, Grade A Under A, Channel Awesome, and YMS.ORG) have been affected by this and it has hurt them financially and creatively. This needs to stop. #wheresthefairuse
Thank you for your time.
Additionally, why should ISPs or search engines be required to enforce copyright restrictions of a third party without payment. That would be like a city forcing Ford to put governors on their cars because people that use their cars violate the cities' speed limits.
DMCA hasn't been updated since its creation in 1998. the internet has advanced so much since then. technology and the internet are only going to advance from here and copyright laws need to advance with it
While I have not been affected by the misuse of this law directly, several of the people I enjoy listening and watching on on the internet have been targeted by the blatant abuse of the law, resulting in the take-down of a multitude of fan-made animations, songs and reviews just because they reference or are based off of a licensed series. Hell, there have even been take-downs over a licensed product just being in the background while others are taken down solely for the purpose of stealing all monetary gains of another! While this act may have, when it was first created, been something beneficial, it has now become this... witch hunt that either leaves people afraid to even post something due them getting sued or having to deal with accusations nearly every other day.
As such, I implore you to amend the DMCA so that is not as restrictive for those who just want to share their opinions and masterpieces without a fear that they'll be taken down.
As it stands, The DMCA system for sites like YouTube, Twitter etc. while obviously well-intentioned, is too fundamentally flawed and easily a usable by more powerful entities to be considered a working space for content to flourish. Countless testimonies have been made clear detailing the specifics of the system's vulnerabilities, and it would be wise and much appreciated if they were further looked at with more consideration in the future when establishing new points and guidelines for the algorithms and laws involved in online content creation.
Thank You.
As well it think it's crap that you are doing this it is wrong. I make my decision to buy things based on live reactions and reviews and you taking that away hurts my ability to give business to the content creators without a review or live reaction to help me base on if I like a product or not.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders. The creator often gets the worst of no matter what happens. From getting their profit stolen for no good reason to everlasting effects of a copyright strike that was not valid, the DMCA makes it to where there is no penalty for businesses and copyright holders to make abusive copyright claims that essentially ruin free speech.
The evidence is out there that the abuse of the copyright systems on services such as Youtube have decimated channels, devastated users' rights to free speech, and caused losses of wages. A big company should be able to handle organizing investigative teams to ensure this does not happen anymore. If an automated phone system is incapable of properly addressing theie main point in exisitng, the same can be said for an automated internet service/system.
Please take notice of this -we need free speech
As a viewer of youtube and other online media i am getting tired of watching my favourite youtube content creators be skinned for trying their hardest to stay under fair use its getting bad and it need to be fixed soon
As a internet user, tax payer and concerned citizen I would like to express my voice about the pitfalls of a closed internet. The internet as a whole has become one of the leading methods for cultural and educational growth. As long as it is held under the thumbs of corporations who do not have to take into account factors like fair or educational use it will continue to stifle that growth.
Though there is a great deal of money at stake, I think the real issue is about control and media companies/lobby groups wanting to maintain that control over what individuals have access to. It really is an extension of broken copyright law a method to focus power, knowledge and freedom into the hands of the few. Jay Wozny
Today, information is widely available and much has changed since 1998... Information and content sharing is the definition of the internet! We use this to connect with other humans. It is, in effect, our way of becoming conscious as a species.
We must accept that revenue is NOT NEAR AS IMPORTANT as advancement of knowledge and culture....
It is "We the people...." not "We the companies..."
And fuck you for having this on April Fools day.... Typical government bullshit.... anything to advert the public eye.
Censorship is wrong and against the values held by Most Americans!
Much of this has been said before, but there's other things to add, too, so I urge those who receive these to read to completion. What has become of the DMCA has affected every content creator and viewer differently, and as such a creator, I hope that our voices can be heard and our situations understood.
I have personally experienced cases in which a company has taken a copyrighted piece of music, created a remix of it, then copyrighted the remix, and used that to extort money out of people who are legally using the original copyrighted material--not the remix. There is no significant recourse for victims of this and no penalty to such a company for abusing the law in such a way.
There are obvious times when DMCA should come into effect. People uploading entire movies or TV shows, for example, should obviously be held accountable. But the DMCA has extended far beyond this. At times, the DMCA has even been abused to take down videos which do not contain copyrighted content, simply because they even mentioned someone else's work, usually in a negative light.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair-use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e., legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe-harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair-use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged, as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
seriously us copyright office what the hell. this is mainly towards youtube false copyright claims so that is a warning. why do consequences happen to the uploader even if the person/company who claimed the video provides no proof? broken system. fix it please. thx,
from bimps
My own note: I was an attorney in intellectual property law for several years. It is just as important to protect fair use as it is to protect owners' rights. Randall Pierce
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected by fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
This may be a pre-written document, but I agree with it
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Only heard about this just now; SHOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER ADVERTISED.
The current DMCA takedown process can very easily have companies STEAL ad revenue from content creators and even drive content creators out of their JOBS. This current outdated process, is destroying the careers of people who produce online content as a form of their line of work. The ways that companies are abusing these current laws are malicious and downright inhuman, and simply can't be allowed to continue by anyone. Something NEEDS to be done about this.
As somebody who loves to entertain and be entertained, I'm extremely offended. This is unfair. Fair use should be be FAIR.
The DMCA law is highly outdated and need to become a living document edited and revised for modern times.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
To whom it may concern,
As a content creator on YouTube, I am very concerned with this matter. I have received faulty claims and have friends who have as well. Of particular concern is that ANYONE is able to issue a DMCA takedown, with no oversight, and no repercussions! The DMCA takedown process can be used to silence critics, and there is no negative repercussions for filing false ones that I can tell (except having the "offending video" become reinstated).
As a content creator, the effects of a DMCA takedown, particularly a false one, is devastating. It impairs the victimized channel, and discourages the creator from making the very creations that the internet thrives on.
I understand that such a system is necessary for companies to protect their content in legitimate cases of infringement, but the system is broken and extremely abusable in its current form. I feel strongly that there should be some repurcussions for false, and more importantly, serial false claims. The system SHOULD NOT be in place to silence critics, or to use lightly, and users and corporations who abuse the DMCA takedown process should be held accountable for making false claims (or at least, the burden of proof and price to be paid should not rest completely on the creator).
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses.
THIS KIND OF DAMAGE CAN NOT BE UNDONE.
Best regards, and wishes for a hopeful future,
Steve "Morjax" Sylvestre
youtube.com/mookiemorjax
**Legitimate copyright protection is important, but as much care must be used in determining whether fair use standards apply, and content should not simply be removed from the Web without just cause, and without consequences for such inappropriate removal.**
I think this is really important and should not be taken lightly!
My company Channel Awesome has been around since 2007 and due to how corrupt the people using the DMCA are, we were forced to stop doing videos on YouTube by the middle of 2008. We most likely have lost out on a few million dollars as we didn't return to YouTube until 2013, and then officially in 2015 with our own channel. During the time in 2008 until 2013 there we multiple accounts that would do 'bootleg' uploads of our videos. Some accounts were deleted, some videos removed but a lot stayed up.
All in all it we probably had lost the above noted revenue and over 200 million views because of how the system was and is.
Our channel https://www.youtube.com/user/achannelthatsawesome received an invalid DMCA takedown from the Japanese company Studio Ghibli on January 5th. It took 23 days for the DMCA against one of our videos to be dropped, and due that single DMCA we lost 23 days of revenue. With that we had to push back a new show, and hold off on hiring a new employee.
This doesn't only revolve around YouTube though, our site channelawesome.com had a DMCA takedown from an Adult company for a review on Disney's Cinderella live action remake. Apparently they have a show called Sibling Rivalry, our review show is called Sibling Rivalry, so I know you're thinking hey they have the trademark right? Nope, the trademark for Sibling Rivalry is held by an Australian Wine Company! Not only that, they blanket took down many sites just that used the term 'Sibling Rivalry' including Wikis.
https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/11611818
Also take into account that we've had a few other search engine removals from Google due to blanket DMCA takedowns that equate our website links to those of sites that offer Full downloads of movie and television shows, we do reviews...
From what I understand YouTube has based is horrific contentID and DMCA = Strike system on the DMCA Act.
People can use that system to steal money, silence criticism, harm free speech, destroy a channel or individual. It can take between 30-70 days to resolve a problem through this system.
The DMCA is even being used to extort people out of money now!
DMCA's are being sent by shell companies that are set up now to hide the one issuing the takedown.
Here are a few links to the handful of videos that we have done on this subject.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC3NIdiZF_E - What the Hell YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFlgx2LTdeY - What the Hell YouTube Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI - Where's the Fair Use?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8 - Save Fair Use Now
I already applied to attend one of the discussions on this, and Doug Walker will be applying later today. We'd love to explain what an independent website and video creator have to go through with copyright law.
i don't download videos, but i enjoy watching the critics and reviewers tackling the pros and cons of my favorite movies, series and games, i love to watch videos made by internet artist and wonder myself with their talent and imagination. So i dont think is fair (or legal) that there are people out there taking down others just to win some money or because they feel threaten by them, or just because they like to bother people just for a sick way of fun
I will tell whomever is reading this the same thing I told my Youtube subscribers. I'm a former Music Video creator. So moving to YouTube people like me already knew that we were essentially asking to get copyright strikes left and right, but we did what we enjoyed anyway. I moved to Youtube in 2007.
We ended up finding multiple ways of fending off the Copyright monster, but it didn't take long for all of my videos to be tagged and either removed or removed from certain countries. Naturally living with Youtube constantly copyright striking us and/or killing our channels tended to sap the fun out of life. I've watched many friends lose interest in what they do or get so frustrated they drop off the face of the earth, including me.
Now imagine if YouTube was doing this to people legitimately working under parody laws and Fair Use. No need to imagine it, it's happening constantly, and what has been happening to some of us for years, is now being brought to the forefront. Because it's finally gotten out of control.
But just like my old friends, at some point these Reviewers, Let's Players, and Parodist's are going to get tired and feel like their talents are being smothered. This is just the case on Youtube. The current copyright and "Fair Use" system is allowing these creative geniuses to be stifled and stomped out. Sure YouTube isn't fully to blame, but their refusal to fix simple issues that multiple party's are freely exploiting seems to be very much a crime.
The issue isn't solely on Youtube's shoulders. One of the biggest issues here are Copywriters and sometimes outright Trolls becoming increasingly more paranoid about their copyrights, or trying to prove something. In the case of the actual copyright holders. They're afraid, and even the Music industry had to change it's copyright tactics. With the troll situation. Something needs to be done to make sure that not everybody can immediately strike a channel with a false copyright and shut it down because it's funny.
Maybe the best thing that could happen would be for Youtube to split into two seperate entities, commercial and creative. I don't claim to know what is right for Youtube, I only ask that someone listen. I consider myself a nobody on YouTube. I hardly say anything, and I gave up when CopyWriter's and trolls pushed too hard. All I do at this point is watch others.
I don't put much on Youtube anymore out of fear, partly because I have one strike left. I have for 8 years, lived in fear that someone will find my channel and shut me down because it would be hilarious. I am a nobody on Youtube. So I ask , as a nobody. Because this applies to everybody. Where's the fair use?
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My chief objection to the current DMCA usage is not moral, but practical; it creates barriers to entry for all manner of online industries, directly contributing to growing monopolies or oligopolies. As such, the current use of the DMCA could be argued to be a violation of antitrust laws.
As an economist, I try to look at things several levels deep. In the current situation, content creators, effectively running their own small business, find their content removed as a direct result of larger firms' intervention, often in related or identical industries. The larger firms have an extremely small cost to this action; such algorithms running on a server can issue many takedown requests in a day, while the content creators act much more slowly, as they have to generate much more information than a form letter to a hosting service.
This isn't inherently bad. The start-up cost for such algorithms (the server, the program, the bandwith) is too high for most small businesses, but negligible for large firms. It's a natural result of economics that larger firms will be the only ones using such methods, particularly when legitimate copyright infringements are targeted. However, the issue is the extremely high number of false reports, which harm small businesses with whom the imitating firm had no legitimate grievance. Effectively, large firms are destroying the stock and sales of smaller ones through false copyright infringement complaints.
Some argue that the small firms could simply argue the point. The issue is that very few of these content creators are lawyers, and fewer still could afford what could reasonably become a costly legal battle over a small piece of content. By contrast, it costs the large firms nearly nothing per takedown request to cause such product removal.
The solution to me seems to be simple; make it more costly to issue takedown requests. Even something as simple as a small, say $10, fine for requests shown to be issued in error would highly incentivise the larger firms to refine their algorithms to target only legitimate copyright infringements, and the relatively small per-unit cost means that in legitimate gray areas, a company could risk a measly $10.
A related solution is to require all takedown requests to identify specifically the offending content. If it's a song in the background, identify the song and duration. If it's an article being quoted, identify the article and author, as well as word count. Something like this clearly raises the cost for illegitimate copyright violation claims, while blatant ones (such as re-posting a song or video or article in totality) would be extraordinarily easy. This, too, would protect the smaller content creators by giving them specific accusations to respond to; if they are guilty, they will have a hard time arguing it. If they are not, however, they can simply respond counting the mistaken accusations, citing fair use where appropriate.
In short, it is my belief that this represents not just a potential political and civil rights issue, but one of economic importance as well, using the law as a weapon against smaller, competing firms in an effort to remain in a position of influence in the market.
Thank you for your time,
--Andrew Whitaker
Form letter below:
The DMCA is currently being abused through automated algorithms that track down possible copyright violations on YouTube, taking videos down regardless of valid fair use rights. Even video creators who successfully get their videos restored often see their content being taken down again.
These false takedowns have been a roadblock for creative freedom on the Internet. We ask that you impose penalties on corporations who abuse the DMCA.
This has been happening all too often in recent months and is disturbing and even displacing many content creators. Especially for people who make a living off of the hard work they put out. This law has not taken into account the current state of the Internet and needs to grow WITH it seeing as this will only continue to expand in ways not thought of by the DMCA drafters in the 90's.
Please protect fair use of content.
these people need this to work
The DMCA, as it stands now, while offering protection for large content creators does not shield the individual from a multitude of abuses as detailed in the following:
- A group can claim content they do not own for the express purpose of receiving revenue and when finally threatened with legal action will rescind the claim only to move on to another creators content to do it all over again.
- Content can be void of any Intellectual Property (Music or Images) yet still be subject to a takedown without peer review.
- Multiple claims can be filed on the same content, even after said content was cleared by claimant.
- Takedowns can be filed to silence or threaten a critic of a particular IP/person/group in violation of the First Amendment.
- Content can be subject to a takedown claim without taking Fair Use into account.
- Takedowns are filed not by the actual claimant but a third party thereby shielding the claimant from any repercussions related to said claim.
Bottom line the DMCA was created when the Internet was still beginning but has not changed to reflect how it is used today. There needs to be protections put in place that defend the creators of today in addition to those that have been with us in the past. As well as actual penalties for those that abuse the DMCA in ways that the framers of said law could never have envisioned.
[Form letter below, while containing verbiage that I agree with is still a form letter. Though it is written in a more official capacity than what I wrote above.]
With great powers comes great responsibility, responsibility that should not be abused
You have the great power, now you should work on having the great responsibility,
the DMCA needs to change, be updated; for the sake of the Internet and creators everywhere
I am a professor of communication and have researched this field extensively, publishing several books on copyright and digital culture and industry.
It is far better to under persecute than over persecute. We need to protect content creators. If significant monetary compensation is earned, it is unlikely to go unnoticed. Don't hurt content creators.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has created a criminal "shake-down" environment, where scammers, such as "License Compliance Services In., on behalf of Design Pics Inc. 701 Fifth Avenue, Suite 4200, Seattle, WA 98104, USA have been threatening to sue me for $510 over a YouTube video thumbnail (which does not appear in the actual clip, itself) from a video which was formerly embedded on my website, on one page, out of 4,300+ webpages.
They're accusing me of Copyright Infringement, for copying their photographer's photo, when in fact, the image was neither copied, hosted or posted to my website but was embedded and streaming directly from YouTube. I have taken the page off of my site, to avoid any further troubles, yet this company insists on sending me threatening emails and more recently, a letter in the mail, demanding payment.
It is the *robot* of the alleged law firm (who I doubt are who they say they are) who copied this image, which was used by a Taiwan animation company, who created the video in question. Presumably, this company doesn't have jurisdiction in Taiwan. Their scammy "case" against me demonstrates that they are completely ignorant of the law, as I did none of the copying! I seriously doubt that they are a law firm, at all!
Companies such as this "law firm" are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns - in my case, *threatening a bogus financial shake-downs*. This process is vulnerable to significant error and abuse, as in my case and it does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore also resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
If this company contacts me again, I will have no choice but to contact the FBI to investigate the criminals who are taking advantage of the threatening climate engendered by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Sincerely,
Alexandra Bruce, Publisher
http://ForbiddenKnowledgeTV.net
As a frenchman,i agree on what is written above. Fair-use is here to protect critics and other people in general from being silenced because the company didn't like what they told on the base that they used "copyrighted material",when it's just used as a proof and a way to show what we are critizing.We need it so that we can voice opinions and critical thinking. It's an important part of free speech. Removing it would be a loss for the world.
Thank you for your time.
The DMCA notice & takedown process is seriously broken, and not in the way that copyright holders would have you believe.
Copyright holders are employing automated systems to send thousands or even millions of DMCA notices every day, without bothering to even check if the notices are valid. The movie studios have sent notices requesting the removal of official web sites promoting their own movies. The music industry has sent notices requesting the removal of fully authorized music videos posted by their own artists. A company working on behalf of HBO once requested the removal of the official web page for the TV show Game of Thrones.
These system rely on keywords and often can't tell the difference between a web site that is offering a copy of a movie for download and a web site that has posted a review of said movie. Sometimes notices will be sent for content that has the same name, but which has nothing at all to do with the content in question.
And there is no penalty whatsoever for sending a false DMCA notice. Which means that DMCA notices are ripe for abuse a censorship tool. Don't like someone's web page? File a DMCA claim against it! Sure, it will probably get sorted out and the page put back up, but it will be down for a while and nothing will happen to you. All you have to say is "Oops, I made a mistake. No harm done..." That's what the movie and music industry usually say when they screw up. Well, when they bother to acknowledge their mistakes at all.
YouTube has a repeat infringer policy where they will cancel a user's account after receiving three copyright infringement notices. Since companies use automated systems that look for keywords, a user can easily receive three notices at once and have their account deleted. To get it reinstated, they have to plead their case and hope that they they can convince the entity who complained that their content really wasn't infringing. If the company won't agree, they have to try and convince Google that the company made a mistake, which is an uphill battle since the DMCA basically REQUIRES companies to err on the side of caution. Not to mention that YouTube's automated Content ID system often flags content as infringing when it's clearly fair use or doesn't even match the content in question!
Now the movie and music industries want the same kind of automated systems to be implemented at all the big web sites like Google's search engine. This would lead to Google proactively deleting thousands if not millions of links based on nothing more than a false match in their automated system.
Plus, the movie and music industries want a new "takedown & stay down" system. Has anyone considered the implications of this? In the past few years, Google has received billions of DMCA takedown notices. If the movie and music industries got their wish, Google would have to scan every link it indexes against an ever growing database of keywords and file hashes. How long does it take to compare a web page and all the files on it against a database of 5 billion entries? How about 10 billion? A 100 billion?
I don't have the answer to the piracy problem, but the current system is broken and is being abused every day without consequences. Giving even more power to copyright holders by implementing even more automated systems and a notice & stay down system will only increase the level of abuse.
Already, the person/company sending the DMCA notice is assumed to be correct and the person whose content is taken down has to prove that it's not infringing. In other words: guilty until proven innocent. Is that how things are supposed to work in the United States of America?
Section 1201 is poorly written, and makes illegal legitimate modifications made to consumers' real property. Tinkering and modification is crucial to innovation and is a basic property right. Citizens should be free to use the electronic devices they own in whatever otherwise lawful way they see fit.
As a result of this DMCA provision, legitimate researchers are stifled from performing vital security work, harmless hobbyists are treated as criminals, and market competition is stifled.
Section 1201 should either be repealed or completely revamped to explicitly enshrine free speech, fair use, and property ownership rights.
Israel and international zionism did 9-11 and the Jewish dominated mass media continues the cover-up. Many YouTube videos which use corporate "news" pieces indicating the conspiracy have been taken down, austensibly under a "violates copyright" justification.
Upholding DMCA abuses champions corporate, oligarchic tyranny and negates the very fabric of democracy.
I am a starting YouTuber. I am a fan artist. I want to be able to keep on posting my videos and artwork for people to enjoy, without wondering if whatever I post is going to be taken down without any /legitimate/ reason. Please, for the sakes of small, starting-out creators like me and creators who've been in this for years, and for all of the Internet, find a way to stop this abuse of the DMCA.
The Internet is not just a tool anymore. It's as much the people who are on it, whether they are creators or those who enjoy their work. This law needs to be updated, possibly completely rewritten, to take into account the needs of /today's/ Internet. Please, please, save the Fair Use!
As it stands, there is no incentive or punitive correction for companies and individuals that abuse DMCA takedowns, and this is having a chilling effect on legitimate content creators. There really needs to be an adjustment to the policy so that it doesn't place the burden of proof on the accused to prove their innocence. This is a fundamental tenet of American law, and the fact that copyright is somehow an exception to this is unsustainable and indefensable.
The system is often abused by big companies in order to make ad revenue , abused by trolls to hurt others and take down videos unfairly.
Fair use can be upheld, and yet companies can still take down videos, regardless of this.
Reviews, parody and many other examples of fair use are taken down regardless of their creators doing nothing wrong, and staying within the law.
The problem with copyright today is that the laws behind it haven't been updated to fit with the current Internet. The Internet has changed a lot since 1998, and despite all this change and growth, the DMCA laws have not changed. This has resulted in a large amount of content being unfairly deleted or changed by copyright bots that don't take into account certain factors, like if the content falls under fair use or not.
Also, when copyright issues come up, it almost always favors the original companies, allowing them to either leech off the victims of these strikes or take them down completely. I've seen it happen countless times. A channel that reacted to and criticized content was nearly deleted by copyright strikes two separate times. A channel that posted some "parody works" of popular songs got slammed with a takedown notice on three of those videos and had to change the audio to get two of the videos back up, even though parody work falls under "fair use", Some content creators were even threatened by companies or the original creators and forced to pay a certain amount of money to keep their videos or channel up. Even people who weren't even using copyrighted video or audio had videos taken down. And worst of all, people have filed false copyright claims on videos that still resulted in take downs and deletions of channels. This type of treatment against content creators is simply cruel.
The way copyright works nowadays was caused companies to believe they can take down anything online they want and be successful, and that actually happens. In fact, all the original creators have to do is simply say the content is a violation of copyright, and without trial, the content is removed. This results in the creator being attacked by these takedowns being drained of their money, and unable to fight back for what's right.The companies are abusing the current copyright system to take down everyone they don't like, and therefore are stifling free speech. This has to stop. This needs to stop.
The copyright system needs to be significantly updated to account for the new Internet, a place where almost everybody goes to research, upload content, or just to entertain themselves. These abuses of the DMCA are taking place more and more frequently, and as a result, it's turned the Internet into a hierarchy of companies, and the people they think they have complete control over. I, as well as many, many other people, need you to fix the DMCA system so that abusing it is not OK, and that fair use is taken into consideration. If the way copyright works now keeps up, the Internet will turn into a place where people no longer can speak freely in any scenario without a fear of being taken down by a company they can't even fight back against. Thank you for taking your time to read this.
we need fair to use back to the internet again. we have to see new stuff on every websites on the entire planet. i also wanna see every video on the buzz lightyear rides because i love the ride. if it use back to the internet i will give you every beautiful videos.
signed by
quinton clark
Emphasizing what needs to be heard.
I agree with the above statement
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory punishment for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to fair use doctrines. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works while simultaneously communicating a lack of human compassion or respect for alternative viewpoints.
The notice-and-take process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Even though the internet is supposed to be the symbol of freedom of speech these resent events of abuse on YouTube har show how this is far from becoming a realitet. Several channels that use fair use gave expeerienced things like having videos talen down, their monotisation taken away or even had their channels taken down. They've used the content They've put om their videos legalt, but that hasn't helped. In most cases the ones filing the claoms haven't even watched the videos and in some cases the claims haven't even been filed by the content creator. This doesn't only affekt people who use fair use. In some extreme cases there hasn't been
This video from content provider That Guy with the Glasses at Channel Awesome sums up the abuses of the DMCA perfectly. Please follow the link. https://youtu.be/zVqFAMOtwaI
America has been the center of creative freedom for as long as anyone can remember. And yes to be creative you should hold a firm grip on copy write, however with out a doubt the law has been a huge weapon against youtube's content creators and with an a law that hasn't been updated it has become a serious problem for those in this community. Revise the law and help out struggling creators and make the decisions that will help these individuals fight against corporations that abuse the system
Stop infringing on our First Amendment rights!
I think the DMCA ahould stop taking down freedom of speack
The DMCA should never be allowed to abused to treat content creators like second class citizens. The legal system in the US is grounded in an innocent until proven guilty mantra, yet DMCA take down requests assume guilt with no proof! Take the power out of the hands of the DCMA abusers so we can stop corporate interests using it as a form of censorship.
The notice and take down system hurts free speech and allows anyone with more power and resources control what is allowed on the internet. This allows for YouTube creators to be attacked unfairly and stop creativity and conversations on the internet. This system is outdated last being updated in 1998 a time where the internet was a novelty not a fundamental part of our culture. Copyright law needs to be updated to punish unfounded take down requests and to protect innocent creators on the internet
The notice-and-takedotake it downwn process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
[Personal note: I am a creator of many things - remixes and mashups of music, parody video content, and fan art. I have been creating content of this nature for going on ten years now, and I cannot even begin to count how many times I have run into bogus issues with DMCA takedowns. I have never once tried to make a profit off of the content I create, and I make things of this nature solely for the sake of sharing new ideas and humor with other fans of the things I like. I have been treated like a criminal for doing what I love, and while I admit I have in some cases overstepped copyright law (albeit unintentionally), the consequences I have faced over the years should never have been as harsh as they have been.
What's worse, I have seen musicians and other original content creators have their works removed/taken down for absolutely no logical reason, and to see them struggle with the same thing that I and other creators have been dealing with for years makes me even angrier. I am tired of how the DMCA is being abused, and I hope that I will be able to witness a change take place.]
Where is the fair use?
On any given day I can listen to any music I want and legitimate personal videos get flagged all the time and for no reason. The people doing these take downs claim that pirated copywriter material stifles the artist, it is they who are keeping people from pursuing their dreams and goals buy flagging legitimate non copywrited material.
We need modern laws for modern technology.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copy
right Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The DMCA has not been updated to reflect the Internet as it is today and has been used in many instances to censor criticism, to steal monetization, and generally to harass and shut down content creators. This is a law that desperately needs revision soon.
Just because people make videos such as stop motion doesn't mean they are copywriting, truly look through what you're banning before you ban it
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digitatel Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digitatel Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I have seen so many creators have their content taken down by companies abusing the copyright strike system on YouTube, creators who put their time, money and effort into creating videos and aren't being protected at all even IF they have explicitly shown time and time again that they are covered by fair use.
Hello,
well i seen a thing or two about the DMCA over the years.
I own internet since about 1999... the years of humming 56k modems.
Over the years and especialy the development of youtube, i had the displeasure to see it getting abused in different ways.
Most common was the take down of review videos and at times commentary or even unique art.
For example:
- Totalbiscuit,JimSterlin and AngryJoe (some of my all time favorite reviewers), as well ChannelAwesome were repedently under fire for doing what they do. Reviewing media.
Most of those were coverage of games and the takedowns were abused by the game developers - in order to censor cirtisism.
This isn't right- not in any way... if not to say: laughable, that especially in a land like amercia - free speach is kicked with feets... (given what they been trough, to get in the first place!)
Those channels and people behind it, which were unfairly attacked, built a life around their work... - and recieving strikes against said work, can destroy their income and endager the jobs attached to it,
but non the less, they get striked - at times with the WRITTEN confirmation by the attackers, that they in fact: abusing the system.
Those critics luckily post videos about this matter and make aware what happened.
ChannelAwesome might doesn't review games, but its the same deal here. They make reviews and use movie footage, in order to explain their point - a common practice...
i mean, how would i know what either of them were talking about, if they aint allowed to show and explain it?
Do they have to stand next to a white wall and try to do everything purely trough their own words?
That wouldn't work in the least. Not in a medium, that has 2 things to offer. Sound and visuals. Taking away even one of it, does limit the howl media to a great deal, to the point of being obsolete.
And there are just to many cases to count in which this happens.
I seen videos get taken down, not just by showed material, like scenes/parts of the game/movie... - some even were taken down, cause they simply talked about it! (Nintendo is one of those doing that)
You cant even use trailer material or singled out photos...
those are also a strike guarante.
Let me spell that one out for you: you cant... use - material that had been made public domain. Material that had been created, to show it, to as many poeple as possible. Videos that had been out for days or even months, to fullfil said purpouse.
Hack...
i got 112 abonements on youtube.
About a dozen are reviewers, having issues.
The rest being artists of all sorts- mostly music.
There were more than one case, in which a music piece- a so called "cover" was taken down for some abritory reason.
People got together and changed (in a great deal) a certain song...
played own and different instruments - got singers and edited it.
Making some pop song, changing it rock or techno... making it a howl new thing and putting months and once in a while, years of work to it, in order to bring a howl animation to the product - just to see it taken down afterwards.
I even seen strikes occuring to german programms/videos.
RTL (german tv channel) is one of those that abuse it a great deal too, to the point of being insulting. And i do mean that literally.
For example: they made coverage of "gamescon" in Köln (2011)
Send a woman down there, one that clearly has no idea what she s talking about (i am gamer since amiga- just to put that in perspective)... so she is down ther and jabs on... how gamers are all lazy, jobless and stinking singles... etc.
Claiming that we (as a more than respectable) culture - are basically the big problem going on, not just in youth... but even adulthood.
Shortly after i found several videos, commenting on said (public) shown material.
Some were more casual... others quite professional, taking her "claims" down piece by piece... - which wasn't to hard, to say the least.
Even a 14 year old, did make a review on her video.
I was actually surprised, that he did this in such a well sorted manner.
He commented and edited it... loaded it up - all by himself.
It sure was a good piece of work (for a 14year old amateur.)
It was - as most of those videos.... taken down.
Gone by censorship.
He hadn't insulted anyone i might mention. Like most hadn't.
Unlike the original video of RTL did...
- ... to be fair... i KNEW this was going to happen, cause i seen it before.
Wana know how i deal with it? (personaly)
The only way- i can go on from my side most of the time:
I had several programs and sites (still have) and download what i like.
[http://www.file-upload.net/download-11446661/RTLberdiegamescom2011-Kommentiert-www.keepvid.com.mp4.html --- Not aviable since 5 years. just to proof my point]
Reviews of games and movies. Coverart music pieces or what ever poeple ramble on about. Animations or other kind of artwork.
I save ALL of it local.
My windows tells me, my video folder contains 1886 files.
About 99% of those were youtube. Some from other sites, that also cover this kinda material.
I seen it way to often - i add something as favorite... and then its gone, the very next day, or at times - just hours after. So i download it.
If this trend goes on... i will need a way bigger harddrive for sure.
And not just me - everyone. Than we only can talk about those videos in closed up forums ("behind closed doors", so to speak) and only if we were lucky enought to be online in said hours.......
Unacceptable.
This has to be changed, in order to make things right.
To protect those channels, those jobs, freedom of speech and most important to me : ART.
Those people not just make a living, doing what they do...
they express them self in a very unique way.
Showing their personality and everything that comes with it.
We dont watch those people, just for what ever media they cover - but because THEY do it.
There is always a certain level of viewers on each videos.
Given, some popular games/movies attract "casual viewers"...
but those guys/girls will be viewed, no matter what. Even if they cover something really boring or serious - something that usual isnt part of their programm... there will be people, that get up at midnight and watch them do a lifestream of something (across all time zones).
... and thats just the start.
I honestly believe... tv... is a dead media.
I got a 40 inch tv behind me.
Take a guess, how often it runs in 1 year.
About 5 times.
A couple years back... i watched sometimes stuff like simpsons or some news after work... not anymore.
Now its only used if a neighboor comes by with his kid (then it can play) or... when i make dvd night or something. Otherwise its just collecting a lot of dust.
The internet allows for so much more (interactive) content, making it obsolette. Thats als why more and more "watch on demand" programms get popular.
Point being: the internet is the future. Always was. Expanding faster than we can understand... and almost two decade old laws, holding it back... does great harm to everyone.
That's why we need intelligent, modern laws, that understand the trades of internet and it needs. So everyone involved gets a -fair- share.
C. Herzog
I am seeing more and more examples of improper takedowns that must be algorithmically generated. This is a serious problem for me and for anyone who uses the Internet as a source of information. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
This formula to protect creators of entertainment has been flipped on its head and needs to be stopped.
This is ridiculous and scandalous.....
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Please stop this abuse of power.
I need free speech to remain for we the people.
This process is being increasingly abused by aggressive companies using automated tools.
This has to stop. The process must be balanced. There must be adequately strong disincentives against copyright holders who are abusing the process.
tl;dr stop being greedy corporate fucks
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I was getting music claims from a company's that don't own the music.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I will leave the cookie-cutter message below, as it is accurate, but I have something to add. Even though this is a grey area, I feel the musicians at the top are pushing the DMCA over the line. For example, I honestly do not care if a few YouTube views is affecting Christina Aguliera's bottom line. Let's face it. It's not. I am a musician, on a label, who happens to own the copyright of their own music. I am a victim of this senseless scrubbing. I hired someone to put our music in videos as part of a marketing campaign. They had my express permission as the copyright owner. Yet when the campaign went live, within a couple of days, the videos were taken down and their account flagged for removal for abuse. I do not see how something like that is just. Yet, our album is on YouTube without our permission for people to stream, and you do not see us issuing takedown notices. There needs to be a line drawn in the sand somewhere. It just needs to be made clear what that line is. So far no one has done that.
Almost every day I hear of bloggers and web site owners complain about receiving DMCA takedown notifications. These are almost invariably spurious or at best arguable and stretched cases. Many predicted this, due to the way the DMCA was constructed. It coss almost nothing to file these notices, and they can easily be files by the thousands in fishing expeditions. Yet the recipient must expend time and funds to fight the notice while the law requires immediate removal of the subject material. This has significant impact on the free flow of information, it is a freedom of speech issue.
The DMCA, as it exists today, is obsolete and vulnerable to exploitation on an alarming scale. There is an imbalance in the ability of content-creators and copyright holders to avail themselves of their rights under the act. Of particular concern is the widespread practice whereby copyright holders use the notice-and-takedown process to silence critics of their work. A variety of organisation will, by now, have presented you with evidence of content which is unambiguously an instance of fair use being subject to such attacks. In many cases (particularly on youtube), copyright holders will demand advertising revenue from content by paid to them. Where this has been an instance of fair usage, this amounts to theft of revenue from content creators by copyright holders, who's material is being used for legitimate purposes (thereby not violating their rights as copyright holders). As it stands, the law is unfit for purpose.
It is principally unacceptable that criticism be stifled in this way, as legal sanction (ie, the state's authority) is being used to threaten citizens for entirely legitimate behaviours. Further to this, there are particular practical considerations at stake. Competition is stifled, and a new industry, which is still fledgling, faces stunted growth. In a generation's time the content-creators of youtube will play a significantly more important role in the culture industry - they are the early adapters to a new market - if they are not empowered to create without interference, it is unlikely that they will be able to compete internationally in the new industry.
I hope you take what I, and other onlookers have said into account.
Thankyou for your consideration,
yours faithfully
Elliot Porter
It really is going to far; the greed is out of control and good information is being censored. LET OUR PEOPLE GO...
Bastardi.
Please protect my favorite youtube personalities!
Corporations have more than enough f***ing power and influence! Quit letting the greedy goatf****rs bully us!
We need human reviewers - not all algorithms. My own projects for clients that are cleared w the right licenses was taken down three times with no recourse. The music used must have hit some not that triggered this but the music was original to the TV show. Re-editing or re-scoring was very expensive but we were forced to do it. No one benefitted form it.
Eliminate copyright altogether. It hinders cultural and technological advancement whilst putting an unnecessary burden upon the disadvantaged. It's also quite expensive to maintain.
The notice-and-takedown procder the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biassed un in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Fair use and freedom and speech are enshrined in the Constitution of the United States and are core American values. It's what makes us who we are. Abuse of copyright by the rich and powerful to silence voices has got to stop.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The DMCA law have been exploited by many companies to take down YouTube channels. I have witness many copyright claims on different Youtubers. These claims have been going against the fair use law which give them the right to use certain media as long they do not pirate the media or claim it theirs.”Fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work”. - See more at: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/#sthash.Njz2C1Pa.dpuff. If a person uploads a video or movie on YouTube that belongs to the creator then the copyright law can be use to take the video down and have the person who pirated the movie punished.
The copyright law should not be used against people who are just speaking their mind. If people are not allowed to have their own opinion then what good is the 1st Amendment which states, “ Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”.http://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-i. I do not understand stand how someone can get penalized for having an opinion.
If this continues then won't just affect the the Youtube but also other websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and much more. The Internet is a community where people can communicate,share information,ideas and opinions. Let make the internet safe again.
#WTFU
#Protect Youtubers
Free speech is what america is based on.How our governement can let a bogus law go unchecked and take away a persons write to free speech and expression is exactly why people are losing faith and trust in our political system.
When you let communist laws go unchecked and at the same time invade peoples privacy,(for ex.data mining,stealing emails,text,phones ecx.exc.exc.)you lose there respect and there trust..i say fuck you all,i already think of our gov. As a communist ruling bully of power and i believe the only way to fix it is burn it all and kill,slowly kill all you basturds in the senate and gov...but for the few that are still trying to have faith,you could start fixing it.start by fixing these bogus bullshit laws or atleast make it where if someone or some computer makes a false accusation,there is some kind of repercussion......its common sense...its all common sense and the fact this is even a discussion just shows how fucked we are cause of you corrupt basturds....fuck you,i hope you die a slow tourturous death after youve watched all your loved ones die horrible deaths because you greedy corrupt cocksuckers brought this on yourselves
I am all for protecting legitimate copyright holders, but not bogus action taken illegally, especially by robot algorithms.
I have had my own experience with this system a few years back. I received an email from YouTube one day that said one my panel videos I did at a convention was taking down due to a copyright claim on a piece of music for a video clip that I had in a presentation by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The presentation was a powerpoint I did in a panel at an Anime convention, with edits made to the original video and audio clips I used for it, I even filmed the event with my own camera to post it on my channel. The panel was me talking about one of my favorite tv series, making satirical jokes and criticizing it, along with educating others about that specific franchise. All of this falling into the requirements of what is considered fair usage. I didn't have anything set up to make revenue off of it, but I fought to get the video back since it was in a series of videos I did using Youtube's counter claim system. Not after long my video was back up, and I haven't had problems since, but if my counter claim had failed, I would have been under the mercy of Bandai Namco and might even have gone to court. I was one of the lucky few, but at the time, the fear of what I had to go through was a scary experience, and I hope the government will hear not just my own plea, but of all the independent creators of internet content out there to fix this system so that everyone can truly have that sense of fair use.
I have personally seen many videos taken down from YouTube which CLEARLY were within Fair Use protection, such as videos in which 20 seconds of video (or even audio) from a TV show were shown in a commentary/review/critical analysis video which was in the 30-60 minute length range.
I have also seen DMCA take downs used to stifle political free speech, where political content creators are stifled due to false complaints, which they have eventually had reversed. These are not valid copyright claims, these are abuse of the DMCA.
The DMCA is 19 years old now. Very little of what people consider to be "the internet" to day even existed in 1998. DMCA abuse is hurting genuine creativity, and it is time to review the law and bring it up to modern times.
The companies I wanna stop:
Hasbro - Abusing the DMCA Law and Deleting Animations that use their My Little Pony Characters
And
VIACOM - for Deleting Youtube Poops using their spongebob footage and their lawyers abusing the DMCA Takedown button on YT
DMCA NEEDS a proper, concrete change. It is outdated and not synchronized with the modern content-making Internet we live in.
Very much this above! ^
Such content creators such as Botanicsage, Triple-q, Teamfourstar and various other on Youtube have been burned by fraudulent claims of copyright infringement, hurting their lively-hoods and has at times stifled the growth of creativity on the on this medium of information and entertainment. While I understand and acknowledge the concept and necessity of DMCA takedown I have noticed that it has been misapplied by the music and movie industry as well by individuals within said industries. This gross misuse of a system meant to protect intellectual properties has to stop for the sake of new ideas and the newer generation of creative thinkers.
Since there are currently no repercussions for companies that issue takedown notices for content that is perfectly legal, there is no incentive for companies to be careful about considering fair use. This opens the door to abuse: copyright holders using the notice-and-takedown process to censor speech or eliminate competition. Making companies that abuse the DMCA process liable for damages will discourage this type of abuse.
I am a content creator, and owner of a number of copyrights, so I have a stake on both sides of the intellectual property argument, as both a creator and consumer.
There is Youtube channel, "Channel Criswell," run by a man named Lewis. Lewis mostly uses the channel to pop his analyses of major motion pictures. These videos highlight various camera techniques, plot devices and other aspects of the films, which are used to both educate and express his own personal preferences. These critical reviews often contain clips of the films under analysis, and for this reason, DMCA claims have been filed against him. However, never more a tiny portion of the original film is shown, and the kind of analysis Lewis makes would not have the weight it had if he could not show the part of the film under discussion. It's ludicrous to propose that Lewis buy rights to use clips of the films he critiques. It would be akin to requiring a person to purchase film rights in order to discuss a movie with their friends after seeing it. In one instance we have communication via spoken or written word, which is commonly accepted, and in the other instance, the medium of communication is simultaneously audio and visual with visuals beyond just than alphabetic characters (film), which is, apparently, not acceptable.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use, for no reason other than companies making too much money. This system has been rampantly destroying small content producers and others on the internet who cannot afford to defend themselves. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse, and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible and punished for it.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedown notices. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet. These algorithms are even sometimes flagging original or non-copyrighted content and issuing takedown notices for it. This is simply too high of a number, especially with the number of takedowns sent daily.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable and strictly prosecuted for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be prohibited as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Stop to manipulate this world!
The "notice and take-down" process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is extremely biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the "notice and take-down" procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The "notice and take-down" process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
https://youtu.be/NoIL5qUI1p8
From a country of ten milions only.
From a country that was living behind iron curtain for many years.
There is nothing more sacred than free speech to us, because we´ve been robbed of it for the time. Our voices were supresed under Soviet union, Germany, Austria-Hungary and long before in the history, even now European Union sometimes try to steal some of our privileges. And what all of them did? Crushed our public voices, make us silent.
Fair use is about freedom of speech. Don´t be dictators.
Fighting for the future of a fair use!!!
This also needs to be changed because many companies are attacking people with false claims, these claims are ruining a manageable source of income for others because the company may not agree with what the person said of their product and felt the need to go as far as making fake claims to steel the income. These changes also need to be put in place because the internet is becoming a new source of entertainment, and with that movie companies are trying to prevent the shift causing there to be no competition.
Examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRW4KRPKgQU&spfreload=10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjXNvLDkDTA&spfreload=10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF2tCY281Rk&spfreload=10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I55seO4d1Kw&spfreload=10
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Ladies and Gentlemen
We got a big problem at hand.
I am a normal person working a 5 day week and using the internet with his meadia to entertain me after a long hard day of work.
And on platforms like youtube, many creator work hard to make videos to watch for me and lot more people. But many of them are suffering under the miss use of the DMCA. They work hard and long for there content. And just in a snip it gets taken away by 3.th partys who "bank-in" on it and missuse the power who is given them.
So i beg you. This is a new working space for many creater,critic or other talentet young person. Make it better, not only for them, but for everyone using the internet and his medias.
Below you will finde the standart text to elaborate the case.
Sincerly,
Marco
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
We need a free society not one dictated to us by millionaires and billionaires. More than 3/4 of copyrighted materials should not exist.
These laws stifle free speech, and harm is being brought onto individual creators. Soulless companies believe that they create the law, and fair use is not being taken into account, so videos are taken down at random. Shell companies are sending these DMCAs to shield the corporation sending the take down, and are used constantly as threats. The internet needs to be secure for the present and the future.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
This is the situation that has affected many different content creators throughout the YouTube community, and now it has gotten so out of hand that even something as simple as talking about snow can be claimed as infringement. On March 2nd, 2016, YouTube content creator Chibi Reviews was hit with a DMCA takedown notice after creating a vlog that featured no copyrighted content, and was simply a video about him on his front porch commenting about the weather. Reviewers such as "ThemysteriousMrEnter", or "YourMovieSucks" have been silenced by companies that, rather than admit they've created a bad product, instead censor feedback to make sure nobody can talk badly about it. But instead of actually doing this, YouTube instead lets inaccurate machines perform the work for them, resulting in multiple false copyright claims being produced every day. In 2013, many YouTube videos were taken off of the website without a trace because they contained small amounts of gameplay from various video games. YouTubers "Angry Joe", "TotalBiscuit", "Jim Sterling", "ThatOneVideoGamer", and many more lost nearly half of the videos that had been created for entertainment purposes, thus removing any form of income from their channel. Content creators such as "I Hate Everything" and "Jim Sterling" have been bullied, harassed, threatened, and in the case of Jim Sterling, sued over simple criticisms of another's work. I Hate Everything was harassed by film maker Derek Savage, who took down many negative reviews of one of his films, and threatened and bullied almost anyone who dared tried to call him out on it. Jim Sterling is currently being sued by game developers "Digital Homicide", who claim that Jim's reviews of their poor quality games violates Fair Use.
Too many great videos and content creators fell because of this. Stop it.
PROTECT FAIR USE!!! It have seen so much abuse over the last few years, and how people are being censored through these robots that are taking these videos and sites down. It is extremely frustrating for creators and the people enjoying the creation!
The DMCA needs new safeguards to prevent automated (and sometimes simply antagonistic) takedowns of copyrighted material. As the system currently stands, content creators are having their own work stricken from websites, and in some cases being denied important revenue streams that they depend upon, in the name of these automated processes. While it's important to protect copyright, the system as it currently stands is biased heavily in favor of the copyright holders, who themselves receive almost no penalty for disrupting the lives of content creators. New safeguards are needed; PLEASE review and change the methods for these things. Thank you for your time.
What is wrong sharing content: for reviews or top tens. It brings attention to content that one might not have thought about nor originally would have even considered even watching.
Please take action to protect free speech!
The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
This has got to stop!
Furthermore, the DMCA was drafted in an era that predates a vast majority of the modern Internet. Using it to police cyberspace today is akin to using the Magna Carta as a constitution. The law should reflect the numerous sweeping changes that have redefined the identity and utility of the Internet. This is the reality of the situation, and ignoring it will only lead to further misery, unjust censorship, and stifled creativity.
As an added note to this the surrogate companies that either choose to or are hired by one of the larger well known companies that are used to place multiple claims on the same content. These companies are being used as a shield for the larger companies to essentially skirt the law.
What more is that some original content made by talented creators is being claimed by companies that did not create them. Most often this is due to some of the content being inspired by a particular fandom, and makes it as though the original creation no longer belongs to the creator. (See Snowdrop and Double Rainboom, which are both top quality fan made animations based on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.) Even satire or parody pieces are getting penalized when following within the guides of fair use to do the ability to abuse the system.
Even worse some people create false sources so as to make claims on public domain content used by creators. Having some punk use the entirety of a public domain classical song after a few electronic beats just so they can get money off of it through claims is just sickening.
This is something that needs to be done. This is something that needs to be fixed.
some of my favorite youtuber's lost their channels just cause they wanted to entertain others, hell I even lost some of my videos which were music videos and some that weren't were taken down, even when i posted that i didn't own them, all of this shit REALLY needs to stop. all this big companies not wanting to share their stuff just cause their greedy needs to stop.
I am a small content creator on YouTube. Yet I've had Content notices placed on a few of my videos for innocuous reasons such as 'claims' for background music or sounds. This is really out of control; plus it means that if I chose to monetize my videos and potentially make a bit of side cash from them I couldn't do that.
Having an automated system that is almost never looked at by human eyes is a recipe for abuse and disaster. Already there are stories of channel owners being locked out of monetization, or even having their entire channel suspended, due to copyright claims. YouTube's appeal system is also a total joke, since you can only appeal a limited number of copyright claims at the same time and too many claims can mean strikes against an account (which will suspend it).
This system is broken, and it needs to be fixed. The right of original copyright holders to make money does not trump the Fair Use rights of others.
Trying to control the internet is like trying to control air. The more you stifle the people, the more harm you do.
The statement below expresses some of my opinion. If the Copyright Office doesn't act, not only will unjust activities continue that harm our speech, but the US Gov. itself may become a party to class action lawsuits that point out AND PENALIZE the USG's complicity in curtailing free and useful speech. Please nip this problem in the bud now.
Its just not fair
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of large, corporate copyright holders, even against smaller/private copyright holders, and too commonly is used to censor or otherwise control content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using fully automated computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for reasonable human judgments regarding possible fair use exceptions, resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent, roughly a third, of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited large corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims. This includes, but is not limited to: Claiming free-speech protected content (content from this point forward) to remove negative feedback, claiming content to collect revenue, using takedown notices to completely eliminate content creators, and using third-party intermediaries to claim content which the initial copyright holder has not authorized.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos, and even entire media outlets, can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
Balance is desperately needed in any system, but is decisively lacking in the existing notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
This may be largely a form letter, but it touches on many of the grievances generated by irresponsible, or outright abusive, application of the DMCA's copyright protection provisions. The law was written at a time when the Internet as it exists now couldn't even be imagined and requires updating. Copyright is essential to protect content creators, but it should not be allowed to be used by bigger players to punish or remove smaller players who have done nothing wrong.
Without some kind of negative consequence for abuse, companies have no incentive to not engage in these activities, and too light a consequence will be insufficient to override the profit motive. Companies need to be held accountable for their actions every bit as much as individuals and the only real way to do that is to re-balance the law in favor of emerging creative.
Since October 25, 2015, YouTube blocked my video of "Koi no Vacance" sung by VOCALOIDs Rin and Len in the US. This is getting ridiculous. Please, I want my video to be shown to the other Americans again.
DMCA abuse from companies to harass and impose their views should be heavily punished
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
I love the nostalgic critic the angry video game nerd and markiplier and and a lot of other youtubers. These people make me laugh through good times and bad times. these kind of people can inspire other people to do good things like making you laugh after a bad or difficult day or even become something more for the good of others. So i believe changes MUST! be made to protect those who are abusing the rules just for there gain. I hope that even the corporates can understand this, cause somewhere in this mess "they" have inspired those people with there Art to make a review or lets play about it.
► ► ►
As we all (should) know, Cable and Satellite TV is slowly fizzling out as a major source of entertainment. More and more people are switching to the internet and individual creators for content to watch. As a creator myself on Youtube who gets his income from being a partner, the copyright dagger hangs above my head by a string, ready to fall for unfair claims against my own original fair use content.
Hollywood (as one example) needs to understand that everything evolves and changes, which they simply don't take into account for.
This needs to be fixed, I've witnessed Youtube accounts in which the videos taken down from a false claims when the content in them falls under fair use. One such example can be seen in the feud between Derek Savage and youtuber "I Hate Everything", IHE reviewed a movie created and directed by Derek that fell under fair use but because Derek didn't like some of the things being said IHE's channel was taken down for a short while. IHE's channel was later restored but afterwards Savage had impersonated attorneys from a law firm in order to manipulate him into removing several videos from his channel. Savage himself posted a video trying to explain Copyright and fair use without having a clear understanding of them, and that's the problem. Savage was able to file a claim against others, get their channels taken down, bully them, and impersonate an attorney all without any repercussions.
Just over a month ago IHE was also hit with another claim for making a video on the "Damn Daniel" vine, it was falsely claimed by a company calling themselves [Merlin] CDLTD who has done nothing but claim videos that are titled "Damn Daniel" even while some of the videos had just a picture of "Daniel" and no audio, and taking ad revenue from the creators, this isn't a new thing either. This needs to be fixed or it'll just continue to get much, much worse.
I am asking you to change this outdated system. Create neutral ground for companies and individual content creators to continue make a living doing the things they love.
The burden of proof must be on the copyright holder. They must prove they have a copyright to the content and that the content actually violates that.
********
So many of my favorite YouTube channels have been impacted even when they haven't used another person's material. THIS HAS TO STOP!!!
Whoever has the most money gets to censor speech they don't like with no consequences whatsoever via the DMCA. Copyright was originally created for the public good, but now it's simply a tool for the giant media corporations to smother innovation and speech, and avoid adapting to technology. So as technology marches forward, these giant corporations use the DMCA to take us back toward the dark ages.
These same companies now complain about the DMCA even though it was basically created by them. The FCC appears to have grown a bit of a spine lately, but I'm not holding my breath.
But just in case you actually care about, you know, the public you're supposed to be serving, then something needs to be done to reign in some of the power of these media companies who need to squeeze out every penny they can from every customer, contrary to the public good.
Thanks,
--Mark Wing
ased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I agree with the following statement:
The DMCA act is draconic and needs fixing.
In about 10/15 years time, all these little guys on the internet you see right now being kicked around and being conned out of money by major corporations (under the pretext of copyright infringement that is often untrue) will become major corporations on the internet community (that is slowly replacing every form of entertainment media such as movies, series, music, radio, books... the list goes on)
If you think dealing with big corporations right now is hard just wait until you'll have about 10X the amount of large world corporations (the people who are now using the internet as a business opportunity and who are being targeted by current international corporations) on your back that will specifically target you due to your lack of attention in the past.
if you don't want people to sue you en masse (we're talking in thousands here if not more) and lose a LOT of money in the future, I suggest you do the right thing for you and handle this issue once and for all.
Fix the unnecessarily automated DMCA system that is currently used in multiple websites across the internet, it is flawed as it doesn't take into account unexpected variables, the DMCA should be entirely run by human beings that examine each case individually in order to prevent unfair judgement to either party be it the rightful owner of the allegedly unfairly used copyrighted material or the person who is breaking copyright law.
Furthermore I would like to point out that the consequences are applied before judgement is passed upon the case, or in other words, it is the equivalent of a person going to jail first before receiving a fair trial.
I don't need to do anything, I just need to sit down and watch quietly as your world will come crashing down on you because of the consequences of your own actions (or in this case, lack thereof), I just felt that it was the morally right thing to do to warn you as a person with an average level of foresight before this happens on its own.
Good luck because if you don't do anything about this soon, you're going to need it.
Sincerely
a person whose letter you probably won't even read in the first place but gives you the benefit of the doubt anyway.
Copyright law is being abused. My boyfriend is a YouTube content creator and has in the past few weeks been inundated with copyright notices. What is especially frustrating about these spurious claims is that when they make their claim, the materials as list being infringed upon were actually more recent than my partners own original creations. My partners original music predates the music which they clame has been infringed. It's like oasis saying the beetles copied them, and oasis making a clame against their estate.
When these bots make such a clame on source material that in fact predates their own, they are essentially admitting that there later works are actually the ones doing the infringing and thus owe my boyfriend royalties for what they stole from him.
It's bad and discussing that company's have the right to do this
This is getting out of hand. I've been watching YouTube since when it first launched and now I see that a lot of old YouTuber that I watch are now gone due for this so call copyright system.
I'm running a YouTube channel and I'm not gonna lie, I'm afraid that I'll get a strike. I'm planning of releasing reviews of shows and movies and even upload my own movies. Their will be concern in my head if YouTube will attack me. I don't want to upload something and wake up the next morning to see the video or my channel is taken down.
I see some YouTube videos of music videos or any that use copyright music and the video is still up. And when someone records their child dancing to a song and then they get their video taken down? Should I explain why that's unfair?
I'm feel lucky that I haven't receive a strike. Maybe I have. Maybe I don't notice. Doesn't matter. My videos shouldn't be copyrighted. I'm not speaking for myself. I'm speaking for every future creative creator. A lot of people use YouTube as a job and make a living out of it. If their channel gets taken down, it's like they get laid off.
This has gone long enough. No more hiding. No more staying quiet. It's time say something and fix this.
I have had many of my video reviews taken down, videos that I work hard to edit and make my own, using my first amendment right of freedom of speech to create a new form of entertainment that they would not have gotten out of the original material. I make educational content to inform my viewers of the things that I criticize or enjoy, but the original companies will claim the content as if I am reuploading the original movie or claiming to own it, when the whole point of a review is to criticize someone else's work. Not only that, but I have also been dealt with a fair share of false copyright claims that are unjust, and are not even the content that they claim it to be. Please, fix this.
I personally live in germany and here we lose arround 61% of the videos on youtube.. you can guess why I am here.
Source; https://apps.opendatacity.de/gema-vs-youtube/en/
We want fair use! We want it now!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. Unfortunately this abuse also extends to simple but crude personal attacks against content creators as a result of the fact that no re-precautions are in place against false take downs. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The timing of such DMCA attacks also plays a significant part in censorship and removal of fair criticism as during the time it takes for a takedown request to be considered (and eventually removed due to it being false) the content is either removed or the income from the content (often crucial to small content creators on the internet) goes to the abusing party.
Now is the time for the Dinosuars of the entertainment industry to stop controlling content because they don't want competition, thank you for looking at this issue seriously, it's been a long time coming.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. I have seen too many Youtubers whose content has been taken down even though they are protected under fair use. One of the many reasons why companies do this is because they want the money that is generated from the video. There have been many cases, such as for AnimeAmerica, in which every single review they put on Youtube is harassed and the channel cannot make any money off of it.
There are also Youtube videos that are threatened with takedown strikes in order to stifle creative speech. TotalBiscuit, posted a video telling consumers about a bad video game and the developers of said game intentionally put down a takedown strike in order to stifle him. By doing this, the developer threatened freedom of speech and he threatened the livelihood of TotalBiscuit. This is because if a channel gets enough takedown strikes the channel is deleted. A similar situation happened with Jim Sterlings channel. He posted a series of videos on the games developed by Digital Homicide, and he is now preparing to go to court with them because they did not like the negative criticism he had to say.
This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Hi, I'm Austin. I make videos on Youtube. I made a review on a TV show, but the company "Viacom" took it down for using their footage, while other videos based on this tv show were uploaded to Youtube without any edits at all. So basically, my video was taken down for using as little footage as possible, while real tv episodes of the tv show stay up online, which isn't fair use. Ultimately, these laws need to change, as this situation endorses piracy, but not "Freedom of Speech".
The DMCA legislation is terribly archaic and needs to be revised. It was written for a very different online environment (1998) and is now being used to wrongfully take down content from creators on platforms like Youtube and Twitch. As the platforms have become some of the most popular media outlets on the modern internet, creators using these platforms need to be protected from takedowns that rely on the archaic nature of the DMCA.
"Where's The Fair use?"
Youtube Is fucking terrible
The DMCA is vastly outdated, and the system is constantly abused. Sometimes, companies even file claims without considering fair use or with no copyrighted content present. Many companies or individuals even use claims as threats.
The DMCA was written in the Stone Age of the Internet. You guys know this. Please stop multi-national corporations from screwing with what American citizens can create and watch. Stop BS, automated takedowns.
Thanks for your attention.
Here's some other stuff:
I don't believe in the concept of intellectual "property" anyway.
We need fair use!
mmmmmbop hmmmbop
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) needs new safeguards to protect against abuse by companies that infringe on users’ free speech. It is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system suppresses political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation.
Companies' use of automated takedowns is subject to significant error, and does not allow for judgements to be made about fair use exceptions, resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legal speech and creative expression.
The DMCA’s notice-and-takedown procedures have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims. Political speech can be censored; videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses.
Companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech. There should be statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to fair use review.
The DMCA is too bias in favor of companies, and doesn't let people make a living on fair use content. This makes me feel sad for those who can't share their ideas with the world while also being able to live off the fruits of their passion.
Maybe instead of the current automated system, it could be required to be a self-teaching algorithm that learns what is and isn't fair use, and anything it's not sure about is sent to humans to tell it what's what. It certainly makes more sense than forcing companies to hire teams of meat-sack humans to watch ALL THE THINGS ON THE INTERNET.
"According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review." Yeah, why not have a ranking system instead of an all-or nothing one?
"In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works." I actually disagree with that. We can't have a system as vast as the Internet be a place where people's content isn't stolen without an automated system in place. But the automated system we have is dog poo.
Tl; Dr-- COMPANIES TAKEDOWN MOVE IS OP NERF PLZ
I completely agree with the statement below:
The internet is a place of open creativity, lets not squander that with greed like we do so many other things. thank you.
This has created a toxic Internet.
***
The internet changes on a daily basis and it's gotten to a point where people like me are scared to post things on YouTube and other sites due to this unfair system. Third party companys or people who want other's money or can't take criticism can't be aloud to steal other people's hard work.
Stop using your corporate powers for wrong doings and not allowing fair use. These YouTube creators need to be able to express their views and opions. Take careful action and pkease, consider the consequences your creating .
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amountts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
As a creator who has even had to send some DMCA notices in my time, I'm concerned about their use and effectiveness.
I am concerned about this issue as an educator. My students need the internet to post content related to their assignments.
*Amanda's note: I agree with everything stated above.
WE WANT OUR INTERNET, AS IT IS. END TAKEDOWN ABUSE NOW!!!
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Thank you for reading.
Stop that non 420 kush shiz pl0x bro.
The DMCA has shown that, if you use a felt-tip marker to draw on the outer border of a CD crippled with Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), as many audio CD's nowadays are plagued with, your felt-tip marker is now considered an "Anti-circumvention device" under the DMCA, and is grounds to make you liable for damages and injuries. There have been public protests nationwide regarding this very issue.
I appreciate that companies believe that they merely grant us a "licence" to use the property when they give us a physical item such as a cellular phone or a compact disc. In reality, they have sold a physical product. Should I wish to copy and distribute for profit, I would be liable for damages under laws that existed prior to DMCA. This should not restrict my right to use it as I see fit otherwise. Including a chunk of the data from the CD (whether in audio or in pure binary form) should be allowed for Artistic, educational, or any number of other uses, and should be ardently defended as our right to Fair Use. While Apple can charge me $30/month for a music subscription if they want, They cannot tell me what I can or cannot do with the hunk of metal I paid them $700 to own. If features become disabled on this phone as it is "phased out", that is considered a breach of terms, or at the very least, an attempt at hostile renegotiation.
The DMCA also severely cripples my rights in regard to emulation of computers or video game systems. Should someone share or distribute Nintendo's intellectual property for profit, they should be charged appropriately and forced to pay damages. I, as an individual learning about how 6502 processors work, should be able to make a digital copy of Super Mario Bros, using a cartridge I bought in 1989, for my own use and education. Should I wish to take three popsicle sticks, some chewing gum wrappers, and a car battery, and rig up a way to play the game on my television without using Nintendo's console as an intermediary, I should be allowed to, and have my actions be considered Fair Use.
We need to be very mindful that, although the Supreme Court has stated that the Commerce Clause of the Constitution of the United States allows for actions such as washing the dishes to be considered commercial activity, and although Justice Thomas has stated (in his dissent in Raich v. Gonzalez) that the Commerce Clause completely obliterates the 10th amendment, that clause, which authorizes not only the DMCA, but also the U.S. Copyright Office, does not have the power to do the same to the first nine amendments. Fair Use is firmly grounded in the first and fourth amendments in the Bill of Rights, and expect any challenges that come from further encroachments upon our liberties of Fair Use to claim injuries from that source.
Your primary mandate is to ensure that the actions of your office are not infringing upon both the public's right to fair use, right to free speech, and right to be secure in their papers, person, and possessions. I am expecting your office to act upon that mandate.
Please protect my free expression and speech in the virtual realm just as much as it is protected in the physical world. People's online content should not be removed without reason and companies who do so must be held accountable for their actions.
This takes down things that should have never been eliminated in the first place.
The DMCA needs to be replaced with a system that takes in to account the type of media that is produced this century. When company's, legit or not, can just throw a DMCA copyright claim at anyone, and that company has no accountability for what happens afterwords, there is something wrong. Measures need to be put in place that protect small individuals who make content. Just because they use material that is under a copyright, does not mean they should be punished for using it, that's why we have fair use. The justice system in this country is based off of the idea "Innocent until proven guilty". Why does that not extend to content creation?
Everyone that issues any type of complaint or take down notice should be held accountable for the time involved to settle such disputes.
Your 20 years old law designed to protect both sides, nowadays works in one way only - profitable for corporations and lazy people who lead those. It is not just violating freedom of speech for people who pretty much push forward modern culture. It is making fun of your system, and how easily it can be abused.
Please, regulate copyright relations between content creator and copyright owner, because last one can easily gang up on a single person and shut it down, simply because he or she mentions product corporations own.
It hurts everyone, even corporations, as criticism still makes it to public this or that way, and makes them look even worse.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
As a young professional just entering the new frontier of the digital work force, I am incredibly frustrated and unnerved with the discriminating rights-gap all of this has generated on the Internet. A single arbitrary claim against my person can cause me loose revenue, time, and restrict my rights to free thought and free speech. My career as an aspiring internet enterpeuner depends heavily on proper and fair usage laws. Let it be known that I am microcosm of many millienials on this matter. Like many journalists, modders, commentators, ecterra, ecterra, I am scared for the future of our economy and nation as well as my own future. These archaic laws do not just incentivize a form of corptocratic oppression and a monopoly on expression, favor the established over the entrepreneurial, and violate consumer sovereignty, they erode the opportunity and economic potential of our citizens and nation. Please, do what our Founding Fathers would do - keep these want to be King Georges away from our Constitutional Rights to Fair Use.
Stop blindly trusting robots please, it's not fair to humans.
Get a load of this, Congress!
Companies are using computer algorithms and shell companies (meaning that they're not a legitimate business, but is in actuality made, and used, by a real company as a shield and/or decoy) to scan content posted to the Internet for possible "copyright violations" and issue automated takedowns. This rigged process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for honest and fair judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the UNLAWFUL censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. LEGAL) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
As a YouTuber who has just recently started uploading videos SEVERAL years after I first created my account, I had a very difficult and nerve-wracking experience trying to make sure that there wasn't anything that could be abused by any copyright holders as a means to wrongfully take down my own content, despite the fact that I have not even set up an AdSense account for my channel, therefore there isn't any money that copyright holders can wrongfully take if I feature whatever there hold the copyright(s) to, even if only briefly. That means if I want to do a review of, let's say, a song, and I briefly play bits and parts of it, they can still wrongfully take down my review, and all of the time, hard work, and effort that I put into that video is completely wasted, regardless of whether or not I gave proper credit to the owner. And it doesn't matter if I said that the song is good and is definitely worth listening. The copyright holder will still take it down without a single thought, anyway. The WORST offender when it comes to music is Exit Tunes, Inc., a Pony Canyon subsidiary company in Japan, who released a few albums that featured Vocaloid music, so now they erroneously believe that ALL music featuring Vocaloids belongs to them. But here's the thing: the Vocaloids are NOT signed under them nor Pony Canyon. A Vocaloid is a singing voice synthesizer developed by Yamaha Corp., a Japanese conglomerate that has specialties in such areas as MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS and AUDIO EQUIPMENT. As in, it's a MUSICAL SYNTHESIZER PROGRAM! It's an INSTRUMENT, so Exit Tunes claiming it owns all Vocaloid music is about as contrived and asinine as it would be if Gibson Brands, Inc. started claiming that all songs that used a Gibson Les Paul to create their sound in the recording studio now belong to them, which would mean that the rights to every Aerosmith song that employed one of Joe Perry's two Les Pauls no longer to who they should. Sounds stupid, right? But it happens to other areas and entities far too often!
In closing, this decades-old law is no longer working as it's supposed to. It needs a major, MAJOR, update in order to even be considered constitutional! If you know what's right, then DO IT!
-T.H.T.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I am very concerned about this issue!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and is too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and to issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study by Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30% of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
This NEEDS to be updated, and as soon as possible. Many creators on Youtube have had their channels shut down because of false accusations. Because of this, some people have lost their source of income. We need to change this law, it is far too outdated.
STOP THE EVIL ABUSE OF THE DMCA NOW!!!notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
All too often, the DMCA is abused to the point where even in cases where people are using fair use properly, content is STILL taken down. Multiple times this unfair treatment has happened, with various people such as various YouTubers, and has happened so often a trend of #WheresTheFairUse has begun as a voice against thelse occurences. Changes must be made in order responsibly deal with these mistakes.
Daddy Derek's all about safety
I'm so glad to be a part of this. I have a small YouTube channel, so helping to make a big difference is quite good for me. Some of my favourite reviewers/you-tubers are getting copyright strikes even though their videos come under fair use. This is the time for change. The bigger YouTube based companies (Smosh, FineBros, etc) are getting all the power to do whatever they like. The rules about copyright and fair use must change now.
in question of how i excel to be but cannot seem to become. In times of truth falsely follow the blind leader who treads amicably. truth be told of lies and sins care to speak out in times of laughter. Act not solely based on faith but on belief that one can truly reach that star which swims nonchalantly through the thoughts of those in war of oneself when the mind can no longer exist in this plane of ideas sought after the creators of those who cheat the deathless death of life itself.
be it as it may one can rely only on that which is touchable through the surface of the glass that blinds the sun. it is not the center nor the beginning but the end of the start of the finish in which we may find ourselves among the wolves and herbs of the pasture who walks by hand in hand with the moon. as she looks into the the mirror lake to confess can we truly acknowledge the lateness of the rising hill of the distance. and then and only then shall they ascend and the others descend without words knowledge caves in and the madness enters which clears all sense of the worlds we have come to know and the children of the stars wise as they are can create but one world where all is all.
OK so I already sent you on message with the generic scripting that takedownabuse.com provided but I wanted NO I NEEDED you to see a message FROM ME! I am not a content creator, I always thought it'd be cool to be one but I've never had the resources, however I do watch many creators and their creations through sites such as Youtube as well as the creators own websites should they have them. I'll be honest I don't watch much tv anymore and one day soon I won' watch any tv at all, my entertainment comes from these creations that many wonderful and talented people make, but that's enough about me.
The fact that companies and robots and just seemingly anybody can issue a DMCA claim that is taken seriously and enforced as if it;s correct without anybody looking at what's been claimed is insanity. There's just no other word for it. I may not watch every single person on Youtube or any other video content website but I KNOW for a fact that to many people who did nothing to break the rules have had to battle DMCA claims they never should have had.
For some of them I imagine it's do nothing but ruined their experience, for others though they fight, they fight the insanity because it's the only thing they can do. I mean has anyone who's ever had anything at all to do with the DMCA system watched some of the videos talking about this problem. My guess is never because as much as those issuing DMCA claims like to think they make the law they don't, but they sure do act like it. Explain you ask, sure thing. One email sent to one creator said that if the content isn't from your own camera or a camera man you hired then it's illegal. THEY REALLY SAID THAT!!
Fair use is FAIR USE! Look I'm no legal expert but claiming what I must imagine is a very slim part of their overall vast library for most creators is stupid. Also the fact that on video by one creator was his own video done by himself with nothing that could possibly be claimed to be anything but what it was still got a DMCA claim.
The company, people, machines, or whoever or whatever else does this is out of line. Look here's the facts straight from me to whoever reads this.
1: People are cutting the tv cord, maybe not all, maybe all not right away but the fact is is that people are putting tv and the overpricing of cable companies behind them.
2: People are SICK of companies trying to find stupid ways to stop them from switching to alternatives or make it so those alternatives can't be watched. Example: Netflix, Hulu, other various things of the same nature are going to take over sooner rather than later, but some companies jack up data prices so streaming shows on phones or tablets is either extremely expensive or just impossible.
3: The internet itself regularly comes under attack for no damn reason. OK so immediately could be considered a whole separate issue, but the fact things like Net Neutrality are overly supported because no one wants a net that basically gets to be bought and sold at whatever price. (And yes I know it's a more "complicated" issue than just that, but I'm boiling this down to base level here, and base level is if the internet goes crap, we lovers of creators and their creations have no where to truly watch the things that entertain us, because we sure ain't going back to cable.
In conclusion here's the deal. Either DMCA needs and BIG UPDATE that reflects the internet as it is and as it will come to be as it evolves even more or it needs to die. - Ryan
Patka
Far too often I see copyright disputes across the internet. The disputes mostly concern videos, art and music. The reality of the internet today is that law abiding content creators are being punished for following the rules while abusers of the system get off the hook easily. In my humble opinion, the internet would be a much more profitable and friendly environment for everyone with the reform of these outdated copyright laws. Thank you for reading, I hope the internet will improve from this.
Please fix the DMCA so that parodys and remixes can't be challanged by a search script. I have gotten such a take-down notice on my homepage and it was ludicrous.
We see the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders, and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Freedom of choice instead of freedom from choice.
Do the right thing here. This is much more about controlling content instead of making money. The DMCA restricts freedom of speech and expression by allowing large corporations to control the content created by their competitors.
Consider a future where all videos are claimed to infringe on copyrights; let's stop this while we're ahead.
Not only that, my account got taken down without warning or violating strikes. This is uncalled for and needs better regulation.
The current copyright system is absolutely ridiculous.
The length of copyright is becoming increasingly longer and longer and public domain is essentially dead. Fair use is so extremely limited that it's essentially useless.
However, the possibly worst thing about the DMCA and the current system of copyright is the inability to strip your own content of DRM. It doesn't matter whether you share it or not, it is completely illegal to remove DRM from your content. This is particularly difficult since it makes it impossible to view with free/libre and open source software (you must often use proprietary software owned by organizations such as Adobe Flash or iTunes).
If this is how corporations treat people in the supposedly " land of the free" then count me in .
The current systems in place create a "guilty-until-proven-innocent" extra judicial system with no consequences for abuse on behalf of the filer.
The simple truth is that a lot of these fan works that are being taken down are made by people who are just trying to have fun an express themselves. Most of those people aren't doing it for money, and the ones that are making money are only just trying to promote their small business. Yet these works are being taken down because certain corporate powers think that they're a threat to their bank accounts.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
Both copyright holders of original work and derivatives of it benefit from copyright law and are trying to play by the rules set forth. I have witness many, many take downs of content that were issues by automated bot systems that were of completely original work. Copyright law needs a major update and it seems that the best way to do this is to create some sort of restrictions on false claims. In this country there are extreme repercussions for filing a completely false lawsuit and/or police report, but these same repercussions do not currently exist on the internet. Blatant copyright violations should be upheld, but most derivative works need protection too.
Thank you.
This is outrageous!
Automatically censoring and removing content, without proper, legal review, from any medium, is unconstitutional, and should be illegal.
The dmca is used to abuse the user's who made youtube what youtube it needS to be changed and needS to protect the user's and make it far
Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it. And we cannot learn from our past if we have it censored to prevent us from studying it.
Also, you guys just screwed over my channel.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
For the last four years, I have been writing and submitting TV and film reviews on the Internet. These reviews are all text-based, with no video footage. I do not make a penny off of anything I write.
Nothing I have written has ever been flagged or taken down by copyright holders.
But I wonder: If I were to make a video in which I read my reviews aloud and verbatim, would that change the issue of copyright?
If I were to put advertising on my website, would that make the sharing of my opinions of these TV shows and films less legal?
My reviews often feature quotes from the TV shows and films I review, which I lift directly from transcripts, in order to better make my points in critical reviews, or even simply to highlight certain lines of dialogue I find interesting. Is this illegal?
No. I am protected by the DMCA. And millions of others should be, too.
But the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The DMCA is becoming a tool for censorship and removal of dissenting opinions instead of a copyright removal tool. I am not okay with that and a country that prides itself on protection of free speech shouldn't be okay with it either.
The government shouldn't take away rights of all Internet users, they shouldn't even be accused of copyright thefts, which they clearly don't!
THIS IS UNDEMOCRATIC, outright corrupt practise; it even constitutes corporate censorship. This can be lethal for small businesses or vital political campaigns that have human life and livelihood at stake.
Automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The DMCA has outlived its purpose and gone from a means of protecting copyright to a tool for companies to silence any and all criticism, and it is abused on a DAILY BASIS. False DMCAs are filed relentlessly, and even if they eventually expire, those who filed them ILLEGALLY face no consequences. People who make their living off of using licensed materiel are losing their livelihoods because of this abuse, even though they should be protected by Fair Use.
Something about this blatant misuse of power must be done as soon as possible.
Fair Use is under hourly assault in this country from corporations that have carte blanche to attack content creators and their livelihood. These bogus takedowns cost creators thousands of dollars in lost revenue, yet there is zero penalty even when the attacked content is explicitly protected by Fair Use doctrine.
Here are two examples. User IHateEverything created a parody/review video on a terrible movie called Cool Cat Saves the Kids. Derek Savage, creator of Cool Cat, filed false takedown against the video, solely because IHE expressed a negative view. Savage even openly allowed other reviews to remain up because of their more positive bent. Savage has not been penalized in any way for this despite costing IHE significant loss in revenue and undue automatic sanctions from YouTube.
An even more infamous case relates to the actress behind a website named Persona Stars. Despite having no affiliation with either Atlus or Index corp., this woman singlehandedly removed 99% of all videod related to video game franchise Persona. She, likewise, has faced no repercussions despite falsely filing a report on IP she had no rights or standing with respect to.
Cases like this cannot continue. Accountability must be established.
Where's the fair use?
Content creators on YouTube, Twitter etc. work to entertain and educate people across the world daily, and to see some of their videos being taken down for copyright that sometimes are being falsely punished for is ridiculous. Some content creators make a living and support their families from their online revenue. This issue needs to be solved to fix the biggest problem that the internet holds today.
In addition it has also been evident that some videos created by youtube users have had their videos taken down due to the use of that video by national television stations, in effect stealing original content for their own uses and damaging the original owners' financial status.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is being frequently abused by automated processes that slander against innocent people who use fair use, and sometimes even against people who use no copyrighted material at all. Companies know they can abuse it and simply mass send notice-and-takedown because there is no penalty for falsely accusing someone.
This same system has even been used as a tool of harassment and blackmail due to the the lack of balance in the system. The best way to fix the system is to implement a penalty, such as a fine, for submitting a false notice-and-takedown. In addition, use of automated systems to send notice-and-takedowns should be illegal. All such notices should be submitted by a human. Companies like Youtube are not in a position to do anything about this so a change in the laws is needed.
The biggest change that needs to happen is balance between corporate and private users. In other words, reduce actual piracy, while protecting those who use LEGAL fair use. There should also be actions to protect content creators from multiple attacks by the same company for the same peice of work.
This video explains the problem of Fair Use well: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8
DMCA is being used and abused to bully small people, like well known youtubers, by big companies.
Dear U.S. Copyright Office,
Hello, my name is Zoe Main and I watch Youtube quite often. My favorite video creator is Lily Peet, previously known as Jerry Peet and Bhalspawn. She makes her living on Youtube, as well as a part-time job. A month or two ago she lost her job. She got VERY scared that she wouldn't even be able to pay rent that month and had to take a break from creating her content. Her other faithful viewers, as well as I, watched as many of her videos as we could, so she could hopefully make ends meet. She eventually got a new job, but it was revealed our efforts did little to no good. She has two consistent series, Glass of Water, and In A Minute. Glass of Water is a rant series, but this is not what I will be discussing. Her In A Minute series is a bit of a clip show, playing clips of different TV episodes, with her own commentary. This, of course, falls under fair use, but as she usually focuses on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, she was getting many DMCA claims, illegally claiming all revenue. This was bad before, but now, as she recently got engaged, she needs this revenue more than ever! Please, for all the creators, change the DMCA system!
Sincerely, Zoe Main.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) seems to be heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This current system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. Unfortunately, his kind of damage can not be undone.
Therefore, some real balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Thank you for your consideration of my comments and thoughts.
These DMCA automatic takedowns must be stopped. These companies are censoring the free speech and ideas of all Americans by blinding using their robots to take down content without any oversight. For example, there are many times that I have come across videos or posts that have had their audio track muted just because it was filmed in a public place where a song was faintly playing in the background. No one is choosing to play this video to hear a song playing lightly in the background in lieu of purchasing the song. This is just one of many examples of how these robots impact the rights of all American citizens. While these DCMA takedowns claim to be protecting the copyrights, in reality they are censoring the ideas and creativity of Americans everywhere. By inadvertently having a song or video playing in the background on a TV, playing in the background at a public place, a fan doing parody of a popular work, or fans SUPPORTING a copyrighted work by creating art by using aspects of said work, none of these have a negative impact on sales or the business of those who own the copyrighted work. DCMA would lead you to believe that, but in reality they want to control the work before someone purchases it and then after they have as well essentially controlling how someone enjoys what they paid for. Please do the right thing and reduce the control and oversight that these robots and automated takedowns have over Americans free speech and creativity. This is what makes America great...the freedom to say and express ideas and communicate that creative spirit. Big business should not have the right to censor these American rights!
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgement to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I posted a very short mashup onto Soundcloud, and within a week it was taken down. It was the first thing I ever tried to make and upload and it was very discouraging to have something I thought would be entertaining taken down by a corporation that has enough money and whatnot to let a 15-second audio clip that is doing absolutely no harm and is not gaining any profit of any kind slide from their greedy radar. I am very upset due to this development and would like to see everyone who's ever been wronged by this righted.
"A personal note on top. I've one received a DMCA takedown notice some years ago for hosting a file named `quake.zip`. This file shared the name of a popular video game and the notifier didn't even look at the file to notice that it was under 1mb in size and unable to be the game they were submitting the DMCA for."
Youtube needs to remake the copyright system! It is more than ridiculous how it is to abuse the system and not only is it in the way of free speech but also is harming original content on Youtube. A way to mute a human voice is against the human rights.
Many people made DMCA-notice on content they don't even own, and use it as threat.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, Dailymotion, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech... And even just bullying. Stupidity and unbalanced is not needed at all.
Oh, It also really stupid when I try to watch Canadian made content which is block to Non-US citizens over DMCA. That too is annoying.
You have to stop it
I as the future of YouTube believe that the currant system is unjust and needs to be loosened
http://curli.bandcamp.com/album/you-know-whats-right
Not to mention those who simply wish to silence the views of others, and use this law as a means to do so.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This is particularly egregious as there is currently no system in place for a quick review and judgement to be made by a human, allowing videos to remain removed for weeks or months before anything can be done. Until such a system is put into place, any other changes made to the DMCA would be all but meaningless.
- Futurium Media on YouTube
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice-and-takedown process is too open for abuse, there needs to be a better civil mechanism available to the target of inappropriate notices with monetary fines of a level that will properly discourage the sending of notices with no serious inspection of the content being targeted for takedown. The current existence of automated systems used by media companies and the resulting removal of legal content indicates that their is little to deter bad faith use of this system as it is currently constructed.
Stop killing art in the name of protecting it.
As an airsofter who is trying to bring this sport to my community by using the internet use is very important. Yes, there are other outlets that I can use to promote my cause is all well and good. However, the cost of working with other people who control those commercial outlets is expensive.
I now live in a time where ordinary people can acquire the resources to promote their own causes without depending on the media outlets. For instance, a reviewer can go on the internet to promote their thoughts and opinions about a certain field that he or she is passionate about.
Also, the internet itself is a vast audience that people can depend on. Not just a number or a statistic.
When all is accomplished through their resources and to figure that all their work is all for nothing when their work is unjustly regulated. Thankfully there are millions of people who are fighting for this change. Otherwise, the people who use the internet will remain in bondage of law where they are free to entertain, inform or just normally bum around the internet. This is a great resource to use and I hope that there will be change.....
Lets all remember when Pixels got the original short that it was based on taken down. That alone should signal how the law needs an update. The world has already changed and its time to reflect that.
Miaw... :3
The outdated DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) has allowed complained to force entertainment artists to take down videos with no proof of their ownership.
A few days ago I uploaded a video to Youtube, where I played a video game while commenting it! Only to experience it getting copyrighted for having part of a song in it. I went to see what song this was, and it turned out that someone out there made a REMIX, and used some dialogue from the game in it... And now they are going to make money of my video? Because they have claimed that they own some audio sample that is obviously made as part of this video game in the first place? They do not own it, and it's sad how they abuse Youtube's copyright system in this way...
Thanks for listening...
As a professional artist, I understand the importance of copyright protection for digital media. It is a crucial tool for both individuals and businesses to defend their intellectual property - and, by extension, their livelihood. However, the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is dramatically skewed in favor of the party bringing the complaint, whether said complaint is valid or not. This means that take-downs can easily be abused as a means of stifling open discourse, commerce, and artistic expression.
By attacking content that is protected under fair use (or even original content), complainants can silence critics, disrupt competitors' business, and censor legitimate creative expression, all without establishing a firm legal basis for their claims. In other words, while the DMCA as a whole is important for protecting copyrighted material, take-downs have become an all-too-expedient weapon against individuals and businesses who are in fact posting their own intellectual property online.
This form of abuse may be likened to a SLAPP suit, in which a plaintiff attempts to intimidate critics into silence by naming them in a lawsuit they cannot afford to defend. DMCA take-downs can be used in a similar fashion, the goal being to disrupt expression without a fight rather than to bring a valid legal challenge in good faith. Many states have enacted statutory anti-SLAPP laws protecting defendants (by, for instance, requiring plaintiffs to demonstrate the necessary elements of their case at the outset of litigation). The DMCA, in contrast, has no corresponding safeguards.
Furthermore, take-downs can potentially be even more devastating than SLAPPs. Because the alleged offending material is removed from the internet as soon as the complaint is made, content creators find their work deleted without prior warning, before there is any opportunity for appeal. They are not just intimidated into silence, they are silenced by default. In the case of a carefully timed marketing campaign, this can be disastrous even if the content is later restored. Meanwhile, there is very little accountability for anyone who chooses to misapply the DMCA in this predatory fashion.
For all these reasons, the notice and takedown system is sorely in need of balance. Although it is critical to protect copyright holders on the internet, it is equally important to prevent entities from using baseless, insincere copyright claims to limit legitimate business, journalism, free speech, and creative expression. Until better safeguards are put in place - more oversight for take-downs, statutory damages for frivolous claims, or some other remedy - the bias in favor of complainants will continue to be exploited. The longer that keeps happening, the more it will foster a chilling effect counterproductive to everything the DMCA stands for.
For too long the sistem has suported those who would benefit from the - guilty until proven inocent - policey which is all that we have had so far. A broken sistem, which had showed it's issues from the very begining, and has only been getting worse since the internet's inevitabile rise in polularity. As more and more people take to the web every day, this problem which has already reached tremendous proportions, can only get even bigger, until there is a change of legislation to corect it.
And so, I ask for a change which will protect those inocent creators who's livelyhoods depend on fair-use. Censorsing them is harming them financialy, and due to the very rational fear of unfair copiright strikes, their content can only be said to have worsened, harming the public overall.
It is destroying one of the best, and a hugely important part of the internet...
Piracy is a problem, and can affect the livelihoods of thousands of people working in the entertainment industry. However, there are also thousands of people whose livelihood depends on the online content they create. The DMCA is heavily biased towards the former group over the latter.
The principal of Fair Use dictates that protecting copyrighted content can't just be an automated process. It has to be determined whether the use of said content falls under Fair Use before any action is taken. And yet this clearly isn't happening. Roughly a third of all takedowns on YouTube alone would easily fall under Fair Use if it was brought to court, and many of these takedowns are eventually reversed. I say 'eventually' because the process is byzantine and takes far, far too long, during which the creator is cut off from receiving compensation, and can never recoup the income that was lost due to another party's mistake!
It's clear that as it stands, the DMCA is being abused, frequently, at the expense of online creators whose work should be legally protected under Fair Use. Fair Use must be considered, and there must be consequences for copyright holders who attempt to abuse the system. It's all well and good to combat piracy, but there need to be protections in place for creators who are clearly and scrupulously following the law. Thank you.
Fully Read the Fair Use Guidelines before acting on a take down
The internet evolves extremely quickly, and thanks to it millions of people are able to create whatever they want without the restrictions of the past. However, the content produced by internet users is under threat by an incredibly aged law called the DMCA.
This law was designed before the internet defined itself as a network for people to express themselves and in the current age, anyone could abuse this law and take down any content they want, even if nothing belongs to them or whatever the creator uses from them falls under fair use.
A good example of this is a YouTube video by the channel "Chibi Reviews" where all that happens in the video is someone stands on their front porch talking about snow, yet the video is still taken down for copyright infringement.
"If a vlog video about a guy talking on his own porch about snow & wishing everyone a good day can be taken down. We truly might see the end of YouTube in the near future if they don't change this broken system." - Chibi Reviews
In the internet, anybody can take anything and claim it as theirs, and it is now time for change. If the DMCA is not fixed, the internet will become a barbaric place with videos and tweets taken down every second for literally no reason.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I doubt my opinion on such matters will be of any value to the vassals of monopolistic multinational content creators/purchasers/brokers, but I’ll give it a shot anyway. It is difficult to overstate my contempt for the DMCA, the politicians that passed it at the demand of their underwriters, the court processes that legitimize it, and the bureaucrats that administer it. I feel that the DMCA is part of a series of fairly recent laws, international treaties, Supreme Court decisions, and administrative rulings that have altered the nature of the relationship between the individual and government. The anti-circumvention and takedown process as defined in this law simply can not be administered by a government doing anything less than ruling over its citizens, rather than governing them at their own behest. Specifically, the takedown process is corrupt at its core due to the burden of proof being shifted from the default fair use position. This shift inherently favors the party with more resources regardless of the veracity of their claims to the point of limiting speech. Furthermore, the anti-circumvention aspects of the DMCA eliminate important aspects of consumer protection related to the fair use items to the detriment of consumers.
The DMCA is a law written by lobbyists and passed through legalized bribery. As such, I view it as a measure of oppression.
For me personally, Team Four Star's DBZA videos were taken down under fair use several times and they always have to fight to get them back. These videos have been taken down multiple times and keep getting struck after getting cleared. People use them to threaten and abuse other channels, striking the same content multiple times and abusing the system to push their agenda. Even big companies will use this to push their own agenda or products. For instance, Electronic Arts has taken down poor reviews of their games claiming that the footage they used was copyrighted and not protected under freedom of press or anything. People will also make some vague copyright of a term and take down anything remotely related to it claiming it was their idea. For instance the Fine bros. trademarked "reaction videos," which is a pretty vague statement. The Fine bros. then proceeded to take down any reaction videos that weren't theirs even if they were posted long before the trademark or even before the Fine bros. channel was created. And the problem was no one could do anything about it but complain because of their trademark. Abuse has been going on and on and people are getting sick of it, it is time for change.
I also feel that the takedown of videos that use copyrighted logos and property is wrongful, so as long as credit is rightfully given to the respective owner(s). Fair use is used to not only show the owners of copyrighted material, but to express opinions and comedy. Fair use is important to everyone everywhere. Fair use has also helped the owners of the copyrighted material earn more money and popularity, so the idea of taking down fair use seems to hurt not only the publishers of content including content copyrighted by a team or large company, but also the owners of the copyrighted material. Fair use is important in helping us all obtain popularity and currency. Please, do not outlaw fair use. Consider the beneifits and the supporters of fair use and the copyrighted material owned by a team or large company
Content creators on the internet should be innocent until proven guilty, and copyright holders should have the burden of proof and provide evidence before any action can be taken.
In fact elimination of automated takedowns may be required.
Some big companies are using DMCA take downs to take down honest content creators and are TAKING THEIR REVENUE while they do it. They are breaking the LAW by doing this (look it up!), and THIS is what fair use is for!
DMCA needs updating NOW, and these giant companies need to stop attacking content creators for EXPRESSING OPINIONS. They make a living off of it and they are right to because it's entertainment and people like it - the same as all Hollywood. Hollywood started in the exact same way and now look at what it's come to... the take down and REVENUE STEALING of people who simply create and upload content.
Ridiculous. Sort this out now before the Internet loses the one thing that makes it special - a connection to every human out there. Letting people DELETE connections is NOT in the spirit of this fantastic technology.
A great society must allow its citizens freedom of information, or it is just a tyranny. The internet is the preeminent gateway to information today and purveyors of this vehicle of global communication must have a greater sense of the importance of their role in global affairs than just company self-interest. Until companies mature into a higher standard of appreciation of their self-worth the public and our society must be protected from short sighted corporate greed and a business as usual approach. This is of the utmost importance. Even a matter of national security.
^so much this
And that sucks, alot.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Fair use usage has gotten insane videos are getting claimed that go under fair use and some that use no footage or music at all. Please fix this.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted work.
BRING BACK TEH INTERNETZ!!11 :,^((
people on youtube have been having their videos taken down when they make nothing but original content, stop being butts
Quite frankly, it's time that these corporations realize the harm they're doing to people who aren't doing anything wrong themselves.
If the creators do not know its copyrighted then what are they going to do. Some great YouTube creators have just been stop posting because of these copyright claims. People have gotten a copyright claim because of clouds in their video. Please fix this so creators of the future like me can have a better environment to upload videos in.
Stop take downs.
I have personally had my most popular and lucrative video on YouTube taken down, just a few days ago. While I am double-timing my production to make up for that loss, I am still losing some revenue each day that it remains down. Because of the lopsided nature of current laws, some content is so difficult to make that I find it had to even jump though the hoops to make it work. Original gameplay recordings get monetized by Nintendo, stealing all the revenue from the creators, if they use the music from the game being played. That is a ridiculous limitation on gameplay footage. Clips from television shows get automatically detected if they're above a paltry 28 seconds, and then the copyright holders for said shows get to steal all the profits from the work of creators. The system is broken. It's time to protect small creators as well, not just huge corporate creators.
To whom it may concern,
My personal opinion is that it's the job of the lawmakers to keep laws up-to-date and not be bought by corporations as to be corrupted into making the amendments of the constitution practically illegal or twisted, this time it's the First Amendment. The ability to take down random videos by robots is appalling. The fact that the DMCA encourages this is absolutely horrific. I myself am a music producer, composer, author, artist, philosopher, and poet. I may not be a millionaire, but I wish for my works and words to remain my own. I wish for the DMCA to be changed destroyed so I don't have to live in fear of what little I have to be taken from me.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Thank you for your consideration
-Edward Benjamin Button
I don't make online content myself, I want to but horror stories of people having to fight fraudulent strikes and clamins
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I just wish to say that I'm extremely surprised that the government needs feedback on this. Just go browse the web for any small amount of time to find out how terrible and outdated it is.
Change fair use, but change it so that it will actually facilitate the creation of new art and content, not to be abused by larger companies like it has been.
Some of my favorite content creators, people who are nothing more than critics have been silenced or slandered for daring to speak about things. Some such as "I hate everything," have even been hit with false DMCA's just to taunt or harass them. This is not okay.
We have lost enough freedom. This additional restriction needs to be stopped.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Please give us back our internet. Without fair use, there is no creativity; no art. It only hurts the individuals while the big companies thrive.
Its not fair other companies are taking down.our stuff and they get money....
So I own a reaction channel (Link) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBMJfJUslZ5zcyNMsEw0Kgg
And I've gotten copyright strikes for videos on my channel for adding content that is owned by other but since I'm reacting to them i'm adding onto that content and making that my own content yet I still get copyright strikes. Even though the video is everywhere on youtube I still get strikes just because i react to it that's just not fair at all. Please fix this and stop these copyright take downs!
I am against the law DMCA.
I believe that Fair Use should be enforced. Many people agree that for as much positive is in these sites, there are negatives. These "negatives" take advantage of others hard work and steal it. Well, not everyone. There was one case on youtube where a channel, who had done many of these types of videos, reacted to a video with helpful tips and comments. The person who made it put a copyright strike onto it, even though it fell under fair use. Many people dont understand what Fair Use is, and they complain to the people that do. Fair Use is being expoited every single day.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of deep pockets such as corporate copyright holders. The DMCA is too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation. The DMCA needs serious revision. Please cut back the outrageous copyright laws. Start with some new DMCA new safeguards to protect against abuse. Companies that infringe on a users’ free speech rights need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedown requests. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for proper judgement to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate speech and creative expression on the Internet. In my personal experience as an attorney, I have seen about this this same number.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and demand artificially inflated damages from innocent victims. What really chaps my ass is the excessive financial penalties in the copyright act.
The law should not make criminals out of the common person. The current process protects the mega corporations, and does little to protect those the copyright law was designed to protect, the average innovator. Mega-corps employ agencies who use clusters of machines constantly scanning the web for any content that might belong to their clients. There is no oversight, there is no human involved in the process and the DMCA request is submitted without review. Site owners, and hosting companies are powerless with the current legislation, they have no choice but to comply and submit an appeal, a lengthy process against a machine??
The DMCA goes too far in every way. It has nearly abolished the long standing Copyright principle of fair use. Who among us (those of us over 30) hasn't made a mix tape? The equivalent in today's world under the DMCA is a crime. Do you want to backup your fragile DVDs and Blu-Rays, a practice explicitly allowed prior to DMCA, well you cannot, that is also a crime.
The DMCA made it legal for software companies to include severe computer crippling anti-piracy software on their disks, software that often would falsely detect, and result in the inability to access content legitmately purchased. On top of that it criminalized any attempt to then circumvent that protection so that you could actually access the content you legitimately paid for. What recourse did you have? None. You can't return unopened software, the companies are too big to listen to individual customers, and would not do anything to provide a working copy without the protections to a consumer who had a compatibility problem. I personally have a copy of the game Black and White, which I paid full price for and was never able to play for this very reason.
The DMCA made illegal an entire class of software, one that was exceedingly popular with the average person, the DVD ripper. Was this because we all wanted to rip our DVDs and share them with our neighbors?? No it was because we wanted be able to play the content we paid for on the device we preferred, instead of being confined to consumption by disk. The media companies offered no alternative. The current alternatives are now loaded with DRM protections that often prevent their very purpose, being able to play it on a digital device. Did we ever have to discard our VHS library if we bought a new VHS player? But now if I switch cell phones, I may lose access to an entire library of music and video content legitimately purchased.
And to what end? To stop piracy? To make it impossible to distribute? Was the populace really all distributors of pirated wares? Has the law succeeded in that purpose? No, yet it created an entirely new type of litigation. The ability to sue an unknown party, an IP Address for unknown damages without any specific evidence that the individual who ends up served had anything to do with the piracy. Yet what choice did those sued have under this legislation? The ISPs were forced to supply private information about the POTENTIAL user of the IP Address. That person then had no choice but to pay for counsel or to pay the extortion fee, conveniently priced around what it would cost to secure counsel. So now we have had a decade of law suits. And I am more able now to download whatever I want online than I was before the DMCA, not because the industry responded with solutions to the market demand, but because the DMCA is only effective in making criminals out of the common man, and not stopping the common criminal. While I am aware that it is illegal to copy mp3s without paying for them, I am laughed at by anyone that I mention it to. Anyone under 30, doesn't even believe that it is illegal. Prior to the DMCA, prosecution of such copyright acts required not just an ability to show a desire to distribute such copied articles, but to show that there were actually damages involved, not theoretical damages that are unfairly extrapolated today. In other words, they actually had to go after the criminal distributors, rather than suing the populace to prop up a failing business model.
But now the media industry is not satisfied (did I mention the failing business model? The one that fails to deliver content in the way that the consumer wants to consume content.) They want to extend the DMCA to provide even more protections, and allow them to make more of us criminals. While they wait for the almost insured passage of this new legislation (follow the money, money in politics), they are pushing the envelope of the constraints of the DMCA, expanding the interpretation, and automating the processes to abuse its powers.
It is time to restore fair use, to decriminalize derivative works, and common practices. Copies for personal use were explicitly allowed under copyright law, the DMCA stripped us of that right. We should have it back. The media industry has leveraged the DMCA to enable their business model that was failing in the 1990's to continue for another 20+ years, still failing. It is time that they should compete on fair grounds. If they cannot innovate they should fail.
Make copyright law comprehensible and reasonable again. Stop making the populace criminals. Consider the story of Aaron Schwartz, prosecuted to death under the DMCA.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair-use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Fair use provisions in copyright law are in place for fundamentally crucial reasons that undergird the health of our society and its government.
Who makes these decisions, to remove posts? Who decides if content is appropriate or damaging?
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate data being removed. This is cencorship by robot, taking away any benefit from human review.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and is too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse, and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and to issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
My personal experiences include one generally odd case, that when I'm streaming a videogame that features music, even with the developers explicit permission (Paradox Interactive, for one), Twitch or YouTube may still block or restrict the audio and/or video.
Secondly, specifically YouTube's third-party DMCA scanner has errors. When they identified material of copywrite in a video of mine, I had to respond to a form. The most appropriate responses I had to choose from were "I acknowledge that this video contains music XXXX" or "This video does not contain unlicensed material". It's should be a big deal, I'm more than happy to admit the video contained a song. However, the wrong song was named. I certainly did not use song XXXX, I used song YYYY. There was absolutely no accurate response in the form, and is thus the system is broken. I contacted YouTube, who repeated stated that they had absolute no control over DMCA issues, that it's a 3rd party matter. Alas, they did not give out the contact information of the 3rd party. The system of automatically taking down videos without recourse due to errors could be applied to every single video on YouTube. Again, the only recourse was to "checkmark the appropriate box" but none of the boxes were appropriate because of technical errors.
There are also issues with those making the complaints making off other peoples content while it is being disputed. They also do not get that revenue back if the claim is won or dropped.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
I 100% believe that this is an important issue and *must* be addressed. DMCA exists to protect the content-creator, and ironically that is who is most harmed by it.
----
As a lover of modern technology and the internet, it pains me to see that corporate copyright holders and seemingly only those with enough money get to control what content is allowed. I understand that companies need to protect themselves against IP theft, but sweeping claims against any and everything that uses content they made isn't the way to do it. YouTube specifically is loaded to the brim with creative content made by clever and creative people that sometimes appropriates content made by someone else. Y'know like artists have done since the beginning of art. I think the case of TeamFourStar and their DragonBallZ Abridged series is a perfect example, they use the animation made by someone else (and give them credit for it) but they re-cut and re-dub the entire thing to make their own unique content (they don't even make any money on it).
I would also like to point out Nintendo as an abuser of the current system. YouTubers that want to make content about Nintendo's IPs (not necessarily even containing content created by Nintendo are subject to having their content taken down unless they pay Nintendo a massive portion of any profits made on the creator's own content.
Please, we need a system that can support our current and future technological environments and will allow for creative people to make creative content about content someone else made. Approiation, it's a thing people do.
The following is a pre-written message:
#WTFU Where is the fair use?
#WTFU
Also it will never end until
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I listen to my music on the internet. The music I listen to is self produced by people online. These are original works which somehow are being taken down for copyright. These are people who use their own time to create music that is then claimed by someone else. Isn't this the very thing that these laws were made to prevent? The laws have only made it easier for bigger companies to steam roll over hard working, self producing artists. This system steals money from honest people. All it does is scares aspiring producers from chasing their dreams. Fixing this system will provide a better opportunity for self publishers to actually release their music.
Our tweets, videos, and posts are getting targeted by overzealous copyright algorithms in the millions every day. A bunch of bad actors, mostly corporate copyright holders, are finding ways to use the DMCA to take down content without review, usually by using robots (smart algorithms) to do the work. They do it to silence their critics, cut off competitors, control art and culture, or fleece people for money. Any way you slice it, it's an abuse of the DMCA that doesn't have to exist.
The notice-and-takedown process as it currently stands puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are critical for the survival of small businesses. There's so much you and I have never seen or heard about because it got taken down before it had a chance. That damage can’t be undone.
Free expression is too important for bullies to be able to make false takedown claims without consequences. By making sure there are consequences for false takedowns, we can fix the problem.
According to a recent academic study, nearly 1 in 3 of the videos and other content that get caught up in notice-and-takedown and censored are most likely perfectly legal and don’t violate any copyright laws. But the way the law is currently enforced, there are no incentives for companies to be more careful. They can make bogus claims, let their algorithms run rampant, and take stuff down without any fear of being held accountable.
The thing is, many of the uses of copyrighted content that get shot down by these bullies are 100% legal. Congress intended for things like commentary, remixing, and parody to be protected under fair use, but the robots that are doing the take downs can’t understand these nuances of the law. And because there are no repercussions for illegitimate take downs, companies have no reason to try to fix their systems.
The DMCA is being abused by bad actors, so let's not let the bad actors abuse the system!
So many of our democratic freedoms are being stripped from us these days in the name of protecting us from terrorism that we are on the verge, if not already there, of becoming a fascist system. We have to regain some common sense it this country.
The copyright system is not helping the creators that it claims to protect. This is because of corporations abusing the copyright system to take ownership on material that is not thiers.
It's terribly unjust how takedown notices can be used to threaten content creators and stifle the creative process of creating art. This global culture we have now has few lasting artifacts, but sometimes old, established and very popular videos can just vanish in an eyeblink and then no one can see them anymore.
There has to be some reprecussion for false DMC claims so theres a whisper of accountability and ethics to stick up for the artisans who do this stuff for a living--large or small scale--otherwise its just the wild west where the big dogs can shove people around willy-nilly. Its so one-sided that its really kind of unbelivable. And you know what they say about absolute power, right? It corrupts absolutely. Its time to take another look at things.
EDIT: This is pretty much the jist of it. As if the Nostalgia Critic didn't make it clear enough.
...
Recently, a Youtube personality by the name of NFKRZ has had multiple strikes on his account regarding his intro music. The strike was given to him by someone of the name Casting. However, the song he uses only features Casting as a 'feature' and not the actual song creator. Not only this, but NFKRZ asked permission from the true artist of the song, Bbrainz, and received the artists permission. Finally, and most importantly, NFKRZ is being blackmailed by Casting. He was told to give Casting $1,000 or else he would strike his account until deletion. This is the ultimate wrong and it needs to be fixed RIGHT NOW!
Copyright needs to protect and enable individuals above distributors, publishers and large companies who bully and harass. The burden of proof must be put upon those with the most power and resources. The individual should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. A measure of discouragement should be given to those powerful media agencies that abuse their position by pursuing fraudulent claims. This should be financial in nature.
You are people without a conscience or a sense of shame. You are bullies and eventually you will meet somebody bigger, stronger, and meaner than you that will take you down. It's Karma!
This is getting very ridiculous for all us Internet users. More consideration and time must be taken to ensure that these statutes are not abused, as they currently are!
In my personal opinion, the fair use has gone to dust. Trolls, and broke companies are stealing money from unsuspected people who depend on it. To be honest this is basically fraud and theft. Most youtubers are mid twenty year olds who enjoy doing what they do and so do their millions of fans. But then a company with no rights to that copyright, or content within that video, come along and take their money. A random person was just vlogging their front porch with snow on and uploaded it; apparently you can own somebody else's porch just because you say so? I don't think so. Neither do millions of people. So the guy who's sitting there reading this, take action and return our fair use.
I am from Sweden and i appreciate the work the independent creators put out and think it stifles all what has to do with creative freedom when they are treated like this. Please do not let the companies have so much power. It will stop humanities progress
There are many many instances of inefficient action and misuse of DMCAS. It nearly nullifies fair use terms and damages tangible business and freely expressed content. It is not a system optimized for the current standard of internet use and freedom to create things.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Something that would greatly benefit the Fair Use provisions and the DMCA as a whole would be to implement a Cry Wolf principle, where after enough claims which were deemed in court to have been filed in bad faith. Any future claims for a period of time afterwards are not to be acknowledged regardless of the legitimacy behind the claim. This would create an incentive for rights holders to make sure that the content a takedown notice is being filed against is genuinely in violation of copyright and not protected under Fair Use.
Furthermore, additional provisions need to be in place to ensure that ONLY the rights owner, and the rights owner alone, can file takedown notices or claim the content. Such an abuse of the system is alive and well, as demonstrated by YouTube user TheMysteriousMrEnter in his latest video, Mr. Enter Strikes Back (#WTFU), where he goes over how one of his videos has had a takedown notice filed against his critique of an Australian cartoon, Pixel Pinkie, not once, not twice, but three times, all by different companies, and the last two were apparently done by companies merely associated with the rights owner. (video being described can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiSXoEbILhw). Or the exchange between YouTube use I Hate Everything (IHE) and Derek Savage, where Derek filed a takedown notice against IHE's video critiquing Derek's anti-bullying and child gun safety movie, Cool Cat Saves the Kids. A synopsis of the exchange can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzXSQ5f08sA
I wholeheartedly agree with the statement below
Once something is thrown into the pubic domain - internet, advertising, movies, the fair use rules should come into play and allow unfettered comments and cites. Companies who wish to avoid this, should not put out the stuff they wish a monopoiy on.
Please
IHE is the best.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-take-down procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-take-down process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
~~~~~~~~~
A personal note. I have to say, I'm deeply disappointed in what the internet has come to. I've watched so many artists I follow be attacked via false copyright claims, or claims that make absolutely no sense. This is senseless - these artists aren't making money off of this content, and they certainly aren't claiming it as their own.
political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I may not be an active content creator but this is a process and law that been abused and changes need to be made with it.
I see this as a serious loophole in the protection of freedom of speech exercised on the Internet. There should be some significant penalty for people who threaten posters when they cannot prove that they have the the legal right to do so. Please take action to stop this spreading abuse.
The DMCA violates my right to free speech that is protected by the US constitution. DMCA puts private businesses and multinational corporations before American citizens. I demand for a complete overhaul or repeal of DMCA.
The DMCA system is being abused beyond belief. With the number of times corporations file false claims, it is as if people that create content are not worth their humanity, and are treated as points on a game. Content creators that I love are suffering over this, from having content that I wanted to watch get taken down for no good reason, to losing ad revenue because fair use got ignored. Please, update the DMCA for balance and justice's sake.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The video takedowns are getting ridiculous!
As someone who consumes most of my media through the Internet, it pains me when my favorite content creators are penalized for crimes that they did not commit. In particular, I am a fan of many movie critics whose reviews take the form of YouTube videos. These content creators especially are frequently targeted with DMCA claims despite the fact that their videos clearly fall under fair use policy. Seeing as these content creators make movie reviews, using movie footage in order to illustrate issues and/or strengths of a film is completely understandable. This practice is no different than when a book reviewer quotes sections of a piece in order to illustrate their points, and no legal professional would declare that practice illegal. While complete theft of a movie, i.e. uploading a film in its entirety is and should be illegal, a 10-45 minute review of a 90+ minute movie would not use enough unedited footage to constitute stealing. However, online movie critics have to constantly worry about DMCA claims, because they are filed frequently and on platforms like YouTube, DMCA claims can severely inhibit a creator. In fact, multiple movie critics that I follow, like Doug Walker (the Nostalgia Critic), have been forced to remove footage from their reviews, using stills and skits in lieu of footage, in order to avoid DMCA claims. A key element in all forms of persuasion is cited evidence, any argument without facts to support it is weak. Avoiding the use of footage greatly reduces the amount of evidence that a critic can use, which negatively impacts the quality of their critique because they can no longer illustrate issues with the film.
The "notice and take-down" process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is cripplingly prejudiced in favor of corporate copyright holders and much commonly used to stifle content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, inventiveness, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new precautions to guard against exploitation and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for probable copyright violations and issue automatic take-downs. This process is susceptible to substantial blunder and does not allow for verdicts to be made about possible fair use exceptions, consequently resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notifications are of questionable validity and would benefit from human appraisal.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the "notice and take-down" procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who pursue to shut down legitimate competition and excerpt money from innocent victims.
The "notice and take-down" process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage cannot be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the "notice and take-down" system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that misuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
YOU BETTER STOP!!!
I have had many of my videos improperly flagged for copyright even though I have permission to remix and edit any of the original content I have created.
This needs to stop.
Please change your stuff it sucks
The DMCA system is heavily skewed in favor of random claims by anyone who wants to take content down, and making counter claims can be futile, even when your counter claim is valid. Counter claims can be invalidated easily and no responsibility is put on the one making the claim, all responsibility is on the accused regardless of lack of evidence.
While I can imagine "housekeeping" objectives that might support taking down content, such cases do not anywhere match the importance of having a public means of expression. It easily becomes censorship!
People have rights too!
Edit:I personally had no experience with copyright holders.But many other YouTubers who i watch have.As an example the Channel:"I hate everyhing" only stated his own opinion and got involved in a "Copyright War" which he won but only after a long period of time.I think YouTube should abandon the whole "You are guilty unless proven otherwise" mindset, and instead maybe try something like "You are innocent unless proven otherwise".
In addition, Content ID claims are also bad as they confiscate money without removing the product. No law works like this.
I had an unlisted video of me playing Star Wars Battlefront on Youtube and it was taken down because I was listening to movie soundtracks and it carried over on my mic. The video was just for me and a few friends to view and I wasn't claiming any ownership of the music. In fact, the very songs I play are on Youtube as soundtrack videos all over the place. Why should they get to keep their videos when mine gets taken down because I played it over my mic? I got a strike now and can no longer upload videos over 15 minutes, so I can't post my own music now or anything. Pretty unreasonable.
I also see so much of content being taken down for silly reasons and the corporations seem to just laugh at it. I know that they're desperately trying to stop the pirated music, but this wild, faulty automated system is not the answer and it seems to be hurting creators much more than helping any musicians or companies who own the content. The songs are still everywhere and the system is causing more victims than benefactors.
The internet is an evolving entity with increasing importance to society at large. The laws set in place need to adapt to the current situation so that everyone from international corporations to individuals on Youtube are protected from systemic abuse within the DMCA.
The government has shown in recent years that is responsive to the will of the people when it comes to the internet, and it is with this confidence that I submit this comment.
The notice-and-takedown process under the DMCA (which is very outdated having been made in the late 90's when the Internet was a much different place) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under the fair use law which says that exerpts of copyrighted material may be used in a transformative way for purposes such as criticism, satire, or education. The DMCA system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation. It takes place where many people can do so many things because of instant reports, and a large community of people; this is known as the Internet, a place that is supposed to be where anybody can become famous, but now, creators are being controlled and censored in a way that almost seems like we've entered the totalitarian future we've always feared, the ones we see in movies like Ender's Game, Hunger Games, Twilight Zone, etc. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that silence criticism and infringe on users’ freedom of speech need to be held responsible. These abusers sometimes realize that the video isn't truly violating copyright and use it strictly to stop people from criticizing their work without realizing that THAT is what the Internet is. The abillity for many creators to fight back claimants is unfairly limited, such as with sites like YouTube, where a claimant doesn't have to show evidence that the claimed video is violating copyright, where they don't have to respond to an appeal for a month, where they can limit a claimant's abillity to fight by taking away claim appeals, airing 15 minute videos, and if done in abundance, close down an innocent channel. The claims can be used as harassment and bullying when the debate between claimant and creator becomes a threat to take legal action against the creator even when the creator is in no legal violation. They can be used on content the claimant does not own. They can be used even without actual material from the copyrighted work and attack reenactment criticisms or just people criticizing without any material even resembling the copyrighted work. They can be used by shell companies seeking to "protect" the claimant companies from people fighting back, and this just makes the creator's power even more limited to regain their video. They can even be used to take money from the monetization the video is supposed to be giving to the creator and rather than putting it into a neutral place, it assumes the creator is guilty until proven innocent and gives it to the claimant, again without evidence, until the creator manages to get the claim stopped. Due to the claims process taking up to a month just for a response from the claimant (at which time they can reinstate the claim and possibly drag it on for at least another month) a good amount of money can be lost. And even if the claim fails in the end, the claimant keeps all of the money they gained over the time. If people make a living off of their work, it is a direct problem for their life and livelihood. That is not just freedom censoring, that is the result of an outdated and faulty system being abused to the point where people can get away with stealing! And most shockingly of all, they can be used again and again and again, because there are absolutely no repercussions or penalties for false claims, even though it is a false removal and censoring of work. When someone prank calls 911 there is a serious punishment for it, as it is an abuse of official practices only meant to be used for real situations. And yet there are no penalties for claimants who create false claims, and that means that they can do it whenever they want with absolutely no consequences, giving them all of the power over the creator even when the creator is innocent. It is a serious misuse of authority that does not represent what this country stands for and needs to be stopped.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review, and that 30% is just the tip of the iceberg. Fair Use vs Piracy is not even that hard to discern; if a video is a copyrighted work in its entirety or in multiple parts or if it contains photoshop or video effects just designed to stop the automatic claim system, then it is most likely piracy. But if a video containing copyrighted excerpts contains original footage that transform the copyrighted work for criticism purposes and the like, then it is most likely Fair Use. While piracy does exist, claimants are blending it with Fair Use to stop free speech, silence criticism, harass, and sometimes steal. The only way to stop this from happening is for a big change to take place, as this is the attitude Hollywood as had for a while and will continue to have unless they are stopped. Hollywood began when creators who were tired of Thomas Edison Studios' creative control fled to California to create Hollywood. But the sad part is that now Hollywood is doing the very same thing again and again. They thought TV would destroy their system, then when that didn't harm them, they thought VHS recording would destroy their system, then when that didn't harm them, they thought DVR would destroy their system, then when that didn't harm them, they thought DVD Rippers would destroy their system, and now that that hasn't harmed them, they think the Internet is going to kill them. They haven't realized that they are still making just as much, if not more money than before, or that many content creators have come about due to the Internet. They now continue to abuse the DMCA to stop Fair Use and will continue to abuse it until a change happens. Despite many pessimist's beliefs that change will never come; the Internet is a powerful place, powerful enough to stop the act SOPA (an act which even Google rejected), and now this must change in order to stop silence, infringing of rights, harassment, threatening of livelihoods, bullying, falsification, and stealing. This kind of damage can not be undone; it is a very serious problem and must change for the sake of the Internet, a place that was meant to be where anyone could be known, a place that represents an extension of the American Dream, a place that must be saved now or it is forever doomed.
Some examples of DMCA abuse have been especially seen on YouTube. In October 2013, YouTuber TotalBiscuit reviewed a video game called "Day One: Garry's Incident" with express permission from the game developer. However, when he gave the game a negative review, the developer issued a copyright strike against his channel, trying to censor negative criticism of their game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfgoDDh4kE0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjTa_x3rbJE
In late 2015, YouTuber I Hate Everything reviewed a movie called "Cool Cat Saves the Kids", and gave it a rather negative review. Despite the review being in fair use, the director issued strikes against his channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoTZZYm2HZI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0qoD3viXL0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyQjcFmc-Cs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVkcWbvnN0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzXSQ5f08sA
The director also did this to other YouTubers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ZmVheuxpo
In January 2016, I Hate Everything's YouTube channel was deleted for no reason at all due to DMCA abuse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH-8PqS84qA
In February 2016, the TeamFourStar YouTube channel was deleted due to copystrike strikes against their "Dragon Ball Z: Abridged" videos which were in fair use.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eHbJ9U8YLY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGV6QjtdulY (An example one one such video)
In January 2016, YouTuber ChibiReviews had copyright strikes issued on his channel for his reviews of the anime series, Dagashi Kashi. Despite showing no footage of the series in question and just filming his face while reviewing the episodes, TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System) which controls the series internationally, and sublicensed the series in North America to FUNimation Entertainment, issued copyright strikes against his videos which were in fair use. This caused the loss of revenue for him, and hindered his ability to create content.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REHOdqYkX4Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WZ631P31r4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iSXHIGb3Uw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCeN6s5deb4
In February 2016, YouTuber Doug Walker, known as The Nostalgia Critic made a video called "Where's The Fair Use? - Nostalgia Critic" a while after he had issues on his channel due to Studio Ghibli issuing a copyright strike on his review of My Neighbor Totoro which was in fair use. In this video he summed up even more problems with the YouTube copyright system, and how it can be used to censor, silence, and cause the loss of revenue for people who have made this into a living.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC3NIdiZF_E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFlgx2LTdeY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwW6tVNFgWA
Also the system can be abused so companies can even block content they don't even own outside various countries, such as this Japanese unboxing video for the first Blu-ray for the anime series, Saekano. The video shows only the packaging and has no content from the series itself in the video. While Sony Music Entertainment Japan made the product, they do not have a right to block an unboxing video of it outside of Japan.
https://twitter.com/BigOnAnime/status/703807212431527936
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPRzWtqvPfs (their other unboxing videos for the series were not claimed by Sony Music Entertainment Japan and blocked outside of Japan, which shows further there was DMCA abuse)
DMCA abuse has also been seen on the social media platform Twitter. Earlier this year, many people had their accounts suspended and tweets removed for posting screencaps from anime series, some of which were taken via the legal means to see the series such as Hulu, Crunchyroll, and FUNimation Entertainment's website.
The system can be very easily abused, and there is no penalty for false DMCA claims, so companies can continue to get away with it. Please review how things work so the broken system can get fixed, and work like it should, and taking into account fair use.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is antiquated and forces creators to police the entire Internet for instances of theft, placing an undue burden on these artists and unfairly favoring technology companies and rogue pirate sites.
The Copyright Office must consider the costs and burdens of the notice-and-takedown process on large- and small-scale copyright owners, online service providers and the general public.
You've taken down so many channels for absolutely no reason! Lost Pause,IHE, and RageElixir are my main examples.
Censorship in any form is wrong .
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored in violation of the first amendment. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
TL;DR Shit's Whack
In an attempt to avoid being long-winded, please let me state that all fair-minded people feel that intellectual property should be protected, but it seems obvious that the system is being abused. Automated take downs, patent trolls, etc., need to be phenomena of the past if creative individuals have any hope of future financial and artistic viability.
Thank you for your time.
Corporations have wayyyyy too much power, do what they want and answer to no one!!! It is time for agencies put in place to protect the people and their rights to do their jobs.
My free speech is a right, not something corporations should be allowed to censor. Help stop the move from Representative Republic to Fascist State!!
The notice-and-takedown process under the (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Before the form letter, I'd like to say that the digital age is re-defining what it means to create content. We get to enjoy remixes, reviews, parodies, etc., and these have always existed, but the rapidity and ease of sharing them has vastly increased the amount of work created. To stifle this is ridiculous - it makes it easier for talented folks to share their work, and gives us more things to enjoy.
Please do not violate our rights or the original constitution. This is going to far and leading to facism and communism. Corporations and govt have no right to take our freedom, liberty, property, lively hood. We have the right to small business, freedom of the press without corporations and govt taking and claiming all. The govts and corporations are using and exploiting all resources for themselves. The Trans Pacific Partnership has to be stopped along with Fast Track. The press and media has to go to the people. Not Turner Broadcasting, Media Matters, the Associated Press that distort the truth and deliver false flag violence with paid crisis actors to gain control and a gestapo police state. Only world peace can be achieved by stopping the top one percent elite including the debt based banking system that is creating crisis' to move money and extort our labor through disaster profiteering as we work and rebuild for nothing while the elite reap all the benefits and exploit all lives. Stop the geo engineering that is the most dangerous assault on all life funded by our tax dollars. The govt needs to give control of the military back to the people to stop corporate environmental assault. George Soros needs to be arrested by the military rather than funded by him as he pays to create crisis' and war among peaceful people. This is part of the reason the people need to control the media and have freedom of the press. To report these crimes on mainstream TV and news. Our military needs to stop the elite one percent, not attack its own people nor destroy other nations. Our soldiers are fighting for propaganda and dying for it as their fight is never disclosed to them. We need to restore America and tell people the truth. The truth and proof including documents are all over the Internet. That is why the oligarchy and plutocracy want to seize and control the Internet. Stop the control. If over population is a problem, it is because the elite encourage it to exploit labor of the masses to build their empires through disguised slavery. Once the structuring is complete, the masses are exterminated. This is how it happened throughout history. If people aren't exploited and are educated outside of the controlled system that makes them defendant, they will understand more about life and learn to reason better. Ruining the masses through controlling everything creates the crisis and civil unrest. This is why the media is controlled. Remember, you also have to drink the water and breathe the air.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA
needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Never the less; high levels of copyfraud has been spreading on YouTube, SoundCloud, Vimeo, and other content-hosting sites. The DMCA needs to be abolished as the last resort. And any corporate company that's been involved in any fraudulent copyright schemes should be held liable for damages, money-laundering, copyright-laundering, copyfraud, and tax avasion.
Youtube especially has taken its action with the hashtag #MakeYouTubeGreatAgain, who I also have supported. Many channels are falsely copyrighted and the ones who deserve it go off scott-free.
Any copyright infringement needs to be very limited to actual infringement and NOT just an accidental infringement like talking about a product and saying something that could be copyrighted by somebody.
Things like a SPEACH should NOT be copyrighted because it is an opinion and NOT a PHISICAL thing like a product or an IDEA that states what a product can and can not do or how it works and is part and parcel to the product.
The BIG corporations are USING the COPYRIGHT LAWS to gain a LOT of NEW business and more money and POWER to the point of destroying smaller businesses to gain that power and money.
Let's fix youtube and save out community
Personally, I do not want to be censored or criminally treated, for the writing of fan made fiction where no one is making any money of the stories made, and to take them off with a soulless algorithm that can be easily manipulated to take down everything is frustrating and annoying, as stories written cannot be read.
Every time someone or something decides to file a copyright claim on someone's YouTube video and fair or not YouTube does absolutely nothing about it and give little to no support to the disputer and gives the claimant more power whether they own the content in said video or not. This system is getting more and more abused by the day and nothing is being done about it. And it needs to be resolved. NOW.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
While the DMCA’s safe harbour provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had rydire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse, and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
"It is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer". -- Benjamin Franklin
I care about this! Countless times I have witnessed unfair takedowns, and many more times have I seen some of my favorite content creators abused by this system. It has to stop. Protect the people, not the corporations!
Pweeeeeze?
Additionally, the effect of the DMCA is not limited to any one country; it's effects can be global, as the internet is global. In other words, it affects the entire internet; as the internet has no international borders; and this could lead to lots of issues with fair use worldwide.
Я считаю , что данный закон должен существовать, так как каждый имеет право на свободу слова.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored in violation of the first amendment. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extort money from innocent victims.
Balance is needed in the notice-and-takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I'm here because of a Mr. Silver Quill. This is an issue, and we need to fix it now.
To whom it may concern,
I'm sure you are absolutely swamped at this point with lengthy comments detailing the outdatedness of a 17-year-old law and how it no longer pertains to the modern day. I'm not going to waste your time.
I am not a law expert. I am just a consumer of entertainment on the Internet. And as such, I believe you should revise the current laws to allow for more flexibility. There have been countless controversies surrounding spurious copyright takedown charges - simply look up the word "copyright" on YouTube and you'll get swarmed with examples - and the law is powerless to stop it. Heck, it encourages this sort of behavior. With no restrictions in place as to who can claim to be the owner of X content, anyone with internet access can take down a YouTube video in a matter of clicks, whether or not it is ethical for them to do so. This is a broken system. It needs if not revisions, then a complete overhaul. I hope you will read the other comments and take into consideration all the feedback. Thank you.
~Nick Nahr
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders, regardless of if the content falls under fair use or not. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet.
Companies are collaborating with major websites by using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. In spite of these algorithms having made significant errors, no judgement from a thinking person is applied to the process. This results in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate speech and creative expression on the Internet. As an example of how broken this automated system is, YouTube videos of people merely talking about a copyrighted subject, such as a movie, with no footage or audio from said movie, are having their content taken down. This is especially disastrous to those whose main source of income is generated from their content posted online. It's discouraging to those who want to create original content, when there's a legitimate chance their hard work and/or revenue will be taken. When it comes to the DMCA, it feels as if only the copyrights of corporations are deemed worth protecting.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Who gets to control what is on the internet?
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. In any modern market economy, innovation is seen as a great step up, and people on the Internet making a living out of it, prove it. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse (cyber harassment and bullying) and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I won't try to improve on the form comment quoted below - it is well written, comprehensive, and I agree fully with what it says. So I'll just add some comments for emphasis.
The DMCA was an important milestone regarding Internet-related law - but it was written for the Internet of 1998, where copyright disputes were primarily off-net Copyright Holders vs. Copyright Pirates. But the Internet has changed since then: it is now a platform for content creators, some of which inevitably produce transformative and fair use works. But the notice-and-takedown process is stacked against them: under the current DMCA regime, they are considered guilty until proven innocent - and even when they clear their name, there is no penalty against the entity who filed the fraudulent claim.
Isaac Newton once said: "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." While Newton was referring to Science, the same applies to Arts - both of which Copyright is supposed to further. But right now, the DMCA is abused to silence those very people who are trying to see further.
----
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act () is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the . The needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the .
According to a recent study from and law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the ’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
It is unfair that so many people are being silenced by unfair copyright claims. One case that was really stupid was a content claim on a video with music that the video created made himself.
What would our four fathers think when they see our rights being messed with? The ones they fought and died for. This needs to be brought fourth. The world is full of ideas and opinions. The internet is a great way to bring them to the table. Its our right. So what our four fathers think when they see the first Amendment endanger
False DMCA takedowns are a major problem on YouTube. Fair-use legal criteria are NOT being observed remotely.
-People use false DMCAs takedowns to protect content they do not own. The use of shell companies is highly questionable in being the one to provide the DMCA.
-People use DMCAs takedowns against a negative critical reviews of art (obviously against the first amendment). Literally, if you talk on your own camera about someone else's artistic work (movies especially), and give a negative review, a DMCA takedown is placed against you. How can talking into a camera about your opinion of a movie be copyright infringement?
-Fundamentally, there is no balance of power. There has to be SOME cost to people posting wrong, invalid DMCA takedowns. Otherwise, the system is such that there is no opportunity cost to claiming that everyone's work is stolen, and thus it is done excessively. Penalties need to be given to erroneous DMCA takedowns. Multiple DMCA takedowns on the same YouTube video that is cleared of wrongdoing are evidence that the system is being abused.
-On YouTube, a creator who has a DMCA takedown against him LOSES the money to the claimant until AFTER resolution (by which time, the claimant can say the money is spent). How does it make sense to not put the money in a neutral party, who cannot spend the money while under dispute resolution?
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is broken. To be fair, DMCA is broken in a way that favors corporate copyright holders, giving them carte blanche to enforce their rights over infringement. However, infringement is poorly defined and ill-worded, and is left to the rightsholder to interpret as they please.
Actually, I should correct myself. I said "blank check" earlier but in retrospect, I misspoke. It's a loaded gun. DMCA is like this new proposed law in Mississippi that gives "sons of God" the right to shoot and kill anyone whom the gunslinger determines was "threatening" them. Technically there's a sheriff, but a sheriff whose more than happy to sleep on the porch while the righteous gunslingers shoot anyone they please. If the sheriff is awoken by the gunfire or bloodshed, the gunslingers merely have to claim "son of God work here" and the sheriff can go back to snoozing, happy in the knowledge that the law, such as it is, is being followed.
DMCA is the sheriff asleep on the porch, and is giving out guns (DMCA takedown notices) to the gunslingers, saying "defend your rights as you see fit, I trust you to do the right thing." Which means the copyright holders are tossing out DMCA takedown notices (TDNs) as they please, without bothering to establish whether the use-case is valid fair use or a simple non-infringement use that doesn't represent any material/monetary harm to the rightsholder. TDNs let the rightsholder be as lazy as the sheriff. Sure, 2 out of 3 times the TDN was misapplied, but 1 out of 3 was good! Who cares if the 2 out of 3 use cases deters potential users, stymies creative output, and smothers innovation before it can amount to anything?
Someone should. I believe copyright was designed to foster innovation and encourage creativity. Takedown notices are badly defined and poorly enforced. Rightsholders who issue TDNs without cause should be held accountable for egregious use of TDNs.
Please exercise your authority over rightsholders and the abuse of takedown notices. You have the power, use it for the common good, not corporate welfare.
I don't want my favorite YouTube personalities to have to fear everyday for their livelihoods to be ruined by a systems that's unfairly biased to the copyright claimed, even if that person is in the wrong. Please, please, PLEASE help to make YouTube a safe place to exercise our rights to fair use again.
Abuse in this way is not only wrong, but not fair.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act () is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the . The needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the .
According to a recent study from and law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the ’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
A fellow student using university approved music in an MIS student competition had his video marred and commercials attached to it (illegal in the competition) due to a bogus copyright infringement claim. It was a heads for him to clear up, and should never have happened in the first place, the music was legal to use, and a notice should have been sent before his YouTube page was altered.
Goddamnit, do we really have to get to this point? Good, hardworking people deserve to be treated fairly.
Some great people are getting copyrighted by these scumbag companies. I think it's ridiculous that some people literally LOSE their day job and have no salary because of this. Please stop this injustice!!!!
This a form letter, but I do completely agree with the content.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is susceptible to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition, silence criticism, and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Takedown notices are now often used to suppress photos or videos of unlawful police violence despite the fact that SCOTUS has upheld the constitutionality of filming police for precisely such purposes. Such abuse of the process is contrary to the interest of a free society and the intended purpose of the DMCA.
As a content creator, I have had to file DMCA takedown notices on multiple occasions. While algorithms and automatic notifications are sometimes a useful tool in identifying possible copyright violations, deciding whether a takedown notice is appropriate requires judgment and evaluation beyond the capabilities of software.
As a small business owner, I take the time to make those judgments on a case-by-case basis because I recognize that my interests (and the interest of Americans like me) rely on striking a reasonable and nuanced balance between my rights and the principles of fair use and free speech.
If I, as a sole proprietor, recognize the necessity of that evaluation and judgment, why should large copyright owners -- whose interests are broader and whose potential impact is proportionally greater -- delegate such decisions to machines?
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I am disgusted by losing creative opportunities on places like U Tube by powerful corporations plying their muscles to end democratic practices that people want and should be protected. Our church choir uses U Tube to practice our music for instance.
Our country is supposed to be a democracy NOT an oligarchy! Let's do what the founding fathers set us up to do NOT what the greedy creeps want.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act is biased in favor of large corporate copyright holders. These copyright holders have had no disincentives to false claims of copyright on material that they don't own or, ironically, have licensed. This process needs to be remedied to protect free speech and fair use online.
A technical conference put videos of its talks online to share with the wider world after the event, licensed under a Creative Commons license. Shortly thereafter, a major media conglomerate used a segment from one of those talks in a popular program. After that program aired, one of that conglomerate's copyright detection algorithms filed a takedown notice against the original content - the content that the conglomerate used! Despite this clear cut case of abuse, this talk is still not available online because any attempt to put the talk on results in an automatic takedown notice.
Nearly a third of the takedown notices would benefit from human review. Current policies from major online providers are skewed heavily in favor of those who submit the notices and assume, prima facie, that those who receive the notices are violating copyright even in what a human would obviously see are cases of parody, legitimate criticism, reportage, or other protected cases of free speech.
Safe Harbor has been important in allowing an open Internet possible. However, when a privilege is abused - either by someone abusing copyright by sharing content illegally or by a copyright holder abusing their rights against those who are using their content within legal bounds - there needs to be a reassessment of what is appropriate.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. Harms against free speech, a basic tenet of American liberty, are irreparable and must be defended against.
A simple fix that can be applied to the system is to penalize entities making false claims of copyright violation. If an entity is overzealous in abusing a system, it should be prohibited from using that system. In most systems proposed by copyright holders, copyright abusers are subject to a "three strikes" rule; likewise, copyright holders should be subject to a similar guideline. This disincentivises false claims while strengthening legitimate copyright claims, resulting in a fairer system for everyone.
I fully agree with all of the above.
The DMCA takedowns have stopped so many creative content creators from making quality videos, and in many cases without any cause except the benefit of the "copyright holder" taking down another person's video.
So much content creators that I watch had this problem , it is ABSURD , my frend had this and there was NO copyrights
Please help put a stop to arbitrary censorship and copyright claims to protect the educational, utility, and creative aspects of the Internet that make it so useful and entertaining. Content creators are the bloodline of the Internet and should not be penalized for posting/creating under the principles of fair use. Thank you for your time.
As a former professor, I am all too aware of the problems of internet attributions for academic research. Meme makers rarely self cite, let alone cite others' work or the source when users repost. This is fair use and not implicated in copyright law. Acting otherwise takes away a significant exercise in free speechl
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
No one on the internet understands Fair-Use anymore and we are sick of Fair-Use content creators being heavily censored by content holders. It has been happening a lot recently and it's time we stop this maddness.
As a content creator, the abuse of copyright claims has actively affected my livelihood and is still doing so to this day. I ensure that every video that I create abides by the laws attributing to Fair Use, however the copyright system in place does nothing to protect the creators and has no negative repercussions to those that abuse the system.
If a video of mine gets claimed, my video is unable to earn money until that claim has been revoked which can take up to a month; and any content creator knows that over 90% of yours viewership comes within the first month that you upload. Even if the person who put the claim in was shown to be wrong, they still keep all of the money that was earned from that video during the course of the claim. And in terms of removing videos, they don't have to prove that the video in question isn't Fair Use, simply that they own the rights to the original source material which has no bearing on the new piece of transformative content.
As of right now because I have been abused by the copyright system, my viewership and income has been affected. I've been wrongfully given a 'copyright strike' which means I am now unable to counteract any other false claims on my content as well as restricting me to making shorter videos, which completely goes against the purpose of my content. I am unable to create a product that the people are demanding all because the system that is in place is archaic and does not compute with the modern world.
My personal videos, made for non-profit entertainment purposes have been taken down before because I used content owned by large corporations. Am I helping people pirate a movie if I use 10 un-edited seconds of a movie, regardless of the several minutes of heavily edited and newly created material used along with it?
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) must exclude automated detection and generation of takedown notices.
All programs make mistakes, and overzealous or bad actors may enhance misdetections under the cover of plausible deniability. This amounts to a blank check to perform digital BULLYING.
At some point in the process, a human reviewer must verify the automated detections INDIVIDUALLY. That human reviewer must be an employee, contractor, or other proxy of the Copyright Holder for whom the Copyright Holder can be held ACCOUNTABLE.
To do less than this is to blatantly or subversively undermine the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
Don't Let it Happen!
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review.
While it is unquestionably important to protect original creators' copyright and prevent the pirating of unaltered or only slightly altered material, the current DMCA guidelines fail to account for creators' rights to fair use and are too easily misused or abused by companies wishing to stomp out criticism of their products or steal revenue from original online content creators. Along with other necessary reforms, the use of automated takedowns must be reduced, a grace period preventing immediate unappealed takedowns should be enstated, and harsh punishments must be enacted on individuals or groups that issue false claims.
I hate everything
***Note: Really. Stop.
Seriously, the DMCA is broken. Companies take down things that are not their property. They force the little guy out and steal money from content they did not create. They force laws through which harm the creators and want to destroy fair use. I feel there should be stiff penalties for those that give false DMCA reports with escalating fines for each abuse. I also ask that you require the current property owner to distribute the DMCA notice to prevent shell companies from hiding who is actually threatening the content creator.
I feel the DMCA has been broken for many years and ask that you listen to the populace when drafting new rules, not the corporations.
Thank you for your time.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Today I tried streaming a freely available video online whose title is "TPP: Is Trade Policy putting Digital Rights at Risk?" The video may have presented factual evidence or it may have been pure fantasy. I won't know today because the audio of the event recorded live a few hours ago was removed due to a copyright claim. Whoever made the claim will face no consequences for doing so if it is a false claim. If I were to treat another human being this way it would be considered harrassment. Why is it considered more reasonable when it's a corporation doing it?
Companies like Viacom are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I'd like to personally add that even as a simple viewer, this archaic system scares me. It scares me to see how such an important right as the freedom of expression has been disregarded so cruelly. I dread the idea that if I were to ever start an active channel, that I'd have to censor most of what I'd like to express in fear of being silenced, or worse, fined. I am saddened by the notion that there's a chance that I'll never see some of my favorite videos and/or YouTubers ever again thanks to greedy, inconsiderate companies. I didn't understand the problem at first, since I saw it rarely, and oversympathized with the companies. But as the numbers grew, and the justification stretched, I was astonished. It's a real, tangible problem now. There's no room to glance over it. One of the scariest parts of this system, is that it affects small channels on a greater scales on more successful, iconic ones. It seems that YouTube is trying to hide this by leaving their poster boys alone, that way newer viewers don't notice. Like leaving the healthiest pups in the front of the pet store to give off the impression that all are healthy. I hope you take our efforts into consideration, please do not confound them with whining or complaining. Thank you and ironically, Happy April 1st.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, Dailymotion, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment and fair use of copyrighted works.
In the last decade it has become a standard practice to monetize internet content as a legitimate business practice and DMCA takedowns have effectively strangled household incomes for content creators. This applies to videos as well as website content. Online News has also become a target as fair use complaints have been filed against live streams over usage of scene footage. In most cases it is cellphone footage not owned by mainstream media outlets. Canadisues is one of the YouTube news channels that has been shut down by the DMCA.
As an independent animator and student, I have so many ideas that I want to create and share to help me grow as a professional... but it is scary when a stranger who for some crazy reason does not like me and start harassing (or trolling) my content.
This actually happened on tumblr when I confronted someone using a photo of me to make fun of my love for Japanese rock music. Although the DMCA did remove the photos the person posted... however several people started harassing/threaten me and my friends by attacking back with DMCA to try and remove our stuff from other websites.
I think to prevent this from happening there has to be some process in place to show who is making this copyright claim, and if this is fair use content. In most my Youtube and Vimeo content I put disclaimers in place for what's mine and what is not.
For what is not (like if I borrow music for a song I don't own) I make it clear that the video is not making any revenue or profit while giving my credit for the visual content, and the musician's credit for the music. But anyone can claim copyright infringement and take the video down because I didn't create the music, regardless of fair use and how much of the content is mine.
Thank you.
The DMCA notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) hands far too much power to entrenched content providers. The laws are overwhelmingly being used to stifle competition and creativity that is essential to the internet community. Without stronger systems to stem abuse DMCA will continue to evolve as a barrier to political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet.
We need strongly worded protections against the abuse of these laws that are put in place to protect content owners, not to entrench existing content owners further. Automated scanning and removing of content is a clear issue here where it is impossible to differentiate between fair use and infringement. This invalidates fair use laws where small content creators have no reasonable ability to fight back for fair use on each and every piece of content they produce.
I strongly believe that the notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
It's not right to stifle free speech. It's not right to stifle creativity. A change needs to be enforced. Fair use needs to be fair and usable.
I watch good youtubers who get taken down for no good reason because of the unfair abuse with the term "Fair Use". It is, of course, not only YouTube and Twitter dealing with this misuse, it's the internet as a whole.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is not protective enough of free speech. The process is too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
The Internet flourishes because of all of the stuff people make and share. But, there's a force that has kept works off the Internet entirely, making it so that there's a whole host of content that most us never get to see or hear.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Let's be honest, everyone has said the above statement. I'm signing this because I've followed several companies, individuals, friends and everything in between fall victim to someone or something abusing these laws. They NEED to be updated just like the infrastructure of the internet has been updated.
Please !
The DMCA was developed to be a fair system in a former era. To issue a takedown notice, a copyright holder would have to fill out a form, passing liability to the person hosting content.
The issue, today, is that it's all too easy to write a bot to find and serve notices to content perceived identical to that of a certain set of source material, or, given the reasonable ease of filing, simply leverage the relative anonymity of the internet to serve a takedown to content which one has no legitimate claim to, but doesn't want made public. This passes liability to the host, which is in most cases unwilling to accept it, and must muzzle the content. Practices such as these actually constitute a considerable threat to free speech, especially critique and parody, where the reproduction of some portion of copyrighted content is essential to effective conversation. These critical disciplines are threatened at a time when they are more important than ever, as a means to reflect on the quality of the massive amounts of media now available. Given the obvious detrimental impact of even the temporary removal of these works for a society that now considers everything 24/7, it may be time to consider making available penalties for spurious copyright claims, as a means to protect and ensure the durability of free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA take-down process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and almost routinely being used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible. Further, the systems put in place to deal with this, because of the way that the DMCA is written, are almost exclusively Guilty Until Proven Innocent, where the methods for proving innocence are often complicated, convoluted, and nontransparent.
There is little that can be done in most cases to quickly redress abuse or error, and even in cases where innocence is proven many systems never actually provide full recompense. Furthermore, many systems actually discourage disputing claims against legitimate content, as having too many outstanding claims or outstanding disputes can be grounds for termination of service, regardless of if the claims are found to be completely spurious or outright abusive. This is because, while there are clear penalties to the service providers for copyright violation on their watch, there are no penalties to rights holders for abuse of the DMCA, and thus it is in the interest of service providers to make the takedown process as easy, fast, and automatic as possible for rights holders, while there is no incentive whatsoever to address the concerns of those being served notice.
Please, stop taking down creativity on the internet.
Give legitimate content creators a legal standing to help them keep there jobs
It is time to make those fucking Japanese people know that this bullshit is not allowed
freedon of speech goes as well for internet!
Below is a statement that I agree with. Mainly, I just feel like free speech needs to be protected from people that abuse dated laws.
#WTFU
I hate seeing my favorite creators being tortured by the fair use policy. They need to fix it especially on YouTube.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, YES and there are some things I have wanted to put onto FaceBook that have not been put on because clearly the Israelis do not want the truth of their behaviour to the Palestinians to be viewed by the public, ( maybe even you will not receive this message ) creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged!!!!!! no made illegal, as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
So please...
FIX
THIS
SHIT
NOW
I don't think this is fair. I am twelve years old, and love being able to show off my art and make family videos with nice music. It's not okay that our posts, MY posts can't go out to the world. It's like an invisible slap in the face. It is so upsetting when I make a beautiful video and I get an email saying " your video has been deleted" even if I bought the music or soundtrack. If you made a video, how would it feel to get that 'slap in the face' if you spent time and worked hard to make an amazing film. I want you to realize that the millions of people hurt because of 'copyright issues' don't deserve most of it. I have performed in a talent show, filmed by my parents to show my family across the country. We got a warning and it was flagged and removed for 'copyright'. I didn't lip sync, and we bought the karaoke background music. When it was uploaded to YouTube, I was excited to show my family. But I don't think anybody saw it.
Also, I'ma gonna add this: IT IS NOT FAIR! THIS ALREADY 2000! OK. I'm don ranting. ;p But no, it really isn't fair. #Rewrite #Restart. Let'z do diz!
The existing process and procedures set forth by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act have not been updated and modified to reflect the internet community today as it did back in 1998. Because the DMCA has remained the same since it's passing, it has come under heavy abuse by large copyright holders from well known production companies.
The DMCA is supposed to ensure that copyright holders retain their profits while prosecuting individuals that steal and pirate their material online, without authorization and payment. Yet today, we see these rules set in place to prevent theft and piracy abused by these production companies to silence anyone who might use portions of a company's content legally, i.e. under fair use.
The DMCA has failed the interests of the global online community and it cannot benefit under current laws that are abused by production companies. The DMCA must adapt to the internet of today and the internet of tomorrow.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I also know of instances where videos posted by the creator of the content were taken down for copyright violations with no good way for the creator to prove they owned their own content. This isn't a fair-use disagreement; creators should be able to set the rules for sharing their work.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The DMCA is hurting many peoples' livelihoods and is endangering people's right to speak on the Internet. It needs to be contained in order to maintain freedom of speech
DMCA's takedown provisions have really hampered review and criticism (i.e., journalism) on the internet, particularly in the youtube space. Here's one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nwPPYkd8gs
There's a number of companies who have filed DMCA claims either on a blanket basis capturing video critiques or who have maliciously filed claims on reviews that use minimal footage because the company disagrees with the work of the critic. This results in outcomes that are fundamentally anti-consumer and against the and is easily expanded to other areas of the internet. Moreover, even if these takedown notices are remedied at a later date, these critics are denied important revenues to make their work self-sustainable for the period that these videos are unavailable, or unmonetizable at youtube.
I know is just one company - but youtube is one of the most important websites for content creation on the internet, and what happens on youtube/google has an important and chilling effect on the rest of the internet and on the american consumer/internet user.
It's hard to see some of the nicest, funniest and smartest people in the world be denied the ability to share what they want to. It's almost disgraceful. I want an Internet that promotes creativity and fair use. Please make that Internet come true.
SAVE FAIR USE!
stop fair use abuse and threats
The DMCA is against our right to free speech. Companies use it to stifle opinions about their problems, and the only ones getting punished are the ones who speak out.
Then the ones in actual violation of copyright laws are barely punished, since Google and YouTube are under no obligation to control copyright infringements. The law is unconstitutional and unfair, plain and simple.
Stop allowing longer extensions on copy righted property so it can avoid public domain.
Automated systems also allow for the abuse of copyrighted images for competing sites. They do not monitor exploited or misinformed images. It's one thing for news sites to misdirect viewers but smaller personalized sites are able to use some copyrighted images to create entirely fabricated stories. This is only one example of the enormous loopholes left in the DMCA and are even nearly impossible to accurately report on social media sites by basic members as they allow for no detail. So a page can explicitly infringe on copyright laws and slanderize entire company's as long as they don't violate any of the site's basic restrictions. DMCA is simply a poorly disguised tool for big business to suffocate opposing views and misinform the public.
There are people who claim videos and content who don't even own what they are claiming. The actual content creators are often not even the ones going after a use.
Fair use is being ignored. Fair use protects the right to criticize. Like an Orwellian government, there are some who will use the DMCA to put themselves above criticism.
Basically, if it keeps videos and online content safe, I'm in.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
this is worse that to happened
Look. You people know the law. If a copywritten work is being used for the purpose of parody, education or review it is Fair Use. Do your job and enforce Fair Use.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice-and-takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Free expression is too important for bullies to be able to make false takedown claims without consequences.
We can fix the problem by making sure there are consequences for false takedowns. Let's DO it! While we're at it, let's get rid of computer robot calls altogether.
Well that is the more explained thing than inwas going to say, but seriously. If you think a law from 1998 woll work in 2016, everyone in the current government should resign knowing they don't follow that law from 98'
Make something that suits our need in this millennium, it's a new time for new laws
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Do not do this this will cause madness
Going beyond what happens with media sites throughout the internet with a majority of user-generated content (YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud, etc), the DMCA also limits what tinkerers and hobbyists could do with closed-source software, such as operating systems.
The fact is many operating systems owe their level of security these days not to the architects behind them, but the people of the internet who purposely poke holes in them and figure out what's causing those holes to be there in the first place.
By making hobbyist tinkering illegal, you're opening up new problems for everyone.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
Wow, what a text x)
If this will not help, nothing will except one thing..
Don't think that this doesn't impact minors, because it does. I am scared to start my YouTube career because of this issue. Please help us in the internet's darkest hour. You guys are the the thing that will either save the internet or destroy it. Do the right thing. Save the internet.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted worms.
That's right.
Time after time I have seen good creators who are protected under fair use face a double jeopardy from this act, being hit by the same company under a different name. The videos, which were considered fair use before, can be gone within the hour they are reposted. Companies should have to pay a penalty of some kind for damages, like a reverse SOPA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIL5qUI1p8 Please watch this, and his other videos related to the topic are also excellent and relevant.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet.
The answer is simple - increasing fines for bogus notices, payable to the victim. $100 the first violation, $200 the second, $400 the third, $800 the fourth violation etc. By the time the worst offenders get to a few $100k the message will get around and the problem will go away.
This has multiple benefits - continuing to protect the rights of copyright holders exactly as they have all along, while reducing or eliminating bogus claims entirely, with the ancillary effect of remuneration to the injured parties along the way.
I will no be the first to say this, nor will I be the last. Where's the fair use? You claim that it's working fine, but you seem to have no issue with people abusing your fair use system just to take down any thing they deem harmful to their product, even if it falls under fair use, like parodies or critiques. If anything, it hurts the people who made it more to take down videos that are particularly harsh critiques, as it keeps audiences who hate-watch things from ever knowing about it, lowering sales of the product.
The amount of innocent people who get copy right strikes and who completely get fucked over is redicolus. The reason we comment is because we feel for this and want change so change it
The DMCA is out of date and needs to be taken down. It is used to harass content creators, threaten small businesses, enforce censorship, and allowed some people to earn money without being associated with the content creator.
I agree with the below form letter.
========================================
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
On a personal level, I feel that the DMCA is not currently being applied correctly - its loopholes and easily accessed vulnerabilities are so frequently taken advantage of, and for what? Mere pocket change, by comparison to what the corporate individuals will see on a daily basis? I have watched a generation grow around the concept that someone can be something that they want to become. Why then are the small voices silenced? Many people make a living upon the production of the things that people want them to make, and this world isn't getting any less crowded for want of something unique.
This is not fair to those who are trying to make a living online. It is not only affecting those who make the videos, but also those who watch them and suffer when a video that they enjoy is taken down for no reason at all.
Not only is it violating the 1st ammendment of the Constitution on freedom of speech and press but it is also, this is also bullying to a sense against the "little people", who have done nothing wrong and are forced to lose all because someone up top is simply bored.
Nostalgia Critic and his friends on YouTube are suffering. They make a living from the videos they make and there are many other YouTubers online that not only need to be listed to, but deserve compensation for the views they've been given but the money they've been denied because of this la .
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The DMCA was written for 1998 internet. it needs updating due to to sites like youtube becoming part of the internet, and the DMCA has been used to stifle smaller people on the internet. DMCA's are being used as threats for people on youtube to take down videos they dont want.
As a content creator on YT, this is unhinged, and if i were to start making money from this , I don't want to do it in a world where it's a case of "Will this get taken down or not?"
Here is my comment. I am including the text put together by "Fight for the Future" because it carefully and accurately describes my concerns. DMCA does not work for the people nor well for business unless you have a big budget for lawyers. Please revise the law. Thank you.
As important as it is to protect the rights of copyright holders and stop people from blatantly infringing upon their rights, presently there are far too many abuses talking place with the DMCA and the mechanisms companies have implemented in order to remain in compliance.
Because of the expense of investigating each and every DMCA claim, companies have had to resort to purely automated systems which can then have disastrous consequences for small businesses relying upon fair use our other non-infringing content when spurious/false claims are submitted.
Because there is no provision for penalizing false claims, the current system encourages companies to use similar automated systems and simply blanket the Internet with takedown orders rather than make any real effort to determine whether content is infringing or indeed even theirs.
At a minimum, I strongly recommend allowing for optional penalties to be levied against repeat offenders who issue blatantly spurious/false claims, such as monetary penalties to recompense the company hosting the material and/or the poster of the material, who in many cases will have suffered economic losses due to their legitimate content being made inaccessible during the dispute.
As a middling photographer I've had some of my work used without permission. It would be nice if I could get thousands of dollars in compensation for such unauthorized use, much less consideration to the point of a "takedown" process. The DMCA seems to be only for the wealthy and powerful and not for general consideration. But this isn't even about that unequal aspect of the law. This is about invalid takedown processes. Where's the question about it's being used abusively? Stop it! Stop this abusive bully practice.
*****
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favour of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Videomakers are being hit by real financial losses to their rightful content.
The Internet has changed the world for the better. Don't stifle it with outdated, grossly unbalanced laws.
I like youtube, as do many people. I like to cheer myself up after a bad day by watching a few silly videos of baby sloths, or dads singing off-key duets with their toddlers or whatever. I like watching crafting videos to get ideas for future projects. I enjoy being able to find and listen to an old song I haven't heard in years ; just the other day it was 'Sweet Gypsy Rose' by Tony Orlano & Dawn. I like checking out recipes to get ideas for new meals! I like listening to Old Time Radio Shows!
I like going on Tumblr and seeing photos and art from different fandoms I like.
I like getting pictures, and messages on facebook and twitter.
However, the DMCA could stop this.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium CopyAct (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
I've seen so many great content creators get their channel taken down for false reasons, the fact that anyone can get a false claim at anytime with no justice given is sickening and scary.
Libertad de expresión!
It's not fair! Creators are being targeted by this and its being abused!!!!!! Fix it! It's not far to anyone!
Please become informed about the way that take down notices are really hurting innocent people now. It has gone from the good idea of protecting creators, to being abused in a way that has seriously hurt many creators.
Please don't take my word for this.
Here is a link to a proper scientific study of the matter, based on a random sample from 100,000,000 take down notices.
Please, become informed and please, act wisely.
Thank you,
John Brown
An American expat in Europe
The DMCA has not kept pace with a quickly evolving media format and has become a tool of abuse by those who do not wish to receive criticism by censoring those who are within the bounds of fair use instead of just being a means to protect themselves from digital piracy.
Those who are being struck down unjustly have to fight too hard to prove themselves innocent without any reprisal to be used against those who have infringed on their rights to expression, and at times have had their livelihoods stolen in the doing.
This law needs to be revisited and amended to better protect all creators who are legally using the internet as a means of communication and business.
LittleKuriboh is a Youtuber that takes clips of a popular anime called Yu-Gi-Oh and edits them to make jokes about the show itself along with many other things. He has been banned from Youtube several times, despite the fact that he is using the material in Fair Use.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
While the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
The notice-and-takedown process puts the most important types of content at risk. Political speech can be censored at crucial moments in a campaign. Videos can be taken offline at moments when they are crucial for the survival of small businesses. This kind of damage can not be undone.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue takedown notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is constitutionally and statutorily protected. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgments to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the automated censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet. While potential takedowns can be identified by automated programs, no takedowns should be allowed based solely on automated identifications of illegal use. All takedowns should be supported by sworn affidavit under penalty of perjury and subject to appropriate fines and other sanctions and damages that the affiant not only represents the copyright holder but he/she has personally evaluated the claimed DCMA violating material.
Fix it
fuck dmca takedowns, fuck [Merlin] CDLTD and those opportunistic assholes and leave creators alone...youtube it's turning into an awful theocracy....we can't let those fuckers take advantage!!
I'm sick and tired of copyrights!!! If this keeps up, no one will be allowed to show anything anywhere, reducing the internet to absolutely nothing!!! How will anyone be able to do or know things without the internet aiding them?!
I would like to add that it is unbelievable that anyone listens to a *aa organization anymore. they are all about taking money in for themselves and screwing hte public and the artists involved. they have it both ways and want more. greedy bastages.
Its affecting many of the people qho wants only share a diferent opinion on many aspects but the corporations only wants to shut them by abusing the law against the people who made the effort to create content and not "steal".
There's a thin line between protecting content creators and stifling them. The goal of copyright law should be to encourage content creation and distribution by all people, not to form revenue streams for corporations.
Companies have been taking advantage of the DMCA for far too long, they clearly don't care about the rights of fair use, they are only Interested in using youtube's unfair and incompetent copyright system to take alway money from reviewers, analysts, and any sort of content creator really. It always stroke me strange that those studios, companies and what not always goes after review and critic videos with bare minimum of footage and yet seam to ignore the hundreds of small channels that actually upload an full movie or something. It's all too clear to me that their real Interest is not to fight of actual piracy, but rather make an quick buck without any consequence of legal repercussion and to make an stupid, blown out of proportion vendetta against people that DARED to criticize their product. That Display of sickening, immature, moronic and morally bankrupted behavior has gonna too far. For those scum i say: #Whereisthefairuse
There's a lot of legal jargon to go through, but anyone noticing these already has an idea of why the DMCA has issues: there's plenty of cases of videos/reviews getting flagged when there was no violation - usually to either censor a bad review or make a quick buck.
From what I've heard, there's little to no downside of making a claim - the risk seems to all be on the defender's end, which makes these fraudulent claims even more common. This is especially true given that the claims can be made using proxies. It also seems to be an incredibly automated system, but not in the good way. Victims' accounts of these scenarios indicate very little human processing that filters out the real and fake claims - usually going on for weeks of wasted time/money.
MAKE THE INTERNET GREAT AGAIN.
I'm a simple guy, but I don't get why this is required. Why is a system that is supposed to protect rights now used to trample on the rights of those with less money.
The law should be equal to all and not bias in any way or its not a law, its a form of oppression.
It is clear that this needs to change and be adressed. your income should NEVER decide whether your in the right or not, but this is what we are dealing with. #WTFU
The DMCA laws do not work properly. It's too easy for companies that don't even own the rights to the work in a video to take down a video. They often claim copyright for reasons other than infringement, such as trolling, attempt to steal revenue, attempt to silence critics, or simply because the system in place is so broken that items get flagged even though they contain no content whatsoever that could be claimed in the first place. The internet has evolved since the DMCA was enacted, and the law needs to follow suit, especially since so many people make a living off of video content published on internet websites.
I also want to say that I have seen how the dmca has been used to silence individuals in the free market of ideas on the Internet. Everyone has the right to free speech and this system has been lampooned to directly impede our first amendment rights! This isn't about sharing music or movies, it's about having an honest discussion without being silenced.
The DMCA takedown process has been abused in the past by companies trying to censor content creators, or to monetize creators works. When even videos such as a man walking into his front yard and talking about snow can be stuck down (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-nULnD9OQ), there needs to be mandatory minimum repercussions for companies whose strikes were proven unlawful.
This process needs revising, and companies whose strikes have been successfully fought must not be allowed to strike down the same video multiple times.
The DMCA needs to be revised, so that corporations and individuals are punished for filing false DMCA notices that ignore fair use.
For instance, several YouTube review channels uploaded reviews of the film "Cool Cat Saves the Kids." These were taken down because the director thought the reviews were too negative and because he thought reviewers had to ask permission to review copyrighted work. This notion is clearly false, but the current nature of the DMCA allowed him to file a false DMCS takedown notice. The law needs to be revised to hold accountable those that abuse the DMCA like this.
In addition, other channels have had reviews taken down despite not including ant copyrighted material in their reviews or first impressions.
Copyright law, and especially the DMCA, are laws in place that helped the period of time they were in, but are now anachronistic, and are no longer being used for their intended purpose, to protect a content creator from having their stolen content.
What the DMCA is being used for today is to shut down competition and unwanted publicity through the use of false claims. Additionally, many automated systems are in place to assist in the take down of this content. These automated systems, like any other massively complex computer system, are rarely perfect, full of bugs, and result in things being taken down that should not have been taken down at all. In some cases, the actual content creator was contacted after a copyright violation had been reported, only for the creator to make a statement about how no such DMCA request was made from them, nor should such a thing have ever been taken down in the first place--this is simply one of the many errors of the automated systems in place.
Additionally, many intentional false claimants simply hold the creators of their own original works hostage, because they know they do not have the money to fight them in court. There are no means available to the average citizen to contest a false DMCA claim, or an opportunity for an average citizen to defend themselves in court using the Fair Use affirmative defense, simply because of financial restrictions. For these content creators, such invalid claims can cost someone their livelihood and job overnight as they suddenly find themselves without any money, over a malicious false claimant who knows how to abuse the automated processes put in place to facilitate DMCA takedowns for which there is no appeal except official legal action.
A similar practice goes on within the telemarketing industry, where people will make false claims about being called by telemarketers while on a Do Not Call list, and settle out of court for a payment to the claimant, who in fact had never been called by that telemarketer. Such practices are illegal and can and will result in jail time should they be discovered, but this does not happen for false DMCA claims.
Systems need to be in place that allow for the average citizen to appeal a copyright claim at no cost to themselves, while also allowing them to not lose their expected income as the result of creating content. Parties who partake in obviously false claims should be legally punished and disfranchised from the ability to make claims at all in the future.
Yeah take down those bitches nigga.
The copyright system on YouTube is being abused out of control
If anyone is reading this comment
Please don't censor free speech
On a personal note, I'm someone who eagerly wants to make videos on YouTube and potentially earn profit from it. I don't want to enter something where I know I'll be bullied and harassed by big name companies just because an outdated policy allows them to. I also don't want to see my favorite YouTube channels, Facebook pages, authors on Fanfiction.net, and artists on Deviantart to disappear for these same reasons. We need copyright law to be brought into the 21st century and give people a chance to be creative.
I've had my own mp3 removed that I made. No other content was included. Do I have the time or resources to fight? NO. It was wrong. I know of many who have had the same thing happen even advertising an item they were selling that was used. It is stifling. When I read what school children are taught, there is little mention of "fair use" and very narrow definitions. "They" do not own our culture.
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In addition to the above, I have witnessed and experienced firsthand companies making claims on intellectual properties owned by other organizations, as well as third parties attacking and issuing takedowns for content they have absolutely no relevance to (such as an occasion in which three major labels went after videos relating to a particular franchise, when all they had rights to were music CDs from that franchise).
The margin for error in the automated scan processes is exceptionally high, and the potential for unwarranted or inappropriate claims, takedowns, and monetizations is just as high.
This needs to stop. If Fair Use is lost, then the arts and Internet media as we know it will die off. The potential for DMCA abuse is outrageous, and will cause more long-term harm to everyone, including the very people who abuse it.
Save Fair Use.
This system needs to go.
I have seen multiple content creators silenced, ignored, harassed, stressed out or even turned away from content creating as a whole due to false copyright claims. Something needs to be done to protect these people more effectively from false copyright claims and people who do not understand/ignore fair use laws.
Personal comment: For the love of god, some of the best content I've seen in years has been on youtube. These people deserve to be able to make a livelihood this way. Internet content creators are NOT second class citizens.
Miren les tengo que decir youtube es un lugar para todos ya estoy harto de que sigan molestando con el copyright,parece que quieren extinguir youtube.Cada dia hay mucha gente que se esfuerza por hacer un buen contenido pero ustedes lo van a cabar todo solo por dinero,recuerdenlo es solo papel.Youtube ha dado felicidad ha muchos,porfavor entren en sus corazazones esto,todos podemos hacer un lugar mejor.¡No DMCA!
Greetings I am Thomas Parker, one of the more recent members of the YouTube community, due to my short time on YouTube, I have not encountered any of the problems related to this issue and this perhaps makes me ill qualified to offer an opinion on the DMCA. But after learning about the full nature of the issue from other members of the community, I have come to form my own opinion on the issue at hand.
The DMCA was first established to protect the legal rights of creators when the Internet was still in its infancy. But since that time the Internet has evolved in leaps and bounds and has become a major source of revenue for hundreds of thousands of creators from YouTube, Facebook and many others. Most of these for under the jurisdiction of fair use and how these creators use it as a means of entertaining honours through comedic exaggerations of the material or to inform others of subject matters that are tried within said material.
These concepts did not exist at the time of the DMCA's creation and thus has created opposition between the creators and is responsible for the removal of multiple videos, which have literally cut off the primary source of revenue for many creators. The worst of it is is that the majority of these removals were not because the creators had violated copyright law but because outside forces didn't like what the creator was saying about their work and abuse the DMCA to silence them, which if my understanding is correct is a violation of freedom of speech.
This is to me a tragic irony as the system created to defend the legal rights of Internet users is now the very threat it was created to fight against and such abuse should no longer go unchallenged. Just as the Internet has evolved and changed with the passage of time, so too must the laws that govern it I have considered a few suggestions of things that should be strongly focused upon. The first is that the DMC a should be deconstructed and its rules revised in order to ensure that there are firmly established guidelines for how Internet users can utilise fair use and to what extent before breaching copyright law. The second is that perhaps a penalty should be established to ensure that those who seek to abuse the system will learn that such behaviour will not be tolerated and will be punished accordingly for said abuse. The third and final suggestion is new guidelines for the execution of legal action against creators with one suggestion being, as Mr Dong Walker a.k.a. the nostalgia critic once suggested the revenue they earn be placed in a separate account into the legal action against the creator has reached a conclusion.
I have no doubt that you are about to embark on a truly Herculean task of reorganising the DMCA and how it will take a great deal of time and effort to ensure that it the system will become both ethical and fair to all parties. But be assured that you will not face this challenge alone and while my voice be be a small one, it is one of many others united in common purpose to defend the rights of all creators to entertain and inspire.
The notice-and-takedown process under the (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated take-downs. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of take-down notices are of questionable validity and would benefit from human review.
To balance the process, copyright holders need to have more responsibility for considering fair use when enforcing copyright laws. As sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have become important public spaces, companies that issue take-down notices of content that is clearly protected by fair use should be held liable for violating individuals’ rights to free speech.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and take-down system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated take-downs must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
The DMCA has primarily been used to censor criticism and stifle innovation from what I have seen. DMCA takedowns are used as threats and retaliation. There is no safeguard against abuse and this needs to be fixed.
form letter follows:
please get rid of this bullshit tbh smh fam
Companies are using computer algorithms to scan content posted to the Internet for possible copyright violations and issue automated takedowns. This process is vulnerable to significant error and does not allow for judgements to be made about possible fair use exceptions, therefore resulting in the censorship of vast amounts of legitimate (i.e. legal) speech and creative expression on the Internet.
According to a recent study from Berkeley and Columbia law professors, nearly 30 percent of takedown notices are of questionable validity and would benefit frojm human review.
Innocent production writers are being taken down do to your company. The production writers included channel awesome,jontron, Matthias, and cinemasnob etc. This is happening because your company is Miss using fair use. They never used copyrighted material. So, please stop miss using fair use. Because I really care about these production companies because that's were I get all of many entertainment
The DMCA takes the rights of people and gives it to company's. It is unfair and violates free speech.
Please quit this bullshit.
Thanks!
Sincerely,
Derek Gendvil
Las Vegas
While the DMCA’s are important for making an open, participatory Internet possible, the notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed alongside them have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose some kind of sanction for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
I´ve seen abuses in videos that are only videoblogs whitout images taken from internet, Videos protected by Fair use Takendown, For example in a movie review video the video have a Copyright claim FROM OTHER MOVIE THAT WASN´T USED IN THE VIDEO that is a REAL OCURRENCE
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is heavily biased in favor of corporate copyright holders and too commonly used to censor content that is protected under fair use, or worse, original content. This system has had dire effects on political expression, creativity, and commercial innovation on the Internet. The DMCA needs new safeguards to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
Too many companies and other entities abuse the dmca, stifling/stopping legitimate creative works, and fair use works, comedy and satire
We need new legislation to fix these, curb the abuse and reflect the current Internet
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The notice-and-takedown procedures that have been developed have disproportionately benefited corporate copyright holders and copyright trolls who seek to shut down legitimate competition and extract money from innocent victims.
Balance is desperately needed in the notice and takedown system. One step to creating that balance is to impose statutory damages for companies that abuse the DMCA takedown process or fail to adhere to any fair use review. In particular, automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.
It is the case in America that copyright holders will constantly harass content creators on the internet. Even when the content is clearly in fair use or even worse, claimed without the copyright holder actually owning anything in the content. Copyright holders are allowed to do this, censoring criticism, restricting free speech, and threatening livelihoods because they don't answer to any serious consequences. The DMCA has not properly protected free speech in this way.
I also agree with the statements below.
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There is literally no protection of royalties for people who have been victimized by fraudulent copyright strikes. Even if the strike is proven fraudulent or taken down, the royalties lost during that strike can and will stay with the one who filed it. This is a fact that has been exploited by filing the claim during the first few days a video under fair use has been posted, the time where a primary part of royalties may be earned. The content creators have no protection from this tactic because of these outdated laws, which is why they need an update for this new age of internet.
There is no real free use. There are claims from people against content they don't own. Some people use these as threats. There are videos that get multiple claims even after they are claimed. There are youtubers who's income is at stake from companies looking for a freebie. Something needs to be done.
The notice-and-takedown process under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is not working the way it should, maybe the way it was intended to work. Fan-created expression promotes the product owned by the copyright holder, and is protected under fair use rules, as are parodies and spoofs. This system is harming creativity and innovation on the Internet in a way that the supporters probably don't even want or agree with. The DMCA needs an overhaul to protect against abuse and companies that infringe on users’ free speech need to be held responsible.
When the takedown process becomes automatic, it penalizes the fair users with the criminal, violating freedom of speech in many cases.
The internet has become a vital resource for human development. It must be kept free and open. Automated takedowns must be discouraged as they inhibit free speech and fair use of copyrighted works.